Rice is the staple food for Japanese and asian cooking:
Speaking of Japanese food though, here’s an interesting fact from the Japanese Culture book I picked up recently at Japan’s Narita airport:
Red rice [Indian long-grain, aromatic, red-rice] was the most common in Japan up until the end of the 16th century. Everyday citizens didn’t start eating polished (i.e. “white”) rice until the Edo Period, at a time when city dwellers subsisted on two meals a day (about 600 grams) of rice, together with simple side dishes such as pickled vegetables or dried fish.
I found it interesting to imagine people in the Edo Period living on just two meals a day, eating mostly dried fish and pickled vegetables (tsukemono 漬物). I think about how people eat three meals, plus snacks a day, and it amazes me how people thrived and survived on two meals a day. Given the spread of obesity these days, I wonder if we’re just suffering from our own wealth and easy accessibility of food. That’s just a random thought though.
I digress. The other interesting point is that Japanese white rice is such a modern food. The book later says:
Depending on the region, one might encounter meals built around foods like barley, millet, potatoes, beans, pumpkins and buckwheat. At times these are eaten mixed in with rice. People throughout the country didn’t really start eating rice on a daily basis until after the end of World War II.
I can definitely confirm the mixing of other foods with rice. Even though Japanese very often eat white rice now, it’s pretty common for them to mix various other grains in the rice cooker. My wife and I often mix millet in our rice before we cook it. In the past, my wife’s family would send us nice packets of mixed grains to put in the rice cooker as well. The reason for this is that white, polished rice is basically empty calories, so by adding other grains, it becomes more nutritious, and develops nice colors and textures.
If you don’t have a rice cooker, by the way, how do you cook rice correctly?
Here’s how I learned it from working at a Japanese restaurant, and later from my wife:
- In a pot, add some rice. Rice will effectively double in size after cooking.
- Wash the rice in water 2 or 3 times to get all the white powdery stuff out. Basically just rinse it in cold water, swish it around a bit, and pour it back out.
- If you have other grains to mix in, go ahead and do this now.
- Now add water. To measure how much water you need, put your hand flat on top of the rice. The level of the water should reach the back knuckle on your middle finger (where it joins the palm of the hand).
- If possible, let the rice soak for a while, preferably overnight, or even for 30 minutes. This helps the rice cook more thoroughly later, but it’s not strictly necessary.
- Now bring the water to a boil and let cook for about a minute. Make sure there’s a lid on the pot so the steam doesn’t get out much. Otherwise your rice will dry out badly, and maybe even ruin the pot.*
- After boiling for a minute, turn the heat down to simmer and let it cook for 20 to 30 minutes. Try not to take off the lid if possible, to prevent steam from escaping.
- Serve and enjoy
In Japan, it’s also very common to cook extra rice, then portion it out on plastic wrap, and then freeze it for later. We do this weekly or even twice a week depending on how much rice we eat. This means you don’t have to cook rice daily, and saves the hassle of cleaning the post. I know other Japanese friends who do this too, so I think it’s pretty common for housewives (and good husbands) to do this. 
So, that’s Japanese rice in a nutshell, both past and present.
Namu Amida Butsu
* – This happened to us recently. Destroyed a good Le Crueset cast iron pot, as the rice was so burned that we we couldn’t even scrape off.
Hello, this blog is about my life as a father, Buddhist and Japanophile / Koreaphile. Any useful information I can pass along will hopefully make the 
The problem with white rice is that it removes so much of the nutrients. That’s why I use brown rice these days. I also love the boil-a-bag rice that my grocery store has. I can get a good amount of rice in just ten minutes. Can’t beat it, and it taste just as good. I also found some rice that cooks in a minute, but it doesn’t taste as good. I like my food fast, but taste is still very important.
I’d agree the easy and effortless access to food is a big contributor to the obesity issue. That, and portion sizes have nearly doubled in the past 50 years.
By all accounts you need to freeze/refrigerate your rice quickly and not have it standing around.
http://www.storingandfreezing.co.uk/storing-using-leftover-rice.html
Is there anything worse than burnt rice in a pot?. But at a point before being burnt it’s a sought after treat. okage. My rice cooker doesn’t give okage (TT)
The amount of water used by the rule of knuckle is going to vary, based on size of hand and diameter of pot.
I use equal volumes (and then a bit more water for more glutinous rice.)
I wonder if rice was more for paying tax and the peasantry ate less desirable cereals.
600 grams of rice and some small side dishes can’t have amounted to more than 1,200 calories, if even that; the rice only amounts to around 6-700 cal. Not much if you were engaged in physical labour.
Developed world obesity is about being more sedentary overall and food being inexpensive and readily available. More processed food and less home cooking as well. Treats like cake and sweets are commonplace. When I were a lad we could eat them less often than nowadays.
My parent’s generation was a wartime one so still had views about food based on rationing. The Japanese I know from the same generation would have know famine conditions. That’s a bit hard to imagine. I’m convinced it’s why they eat everything given to them as a sign of good manners.
How about sprinkles? I personally am not that keen on them.
Kendall: Brown rice is great, but you can’t feed it to little kids, as it’s hard to digest, so we still eat white rice, but cook it with millet and other grains. But when they were on vacation recently, I did mix half brown rice and half white rice frequently.
ロバート: Wow, thanks for the food safety advice. That was news to us. As for water measurement, I totally tried this same argument and my wife wouldn’t stand it. Turns out it doesn’t make as much difference as I thought it would. She was right, it was the right amount. As for obesity I agree with you all the way: easy access food, sedentary life and lots of processed food doesn’t help.
Jishin: Hm, haven’t tried that one either. Let us know how it turns out.
this is exactly how i learned to cook rice, from my (german) mother, who learned it from a korean friend. my japanese husband frowns at it and always measures the rice out.
love the idea of adding other grains. will have to try that – flax comes to mind. what do you use?
sprinkles? furikake, you mean?
This advice may come a little bit late, but you can probably recover that Le Crueset pot. Take it outside and spray down the burned-on crust with a few good shots of oven cleaner. Let it sit, according to the instructions, and rinse it thoroughly. Wipe it down with something disposable and repeat if necessary until the crust is gone.
Once all the crust is gone, boil a few full pots of water through it, just to make sure you didn’t leave any oven cleaner residue behind. The oven cleaner won’t “contaminate” the pot or anything – the porcelain coating is as impermeable as glass. You just want to make sure it’s completely cleaned.
Thanks Adrian and welcome to the JLR! Sadly, the pot is gone but we got a simliar Le Crueset, just larger (works even better now for cooking rice). Hopefully others will find your comments though.
Thanks again!
@ Doug – We prepare brown rice as it has minerals, etc., in it not found in white rice.
To prepare (we use a rice cooker): 2 cups rice, 4 cups filtered water, 4 Tbsp whey (the liquid on top of yogurt or sour cream, except we make our own by draining raw milk over night). Combine and let sit at least 7 hrs (12 is better). This adding of the whey to the cooking water and letting it sit, released the phytates, which bind nutrients from being absorbed (or they steal from the body). When you’re ready to cook, add 1-2 Tbsp butter, 1 tsp salt (sea salt, please) and press “cook”.
Hi it1958 and welcome to the JLR. I did post about cooking rice in a separate post (albeit more Japanese-style white rice), but thanks for the tip.