Posted by Wan Yan Ling, April 14, 2008 at 10:00 AM
How to Stretch Your Tea, and Eat It, Too
The Grocery Ninja leaves no aisle unexplored, no jar unopened, no produce untasted. Creep along with her below, and read her past market missions here.
I don’t know about you, but filing my taxes has left me feeling kind of like the last prune in the bottom of the box—all dried out with icky crystallized sugar on top. Coincidentally (or perhaps not), rice recipes have been showing up everywhere—probably because everyone’s feeling a bit pinched on the money side of things, and rice is one of the most filling and affordable foods to be had for the money.
I doubt you guys need another recipe on how to cook rice, but how about drinking it? There are rice milks, alcohol, and those incredible sweet rice-based drinks Amazake, Sikhye, and Morro Horchata. But they’re all too involved for me in my ripped-off state. I don’t want to spend too much time at the stove, because that will lead to me angsting about holes in my pockets, stirring spoon in hand. Instead, all I want to do is be able to just add water.
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Harris Salat of The Japanese Food Report shares his detailed notes on the classic preparation of rice according to master chef Yoshio Maruyama of Kyoto. " Preparing rice in Japan is well, more than just preparing rice. Cooking this grain the traditional way reflects a sense of ajiwai, the ability to get the most out of the natural flavor of a particular ingredient - the essence of Japanese cuisine."
Posted by Jamie Forrest, October 8, 2007 at 11:00 AM
In August of 2006, then Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns announced that the U.S. commercial rice supply had been tainted with an experimental, genetically modified variety unapproved for human consumption. The experimental rice supposedly posed no threat to human health, according to both the USDA and Bayer CropScience, the company that created it. However, the European Union subsequently banned imports of American rice, a move that drastically affected the domestic market. Now, 14 months later, in absence of any evidence one way or another as to how this contamination occurred, Bayer CropScience has been cleared from any governmental enforcement action, and the investigation has officially been closed.
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Posted by Alaina Browne, September 28, 2007 at 7:00 PM
Photograph from Tamaki on Flickr
This is what rice looks like before it finds its way to your plate. This rice field happens to be in Miyagi Perfecture, Japan. Flickr member Tamaki lives nearby and has posted a beautiful set of photos of the rice field at various times of year.
Posted by Wan Yan Ling, August 21, 2007 at 1:00 PM
Photographs by Shimin Wong
Most of us think of comfort food as fat food: creamy risottos and pastas, hearty stews, buttery mashed potatoes, mayo sandwiches, hot chocolate, cheesecake, hot fudge sundaes. In Asia, there are a host of dishes people make a beeline for when they get off a plane, return from grueling military training, or when they've had a rotten day—dishes I affectionately call "a highway to a heart attack." (A straw poll will likely turn up "lard" and wok hei or "wok's breath—the essence imparted by a hot wok to food"—as determining factors in succor-level.)
One would imagine the ultimate comfort food to be riddled with saturated fat and swimming in carcinogens then. Interestingly, this granddaddy of comfort foods is also considered premier invalid food—the kind of food grandmothers, mothers, and hospitals dish out. Jook, better known as porridge or congee, is essentially a rice gruel given depth and "nutrition" with ingredients such as minced pork, fresh fish, century egg, dried seafood, nuts, and the like. To the average Chinese, this is the one dish we associate with nurturance—with all that is good and healing in the world. Because the most basic of versions would involve just rice cooked in plenty of water (about one part rice to 12 parts water would be just about right), a pinch of salt, and some pickled vegetables on the side, it's also known as "poor man's food," and has come to the rescue of many an impoverished grad student.
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Posted by Wan Yan Ling, August 7, 2007 at 12:30 PM
We like crisp bits, no matter if they appear in sa po fan, donabe-taki, or dolsot bibimbap, Photograph by Shimin Wong
A dish you will find in various guises all over Asia, claypot rice is at its most basic—rice cooked lovingly in a vessel over an open flame. Now, I know what you're thinking. And, no, it's not just rice. In a forum populated with dotty food lovers, it's important to be specific, and what I'm raving about here is what the Japanese call okoge—the nutty, slightly charred crust of grains that sit on the bottom and sides of the pot. Okoge have been known to inspire fierce paeans and ferocious fork battles among otherwise easy-going makan khakis (Singlish for "nosh buddy").
Most modern kitchens here in Singapore rely on an electric rice cooker for their daily starch. The cook throws in grains and water, and voilà! In half an hour, you have the singular aroma of freshly steamed rice wafting throughout the house. It's fast, easy, and takes all the guesswork out of producing fluffy, individual grains of rice that beckon invitingly and glisten in the light.
However, if it's okoge you're after, you will have to sacrifice convenience and turn to a more traditional vessel—and do the hard work of monitoring the heat and resisting the urge to peek, all while salivating over visions of the meal to come.
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Posted by Ed Levine, March 30, 2007 at 9:11 AM
Mars and one of its ad agencies has given the converted-rice symbol Uncle Ben a promotion to chairman of the board with the wave of a creative director's hand. Learn all about Ben's career ascent at unclebens.com. Alhough Ben is now chairman, he still doesn't have a last name.
