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A Hole in One!!!! My grandfather used to make these for me when I was a very little girl, visiting him in Lancaster, PA. He was not a golfer. He was first-generation American of Swedish descent, who had grown up in Salt Lake City, Utah.

So I didn't see the last post, and I haven't read all the comments, but it's a topic that depends on the situation, imo. If it was a large group of people, I would ask again, because that does eat up a lot of one waitress's time. I dined at a nice little place with a friend a few months back, and it was my second time there (pretty sure the waiters recognized me). I had tipped well the first time, as it was a great experience, and the second time, my friend and I completely miscalculated the tip. My waiter came back around and asked us if everything was ok. It was a bit awkward, but I'm glad he did ask, because he deserved more than the $3 we had somehow managed to leave.

I like to cook rice in chicken broth with slivers of onions, a can of drained mushroom pieces and some caraway seed. I have done this for years and it has always gone over well with my family. Some folks might not like the taste of caraway, but it is well liked here in my house in recipes featuring sauerkraut and apples, rye bread and in white rice. Try it, you'll like it.

@sugartoast, Its called Tahdig and you get the crusty rice at the bottom by adding oil before the cooked rice, then heating it slowly and very carefully so it doesn't burn.

A few years ago we were visiting my parents in the Foothills in Yuma, AZ.
They wanted to take us to their favorite Chinese restaurant as it was only open in the not too hot months. Well, my husband ordered a combination chow mein(was pork, chicken, beef, shrimp, veg.) While taking his last bite, he noticed something was very chewy, he spit it out to examine it and it was a cigarette butt filter. He showed it to the waiter and the waiter went and got the manager who accused my husband of planting the butt in his food. My husband is a cigarette hater, and has never smoked and came unglued. This was the times when people still could smoke in restaurants. We were shocked, that they would behave that way. We have often discussed this horrible experience, the only thing we can figure out is that maybe they had : 1. trouble with people doing things to the food, so they wouldn't have to pay. 2. problems with senior's in this retirement area. 3. or Just Assholes! In any case we never order chinese food with a variety of meats an veggies, too easy to clean a plate into the pot, an I do believe this is done, unfortunately.

Lots of wonderful suggestions!

My brother in law lives with us, and he hates white rice, but I love it.

So, what I do is break an egg into a frying pan with some butter.
Stir it madly around.
Add some chopped onion.
Add some frozen peas.
Set them all aside in a bowl.
Fry the rice in a bit of oil and then add the egg, onion, and peas.

Voilà, and he eats it!

Cindy H
Pots Boiling Over?

My wife and I went to an old Ryan's Steakhouse here in Tampa about 5 years ago. We went for the weekend breakfast buffett which was priced right and stocked well. I filed my plate with food including a helping of cheese grits. Everything was fine until my second bite of the grits. I put my fork down (which immediately alerted my wife), reached between my lips and pulled a foot long hair from my mouth. The waitress saw the event and rushed to the table. I could not be consoled. I spit the grits out onto my plate and rushed into the restroom to vomit. My wife was aghast and was verbally assailing the manager when I returned. We left, never returned to the place; and, returned the free buffett coupons they sent as an apology.

Since I only like white rice, I like to sautee finely chopped onion, bell pepper, garlic and parsley in a quarter stick butter and then add chicken stock and stir well. Bringing it to a boil and then I place it in an ovenproof casserole dish and bake it in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes until done. You may want to cover it the last 10 minutes so it doesn't brown too much. It's my version of rice pilaf. Any rice can be used but I like unhealthy foods more than healthy ones.

while there are tons of good suggestions here, truly the best way to "jazz up" your rice is to forget white rice in the first place. There are so many interesting varieties of "non-white" rice.... I can't see any reason to ever make white rice. It has zero flavour, and more importantly, zero nutrition or fiber. There are so many varieties of whole rice (basmati brown, short and long-grain brown, red rice, black rice, Texmati etc), and they all are subtle flavourwise and delicious all by themselves. And if you do choose to "enhance" them with any of the above suggestions, a little will go a long way; it's best to let whole/brown rice's flavour be what it is. Plain or lightly "jazzed", it's a wonderful and delicate foil to the more savory or strongly flavoured foods it accompanies not to mention how much healthier it will make your meal without those naughty white-rice "empty" calories. Whole rice can be the basis for many complete meals too such as pilafs, risotto's, etc.

Also, here's a nifty tip that I got from a friend from India who was a wonderful cook... lightly toast the grains in a hot, dry skillet before adding to their cooking liquid. Toast a couple minutes while stirring them around the whole time - toast just enough till you can detect a nice nutty aroma. then add very slowly to their hot or boiling cooking liquid - it can boil over fast with the grains so hot - be careful... The light toasting really brings out the delicate flavour and seals the grains from getting sticky too.

it's delicious to replace about 1/4 of the stock with orange juice. it adds a lovely taste and a bit of color. you can also throw in some baby peas at the end to make it even prettier and tastier.

Huel Howser who has a PBS program called California Gold. He goes around and interviews people about interesting sites and things to do in California often they are the "off the beaten path" type of places.
So he did a show on a place that was suppose to have the best fried fish and as it turned out it was less then a few miles from my home. So of course I just had to try it.. The place is not a sit down but a take out so I got my catfish and dreamed of it all the way home and like therealchiffonade I got glass.
When I went back to the place with the catfish I noticed that the side of the display case was broken. I pointed it out to the manager he did offer to replace the catfish for free but I declined and never went back there again.

I really just like plain rice but if I am having it with a flavorful dish I like to add a complimentary flavor to the rice. Sweet, savory, hot or whatever.