Noodles and Rice

Rice in Japan

by Tom on May 29th, 2007

The rice fields have just been flooded and sown and this reminds me of how different the Japanese rice culture is to a lot of the rest of the world.  Here are ten things that I have learnt recently about rice and Japan:

1) Rice is relatively expensive here.  The government artificially supports the price of rice and so a large bag (10kg) will cost about 3 times as much as an equivalent bag in Australia.

2) Rice is grown all over the country and even in moderately large cities, space is still allocated to rice farming.

3) Vast quantities of rice are not often eaten by Japanese people, it is just that there are vast quantities of Japanese people.  Serving sizes are fairly modest as the rice is an important but proportionally small part of most dishes.

4) Rice is often served separate to other dishes and sometimes even at a separate time (usually last).  The exception is something like a donburi (rice bowl) where the meat or vegetable dish is served on top of the rice.

5) Brown rice, called genmai (unrefined white rice) is seen by many Japanese people as a less sophisticated food and so will hardly ever show up in a restaurant.  Rice farmers and their families can use the services of a rice polishing vending machine as seen in the photo below, to convert their brown rice to white.

6) The bran from rice is often used as a fermentation bed for making pickles.  The bed is used over and over throughout a pickling season.

7) Japanese rice is a different species to other short grain rice and is valued for it’s stickiness.  This stickiness is not to be confused with the glugginess that you get from other species or from poor cooking technique.

8) Apart from eating by itself, rice is ground and made into “dungo”, pulverised and made into “mochi”, fermented and made into “sake” and distilled and made into “shochu”. 

9) There is an art to fine rice cooking and it starts with the finest grade of rice, the perfect technique and excellent ingredients.  It involves more than throwing it in a saucepan with some water.

10) Washing rice is worth the effort with Japanese rice.  I always thought it was a waste of time but I have now seen the light. 

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POSTED IN: Ingredient Spotlight, Japanese