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CULTURE: National Rice Month

September is ... National Rice Month!

The history of National Rice Month dates back to 1991 when President George H.W. Bush signed the official proclamation designating September as National Rice Month. The president and the USA Rice Federation recognized this special holiday to encourage the use of the small but mighty grain in our daily dining. In the U.S., cities celebrate National Rice Month differently. For example, Bolivar

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By Lina Zhu

County officials in Mississippi celebrate the occasion with an annual rice tasting luncheon held in September.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, nearly 500 million metric tons of rice are harvested globally each year.

Rice has a special place for many Asian countries and people as it’s one of the most common foods in Asian cuisine.

Different types of Asian Rice

KOREAN RICE

Korean hyunmi refers to Korean short grain brown rice. Unlike white rice, brown rice has the bran and germ still attached. Brown rice tends to have a higher nutritional value than white rice, with many vitamins and fiber. It takes longer to cook and longer to digest. Many Koreans combine white rice and brown rice together to bring better texture and taste.

INDIAN RICE

Indian basmati is also long-grain rice, meaning that the grains are long and skinny. When cooked, basmati rice is less sticky than jasmine, with grains that tend to remain on the firm side. Basmati rice also doesn’t stick together as Jasmine rice does, which makes it a great choice for rice pilaf, salads, and Indian rice side dishes that often include safron, lemon or turmeric.

JAPANESE OR SUSHI RICE

Sushi rice is steamed Japanese rice that is flavored with vinegar-based seasonings and it’s only used for making sushi. In Japan, it is known as sumeshi (vinegared rice). Sushi rice is usually short grain rice, which has plump grains and a high proportion of amylopectin, a type of sticky starch that’s responsible for the trademark creamy texture of risotto.

How often do Asian people eat rice?

In some Asian countries, it depends on the region for how often rice is cooked and eaten. For example, people in the southern part of China eat rice almost every day as it’s their main source of carb. However, people in the northern part of China tend to eat more noodles in their daily cuisine. It’s also very common for Korean and Japanese to eat rice for breakfast, which might be very surprising for western people.

Nowadays most people use rice cookers to cook their rice. The most

interesting part of cooking rice is the ratio of rice and water. There are many traditional Asian ways to measure how much water needed for the rice. One of the most common Asian ways is to use the fingertip to measure the water:

Rinse the rice in water three times. Pour the rice into the pan you’re going to cook it in. Level it out and place your index finger so that it is touching the surface of the rice. Add enough water so that it comes up to your first joint of your middle finger.

Tips to make even better rice

“One thing you can do is to leave the rice sitting in water for 30 minutes after washing it,” said Mr. Ding, a former owner of a popular Asian restaurant in Glenwood Springs.

“This helps the rice become more soft and tasty,” he said.

“You can also add a few drops of oil in the water you used to cook the rice. This can give the rice a great smell when it was done.”

What we do know is to not drain your rice in a colander, or you will outrage comedian Nigel Ng who produced the viral comedic reaction to the BBC Food video on how to make egg fried rice by Hersha Patel.

Although we are not able to have a large luncheon to celebrate National Rice Month, we can still follow the cooking techniques above to create our favorite rice dishes to share with friends and family.

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