Thread: Sick of Eating Thai Jasmine Rice

Originally Posted by Rural Surin

Sticky rice and gluttonous rice come from two preperations.

From Wikipedia: Glutinous rice (Oryza sativa var. glutinosa or Oryza glutinosa; also called sticky rice, sweet rice, waxy rice, botan rice, biroin chal, mochi rice, and pearl rice, and pulut)[1] is a type of Asian rice that is especially sticky when cooked.

Originally Posted by Borey the Bald

Originally Posted by Rural Surin

Sticky rice and gluttonous rice come from two preperations.

From Wikipedia: Glutinous rice (Oryza sativa var. glutinosa or Oryza glutinosa; also called sticky rice, sweet rice, waxy rice, botan rice, biroin chal, mochi rice, and pearl rice, and pulut)[1] is a type of Asian rice that is especially sticky when cooked.

A Western translation and interpretation doesn't suffice, especially wikipedia.

Damn. You people are dumbfucks.

Sushi Rice, California's New Gold Rush




California is joining the ranks of world class rice producers. Though southern growers have long monopolized the U.S.’s domestic rice industry, California has become second only to Thailand in exports of premium rice. Sacramento Valley is one of only three microclimates in the world, including Japan and Australia, where the high-quality, small grain japonica rice flourishes. This rice perfectly complements Japanese dishes, particularly sushi, and has always sold well among the U.S.’s Asian population. Only recently, however, did the opening of export markets allow Californian growers to establish trade deals with Japan, one of the world’s largest rice-consuming markets. The result has been the creation of a flourishing, $500 million industry. Entering the competitive Japanese rice market has also forced rice growers to "evaluate rice quality by a world-class standard," says one rice farmer representative. "As a result, all of our rice is better – the rice we send to Kellogg's, the rice we send to breweries. The entire industry bumped itself up a notch." – YaleGlobal



Kay Rentschler


The New York Times


8 October 2003


Click here [1] for the original article on The New York Times website. Posted below:




Archives
California's New Gold Rush


By KAY RENTSCHLER
Published: October 08, 2003
FROM his almond orchard on a hill in Colusa County in California, Leo LaGrande can look out onto the Sacramento Valley's most scenic and prosperous real estate. Livestock graze in pastures, and fields of watermelon and tomatoes bake in a climate that is faultlessly Mediterranean. Acres of golden grain form the primary and secondary residence for more than 140 species of aquatic waterfowl and wildlife.
Mr. LaGrande is a rice farmer. He works 16 hours a day during the September harvest, but he is not complaining. He knows he is a fortunate man.
The California rice industry is a stunning, rebellious success. From a hardscrabble start-up bolstered by government subsidies in the 1930's, it has become a $500 million industry that is second only to Thailand in exports of premium rice.
The 500,000-odd semi-arid acres in the Sacramento Valley make up a microclimate, one of three in the world, where japonica rice flourishes (the others are in Japan and Australia). This is not the swampland of traditional rice paddies, but then japonica is not traditional rice. Unlike long-grain indica, the fluffy rice that feeds most of the world, California's short- and medium-grain japonica cooks up moist and sticky. This is sushi rice extraordinaire.


California growers see their rice as a specialty, not a commodity crop. ''We are an appellation unto ourselves,'' Mr. LaGrande said.
It was not always so. Until the 1990's, California produced only small quantities of premium japonica and sold most of it to Asian communities in the United States; it also grew lower-grade japonica that was shipped to Korea. That all changed when export markets opened up and California acquired a discriminating trade partner, Japan.
The potential for business with one of the largest rice-consuming nations in the world precipitated enormous changes in the California rice industry. Farmers planted varieties of short-grain rice favored by the Japanese, like Akita Komachi and Koshihikari. They introduced gentler drying techniques to prevent cracking, and mills invested millions of dollars in new machines that milled to Japanese standards.
''We learned to evaluate rice quality by a world-class standard,'' said Tim Johnson, president of the California Rice Commission, which represents growers and marketers. ''As a result, all of our rice is better -- the rice we send to Kellogg's, the rice we send to breweries. The entire industry bumped itself up a notch.''
This rice grows in a custom setting. The Sacramento Valley has plenty of solar radiation, low humidity to thwart disease, heavy clay soil to hold water and pure-water irrigation from mountain snow runoff. But the industry leaves nothing to chance. It supervises the development of improved varieties at the Rice Experiment Station in cooperation with the University of California at Davis (no genetically modified strains are among them), and regulates environmental issues, from air and water quality to wildlife habitats.
''Rice production is considered one of the most environmentally wholesome agricultural endeavors in California,'' said Grant Lundberg, whose family has farmed in the area since 1937. ''And that's a good thing in a state whose natural resources are under close and constant scrutiny.''
California rice production now outpaces the long-established rice industry in Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana, according to the United States Rice Federation, a lobbying group in Washington. These states grow long-grain rice, and have done so since African slaves introduced them to it. But a shift in all markets to specialty rice imports like aromatic rices over the last several years and low yields at home because of disease have slowed down the Southern rice industry. Nevertheless, Southern brands like Uncle Ben's and Carolina continue to dominate supermarket shelves.
The zeal of California rice growers has been pushed by discriminating Asian populations in the United States as well, particularly those in California and Hawaii, which are first and second, in national per capita rice consumption, according to the Rice Federation.
Today, Mr. Lundberg said, growers try to use their stored rice by August to make way for ''new crop'' rice, which Asian populations demand for everyday eating. ''New crop'' is rice consumed within a month or two of harvest. Once a new rice crop is dried and polished in the autumn, Asian markets in the United States sell it in fancy foil bags (''new crop'' positioned prominently in Japanese characters). Asian cognoscenti say new-crop rice has a cleaner, sweeter flavor, a pearlier sheen and superior mouth-feel.
Fresh rice became a status symbol in Japan after World War II, when all but the wealthy were consigned to eating old rice. It is a prejudice the Japanese have been happy to keep. There is no doubt that the suavely neutral short-grain japonica suits the disposition of Japanese cuisine, a cuisine in which flavors punctuate but do not blend. (In contrast, premium long-grain Basmati rice is aged 12 to 18 months to intensify its aromatic properties and allow it to take the fire and complexity of Indian food head on.)
In aspects unrelated to size, short- and medium-grain japonica bear striking similarities. Medium-grain japonica did not exist at all until California growers cultivated it for cereals and confections. Nuances between the two, said John Hasbrook, vice president of SunWest Foods, which owns and operates the largest rice mill in California, in Davis, have to do with proportions of their principal starches. Short-grain rice is slightly stickier and slightly more expensive. (Improbably, the stickier the rice, the lower the starch content; long-grain rice is high in starch.)
The time-honored practice of scrubbing and swirling raw rice in a basin before cooking it (to remove polishing compounds and specks of bran) is now being challenged by new technology. Milling refinements introduced from Japan produce rice so sparkling clean that the grains need little or no rinsing. In one method, called kapika, polished rice is fine-sanded to produce a more lustrous finish; in another, called musenmai, rice is bathed in hot uncooked tapioca after its initial milling to pull off any remaining bran. Both rices emerge brilliantly white and lustrous.
Rinsed or not, premium California sushi rice is an incomparable eating experience. When it is seasoned like sushi but not pressed into cushions for raw fish, its separate, satiny grains, bound in a loose weave of stickiness, become the rice that chopsticks were made for.
Though California growers have yet to duplicate the success of their japonica with long-grain rice, they have had considerable success with brown, black and red varieties. These terse, brawny grains, many of them Japanese heirlooms, are not, like sushi rice, polished into pearly refinement, but present themselves intact, with bran and nutrients on board.
The particular appeal of whole grain japonica lies not just in its nutty flavor and arresting chew but also in its chummy cohesion: it does not hurl itself across a plate in a million pieces like brown indica. And since japonica rice remains tender when cool, the darker grains are worthy of room temperature dishes as well as hot ones. Whole grain rice takes a brisk simmer in plenty of water. It is best to put the pot on the stove before major hunger sets in -- 45 minutes can seem like forever.
But 10 minutes isn't bad. The Department of Agriculture has granted SunWest Foods and Lundberg Family Farm licenses for technology that reduces the cooking time of brown rice to 10 minutes. Scheduled for a commercial introduction next month, the method uses granulated rice flour to blast pits in the rice kernels, allowing faster water absorption and cooking time.
And so, the shape of things to come boils down to a grain of rice. That's why Leo LaGrande is not complaining.
HARVEST RICE STUFFING
Time: About 45 minutes
1/4 cup pecan halves, sliced lengthwise
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup minced shallots
1/2 cup celery in 1/4-inch dice
1 cup stale cornbread crumbs
2 teaspoons fresh minced thyme
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup black japonica rice (see note)
1 cup raw yam in 1/4-inch dice
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 egg, plus one egg yolk, lightly beaten.
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position, and heat oven to 350 degrees. Spread pecans on a baking sheet, and toast 5 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.
2. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat until foamy. Add shallots and celery, and sauté until fragrant and softened slightly, about 1 minute. Stir in pecans, crumbs, thyme, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. In a large saucepan, bring chicken broth and 1 cup water to a simmer over high heat. Stir in rice and 1/2 teaspoon salt ( 1/4 teaspoon if using canned broth), reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until rice is nearly tender and liquid has reduced, about 35 minutes. Add yams and cranberries, cover and simmer 5 minutes.
4. Turn vegetables into saucepan with rice. Add eggs and stir to distribute. Stuffing can be used in four 1-pound Cornish hens or one 3 1/2-pound roasting chicken, or can be spooned into a shallow 2-quart buttered baking dish and baked in a 350-degree oven, covered, until firm, about 20 minutes.
Yield: 5 cups.
Note: Black japonica rice is $2.39 a pound at Whole Foods Market, 250 Seventh Avenue (24th Street). It is also sold online at these Web sites: Indian Harvest and www.truefoodsonline.com.
SCATTERED SUSHI
Time: 40 minutes
1/4 cup shoyu or tamari sauce, more for serving
1/4 cup mirin
2 tablespoons sake
12 dried shiitake mushrooms
2 tablespoons bonito flakes
3 cups regular short-grain rice, rinsed
4 tablespoons rice vinegar
Granulated sugar
Sea salt
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
Vegetable spray
8 ounces sashimi-grade tuna
8 ounces sashimi-grade hamachi or salmon
8 cooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 cup raw peas
2 tablespoons prepared wasabi
1/4 cup sliced pickled ginger.
1. Combine 1/2 cup water, shoyu or tamari, mirin and sake in a small saucepan and simmer over medium heat. Add mushrooms, cover and simmer 20 minutes. Remove from heat, add bonito flakes, cover and let cool.
2. Combine rice and 3 cups water in a 10-cup rice cooker or heavy 3-quart saucepan. If using rice cooker, cover and cook until light goes off. Let rest 10 minutes. If using pot, cover and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce heat to low, and simmer gently until water is absorbed and rice is tender, about 15 minutes. Turn off heat, wrap lid in a kitchen towel, replace lid, and let saucepan rest on hot burner for 10 minutes.
3. While rice cooks, combine rice vinegar, 3 tablespoons sugar and 2 teaspoons sea salt in a small saucepan, and heat to dissolve. Cool to room temperature.
4. Spread hot rice in a large shallow baking dish, and sprinkle seasoned vinegar over rice, stirring gently with a wooden spoon until rice is cool. Transfer to a shallow bowl, and cover with a damp cloth. Do not refrigerate.
5. Beat eggs, yolks, 2 teaspoons sugar and 1 teaspoon salt in a small bowl. Strain through a fine strainer into a liquid measuring cup. Spray a 10-inch nonstick skillet with vegetable spray, and place over medium heat. When hot, pour 1/3 of eggs into skillet, and tilt pan so mixture spreads evenly over surface. When omelet forms, loosen edges with a rubber spatula, then flip omelet over. Cook other side for a second or two to firm it, then slide omelet onto a cutting board. Spray skillet again, return it to heat and make two more omelets. When omelets are cool, roll them up and slice into threads.
6. To assemble: Remove mushrooms from poaching liquid, cut off stems and slice in half. Divide rice among 4 bowls and cover with omelet threads. Top with fish and other ingredients. Dip into shoyu or tamari.
Yield: 4 servings.
GREEN TEA RICE PUDDING WITH CANDIED GINGER
Time: 45 minutes, plus at least 4 hours' chilling
3/4 cup medium-grain rice
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups whole milk
2 1/4 cups half and half
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup minced candied ginger, more for garnish
2 tablespoons matcha (Japanese powdered green tea), see note.
1. Bring 2 cups water to boil in a heavy 3-quart saucepan. Add rice and salt, cover and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until grains have expanded and water is absorbed, 10 to 15 minutes.
2. Add milk, half and half, sugar and honey. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until mixture begins to thicken, about 20 minutes. Reduce heat to low, add candied ginger and cook, stirring frequently, until pudding is creamy, about 15 minutes more. Remove from heat.
3. Bring 1/2 cup water to a simmer in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Sprinkle matcha over surface and whisk until no lumps remain and liquid is frothy. Whisk matcha into pudding. Transfer pudding to a bowl, cover, and chill at least 4 hours or overnight. To serve, spoon into bowls and garnish with more minced candied ginger.
Yield: 6 servings.
Note: Matcha is $18 for 2 ounces at T Salon, 11 East 20th Street; (212) 358-0506. At Takashimaya, 693 Fifth Avenue (54th Street), it is $22 for 3/4 of an ounce; (212) 350-0100. It is also available at www.uptontea.com and Green tea benefits health and life..

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Sticky rice locks me up...

here, have some more

Originally Posted by Borey the Bald

but I finally figured out that the culprit is the Thai jasmine rice we have been eating here in the US.

was the rice all from the same bag, or same supplier?

rice is not known to be something that upsets your stomach unless it has been contaminated

The US has fairly strict checks on imported food

^It was 2 different 25 lb bags of the same brand rice from the same market.

Based on the lack of response here it appears that our experience may have been very unusual - since apparently no one else has encountered it. So not something to be concerned with.

When you visit the areas where they are able to grow three crops a year and fertilizer is used extensively you have to ask yourself what effect this has on the quality of the crop.Jasmine rice although it tastes great is not as nutritional as the normal rice.
Basmati as another poster has commented is healthier.

I suppose we were buying jasmine rice out of habit. Since I started making other types of rice, I have been quite satisfied with the result.

Perhaps you are both a bit neurotic and there is nothing wrong with the rice. I had to laugh when you said your wife had been tested and found to be free from bacterial and viral infection. Such a stupid thing to say but I suppose Americans do believe in this sort of medical quackery.

Presumably you added water to the rice when you cooked it. Perhaps it was this which was contaminated?

Originally Posted by thegent

Such a stupid thing to say

it might be, but being sick is no joke

trying to find the reasons for his illness are important

Originally Posted by blue

If in USA why not just buy white Basmati rice , tastes better , have nice long grains too,
and is more healthy as is not so high in the glycemic index , so less chance of developing diabetes-
better still eat more spuds !
they are what made the west great

sorry, off topic but just wanted to mention that I have a silk screen that I purchased, actually I had it made to spec in Korea, with the same picture that blue is using as his avatar!

Originally Posted by Aussie Tigger

When you visit the areas where they are able to grow three crops a year and fertilizer is used extensively you have to ask yourself what effect this has on the quality of the crop.Jasmine rice although it tastes great is not as nutritional as the normal rice.

Well, for example, Suphanburi grows a lot of rice. 3, maybe 4 crops per year but it's of such inferior quality they ship it to places in Africa. Issan generally grows one crop per year and the quality is excellent.

Rice is boring, You are probably eating too many Carbs, Borey
Here's some advice I found on rice
1. Eat less
2. Make sure you are consuming plenty of fat with it

Thanks for all your responses. Since we switched to US grown rice, neither of us have had a recurrence of those symptoms. I don't know why. Anything I say would just be speculation.

But the contamination of our food supply is a real problem. Saw this article Vitals - Cadmium in diet may increase breast cancer risk a couple of days ago which is a Swedish study that the metal cadmium, found in fertilizer, may be linked to the increase in breast cancer. I believe that the addition of many chemicals to our food supply, whether as fertilizers, food additives, preservatives or fumigants, have unintended negative consequences. The way the organic food market is booming, apparently many others are of this same opinion.

Of course, the subject is so complex, that it would take a major research facility to be able to track down the cause-effect of the chemicals.

Originally Posted by Borey the Bald

Of course, the subject is so complex, that it would take a major research facility to be able to track down the cause-effect of the chemicals.

Maybe it's your Government trying to save on the Pension payouts