The Calrose grain is widely available and many people in the US use the rice for sushi. Medium grain rice. Rice begins as brown rice, genmai (玄米), which may then be polished by a machine (精米機 seimaiki), in which case it is sold as ready-polished or white rice, hakumai (白米). I would fill up the container and leave the remaining rice in the bag. Coin-operated automated rice polishing machines, called seimaijo (精米所), for polishing brown rice, are a common sight in rural Japan. You can read more about why I love this rice here. Whichever brand of rice you decide to pick, you want to try to get the rice that is labeled ‘First Crop’ or ‘New Variety’. "cooked rice" or "meal of any sort") consumed as part of a typical washoku meal accompanied by several okazu dishes (おかず), tsukemono (various pickles), and miso soup. It is also used to produce sake. If you have a Korean grocery store nearby, get Korean short-grain rice. The rice is then boiled using a ratio of about five parts of water to four parts of rice – though with fresher rice, the ratio can go down to 1-to-1. After cooking, rice may also be held in a covered wooden box called an ohitsu. Each grain should be white and smooth, almost pearl-like, and should taste subtly not just of starch but of delicious grain. It is also the type of rice being used to make sake and rice vinegar. When cooked, it will be chewier and stickier than its longer grained counterparts. If you decide to use freshly … These varieties of rice used to be hard to find outside of Japan, but you can now find Koshihikari rice being grown in the US and Australia in recent years. Leftover plain rice is often reused as ochazuke (茶漬け) (rice with green tea) or chāhan (チャーハン) (fried rice). Design by, used mainly for making mochi (rice cakes) and traditional sweets like. The Dojima Rice Market in Osaka was the first known futures market, with trading in rice contracts established sometime around 1730. It has a softer texture than ordinary brown rice and a pleasant fragrance. Ordinary rice, or uruchimai, is eaten in several ways in Japan, most commonly as plain rice "gohan" (ご飯, lit. However, we do not eat vinegared sushi rice for regular meals. Most supermarkets in Japan sell ready-polished rice in 10 kg, 5 kg, and smaller bags. Different brands of rice have different flavors and textures. Buy our best-selling e-cookbook for 33 more easy and simple recipes! In order to fulfill self-sufficiency goals in Japan and to support domestic rice producers, the Japanese government enforces quotas and high tariffs on foreign rice. Soaking times also depend on the quality and freshness of the rice. Japanese rice refers to a number of short-grain cultivars of Japonica rice including ordinary rice (uruchimai) and glutinous rice (mochigome). These varieties of rice used to be hard to find outside of Japan, but you can now find Koshihikari rice being grown in the US and Australia in recent years. It is used in sushi (寿司) and onigiri. Koshihikari from Toyama Prefecture, Japan (you can find this brand at Japanese grocery stores), Shirakiku Rice – Koshihikari from California. This is, however, not to be confused with Japanese glutinous rice or mochigome, another short-grain cultivar of japonica rice. Cultivated for thousands of years in Japan, Japanese rice is the quintessential staple of the Japanese diet. It is commonly used to prepare Japanese cuisine in North America, and is reasonably good as a sushi rice. Most rice in Japan is processed and consumed as white rice, the staple food of Japan. The kernels are plump and short in length. The drawback is they tend to be more expensive. https://whatisthebestricecooker.com/what-is-the-best-japanese-rice-brand It is sold in Japanese supermarkets, but it can also be made at home. In 2005, the Tokyo Grain Exchange announced that it would create a futures contract on rice with trading starting in the summer of 2006. Glutinous rice, known in Japan as mochigome, is used for making mochi (餅), the festive red bean and rice dish sekihan, as well as traditional snacks such as senbei (煎餅), arare (あられ), and agemochi (揚げ餅). While cooling and standing in the fridge, the short-grain rice becomes harder as liquid evaporates, leading to less ‘mushy’ fried rice. While not true Japanese rice, Calrose-type rice has been grown by Japanese American producers in California for many years. I'm Nami, a Japanese home cook based in San Francisco. It takes less time to cook than brown rice but retains more of the vitamins than white rice. Japanese short-grain rice (also known as ordinary rice or Uruchimai 粳米) refers to a short-grain cultivar of Japonica rice that is characterized by its unique stickiness and texture. Haigamai is rice that has been partially milled to remove most of the bran but leave the germ intact. If you couldn’t find the above-recommended brands of Japanese premium short-grain rice, there are some other standard brands that are widely available in your local Asian or major grocery stores. The first type of rice is uruchimai 粳米, known as the Japanese short grain rice or ordinary rice or Japanese rice in short. Despite its age, it has been the most widely grown cultivar in Japan for more than 35 years, making it the most important rice for the Japanese people. [5], Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Japanese Consumers Reconsidering Rice Loyalty", Full list of rice varieties and cultivars, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Japanese_rice&oldid=974808536, Articles needing additional references from December 2016, All articles needing additional references, Articles containing Japanese-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 25 August 2020, at 04:10.