[Sca-cooks] Sca-cooks] Rice

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Randell wrote:
"I have never done a taste off, but I do not perceive the taste difference between the different kinds of rice.I rarely eat rice plain, so whatever subtle flavor changes would be lost. Functional differences between the varieties are much more obvious."


The US sends rice to various "3rd world" and "developing" countries. In Indonesia in the 1970s, the government gave this rice, not to the desperately poor, but to civil servants. American rice was so unpleasant that the civil servants sold it. I can smell the difference when i open the package. For this reason i have stopped buying American rice. It smells like cardboard and barely tastes any better. I buy Asian rices, the type varies depending on what i'm cooking. They are all much more fragrant than US rice. I can smell them cooked, too. For SCA-period Ottoman dishes i use a *very* long grain rice. Since i can't by Persian/ Iranian rice, i usually end up with very long grain varieties from Pakistan that are sold in my local Iranian market. For Southeast Asian dishes i buy Thai Jasmine rice. For Japanese dishes i get Japanese short grain  My idea of a more "generic" rice is Indian Basmati.

Urtatim al-Qurtubiyya