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Hi everyone, welcome to potluck food talks.

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Today we're going to talk about rice.

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Rice, rice.

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So what's the deal with rice, Phil?

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What is the deal with rice, man?

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Why is it everywhere?

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Why does every culture eat rice?

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That makes no sense.

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As if rice was this one crop that grows all around the world.

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I don't believe it.

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There's been a rice conspiracy for years.

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Who brings the rice to all these people?

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You know, it's literally everywhere.

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They eat rice in Scandinavia.

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They eat rice.

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We all know Asians eat rice.

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We all know, you know, people in Latin and South America eat rice.

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You know, how does the rice get to Germany?

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I actually don't know.

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I have no idea.

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It's a mystery.

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I guess it's part from rice producing countries, I guess.

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You think so, yeah.

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What can we say about rice?

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In Latin America, it's super common to have like a lot of just plain white rice

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with anything.

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Like it's one of the staple foods.

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And you will see things like meats.

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You would usually see like, like in a pasta, like raguels and these kind of things.

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In Europe, you will see them with rice.

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And Latin America, quite common.

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I mean, yeah, you know, Latin America obviously rice is staple food.

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Asia, of course, we don't have to talk about Asia, you know.

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It's like...

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But I mean, if we talk about Asia, there are really different types

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of rice, like the ones you will see in India or Japan or China

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are completely different universes in its own.

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Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

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And I mean, rice is not rice, you know.

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I mean, the different varieties of rice are so extremely different, you know,

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from the like steamed Jasmine rice in China to the, I mean, the rice in Japan,

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you know, the like more short grain rice, you know, it's a completely different thing.

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It's a completely different flavor also.

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People don't often focus on just the flavor of plain rice,

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but it's completely different.

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Absolutely. Like Abbasmati, you will see like this aroma that reminds of popcorns

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that you will also find like in Jasmine rice and also commonly in other types of rice.

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And then you have like this round, also glutinous rice you find in Central Europe,

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like in Spain or Italy, like Bomba rice or the rice you use for risotto,

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like Carborio or Carnaroli, they are also a completely different thing.

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Yeah, absolutely. And like what the rice is supposed to do is also very different, you know,

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you know, like whether the rice is supposed to be completely loose and flaky,

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like in a biryani, you know, or whether the rice is supposed to be a little bit sticky,

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you know, like in Thailand, you know, where they have the sticky rice, you know,

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that they eat with every meal, where you get like a little box with steamed sticky rice.

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And then, you know, Japan also, and it's like, it's very interesting when you focus on something so simple as rice,

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it tells you a lot about the preference of sort of like aroma, but also texture that people like.

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So, for example, if you take the example of Japan, this like little bit mushy,

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kind of soft, chewy texture that like you often get in the steamed short grain rice,

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there, it's like, it's a preference that people have, you know, with like mochi and all these other sort of like things.

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And it's really, you know, something so stable and so fundamental for food culture,

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really tells you a lot about the food culture itself.

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No, absolutely. Also, it's interesting to see when rice is even plain, just white rice,

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but also when it's mixed with ingredients, in some cases, the ingredients are kind of like good inside,

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like in this process you find in Spain or paellas, or you can have like this rice sticky soups,

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like the congis you find in Asia, or you have like this rices that are mixed with ingredients,

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but not cooked together like this stir fried works with rice.

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Right. So there's also like a completely different ways of eating it.

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Even if we don't get to the universal rice pasta, rice flowers and all these kind of things that are also like a universe in its own.

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Yeah, absolutely. And then I mean, even sort of like Central Europe, you know, in Germany,

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you know, one of the most traditional desserts around the whole country is Mischreis, you know,

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which is basically like rice pudding, rice, short grain rice that's cooked in milk with spices, you know, and eaten like a dessert.

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It's interesting because that's also one of the most common desserts here in Spain and also in many countries in Latin America.

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I wonder where it originally comes from, but I could expect this being a very ancient dessert.

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Yeah, I mean, like, I think it's probably one of those, like you say, like the super ancient dishes,

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you know, probably from like Persia or something, you know, that it can came over, you know, with the Arabs.

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For me, it was really cool to see like, it's the same dish, but in different versions, for example,

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like rice pudding in England, right, is usually baked.

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So it's kind of the same dish, but it's baked while in Germany, it's kind of like cooked.

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But often like I grew up eating rice pudding cold, you know, but usually it's eaten warm with like glazed cherries on top.

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But then when I went to Spain and I ate arroz coliche, milk rice, it was more like a soup, you know, it was like a cold dessert soup.

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And I don't know whether that was just because of the person making it.

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But like I thought it was really particular. Also seasoning it with cinnamon and lemon zest.

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For me, it was like leche merengada kind of style.

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For me, it was like really like, wow, this is something that I know.

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But it's like with such a simple change, it's like a completely different dish.

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And that was really cool.

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Yeah, I mean, you will find it like, as you said, like more like a liquid soup or more sticky.

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It depends. So I just Google the origins and so it's very hard to say where it comes from,

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because it's consumed in many countries in Europe and also in Latin America.

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But it's believed to have started during the war invasion in Spain, which makes sense.

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Because, you know, rice and cinnamon, probably something that started in India in some way, it transformed during the way to Europe.

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Yeah, for sure. I mean, and there's so many things that got brought with, you know, with the East coming into the West, right?

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It's crazy. I mean, if you look at Spanish food culture, you know, I feel like there's very few things where you say like,

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oh, this hasn't been influenced by Muslim culture, you know?

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Yeah, absolutely.

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The ingredients that got brought with it, you know.

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What about the whole learn rice? Do you consume it?

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Yeah, you know, not as much as I would like to.

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But when I was in Japan, you know, in Japan, they have these really beautiful rice dishes.

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Obviously, they have lots of different rice dishes, but just these like simple donabe.

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For people who don't know, a donabe is basically like a clay pot, very thick, walled clay pot that's usually used for cooking rice.

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And there, obviously in Japan, they have many types of like varieties of rice.

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And they have certain varieties that are not as polished.

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So they're like a little bit more rustic, but they make these like in a donabe often while you're cooking the rice,

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you'll add sort of like seasonal ingredients that just kind of steam together with the rice.

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And then once you open the lid, you have the ingredients kind of laying on top and then you kind of like mix the rice at the table before serving it.

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And I saw a lot of dishes with that using sort of like whole grain rice.

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And it was super nice because it was like really like a little bit more countryside style, really rustic and really wholesome, hearty, you know?

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While white rice is not really like it's not unhealthy, but it's also not like as healthy as people necessarily think, you know?

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But like if you leave a little bit of the whole grain on, you know, it's like a completely different thing.

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And that was super nice.

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You know, speaking of whole grain rice in Japan, I usually eat whole grain rice at home once in a while.

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And just recently, just because I felt like it, I had this sushi rice pre-made seasoning bottle.

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And I just added to the whole grain rice.

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It just made sense for what I wanted to eat.

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And it actually worked pretty well, you know, rice with rice seasoning.

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So it worked pretty well.

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And I was wondering if there are like traditional Japanese dishes that use it like this or if it's something that is not usually done.

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Yeah, for sure. I mean, definitely, you know, it's not always about white rice.

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And especially in Japan, I saw it a lot.

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I also saw people, you know, adding barley or buckwheat to the rice and sort of like just cooking it all together.

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So you have like little bits of like cooked barley in between your rice, which makes the whole thing more nutty and like just more wholesome, more healthy, more nutritious.

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And that's definitely a thing.

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But, you know, I also have seen a couple of sushi chefs using rice that's not completely white and polished.

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And that was really interesting.

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Yeah, that's what I was wondering.

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And yeah, cool, cool, cool. Good to know because it completely made sense to me that, you know, if you have like a super good whole grain rice, why not do sushi with it?

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Yeah, absolutely.

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One of my favorite things to make at home, which I probably don't know how to make properly, but it's also one of my favorite things to eat is biryani.

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Have you made biryani before?

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No. What is it exactly?

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So biryani is an Indian dish that's basically a layered dish of rice and usually sort of like meat and spices.

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And you'll kind of like pre-cook rice a little bit.

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And depending on what you want to add, you know, maybe you have like some mutton or some goat and you kind of like pre-cook that a little bit with onions and loads of spices, like a lot of sort of like, you know, nice garam masala.

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And then you add layers in a pot, sort of like rice, meat, rice.

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Sometimes I think they also put like dal inside of the biryani, I'm not super sure.

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And you kind of layer it and then you bake the whole thing. You finish the cooking there. So everything gets kind of perfumed.

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And then, you know, this is a very typical dish for weddings. They make these. I don't know if you've ever seen these YouTube videos of like Indian chefs making these enormous biryani pots for like 200 people.

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No.

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Oh, yeah, you have to watch them. It's crazy. Just Google sort of like Indian wedding biryani.

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And it's like, it's amazing, you know, because it's just sort of like it's like a celebratory dish, but it's just just very nice and wholesome, you know, sort of like everything cooks together, gets perfumed, like fluffy rice, spices.

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Because then also the rice gets kind of streaky, you know, some parts of the rice are more clean white rice.

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And then some parts are like really yellow from the saffron and the cumin, the, how do you call it, kukuma.

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Oh, fuck.

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Turmeric.

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Turmeric, yes.

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And the turmeric. And yes, it's very nice, you know, it's kind of like, especially when, you know, when you have people over, you just put a big pot over, you know, you can seal it with a little bit of bread, and kind of like break open, open it, super fragrant, but it's also just very awesome.

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What kind of rice do you usually have at home?

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At home, I always have basmati rice at home.

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Me too.

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And what I always try to have at home is a nice round grain rice for like Japanese style rice.

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Exactly. I have like also Japanese and basmati. Those are my most common rice.

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It's, it's kind of hard for me to find like a nice Japanese rice. Like nowadays it's like much easier, but it used to be a little bit more difficult.

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And I remember I had a Japanese friend here in Germany, this is already like quite a few years ago, now there's more products available.

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But she was telling me that she was like, oh, you know, when I came to Germany, I was trying to find like good, like sushi rice, not necessarily for sushi, but just like the rice that they use, you know, round grain rice.

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And she was like, and I found that in the supermarket, the rice that you guys sell for milk rice, for rice pudding is exactly the rice that we use as like, like normal eating rice.

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So like this very sticky round grain rice.

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Yeah, which is interesting because it's probably so much cheaper with that label, right?

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Yeah, 100%. I mean, you can get really premium.

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Like I was in an Asian supermarket the other day and they had like a, from like the really cheap sushi rice for like, you know, 20, 20 kilos for like 10 euros to like packets of like 200 grams of rice for like 30 euros, you know, like just like premium, premium stuff.

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I don't know how much of that is marketing.

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I know, you know, from having been in Japan also that like rice can get super, super nice.

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But yeah, I don't know. I also, I don't have the expertise of cooking rice like that well that I think it would make that much of a difference, you know.