Hometown rice

I've heard people say that the only rice that tastes right is the rice they had when they were growing up. I can understand that -- I'm the same way about milk.

So when SY and I went grocery shopping over the weekend and saw a 20kg bag of rice from her hometown (무안), of course we had to get it. Never mind that we'll probably only eat about half before my contract finishes in May, but oh well.

At about a dollar a pound, it's still a pretty good deal. And because the grocery store does delivery when you purchase over a certain amount, trucking it home wasn't an issue.

Though I think all rice pretty much tastes the same, my wife thinks differently, and she’s not alone. When I was fresh off the boat in in Hawaii, I remember hearing people say things like, “Oh, this rice is really good,” which sounded silly to me at the time. Like complimenting someone on how well they baked the potato.

Here are general tips about rice:

First, see if you can buy that year’s harvest (햅쌀). In Korea, whatever surplus isn’t bought by consumers is bought up by the government and then resold later at a discounted rate. Like buying powdered government milk in the U.S., that stuff (called 정부미, 政部米“government rice”) isn’t highly regarded. Rice dries out as it ages, and that’s not good.

Second, see if you can get a rice cooker/keeper (밥통) or pressure cooker (압력밥솥, 压力饭锅). The rice cooker will keep rice warm even after you cook it, which is pretty convenient. A pressure cooker increases the sugar content within the grains and makes it tastier.

And one more thing -- East Asian countries have different words for cooked and uncooked rice, so don't go into a grocery store and ask for cooked rice. It really confuses people. Uncooked rice is "ssal" (쌀, 米). Cooked rice is "bab" (밥, 饭).