Japanese rice, grown in Europe or the United States

While it is possible to substitute other types of rice for Japanese rice (see: Looking at rice) sometimes a Japanese dish just isn’t right unless you use Japanese-type or japonica rice. Whenever I write about Japanese rice, I always get asked about the best brands to get, whether rice grown in Japan is worth the extra cost, and so on. Here’s what I recommend, depending on where you live.

Please note I only have info for Europe and North America I’m afraid. I’m not familiar with what’s available in Australia/New Zealand for example. Maybe you can share that info in the comments!

When I say japonica rice, I mean a short to medium grain rice that cooks up to be slightly sticky. It is the rice to use for sushi, and most Japanese recipe.

Koshihikari, Sasanishiki and Akitakomachi are varieties of japonica rice. There are hundreds of named varieties in Japan, but these 3 are the bestsellers in Japan. A variety called Yumegokochi is also mentioned as the variety for one of the rice brands below.

Any rice, whatever the quality, must be cooked properly. See my very detailed instructions for how to prep and cook Japanese-style rice here.

In years past, the only choices we had for japonica rice in Europe were imported, either from Japan or from the U.S. Happily this situation has changed in the past few years. There are now japonica type rice grown in Spain and Italy, under the supervision of Japanese food companies - mainly by Japan Food Corporation International (JFC), a major food import/exporter and distributor.

I’ve tried most of the Spanish or Italian grown japonica rice types, and my favorite is a brand called Yume-Nishiki. It’s Koshihikari type rice grown in northern Italy, and is distributed by JFC. Yume-Nishiki is now the standard rice we get.

I like Yume-Nishiki for the following reasons:

It tastes just as good as most Japan-grown rice brands. Even my mother approves of it, and declared that she doesn’t feel the need to ship rice to me anymore. (OK that’s my loss … ^_^;) It’s fairly reasonably priced for japonica rice. It’s anywhere from 2/3 to 1/2 of the cost of rice imported from Japan, and it’s also cheaper than most of the U.S. grown rice brands except for Nishiki - but it’s a grade higher than Nishiki in quality. It’s available as both white and brown rice.It’s grown in Europe, so it’s not coming from the other side of the globe.

JFC does carry other European grown rice types like Haruka and Megumi, but both are more expensive than Yume-Nishiki and I don’t see any quality difference to be honest. Plus, I have never seen brown rice of either variety being sold. You can read more about Yume-Nishiki on the JFC site.

Incidentally, there are several local types of rice available from both Italy and Spain, as well as France that can be used in Japanese recipes. Paella rice for example can be cooked in the Japanese way and used in Japanese dishes. See Looking at rice again for some Italian-type rice suggestions. In France, look for riz rond du Sud, from Taureau Ailé. (I refuse to link to their site because it sucks.)

Japan Centre in London, who has been a long time supporter of JustHungry and JustBento, has a special coupon code for JH/JB readers that will give you 20% off a mailorder purchase until October 31st. Click here or on the Japan Centre banner ad on the sidebar for details! (Restrictions apply, but you can surely use the coupon code for rice!)

Japonica rice and japonica-hybrid (crossed with another variety) has been grown for a few decades already in the United States. California is the biggest grower, but there’s some rice grown in Arkansas and Texas also. The market is mature enough to support different levels of quality of Japanese-style rice.

The grains of this type are bit longer than true japonica rice but can be used in the same way for sushi and other Japanese dishes.

Calrose may be the most widely available, and least expensive, japonica-hybrid type of rice available in North America. Personally I’d only get this if I was on a very tight budget, but you may find it acceptable. Some background on Calrose. I recommend giving it some extra rinsing and soaking time.

Nishiki is grown under the supervision of JFC in California. It’s one grade lower than the brands mentioned below, but quite acceptable unless you are very picky about your rice. The JFC site has more info, but doesn’t mention what variety it is. It’s available in small to gigantic bags, and as white or brown rice.

Kokuho Rose was developed by Koda Farms in California. It is pretty similar to Nishiki in terms of quality and so forth, and is also available in small to humongous packs, and as white or brown rice.

When I lived in the U.S., my rice of choice (unless I was broke) was Tamanishiki. It too is grown under the supervision of JFC, and is a hybrid of Koshihikari and Yumegokochi varieties. It’s just about as good as any Japan-grown Japanese rice with the exception of some super-special types. It’s also the rice the sushi restaurant my mom ran in NYC used. More on the JFC site.

Tamaki rice, grown by the Tamaki Corporation, is another California rice. The variety is Koshihikari again, and it’s on par with Tamanishiki. It was my other go-to rice when I was not broke when I lived in New York. More on their website.

There are some other types of ‘premium’ or ‘super premium’ rice types available, such as Nagomi, Megumi, etc., but the above two are my favorites.

This is a a difficult question really. If you are really picky about your rice, or insist on a certain variety of rice that isn’t available from domestic growers, then it could be worth it. From the listings above you can see that the ‘premium’ type rices are all Koshihikari based. Koshihikari is a rice with a strong stickiness, which a lot of people prefer, but some prefer the less sticky and rather light tasting Sasanishiki. Akitakomomachi is even more sticky than Koshihikari, and fans swear it has more umami too. But to be honest, I don’t think most people can tell the difference that well.

If you can get a hold of new harvest rice, wherever it comes from, it may be worth paying a premium for it. See my ode to new harvest rice (shinmai) that I wrote a while back for The Japan Times.

View the original article here

Radiation contamination found on tea grown in Kanagawa prefecture (Ashigara tea)

Before I post Part II of the Keeping Japan Going series, I thought I should address this ‘breaking news’ item. I got some questions about the ‘contaminated tea leaves’ in the news (this has been in the Japanese news for the past few days actually).

It is now tea gathering season in this part of Japan, and it seems that the tea leaves are just now getting tested (I have no idea why they didn’t do it earlier by the way.) The tea in question is Ashigara tea, from Kanagawa prefecture…local to me since I’m in Yokohama, the largest city in Kanagawa, as I type this (my mom lives here). Tea here in Kanagawa is grown in a small scale way in several towns and villages. It’s not considered to be top-class tea per se, and is often just branded as Ashigara tea even if it’s not actually grown in the town of Ashigara. Anyway, levels of radioactive cesium (caesium for Brits and Aussies) above the 500 becquerel limit set by the Japanese central government were found from tea leaves harvested in a total of 5 villages, and tea growers in the entire region have been requested to stop shipments, and the tea growers association has already decided to destroy the contaminated crop. Needless to say they are not happy at all, especially since tea, unlike green leafy vegetables, takes a very long time to grow. (NHK World news report in English.)

Now, why was just cesium detected and not the most often detected radioactive substance, iodide 131? My somewhat educated guess is that the iodide has already deteriorated and dissapated to an undetectable level because of its short lifespan of 8 days. Cesium has a much longer lifespan, up to 37 years I believe. So anyway, that is the situation: if you happen to encounter Ashigara tea from this year (unlikely, because of the shipment stoppage) then it’s safer not to use it.

If you’re from elsewhere you may wonder if your Japanese tea is affected. If you already have it or it’s at your stores, it’s not - because remember this is THIS year’s harvest we are talking about, which is just starting now. I am sure all tea growing areas are measuring their harvests. In Japan, the major tea growing areas - that grow enough to export - are Shizuoka, the Kyoto area (Uji and so on), and southern Kyushu such as Kagoshima. So far there have been no reports of any problems with tea or any produce grown in these areas, which are further away from Fukushima. (There were earlier reports of some iodide found on green leafy vegetables grown in Kanagawa, though not above safety limits.) So if you are looking forward to new-harvest tea (shincha), as long as you are getting your Japanese tea from reputable sources that clearly state their origin you should be fine. As far as Shizuoka and the Kyoto area are concerned, the recent news that the Hamaoka power plant in Hamamatasu, Shizuoka is in the process of being shut down for precautionary reasons may give a sigh of relief to farmers in the area.

I have also been accused in some quarters of trying to downplay the seriousness of the situation regarding the Fukushima plants. I don’t think I am, but I’m not trying to spread panic either. The tea leaf contamination as far as I can tell, based on looking at ongoing measurements of atmospheric radiation (not just on what’s reported in the news media) is not from a new radiation leak from the Fukushima nuclear power plants, but from the earlier ones soon after the earthquake, especially around March 15th. (See my previous report about vegetables, and the links at the bottom to various sources of information.) No new incidents per se have occured at the Fukushima No.1 plant as far as anyone can tell from the numbers. Let’s hope it stays that way, and that the reactors and spent fuel chambers can be cooled down safely.

I know it’s all very scary and disconcerting, but so is stuff like food being contaminated by e.colli or growth hormones or (even worse) purposefully contaminated with melamine or mercury and so on. I firmly believe that we all have to keep constant vigilance and make informed decisions about the things we consume.

On a personal level, my tea-snob mom never bought Kanagawa grown tea anyway, and I guess she’s not going to start now. ^_^; (She favors tea from an organic farm in Kagoshima at the moment for what it’s worth.)

View the original article here