Tamaki Gold California Koshihikari Short Grain Rice

“Who cares about rice? That stuff just comes with every Asian dish.” If you are one of these people, it either means you haven’t had good rice or you don’t pursue finer things in life. That’s fine, no judgement here. However, we are going to talk about the best rice we have had recently for those who care.

Rice is like bread, noodle, buns, pancakes or potato. They’re the fundamental carbohydrates in our meal. It turns into sugar in our body and give us energy. During harsh economy periods, Asian even consume rice by itself or with merely soy sauce for taste. Rice is an absolute essential item in South Asian cuisine.

Let’s start briefly with the types of rice; long, medium, and short. These lengths of rice is a good indicator for the starch content in rice. Long grain rice seems to be lighter and more fluffy when cooked, and short grain rice are more sticky. Generally speaking, Asian culture tend to lean towards short grain more. A practical reasoning for Japanese is that sushi simply could not hold itself together with long grain rice.

Tamaki Gold 15lb Bag

Obviously this is a very high quality bag of rice or we wouldn’t be here talking about it, but what makes this rice good?

If you want to ensure absolute freshness of rice, you are racing with time. The rice is shipped directly from farmers to the mill after harvest. If the farm has to deliver to multiple mills, the delay could reduce the quality of rice. After milling the rice is packaged in nitrogen filled plastic bag to prevent oxidization and kept prolong freshness.

Clean interior, no dust, no static

Cut open the bag from the top, you will see white rice grain with similar shape, size and color. This is what I expected to see, so no surprise here. What I am surprised is after pouring out the rice. With one smooth pour, and all the rice grains just came out. Not a single rice grain was left in the bag due to static. There was no shaking or digging involved with this bag of rice.

I put my finger to the bottom of the bag, and was happy find there’s no fine particles.

Follow instruction to do it right

The company has provided cooking instruction to help making the rice to their intended state. You can adjust the soaking time to change the outcome.

Washing the rice

There is not much washing required because the rice is already quite clean. I wash it once, and let it soak for half an hour. The ratio for the soaking water should be 1 cup of rice to 1.25 cup of water. If you like harder texture on rice, you can skip this step.

Cooked rice need to be left for a bit

Use a rice cooker to steam the rice. After it’s done cooking, you have to let it sit for 10 minutes to cure. It’s like steak, you have to let it re-absorb the water. This step is the secret to making a good bucket of rice. The top is going to be a little drier than the rest, so you should stir the rice before serving.

No broken grains

This bowl of rice looks very cute when served. It has consistent texture that is sticky but not too much. The rice grain were whole and unbroken even after stirring and scooping. Chewing on the rice gave me a satisfying feeling. It is moist without being soggy. The grains are sticky but each grain can be separated without much effort. It has good aroma, and the starch gave it a mild sweetness.

604 Food Critics Assessment

Normal rice cost about $9.54 USD for a 25lb bag, this price can’t even get you a 4.4lb bag for $17.99 USD on Amazon.com. Even crazier, a 5lb bag cost $86.41 CAD on Amazon.ca. Let me tell you a secret, you can buy this 15lb bag from Fujiya on Venables and Clark Drive in Vancouver for $39. It is still more expensive than a generic bag of rice by at least 5 folds. Well, how much does the finer detail in life worth to you?