🚀 go-pugleaf

Dear Dave,

Thank you for posting such an interesting article to this group.
Here is a short comment: Please bear in mind that this is from
	- a boy who grew up in a small(200,000 population) town facing
	  the sea where local fish market business and its orange and
	  green tea farmers are better known than the rice farming,

Other Japanese will have different comments to be sure.

>>>>> On 13 Jul 92 22:03:15 GMT, davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane) said:

Dave> Getting the rice to Japan. When my daughter went on her weekly 
Dave> -------------------------  shopping trip to Lucky Supermarket in 
Dave> Whittier, CA, I tagged along and found there were three kinds of 
Dave> rice: First there was the usual "Uncle Ben's" long grain rice.
	I am not sure if many Japanese realize this. But I was told by
an old Japanese Canadian (he died at the age of 99 the year before)
that the long grain rice is good for fried rice (Chinese style) and he
thought that the long grain rice was called Nankging rice (Nanking
being the city in Southern China) in Japan before the second world
war. I think myself that fried rice tasted better with the sort of dry
long grain rice, California rice it was called in Canada.

Dave> When I came through customs at Osaka International, they asked if I
Dave> had any food and I said yes as it was pretty hard to conceal 55
Dave> plastic bags of rice (not to mention the 8 1-lb packages of Mexican
Dave> chocolate :-) I was asked to go to an agricultural inspection
Dave> counter where they attached a Plant Quarantine sticker for 10 kg
Dave> of go-me (rice) and that was it. No problems.
	I recall an ugly incidence at a food exhibit in Japan where a
booth was raided by local police and the bags containing rice from
U.S.A.  were seized some time ago in Chiba (or was it in Tsukuba?). 
Apparently, the customs allow people to bring in rice for personal
consumption. I didn't know this. (I thought you had to smuggle it in
your suitecase bottom...)

	[ about the taste of the rice ]

Dave> I told this to the other groups, most of the other people thought
Dave> this was a fair assessment.
	I think California rice isn't too bad, myself.

Dave> In the other, one person couldn't come for the first couple of 
Dave> weeks and came into the discussion when the others had already
Dave> tried the rice. The next week they brought in matched sets of
Dave> onigiri, one made from the California rice and one from Japanese
Dave> rice. Without being told everyone else guessed which was which: the
Dave> California rice was slightly larger, slightly whiter, and had
Dave> become more stuck together than the Japanese rice. When I tasted
Dave> them side by side, even I could tell that the Japanese rice had
Dave> more flavor than the California rice.
	GREAT PEPSI CHALLENGE in different disguise, eh?  But as you
mention in the latter half of your message, I think every rice has the
optimal cooking style. You can't cook rice in the same manner and get
the best of it. Maybe if you get it right, the difference in taste may
diminish.


Dave> Conclusion. Since I didn't have any information about the
Dave> ----------- California rice at the level of detail they were
Dave> talking about we couldn't really come to any conclusion except to
Dave> say that if rice is to be imported such information would need to
Dave> be provided. 
	Since I don't believe (correct me if I am wrong) that many
consumers in North America care where the wheat or wheat flour comes
from, wouldn't this be considered a little nuisance by the rice
growers in California? 

Dave> In addition, one person said that since the question
Dave> of pesticides and chemical fertilizers has been raised as an issue,
Dave> it would be useful to have this kind of information on the
Dave> packaging instead of "No talc added."
	I never knew that talc was added in U.S.A.. In any case, those
pesticides and chemical stuff are real worry. When you look at how
grains are usually fumed with the chemical before shipping, you will
have a deep thought about what gets in your mouth.  (My father used to
work on a freighter boat, and one time he was working on a boat for
importing grains for food oil manufacturer. The way grains handled in
quantity was something to behold.) At the same time, I understand the
qurantine procedure is important: I remember that a Cobra-like
snake/reptile was spotted in a wood storage lot in my home town:
apparently some animal survived the chemical fume and made it to the
local harbor from South East Asia. (The great manhunt ensued, but the
animal was never spotted again and presumed dead after a winter passed.)

Dave> Since I wrote that, I bought an automatic rice cooker which makes
Dave> life a *lot* easier and spent the rest of the spring trying out
Dave> various kinds of rice, making sekihan, rice with sweet potatoes
Dave> (forget the name, but I like it) and so on.
	Have fun. At the same time I am impressed that you had been
cooking without the automatic cooker. Many youn housewives won't be
able to do that!

Regards,



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