The headline is misleading. The article itself admits 84% of Japanese eat rice every day. Other research is showing it even higher, this data from 2022 says it's about 94%:...
The headline is misleading. The article itself admits 84% of Japanese eat rice every day. Other research is showing it even higher, this data from 2022 says it's about 94%:
It's a stretch to say 'fallen out of love with' but going from 3 meals a day to 1 is pretty significant. I love rice, frankly I can't imagine eating it 3 times a day. As a westerner I wouldn't...
It's a stretch to say 'fallen out of love with' but going from 3 meals a day to 1 is pretty significant.
I love rice, frankly I can't imagine eating it 3 times a day. As a westerner I wouldn't even eat bread 3 times in a day, or really anything. I suppose that comes from a place of privilege where we have so many options for food.
As a Puerto Rican, I couldn't imagine not eating rice every day at least twice a day. I didn't even consider that to be a thing, until I visited the US for the first time (and thought the food as...
As a Puerto Rican, I couldn't imagine not eating rice every day at least twice a day. I didn't even consider that to be a thing, until I visited the US for the first time (and thought the food as incredibly bland).
I grew up middle class. I don't really think it's a privilege thing, at least not economic privilege. It's just that you grow up with and eat your local cuisine.
I traveled in Central and South America, and I didn't really like beans when I started... However a couple months in it just clicked and now I miss eating beans and rice 2 times a day.
I traveled in Central and South America, and I didn't really like beans when I started... However a couple months in it just clicked and now I miss eating beans and rice 2 times a day.
Hahaha, uno de nosotros, uno de nosotros! Rice, beans, and a dead animal, any animal will do. It's such a base part my cuisine, and moving out of PR was a true culture shock. I've been in NZ 5...
Hahaha, uno de nosotros, uno de nosotros! Rice, beans, and a dead animal, any animal will do.
It's such a base part my cuisine, and moving out of PR was a true culture shock. I've been in NZ 5 years now, and I still desperately miss my food culture.
I can't see statistics about percentages of population for previous years. They do have statistics about actual rice amounts though. Looks like it has fallen from 54.5kg to 49.8kg per capita per...
I can't see statistics about percentages of population for previous years.
They do have statistics about actual rice amounts though. Looks like it has fallen from 54.5kg to 49.8kg per capita per year over the past decade. That's not an insignificant change, though still - 50kg of rice yearly per person on average is a lot of rice.
It's too bad the bread in Japan is absolutely terrible. Forget anything with any semblance of color or variety unless you go to a bakery that specifically specializes in European style baking. At...
It's too bad the bread in Japan is absolutely terrible. Forget anything with any semblance of color or variety unless you go to a bakery that specifically specializes in European style baking. At that point it's going to be even more annoying to get the bread than cooking rice. Either you have to buy it the day before and let it get a little stale, or wake up earlier, get dressed to go buy your bread, go back, make breakfast etc. If you even have a bakery like that in your neighborhood and it's even open on that particular day.
The breads at mainstream bakeries or supermarkets are always focused on soft and sweeter breads. Even the normal sliced bread that most people would consider to be toasting bread has lots of dairy and additives in it to make it as fluffy as possible and it's generally on the sweeter side even if it's meant for something savory like a sandwich. The only thing that resembles are "normal" savory bread for me are baguettes or French style country breads. But again, the bakery has to be particular in that style for them to make it. If you go to a straight up Japanese bakery it's gonna be white fluffy bread as far as the eye can see. Even the premade foods like little pizzas and hot dogs use the same bread so it's this weird mix of a sweeter bread with savory toppings. Always completely ruins the food for me. Whole wheat breads virtually don't exist. Sometimes you can find a pack of "whole wheat" slices at the supermarket and they're usually only like 1-2 packs a day so they get sold out quickly. They also always come in very thick slices of three. But I doubt it has much whole wheat inside anyway as the color is only just a touch of brown.
Bagels are even more offensive. I don't think most bakeries even boil them before baking which is kind of the necessary step to make them an actual bagel so they basically taste like dinner rolls with the same texture. There is only one shop I know that actually makes decent bagels but they're only open once to twice a week and the line is always out the door from the moment they open until their stock is gone. But Japanese people love queuing. I ain't gonna wait 20 minutes to buy a couple of tiny overpriced bagels, yikes.
Sorry, I've been living in Japan for almost 11 years now and I'm taking a little break from there abroad. It's amazing that I can walk into any supermarket now and buy a loaf of brown bread, or sourdough, or seeded/grain bread, or white if that's what you want for just a couple of dollars. I think in my neighborhood back in Japan I have never even seen sourdough bread though I do know there is a German style bakery that makes it but it's across town and expensive as hell.
:) I can't help but just smile at your trouble with Japanese bread. I grew up in East Asia but I've been living abroad for far longer. I have the exact opposite rant from yours: Me: go to...
:) I can't help but just smile at your trouble with Japanese bread.
I grew up in East Asia but I've been living abroad for far longer. I have the exact opposite rant from yours:
If you go to a straight up Japanese bakery it's gonna be white fluffy bread as far as the eye can see.
Me: go to virtually anything other than specialty East Asian bakeries and the bread is this awful business that tastes rough and stale from the moment it leaves the oven. It's hard tack as far as the eye can see.
And don't get me started on "sweets". North American sweet desserts and baked items are far too sweet. I cringe every time someone brings cake to work....it's just dense sugar covered with more sugar wrapped around sugar.
I understand your frustrations. I probably don't want fluffy sweey bread on my Bahn mi either. But I miss having fluffy sweet bread as the default.
I just think there needs to be an option of both because they serve different purposes. I wouldn't want a super dark bread for jam for example. But I also don't want a sweet roll for my hot dog....
I just think there needs to be an option of both because they serve different purposes. I wouldn't want a super dark bread for jam for example. But I also don't want a sweet roll for my hot dog. This is just my interpretation but I think many Japanese people see white fluffy bread as higher quality and darker breads are too difficult to eat and enjoy. It's quite the same with white rice and brown rice. If anyone sees you eating/buying a pack of brown rice (of which there are few options) people assume you are on a very strict diet or something. There are even some specialty shops that ONLY bake loaves of milk bread and they charge a lot of money for one. There was a shop near my old workplace that did that, they gave you a loaf of around 5 slices for close to 800 yen I think it was. That's like 6USD for 5 slices of white bread. And you usually had to reserve your loaf in advance. That's just too weird for me.
I probably don't want fluffy sweey bread on my Bahn mi either.
Good luck finding a suitable bread for bahn mi as the baguettes are definitely are on the crispier side. Quite nice to eat with cheese but it destroys your mouth if you try to make a sandwich out of it.
My dream scenario is that in every metro, there are a couple authentic whatever type stores for every culture, where you and i can find whatever we are calling regular bread
My dream scenario is that in every metro, there are a couple authentic whatever type stores for every culture, where you and i can find whatever we are calling regular bread
This is one of the things I love about living in the NYC-metro-- it's not too hard to find food from just about any cuisine I'm interested in. For what it's worth, I love Japanese food and snacks...
This is one of the things I love about living in the NYC-metro-- it's not too hard to find food from just about any cuisine I'm interested in.
For what it's worth, I love Japanese food and snacks but I've always been underwhelmed by their baked goods. My criticisms are the same as what @autobulb described. For me there's nothing like a good sourdough or a good bagel. Speaking of bagels, I really hope we don't butcher other cuisines the same way they butcher our bagels-- I've only ever eaten proper bagels in the NYC-area.
It happens everywhere. Even NYC with all its various cultures and accessibility does it too. You can get good sushi for example if you're willing to pay, but most people go to the cheap "Asian...
I really hope we don't butcher other cuisines the same way they butcher our bagels
It happens everywhere. Even NYC with all its various cultures and accessibility does it too. You can get good sushi for example if you're willing to pay, but most people go to the cheap "Asian fusion" restaurants. The sushi they serve would offend most Japanese people. Smushed barely seasoned rice, poor quality ingredients, over reliance on lots of sauces and flashy appearance to make it look special and exotic. It doesn't even register as "sushi" for a lot of Japanese people.
It's just the unfortunate reality of trying to replicate a food that is so pervasive in a certain culture in a different environment with different access to ingredients and having to tailor the taste for people who are not used to certain tastes and textures. On the one hand I understand it but on the other hand I'm always trying to find foods that are more "authentic" to their original forms.
I have been learning how to make NYC style bagels to serve in a pop-up cafe back in Japan. It's a fun and challenging experiment. I'm a bit stubborn and am trying to stick with strictly NYC style type bagels, but Japanese people expect very different things of bagels. For example, sweet bagels with ingredients mixed INTO the dough is very common here. Sorry, I'm not gonna make a chocolate bagel for ya :) Here's an everything bagel and I'll put some cream cheese in it, or make you an egg and cheese sandwich, or a lox sandwich.
Reception has been surprisingly good though. I have a low output cause I have to handmake, bake, and prepare all the food by myself but in the last few times we opened we could sell out sometimes which was great. I also got a great compliment from an acquaintance that came in and got a lox sandwich. In a pleasantly surprised tone she was like, "wait.... bagels are supposed to be chewy like this?!" I was like yep, that's what an actual bagel tastes like.
Our local bagel place actually used to make a chocolate chip bagel that was delicious. It was the high-quality chewy/savory dough that you can only get in the NYC-metro but with chocolate chips...
Sorry, I'm not gonna make a chocolate bagel for ya
Our local bagel place actually used to make a chocolate chip bagel that was delicious. It was the high-quality chewy/savory dough that you can only get in the NYC-metro but with chocolate chips and the mix of sweet and savory (combined with some cream cheese) was great.
Ah yeah, I know there are sweet bagels. I remember cinnamon raisin was popular back in my NYC days. But the method of baking them is quite different. So for a chocolate bagel in Japan a chocolate...
Ah yeah, I know there are sweet bagels. I remember cinnamon raisin was popular back in my NYC days. But the method of baking them is quite different. So for a chocolate bagel in Japan a chocolate ganache type of filling is piped into the dough, either after or during shaping. And it's intended to be eaten as it, without any other toppings/fillings like cream cheese. So yea, to me it's quite a different method of making and eating the bagel.
But also generally sweet bagels here are much more prevalent. At the good bagel shop in my town I would say maybe half of them are sweet and the other half are savory or neutral. Back in NYC I remember like a chocolate one, cinnamon, and maybe one or two more but the majority were savory/neutral.
This is one thing I love about Manila too :) we have a huge variety of different cuisines (and price points) available. The food scene here is incredibly competitive-- great for diners, very...
This is one thing I love about Manila too :) we have a huge variety of different cuisines (and price points) available. The food scene here is incredibly competitive-- great for diners, very challenging for food businesses.
I always find it amusing when people hate on Japan’s tastes in bread. But that’s the culture. It’s kind of pointless to complain. I can certainly understand why one wouldn’t like it, though,...
I always find it amusing when people hate on Japan’s tastes in bread. But that’s the culture. It’s kind of pointless to complain.
I can certainly understand why one wouldn’t like it, though, especially living there and not having access to a homestyle staple without baking it for yourself.
My personal opinion on the subject is that everything is better than American style “white bread”. Even the cheapest and worst Japanese style sweet bread. And that is basically the default where I live.
The cheapest white breads in Japan certainly rival America's white breads in most categories. They are full of additives, kinda dry right out of the packaging, too sweet like I mentioned, and too...
The cheapest white breads in Japan certainly rival America's white breads in most categories. They are full of additives, kinda dry right out of the packaging, too sweet like I mentioned, and too soft to even spread anything on them most of the time. I've shamefully bought some prepackaged "baguette" from a discount 24 hour convenience store cause it was the only place open at the time and I would be careful to even call it bread. Even when I toasted it a bit (cause it was too stale to eat as it was) it started to resemble plastic.
I complain because Japan has a lot of great food culture, but for some certain things they really latch onto a very overly processed and homogenized way of doing things. It's unfortunate. But yes, I do bake my own breads at home, but that's not relevant to the article's topic because people are mostly talking about the most convenient way.
Daiso actually has a bunch of stores here in the US and they import some packaged bread (IIRC the brand is DPLUS or something like that), and I would also be upset to be served that. They are...
Daiso actually has a bunch of stores here in the US and they import some packaged bread (IIRC the brand is DPLUS or something like that), and I would also be upset to be served that. They are packed with alcohol to preserve them so if you don’t let it air properly you get blasted with it and it is very unpleasant.
Cheap shelf-stable bread is bad no matter where you are though.
Are you in Germany? I'm in Canada and the German bakeries we used to have made awful hard bread like you describe. I've met enough people in town that loved that bread and I find it baffling. The...
Me: go to virtually anything other than specialty East Asian bakeries and the bread is this awful business that tastes rough and stale from the moment it leaves the oven. It's hard tack as far as the eye can see.
Are you in Germany? I'm in Canada and the German bakeries we used to have made awful hard bread like you describe. I've met enough people in town that loved that bread and I find it baffling.
The German bakeries in town have closed and now a chain, Cobs, has really taken hold. They make sort of similar bread but not dry and hard. Its amazing. They also do some sweeter buns that aren't anywhere near an Asian sweet bun but they're half way.
TL;DR: I feel your pain as someone who grew up eating hard buns.
Maybe I was exaggerating a little ;) I'm also Canadian. There were a lot of times I'd go and buy something, yes even from Cobs, that looks a certain way and I would expect to be soft, and it turns...
Maybe I was exaggerating a little ;) I'm also Canadian. There were a lot of times I'd go and buy something, yes even from Cobs, that looks a certain way and I would expect to be soft, and it turns out to be "hearty" (ugh) and "bouncy mouth feel" at best. Never "fluffy". Even the overly sweet breads like cinnamon rolls are dense and firm.
I guess our up bringing makes me associate certain food qualities with "good" that turn out to be more cultural than objectively delicious.
I have a similar thing with "cold" foods: the best food are eaten molten lava hot; if you could fill your mouth with food it means it wasn't hot enoufh. Cold foods are a necessary evil for being on the road, or a punishment somehow (eg you procrastinated on piano practice and didn't get to eat until you were done), or guilt loaded (eg, if you had come home for dinner instead of being out with friends this food would have been hot for you). This is why when I travel to places that serve cold breakfast, it doest matter how fancy the spread is and how wonderfully it's plated/boarded or how beautiful the colours are or even how fancy and fresh it must be or even if it was way huge for your party. Cold breakfast = it was meager and I'm going back to the room to eat a pipping hot cup ramen.
Maybe OP is German!
Edit: I love sushi though. There was a cultural bridging tool called "all you can eat late night sushi" where one can also fill up on hot Japanese restaurant staples like tempura / udon / wings / karaage /teriyaki.
I wonder if there's some kind of cultural bridge that could help OP accept sweet fluffy bread as not being "wrong".
Asian (American) here. East Asian cuisines in general are wonderfully diverse, complex, and rich. But strangely, bread—whether it's done in Taiwan, Japan, SK, or China—is almost always simple and...
Asian (American) here. East Asian cuisines in general are wonderfully diverse, complex, and rich. But strangely, bread—whether it's done in Taiwan, Japan, SK, or China—is almost always simple and monotonous: soft, fluffy, sweet. There's little complexity or character. It's bewildering. There isn't a lack of culinary of talent, and I'm not sure why East Asian consumer tastes, which can be quite discerning, don't yearn for more.
In the Western world of bread and pastries, you get all kinds of interesting and contrasting flavors and textures: sourness, sweetness, savoriness, flakiness, fluffiness, crunchiness, softness, denseness, lightness.
Growing up, I was fond of dan ta, Hong Kong egg tarts... until I discovered its progenitor, the Portuguese pastel de nata. My god, the scales fell from my eyes. I realized my childhood had been filled with custardy lies. I always found the soft, bland, semi-soggy, characterless pastry shell of the dan ta a mere obstacle to the object of my desire, the egg custard. But I was young and knew little better, so I did not question it. When I was in Portugal, I tried a real pastel de nata with a thin, perfectly flaky, buttery shell that delicately complemented, shrouded—nay, elevated and lifted up the custard...
I can't imagine going without a crusty sourdough or a nice Jewish rye. I don't think I've ever bought like...Wonder Bread-style white bread in my life.
I can't imagine going without a crusty sourdough or a nice Jewish rye. I don't think I've ever bought like...Wonder Bread-style white bread in my life.
Same. I would absolutely learn baking if I lived somewhere where bread variety was so low. Default white bread is so boring when there's just so many easily accessible better options in most...
Same. I would absolutely learn baking if I lived somewhere where bread variety was so low. Default white bread is so boring when there's just so many easily accessible better options in most places in the US (and my limited experience in the EU).
I can't imagine only heing able to eat white bread, I would hate that. Funny how in the US that's considered the low quality, unhealthy, less nutritious, cheapest bread. Have you considered buying...
I can't imagine only heing able to eat white bread, I would hate that. Funny how in the US that's considered the low quality, unhealthy, less nutritious, cheapest bread.
Have you considered buying a bread maker?
You badically just add the ingredients, hit the button, and it beeps when it's done. You can also set a timer for when it should start if you want bread in the morning.
It can make pretty much any kind of bread, including fruit breads.
The downside is that most of them make a squared rectangle shaped loaf and you have to slice it yourself, but cheap bread of any kind at any time is worth that.
Yea I was gifted a home bakery machine a while ago. Although it's quite convenient as a gadget, it's one of those mostly single purpose use machines that take up a lot of space in the kitchen,...
Yea I was gifted a home bakery machine a while ago. Although it's quite convenient as a gadget, it's one of those mostly single purpose use machines that take up a lot of space in the kitchen, which is especially a problem in small Japanese kitchens. Since I have gotten more and more into baking and trying to learn how to hand make things, I use it less and less. But I do usually keep it outside its box and ready to go, especially when I want to quickly or lazily prepare a dough that I won't want to babysit for 2-3 hours. I just dump all the ingredients in, and set it to make a dough, it even does a preliminary fermentation too. Then I can just put it in a container into the fridge to let it ferment more. That's handy! But I usually end up baking the dough in different forms/shapes myself in my oven because it gives me more control over temperature and style of bread.
According to a recent survey by the rice distributor Makino, 84.8% of respondents said that they ate rice every day, but 68.1% said they only ate it once a day, with just 16.7% preferring it for all three meals.
“It’s much easier to have bread, especially in mornings,” says Nanami Mochida, a schoolteacher near Tokyo and mother of a teenage daughter.
“Preparing a Japanese-style breakfast takes more time,” she adds. “You need to rinse the rice first, then it can take 30 minutes to an hour to cook, even with a rice cooker.”
…
“The quality of bread and an increasing number of bakeries make it easier to choose bread over rice. And rice isn’t cheap, so having bread or noodles is more affordable for a lot of people.”
With domestic consumption in decline, producers are looking overseas in an attempt to exploit the explosion in global interest in Japanese cuisine. Japan’s rice exports rose from 4,515 tonnes in 2014 to 22,833 tons in 2021 – a fivefold increase in seven years, with a third going to Hong Kong.
Yet exports still make up less than 0.5% of Japan’s domestic rice production, prompting agricultural cooperatives to encourage restaurants to serve more donburi (rice bowl) dishes exemplified by the ubiquitous gyūdon.
I can understand that people don't want to wake up hours earlier to make rice when heading to work. Bread is just easier to toast and has almost as much variety as rice. I like both, they feel...
I can understand that people don't want to wake up hours earlier to make rice when heading to work. Bread is just easier to toast and has almost as much variety as rice. I like both, they feel like a blank canvas with endless possibilities and I love that.
... Am I missing something in the rice making process? Genuinely curious how could it take someone hours to make rice? For me that's, I'd say, a 25 minute job max, or I'd just making whatever it...
Wake up hours earlier to make rice
... Am I missing something in the rice making process? Genuinely curious how could it take someone hours to make rice? For me that's, I'd say, a 25 minute job max, or I'd just making whatever it is the night before.
Yeah I was confused by that as well. I don’t have a dedicated rice cooker anymore but I use my instant pot these days and I can make a sizeable amount of rice in about 25 minutes. I doubt the...
Yeah I was confused by that as well. I don’t have a dedicated rice cooker anymore but I use my instant pot these days and I can make a sizeable amount of rice in about 25 minutes.
I doubt the average Japanese person is shoveling as much rice in their mouth as me so I’m figuring my usual could feed like 3-4 people eating it correctly.
It depends on how much rice you're making. But really, it's better to think of the difference as the same between making hot oatmeal vs cold cereal. An instant option is much easier.
It depends on how much rice you're making.
But really, it's better to think of the difference as the same between making hot oatmeal vs cold cereal. An instant option is much easier.
I didn't understand this either tbh. I think they are refering to making the whole dish they mentioned? Idk but there are a lot of rice dish alternatives that take only 30 mins, but ofc if you...
I didn't understand this either tbh. I think they are refering to making the whole dish they mentioned? Idk but there are a lot of rice dish alternatives that take only 30 mins, but ofc if you don't want to mess with that the toast and the boiled egg (which Idk if they only eat that) could only take 10 mins at max. So yeah it is quicker to make toast alternative breakfast but the rice ones defenetily doesn't take hours.
I promise it does not take hours to make rice, especially not with the dedicated rice cookers that are incredibly common in Japan. It's a little more work than making toast and probably less...
I promise it does not take hours to make rice, especially not with the dedicated rice cookers that are incredibly common in Japan. It's a little more work than making toast and probably less portable (it's a an anime trope to be running to school/work with toast held in your mouth, after all) so I can totally see why someone wouldn't want to do it in the morning, but it's not particularly time-consuming ime.
Yeah I see that. Even with using a stove it only takes 30 minutes, with a rice cooker it could take less. So tbh I don't understand why they said that.
Yeah I see that. Even with using a stove it only takes 30 minutes, with a rice cooker it could take less. So tbh I don't understand why they said that.
This is strange to me because I love rice in all its forms (not just Japanese polished short-grain varieties). With an Instant Pot or rice cooker, it's easy enough to prepare the night before and...
This is strange to me because I love rice in all its forms (not just Japanese polished short-grain varieties). With an Instant Pot or rice cooker, it's easy enough to prepare the night before and have it warm the next morning (btw, this works for oatmeal and other grains as well).
The article did mention in passing that rice is more expensive compared to bread and noodles. I've looked at growing various grains myself - rice is relatively labor-intensive and low yielding per unit of land. It's ideal if you've got wet or frequently flooded space that's not good for other foods and you need to wring out every possible calorie. But that wetland requirement makes rice farming harder to mechanize, especially with Japan's small scale farms. Considering that Japan's trading partners are big wheat exporters, it's not surprising that rice is losing ground due to price alone.
So anecdotally, preparing rice and leaving it overnight is a bit of a no-no in the families of my friends and I. I don't have any scientific backing for this, but especially for like my parents...
So anecdotally, preparing rice and leaving it overnight is a bit of a no-no in the families of my friends and I. I don't have any scientific backing for this, but especially for like my parents too, they don't like having rice at a semi-warm temp for a long time because they're afraid of bacteria.
Personally I've done it a couple of times but I feel icky from it sometimes. It's like one of those things that was super engrained in me that I never bothered to look up (one of many - consequence of growing up as an Asian American!)
Rice cookers' and Instant Pots' "keep warm" setting holds the cooked food at above the 140 °F necessary to prevent Bacillus cereus (the bacteria which makes the food poisoning toxin in rice) and...
Rice cookers' and Instant Pots' "keep warm" setting holds the cooked food at above the 140 °F necessary to prevent Bacillus cereus (the bacteria which makes the food poisoning toxin in rice) and other potential pathogens from multiplying.
The rice isn't as tasty as fresh-cooked because the starches start breaking down into simpler sugars, and condensation dripping down can make the top layer mushy, but it can also develop that nice crispy layer at the bottom of the pot.
That's good to know!! I'm generally a lazy person so I just kinda toss rice that I forget in the pot, this would probably help cut back on my food waste.
That's good to know!! I'm generally a lazy person so I just kinda toss rice that I forget in the pot, this would probably help cut back on my food waste.
Huh, looked it up and you're right. Apparently frying warm rice is easier as well. There was a side claim that overnight rice absorbs less oil than fresh rice and that may not be true either....
Huh, looked it up and you're right.
Apparently frying warm rice is easier as well. There was a side claim that overnight rice absorbs less oil than fresh rice and that may not be true either.
I'm sure it is, I use fresh rice most of the time because I don't plan that far ahead in life lol. Cook rice with less water, dump it right into the wok.
I'm sure it is, I use fresh rice most of the time because I don't plan that far ahead in life lol. Cook rice with less water, dump it right into the wok.
Not a rice cooker, but a family in my neighborhood died of a house fire caused by a malfunctioning crockpot left running while they were sleeping. Outside of the risk of food poisoning, I'd worry...
So anecdotally, preparing rice and leaving it overnight is a bit of a no-no in the families of my friends and I. I don't have any scientific backing for this, but especially for like my parents too, they don't like having rice at a semi-warm temp for a long time because they're afraid of bacteria.
Not a rice cooker, but a family in my neighborhood died of a house fire caused by a malfunctioning crockpot left running while they were sleeping.
Outside of the risk of food poisoning, I'd worry about fire hazards.
There are legitimate concerns regarding bacteria in rice Personally I would not leave it out overnight even at the safe temperature, and that can only be done for up to 12 hours apparently. If I...
There are legitimate concerns regarding bacteria in rice Personally I would not leave it out overnight even at the safe temperature, and that can only be done for up to 12 hours apparently. If I wanted rice for breakfast I would make it fresh or refrigerate and microwave it.
I'd only mentioned making rice the night before, not holding it indefinitely. As the article you linked notes, up to 12 hours should be fine. One thing about refrigerated rice - the hydrated...
I'd only mentioned making rice the night before, not holding it indefinitely. As the article you linked notes, up to 12 hours should be fine.
One thing about refrigerated rice - the hydrated starches retrograde quickly at 'fridge temperature. That's why refrigerated rice makes good fried rice - those dried starches on the surface of the grains take up oil and brown nicely. But it's not as tasty to eat when it's just reheated.
That starch is actually better for you though, although I don't disagree that fresh rice is better tasting. The cooled starches are called resistant starch and they act more like fiber.
That starch is actually better for you though, although I don't disagree that fresh rice is better tasting. The cooled starches are called resistant starch and they act more like fiber.
"rice, grilled fish, miso soup and pickles." That sounds like an amazing breakfast. Then again, I also think Pho sounds like an amazing breakfast. I've never been a huge fan of our breakfast foods...
"rice, grilled fish, miso soup and pickles."
That sounds like an amazing breakfast. Then again, I also think Pho sounds like an amazing breakfast. I've never been a huge fan of our breakfast foods (for a long time I skipped breakfast entirely but started when I was trying to lose weight as was told it helped jumpstart your metabolism. no idea if that's true but I did manage to lose 90 lbs <- which I've since gained back after a motorcycle accident and I got back into my old bad eating habits).
Total agreement. Most American breakfast is dessert masquerading as a nutritious start to the day. Pancake -> Cake Yogurt -> Ice Cream Smoothie -> Milkshake Muffin -> Cupcake Even some granola &...
Total agreement. Most American breakfast is dessert masquerading as a nutritious start to the day.
Pancake -> Cake
Yogurt -> Ice Cream
Smoothie -> Milkshake
Muffin -> Cupcake
Even some granola & mueslis can be sugar bombs depending on the brand and composition. Give me a traditional Japanese breakfast any day. Unfortunately, the latter requires more ingredients and set-up like the article mentions.
EDIT: Not sure if it matters, but I was born and raised in America and still live here in case anybody felt like I was trashing some of our breakfast culture. I also did forget to include eggs. Eggs are awesome and one of the few healthy things we do actually consume fairly often in the mornings.
I’m just going by common polls in which eggs win out over anything for breakfast as far as being the most commonly eaten. I’d say it’s not a stretch to say they’re merely eating them with some...
I’m just going by common polls in which eggs win out over anything for breakfast as far as being the most commonly eaten. I’d say it’s not a stretch to say they’re merely eating them with some toast…on average.
I dunno how much hard data is out there about this though.
Comparing the average yogurt or smoothie breakfast to ice cream or milkshakes seems like a bit of a stretch. They certainly can be made similar I suppose, but I don't think most people having a...
Comparing the average yogurt or smoothie breakfast to ice cream or milkshakes seems like a bit of a stretch. They certainly can be made similar I suppose, but I don't think most people having a smoothie for breakfast are having something as caloric or sugar heavy as a milkshake.
Most yogurt on the shelf is absolutely loaded with sugar. I just looked up Noosa brand greek yogurt and it has 37g of sugar. It also has 14g of fat, but that's a bit of an outlier because this one...
Most yogurt on the shelf is absolutely loaded with sugar. I just looked up Noosa brand greek yogurt and it has 37g of sugar. It also has 14g of fat, but that's a bit of an outlier because this one is a full-fat yogurt, whereas most yogurt in the US is made from skim milk.
Is it really that difficult to get unsweetened yoghurt in the US? I'm in Europe and my go-to breakfast is skyr with müsli, with the only sugar coming from the dried fruits in my müsli.
Is it really that difficult to get unsweetened yoghurt in the US? I'm in Europe and my go-to breakfast is skyr with müsli, with the only sugar coming from the dried fruits in my müsli.
No, not at all; plain yogurt is pretty easy to find, but the vast majority of it is sweetened. And if you're going to put something in your yogurt it will probably be granola which also has a ton...
No, not at all; plain yogurt is pretty easy to find, but the vast majority of it is sweetened. And if you're going to put something in your yogurt it will probably be granola which also has a ton of sugar.
That makes more sense. Though the 37g of sugar (I assume that's in 100g total product) is still quite crazy to me. I looked up a popular brand of fruity sweetener yoghurt here, and all versions...
That makes more sense. Though the 37g of sugar (I assume that's in 100g total product) is still quite crazy to me. I looked up a popular brand of fruity sweetener yoghurt here, and all versions contain around 10g of total sugar (and no other sweetener), which I already find too sweet for my taste.
Greek yogurt or skyr can be incredibly healthy. A breakfast I frequently make is 1-1.5 cups of of non-fat, unsweetened Greek yogurt (120-180 cal, 21-32g protein) and 0.5-1 scoops of a flavored...
Greek yogurt or skyr can be incredibly healthy. A breakfast I frequently make is 1-1.5 cups of of non-fat, unsweetened Greek yogurt (120-180 cal, 21-32g protein) and 0.5-1 scoops of a flavored protein powder (50-100 cal, 12-25g protein). Then, I throw in some mix-ins like a cup of frozen blueberries (80 cal, 6g fiber) and 0.25 cups of oats (95 cal, 3g protein, 2.5g fiber). Sometimes, I want some crunch so I’ll throw in about 0.5 cups of a high protein cereal like Catalina Crunch (110 cal, 11g protein, 9g fiber) instead of oats. (And for good measure, I’ll throw in my scoop of creatine to help my weightlifting.)
This gives me a breakfast that’s around 345-470 calories with 36-68g of protein and 8.5-15g of fiber.
Ha, I've settled into something similar where I use non-fat Greek yogurt, mixed frozen berries, and 1/3 cup of low sugar granola for texture. I haven't tried adding protein powder since I'm...
Ha, I've settled into something similar where I use non-fat Greek yogurt, mixed frozen berries, and 1/3 cup of low sugar granola for texture. I haven't tried adding protein powder since I'm hopelessly built like a noodle, but yeah, that breakfast sounds like it packs a punch.
I’m not a Japanese citizen, but I’ve experienced similar frustration. I will admit, I “fell out of love with rice” because of the cook times (even with a rice cooker). The thing that got me to...
I’m not a Japanese citizen, but I’ve experienced similar frustration. I will admit, I “fell out of love with rice” because of the cook times (even with a rice cooker). The thing that got me to start making rice and other things a lot more was a pressure cooker. It takes 15-20 minutes for me to make rice in my 10qt pressure cooker. I’m not going to endorse any particular brand, but I definitely recommend you look into pressure cookers if you would like to speed up cool times of rice and other dishes. (Another example, I can cook a Boston butt in 45 minutes)
It really comes down to having the right tool for the job. If you want a particular dish or types of dishes, odds are there is some sort of kitchen gadget that will help you optimize your cook times.
The headline is misleading. The article itself admits 84% of Japanese eat rice every day. Other research is showing it even higher, this data from 2022 says it's about 94%:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1292855/japan-frequency-eat-rice/
Those aren't the numbers you'd see if "they fell out of love with rice".
It's a stretch to say 'fallen out of love with' but going from 3 meals a day to 1 is pretty significant.
I love rice, frankly I can't imagine eating it 3 times a day. As a westerner I wouldn't even eat bread 3 times in a day, or really anything. I suppose that comes from a place of privilege where we have so many options for food.
As a Puerto Rican, I couldn't imagine not eating rice every day at least twice a day. I didn't even consider that to be a thing, until I visited the US for the first time (and thought the food as incredibly bland).
I grew up middle class. I don't really think it's a privilege thing, at least not economic privilege. It's just that you grow up with and eat your local cuisine.
I traveled in Central and South America, and I didn't really like beans when I started... However a couple months in it just clicked and now I miss eating beans and rice 2 times a day.
Hahaha, uno de nosotros, uno de nosotros! Rice, beans, and a dead animal, any animal will do.
It's such a base part my cuisine, and moving out of PR was a true culture shock. I've been in NZ 5 years now, and I still desperately miss my food culture.
I can't see the data since it's paywalled. Is 94% higher or lower than previous years?
I can't see statistics about percentages of population for previous years.
They do have statistics about actual rice amounts though. Looks like it has fallen from 54.5kg to 49.8kg per capita per year over the past decade. That's not an insignificant change, though still - 50kg of rice yearly per person on average is a lot of rice.
It's too bad the bread in Japan is absolutely terrible. Forget anything with any semblance of color or variety unless you go to a bakery that specifically specializes in European style baking. At that point it's going to be even more annoying to get the bread than cooking rice. Either you have to buy it the day before and let it get a little stale, or wake up earlier, get dressed to go buy your bread, go back, make breakfast etc. If you even have a bakery like that in your neighborhood and it's even open on that particular day.
The breads at mainstream bakeries or supermarkets are always focused on soft and sweeter breads. Even the normal sliced bread that most people would consider to be toasting bread has lots of dairy and additives in it to make it as fluffy as possible and it's generally on the sweeter side even if it's meant for something savory like a sandwich. The only thing that resembles are "normal" savory bread for me are baguettes or French style country breads. But again, the bakery has to be particular in that style for them to make it. If you go to a straight up Japanese bakery it's gonna be white fluffy bread as far as the eye can see. Even the premade foods like little pizzas and hot dogs use the same bread so it's this weird mix of a sweeter bread with savory toppings. Always completely ruins the food for me. Whole wheat breads virtually don't exist. Sometimes you can find a pack of "whole wheat" slices at the supermarket and they're usually only like 1-2 packs a day so they get sold out quickly. They also always come in very thick slices of three. But I doubt it has much whole wheat inside anyway as the color is only just a touch of brown.
Bagels are even more offensive. I don't think most bakeries even boil them before baking which is kind of the necessary step to make them an actual bagel so they basically taste like dinner rolls with the same texture. There is only one shop I know that actually makes decent bagels but they're only open once to twice a week and the line is always out the door from the moment they open until their stock is gone. But Japanese people love queuing. I ain't gonna wait 20 minutes to buy a couple of tiny overpriced bagels, yikes.
Sorry, I've been living in Japan for almost 11 years now and I'm taking a little break from there abroad. It's amazing that I can walk into any supermarket now and buy a loaf of brown bread, or sourdough, or seeded/grain bread, or white if that's what you want for just a couple of dollars. I think in my neighborhood back in Japan I have never even seen sourdough bread though I do know there is a German style bakery that makes it but it's across town and expensive as hell.
:) I can't help but just smile at your trouble with Japanese bread.
I grew up in East Asia but I've been living abroad for far longer. I have the exact opposite rant from yours:
Me: go to virtually anything other than specialty East Asian bakeries and the bread is this awful business that tastes rough and stale from the moment it leaves the oven. It's hard tack as far as the eye can see.
And don't get me started on "sweets". North American sweet desserts and baked items are far too sweet. I cringe every time someone brings cake to work....it's just dense sugar covered with more sugar wrapped around sugar.
I understand your frustrations. I probably don't want fluffy sweey bread on my Bahn mi either. But I miss having fluffy sweet bread as the default.
I just think there needs to be an option of both because they serve different purposes. I wouldn't want a super dark bread for jam for example. But I also don't want a sweet roll for my hot dog. This is just my interpretation but I think many Japanese people see white fluffy bread as higher quality and darker breads are too difficult to eat and enjoy. It's quite the same with white rice and brown rice. If anyone sees you eating/buying a pack of brown rice (of which there are few options) people assume you are on a very strict diet or something. There are even some specialty shops that ONLY bake loaves of milk bread and they charge a lot of money for one. There was a shop near my old workplace that did that, they gave you a loaf of around 5 slices for close to 800 yen I think it was. That's like 6USD for 5 slices of white bread. And you usually had to reserve your loaf in advance. That's just too weird for me.
Good luck finding a suitable bread for bahn mi as the baguettes are definitely are on the crispier side. Quite nice to eat with cheese but it destroys your mouth if you try to make a sandwich out of it.
My dream scenario is that in every metro, there are a couple authentic whatever type stores for every culture, where you and i can find whatever we are calling regular bread
This is one of the things I love about living in the NYC-metro-- it's not too hard to find food from just about any cuisine I'm interested in.
For what it's worth, I love Japanese food and snacks but I've always been underwhelmed by their baked goods. My criticisms are the same as what @autobulb described. For me there's nothing like a good sourdough or a good bagel. Speaking of bagels, I really hope we don't butcher other cuisines the same way they butcher our bagels-- I've only ever eaten proper bagels in the NYC-area.
It happens everywhere. Even NYC with all its various cultures and accessibility does it too. You can get good sushi for example if you're willing to pay, but most people go to the cheap "Asian fusion" restaurants. The sushi they serve would offend most Japanese people. Smushed barely seasoned rice, poor quality ingredients, over reliance on lots of sauces and flashy appearance to make it look special and exotic. It doesn't even register as "sushi" for a lot of Japanese people.
It's just the unfortunate reality of trying to replicate a food that is so pervasive in a certain culture in a different environment with different access to ingredients and having to tailor the taste for people who are not used to certain tastes and textures. On the one hand I understand it but on the other hand I'm always trying to find foods that are more "authentic" to their original forms.
I have been learning how to make NYC style bagels to serve in a pop-up cafe back in Japan. It's a fun and challenging experiment. I'm a bit stubborn and am trying to stick with strictly NYC style type bagels, but Japanese people expect very different things of bagels. For example, sweet bagels with ingredients mixed INTO the dough is very common here. Sorry, I'm not gonna make a chocolate bagel for ya :) Here's an everything bagel and I'll put some cream cheese in it, or make you an egg and cheese sandwich, or a lox sandwich.
Reception has been surprisingly good though. I have a low output cause I have to handmake, bake, and prepare all the food by myself but in the last few times we opened we could sell out sometimes which was great. I also got a great compliment from an acquaintance that came in and got a lox sandwich. In a pleasantly surprised tone she was like, "wait.... bagels are supposed to be chewy like this?!" I was like yep, that's what an actual bagel tastes like.
Our local bagel place actually used to make a chocolate chip bagel that was delicious. It was the high-quality chewy/savory dough that you can only get in the NYC-metro but with chocolate chips and the mix of sweet and savory (combined with some cream cheese) was great.
Ah yeah, I know there are sweet bagels. I remember cinnamon raisin was popular back in my NYC days. But the method of baking them is quite different. So for a chocolate bagel in Japan a chocolate ganache type of filling is piped into the dough, either after or during shaping. And it's intended to be eaten as it, without any other toppings/fillings like cream cheese. So yea, to me it's quite a different method of making and eating the bagel.
But also generally sweet bagels here are much more prevalent. At the good bagel shop in my town I would say maybe half of them are sweet and the other half are savory or neutral. Back in NYC I remember like a chocolate one, cinnamon, and maybe one or two more but the majority were savory/neutral.
Yep, chocolate chip was the only sweet bagel offered at my local shop, and they don't even offer it any more. Now it's all savory.
This is one thing I love about Manila too :) we have a huge variety of different cuisines (and price points) available. The food scene here is incredibly competitive-- great for diners, very challenging for food businesses.
I always find it amusing when people hate on Japan’s tastes in bread. But that’s the culture. It’s kind of pointless to complain.
I can certainly understand why one wouldn’t like it, though, especially living there and not having access to a homestyle staple without baking it for yourself.
My personal opinion on the subject is that everything is better than American style “white bread”. Even the cheapest and worst Japanese style sweet bread. And that is basically the default where I live.
The cheapest white breads in Japan certainly rival America's white breads in most categories. They are full of additives, kinda dry right out of the packaging, too sweet like I mentioned, and too soft to even spread anything on them most of the time. I've shamefully bought some prepackaged "baguette" from a discount 24 hour convenience store cause it was the only place open at the time and I would be careful to even call it bread. Even when I toasted it a bit (cause it was too stale to eat as it was) it started to resemble plastic.
I complain because Japan has a lot of great food culture, but for some certain things they really latch onto a very overly processed and homogenized way of doing things. It's unfortunate. But yes, I do bake my own breads at home, but that's not relevant to the article's topic because people are mostly talking about the most convenient way.
Daiso actually has a bunch of stores here in the US and they import some packaged bread (IIRC the brand is DPLUS or something like that), and I would also be upset to be served that. They are packed with alcohol to preserve them so if you don’t let it air properly you get blasted with it and it is very unpleasant.
Cheap shelf-stable bread is bad no matter where you are though.
Are you in Germany? I'm in Canada and the German bakeries we used to have made awful hard bread like you describe. I've met enough people in town that loved that bread and I find it baffling.
The German bakeries in town have closed and now a chain, Cobs, has really taken hold. They make sort of similar bread but not dry and hard. Its amazing. They also do some sweeter buns that aren't anywhere near an Asian sweet bun but they're half way.
TL;DR: I feel your pain as someone who grew up eating hard buns.
Maybe I was exaggerating a little ;) I'm also Canadian. There were a lot of times I'd go and buy something, yes even from Cobs, that looks a certain way and I would expect to be soft, and it turns out to be "hearty" (ugh) and "bouncy mouth feel" at best. Never "fluffy". Even the overly sweet breads like cinnamon rolls are dense and firm.
I guess our up bringing makes me associate certain food qualities with "good" that turn out to be more cultural than objectively delicious.
I have a similar thing with "cold" foods: the best food are eaten molten lava hot; if you could fill your mouth with food it means it wasn't hot enoufh. Cold foods are a necessary evil for being on the road, or a punishment somehow (eg you procrastinated on piano practice and didn't get to eat until you were done), or guilt loaded (eg, if you had come home for dinner instead of being out with friends this food would have been hot for you). This is why when I travel to places that serve cold breakfast, it doest matter how fancy the spread is and how wonderfully it's plated/boarded or how beautiful the colours are or even how fancy and fresh it must be or even if it was way huge for your party. Cold breakfast = it was meager and I'm going back to the room to eat a pipping hot cup ramen.
Maybe OP is German!
Edit: I love sushi though. There was a cultural bridging tool called "all you can eat late night sushi" where one can also fill up on hot Japanese restaurant staples like tempura / udon / wings / karaage /teriyaki.
I wonder if there's some kind of cultural bridge that could help OP accept sweet fluffy bread as not being "wrong".
Asian (American) here. East Asian cuisines in general are wonderfully diverse, complex, and rich. But strangely, bread—whether it's done in Taiwan, Japan, SK, or China—is almost always simple and monotonous: soft, fluffy, sweet. There's little complexity or character. It's bewildering. There isn't a lack of culinary of talent, and I'm not sure why East Asian consumer tastes, which can be quite discerning, don't yearn for more.
In the Western world of bread and pastries, you get all kinds of interesting and contrasting flavors and textures: sourness, sweetness, savoriness, flakiness, fluffiness, crunchiness, softness, denseness, lightness.
Growing up, I was fond of dan ta, Hong Kong egg tarts... until I discovered its progenitor, the Portuguese pastel de nata. My god, the scales fell from my eyes. I realized my childhood had been filled with custardy lies. I always found the soft, bland, semi-soggy, characterless pastry shell of the dan ta a mere obstacle to the object of my desire, the egg custard. But I was young and knew little better, so I did not question it. When I was in Portugal, I tried a real pastel de nata with a thin, perfectly flaky, buttery shell that delicately complemented, shrouded—nay, elevated and lifted up the custard...
I understood.
I can't imagine going without a crusty sourdough or a nice Jewish rye. I don't think I've ever bought like...Wonder Bread-style white bread in my life.
Same. I would absolutely learn baking if I lived somewhere where bread variety was so low. Default white bread is so boring when there's just so many easily accessible better options in most places in the US (and my limited experience in the EU).
Welcome to my life. Every time I go abroad I eat all the different kinds of bread I can find.
I can't imagine only heing able to eat white bread, I would hate that. Funny how in the US that's considered the low quality, unhealthy, less nutritious, cheapest bread.
Have you considered buying a bread maker?
You badically just add the ingredients, hit the button, and it beeps when it's done. You can also set a timer for when it should start if you want bread in the morning.
It can make pretty much any kind of bread, including fruit breads.
The downside is that most of them make a squared rectangle shaped loaf and you have to slice it yourself, but cheap bread of any kind at any time is worth that.
Yea I was gifted a home bakery machine a while ago. Although it's quite convenient as a gadget, it's one of those mostly single purpose use machines that take up a lot of space in the kitchen, which is especially a problem in small Japanese kitchens. Since I have gotten more and more into baking and trying to learn how to hand make things, I use it less and less. But I do usually keep it outside its box and ready to go, especially when I want to quickly or lazily prepare a dough that I won't want to babysit for 2-3 hours. I just dump all the ingredients in, and set it to make a dough, it even does a preliminary fermentation too. Then I can just put it in a container into the fridge to let it ferment more. That's handy! But I usually end up baking the dough in different forms/shapes myself in my oven because it gives me more control over temperature and style of bread.
From the article:
…
I can understand that people don't want to wake up hours earlier to make rice when heading to work. Bread is just easier to toast and has almost as much variety as rice. I like both, they feel like a blank canvas with endless possibilities and I love that.
... Am I missing something in the rice making process? Genuinely curious how could it take someone hours to make rice? For me that's, I'd say, a 25 minute job max, or I'd just making whatever it is the night before.
Yeah I was confused by that as well. I don’t have a dedicated rice cooker anymore but I use my instant pot these days and I can make a sizeable amount of rice in about 25 minutes.
I doubt the average Japanese person is shoveling as much rice in their mouth as me so I’m figuring my usual could feed like 3-4 people eating it correctly.
It depends on how much rice you're making.
But really, it's better to think of the difference as the same between making hot oatmeal vs cold cereal. An instant option is much easier.
I didn't understand this either tbh. I think they are refering to making the whole dish they mentioned? Idk but there are a lot of rice dish alternatives that take only 30 mins, but ofc if you don't want to mess with that the toast and the boiled egg (which Idk if they only eat that) could only take 10 mins at max. So yeah it is quicker to make toast alternative breakfast but the rice ones defenetily doesn't take hours.
I promise it does not take hours to make rice, especially not with the dedicated rice cookers that are incredibly common in Japan. It's a little more work than making toast and probably less portable (it's a an anime trope to be running to school/work with toast held in your mouth, after all) so I can totally see why someone wouldn't want to do it in the morning, but it's not particularly time-consuming ime.
Yeah I see that. Even with using a stove it only takes 30 minutes, with a rice cooker it could take less. So tbh I don't understand why they said that.
Yes ! Bread, rice, pasta, and potatoes are my “blank slates” I feel like I can have with anything. Love them all.
I aggree with this. I also think of eggs as "blank slates". Ofc it has an unique taste to it but it's use is just as diverce as bread, rice etc.
This is strange to me because I love rice in all its forms (not just Japanese polished short-grain varieties). With an Instant Pot or rice cooker, it's easy enough to prepare the night before and have it warm the next morning (btw, this works for oatmeal and other grains as well).
The article did mention in passing that rice is more expensive compared to bread and noodles. I've looked at growing various grains myself - rice is relatively labor-intensive and low yielding per unit of land. It's ideal if you've got wet or frequently flooded space that's not good for other foods and you need to wring out every possible calorie. But that wetland requirement makes rice farming harder to mechanize, especially with Japan's small scale farms. Considering that Japan's trading partners are big wheat exporters, it's not surprising that rice is losing ground due to price alone.
So anecdotally, preparing rice and leaving it overnight is a bit of a no-no in the families of my friends and I. I don't have any scientific backing for this, but especially for like my parents too, they don't like having rice at a semi-warm temp for a long time because they're afraid of bacteria.
Personally I've done it a couple of times but I feel icky from it sometimes. It's like one of those things that was super engrained in me that I never bothered to look up (one of many - consequence of growing up as an Asian American!)
Rice cookers' and Instant Pots' "keep warm" setting holds the cooked food at above the 140 °F necessary to prevent Bacillus cereus (the bacteria which makes the food poisoning toxin in rice) and other potential pathogens from multiplying.
The rice isn't as tasty as fresh-cooked because the starches start breaking down into simpler sugars, and condensation dripping down can make the top layer mushy, but it can also develop that nice crispy layer at the bottom of the pot.
That's good to know!! I'm generally a lazy person so I just kinda toss rice that I forget in the pot, this would probably help cut back on my food waste.
Surely overnight rice in the fridge is fine? Cantonese fried rice
must beis quite frequently made with overnight rice, and we don't die from it....Huh, looked it up and you're right.
Apparently frying warm rice is easier as well. There was a side claim that overnight rice absorbs less oil than fresh rice and that may not be true either.
Taiwanese post about overnight vs fresh (traditional characters)
https://newtalk.tw/news/view/2021-08-17/621757
I'm sure it is, I use fresh rice most of the time because I don't plan that far ahead in life lol. Cook rice with less water, dump it right into the wok.
Not a rice cooker, but a family in my neighborhood died of a house fire caused by a malfunctioning crockpot left running while they were sleeping.
Outside of the risk of food poisoning, I'd worry about fire hazards.
There are legitimate concerns regarding bacteria in rice Personally I would not leave it out overnight even at the safe temperature, and that can only be done for up to 12 hours apparently. If I wanted rice for breakfast I would make it fresh or refrigerate and microwave it.
I'd only mentioned making rice the night before, not holding it indefinitely. As the article you linked notes, up to 12 hours should be fine.
One thing about refrigerated rice - the hydrated starches retrograde quickly at 'fridge temperature. That's why refrigerated rice makes good fried rice - those dried starches on the surface of the grains take up oil and brown nicely. But it's not as tasty to eat when it's just reheated.
That starch is actually better for you though, although I don't disagree that fresh rice is better tasting. The cooled starches are called resistant starch and they act more like fiber.
"rice, grilled fish, miso soup and pickles."
That sounds like an amazing breakfast. Then again, I also think Pho sounds like an amazing breakfast. I've never been a huge fan of our breakfast foods (for a long time I skipped breakfast entirely but started when I was trying to lose weight as was told it helped jumpstart your metabolism. no idea if that's true but I did manage to lose 90 lbs <- which I've since gained back after a motorcycle accident and I got back into my old bad eating habits).
Total agreement. Most American breakfast is dessert masquerading as a nutritious start to the day.
Even some granola & mueslis can be sugar bombs depending on the brand and composition. Give me a traditional Japanese breakfast any day. Unfortunately, the latter requires more ingredients and set-up like the article mentions.
EDIT: Not sure if it matters, but I was born and raised in America and still live here in case anybody felt like I was trashing some of our breakfast culture. I also did forget to include eggs. Eggs are awesome and one of the few healthy things we do actually consume fairly often in the mornings.
Isn’t the traditional American breakfast really just eggs and toast? On average?
I’m just going by common polls in which eggs win out over anything for breakfast as far as being the most commonly eaten. I’d say it’s not a stretch to say they’re merely eating them with some toast…on average.
I dunno how much hard data is out there about this though.
Comparing the average yogurt or smoothie breakfast to ice cream or milkshakes seems like a bit of a stretch. They certainly can be made similar I suppose, but I don't think most people having a smoothie for breakfast are having something as caloric or sugar heavy as a milkshake.
Most yogurt on the shelf is absolutely loaded with sugar. I just looked up Noosa brand greek yogurt and it has 37g of sugar. It also has 14g of fat, but that's a bit of an outlier because this one is a full-fat yogurt, whereas most yogurt in the US is made from skim milk.
Is it really that difficult to get unsweetened yoghurt in the US? I'm in Europe and my go-to breakfast is skyr with müsli, with the only sugar coming from the dried fruits in my müsli.
No, not at all; plain yogurt is pretty easy to find, but the vast majority of it is sweetened. And if you're going to put something in your yogurt it will probably be granola which also has a ton of sugar.
That makes more sense. Though the 37g of sugar (I assume that's in 100g total product) is still quite crazy to me. I looked up a popular brand of fruity sweetener yoghurt here, and all versions contain around 10g of total sugar (and no other sweetener), which I already find too sweet for my taste.
You can get plain yogurt if you know to look for it but yes the companies push the flavored ones. We make our own yogurt at home and don't sweeten it.
Greek yogurt or skyr can be incredibly healthy. A breakfast I frequently make is 1-1.5 cups of of non-fat, unsweetened Greek yogurt (120-180 cal, 21-32g protein) and 0.5-1 scoops of a flavored protein powder (50-100 cal, 12-25g protein). Then, I throw in some mix-ins like a cup of frozen blueberries (80 cal, 6g fiber) and 0.25 cups of oats (95 cal, 3g protein, 2.5g fiber). Sometimes, I want some crunch so I’ll throw in about 0.5 cups of a high protein cereal like Catalina Crunch (110 cal, 11g protein, 9g fiber) instead of oats. (And for good measure, I’ll throw in my scoop of creatine to help my weightlifting.)
This gives me a breakfast that’s around 345-470 calories with 36-68g of protein and 8.5-15g of fiber.
Ha, I've settled into something similar where I use non-fat Greek yogurt, mixed frozen berries, and 1/3 cup of low sugar granola for texture. I haven't tried adding protein powder since I'm hopelessly built like a noodle, but yeah, that breakfast sounds like it packs a punch.
I’m not a Japanese citizen, but I’ve experienced similar frustration. I will admit, I “fell out of love with rice” because of the cook times (even with a rice cooker). The thing that got me to start making rice and other things a lot more was a pressure cooker. It takes 15-20 minutes for me to make rice in my 10qt pressure cooker. I’m not going to endorse any particular brand, but I definitely recommend you look into pressure cookers if you would like to speed up cool times of rice and other dishes. (Another example, I can cook a Boston butt in 45 minutes)
It really comes down to having the right tool for the job. If you want a particular dish or types of dishes, odds are there is some sort of kitchen gadget that will help you optimize your cook times.