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Most Chinese families cook rice using a electric rice cooker. Some American families do too, but many just boil rice on the stone until it is cooked.
I (a white American) just make rice in a pan on the stove. Boil the water, add the rice, simmer until done. But I have quite a few friends who are second-, third-, or even fourth-generation Korean, Japanese or Chinese-American, and they all without exception have rice cookers, couldn't live without them.
It makes me wonder about the traditional method of preparing rice in Asian countries, in the pre-rice-cooker days. How was it done?
I (a white American) just make rice in a pan on the stove. Boil the water, add the rice, simmer until done. But I have quite a few friends who are second-, third-, or even fourth-generation Korean, Japanese or Chinese-American, and they all without exception have rice cookers, couldn't live without them.
It makes me wonder about the traditional method of preparing rice in Asian countries, in the pre-rice-cooker days. How was it done?
We still cook rice both ways in our home. With rice cooker (when we want to pre-cook and keep warm) or do it on the stove. Rice in a smaller pot with water and medium to low heat.
Growing up, I've learned to cook using wood burning heat. It was actually one of the first thing I learn how to cook as a kid. We don't learn with a written recipe and measuring cup either.
I (a white American) just make rice in a pan on the stove. Boil the water, add the rice, simmer until done. But I have quite a few friends who are second-, third-, or even fourth-generation Korean, Japanese or Chinese-American, and they all without exception have rice cookers, couldn't live without them.
It makes me wonder about the traditional method of preparing rice in Asian countries, in the pre-rice-cooker days. How was it done?
pretty much the same way you do now.
People use rice cookers because it is hassle free. You only need to put the appropriate amount of water and can just leave it. No need to check at all, even after it is done.
Keep in mind that Chinese families don't use the oven. They rely entirely on the cooktop to prepare other dishes. So having a pot of rice that requires to check and stir all the time could really be a hassle. If they somehow forget and leave it for too long, they end up having to make another pot.
As someone else mentioned, rice is a staple. Though when eating rice with other dishes, a lot of the sauce gets mixed up with it which makes it a lot better in my opinion. I actually like to pour the leftover sauce over the rice.
People ate a lot of rice because they didn't have enough meat and other food at that time, and rice is relatively cheap. Now things changed and they only eat the rice for just enough carbohydrate.
Most Chinese families cook rice using a electric rice cooker. Some American families do too, but many just boil rice on the stone until it is cooked.
Here in south Louisiana, Cajun country, we also use the electric rice cookers. If you eat rice often, it's the easiest way to cook rice. My ancestors were poor. Rice was a filler. Beans and rice goes far. Other traditional Cajun foods are basically meat and rice. Gumbo takes a small amount of meat and makes it go further. There is no one true recipe for Gumbo. Some make gumbo with chicken and pork sausage while others use seafood (shrimp, crab, etc). Basically it's a thick soup with meat and rice. Jambalaya is basically pork and rice or shrimp and rice. Plenty of southeast Asians move here because of the traditional rice dishes here and they can easily adapt their cooking with locally available foods.
pretty much the same way you do now.
People use rice cookers because it is hassle free. You only need to put the appropriate amount of water and can just leave it. No need to check at all, even after it is done.
Keep in mind that Chinese families don't use the oven. They rely entirely on the cooktop to prepare other dishes. So having a pot of rice that requires to check and stir all the time could really be a hassle. If they somehow forget and leave it for too long, they end up having to make another pot.
Yup, the only time that you see an installed stove/oven combo, range, etc in a home in China is when it's a wealthy family who just wanted "everything" in their "Western style kitchen" or mom loves making cute cakes and cupcakes... or, it's owned by a foreigner. They tend to be expensive - close to or over $1k USD, compared to about 20 to 100 USD for a decent-quality 2-burner gas or convection stove that's usually installed straight into the counter and supplemented by an extra, plug-in convection burner.
Most people who do want to make little cakes and pastries, western-style bread, roasted chicken, or pizza - all of which are popular, esp. with young people, go on Taobao and buy 10-40l tabletop ovens (we call them toaster ovens in North America) for about 20-50USD. You will almost never see these in an old person's home, since they aren't very familiar with the things you'd use it for.
Chinese cooking is different from Western and other methods of cooking, but it's actually generally pretty easy. If you want to make fried veggies, for example, you put your wok on the burner, turn it up as high as it will go, wait about 30 seconds, add oil to the wok, wait about fifteen seconds, add garlic/peppers/ginger, wait thirty seconds, add your veggies, cook for a minute, add vinegar or other sauces, and cook for another three to five minutes, stirring occasionally. You can make literally hundreds of pan-regional chinese dishes this way. The first time my fiance saw me add oil or sauce to the wok before it was hot, which is acceptable in western cooking, she threw a temper tantrum and declared Westerners can't cook (I'm a chef and we are opening a restaurant this week).
^^ Yes Stir-fry is a quick way to cook decent dishes. When I had an Iranian roommate, he always wondered how I could make dinner so quickly. He often needed to boil things for a long time and make various sauces. Chinese sauces are all industrialized products, and people in most places do not use a lot of sauce other than soy sauce.
I watch Japanese anime and notice they make rice balls and act as if it's so good. Also, Chinese movies show them eating bowls of rice. My question is do they add anything to the rice or is it just plain white rice? I live in south Louisiana and we eat rice dishes all the time so I was curious about this.
Rice plays a similar role like bread in American diet. It is the major and easy sauce of carbo. They like to sit around a table. All vegie and meaty dishes display in the middle and each person have a bowl of rice, you just dish out the ones you like, mix with your own rice. Family style.
Rice balls often have something in them or wrapped around them. For instance, a common snack is white rice wrapped in a piece of nori (dried seaweed). Or there might be a little piece of fish or something in the middle of a rice ball. Sometimes some seasonings are added to the rice too, like gomashio (sesame seeds and salt), but often, it's just plain white rice. Personally, I find it delicious. I'm not a big fan of long-grain rice cooked so that the grains are dry and separate, but Japanese short-grain rice made in a rice cooker is really good even just plain.
the steaming hot rice actually cooks the egg if you wait a few minutes, lots of Chinese like a rare egg or not fully cooked.
over cooking ruins the flavor.
also not safe. Most Chinese prefer their food fully cooked.
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