eating food #3 - boiled white rice

rice is the cornerstone to life. when i say rice i mean plain boiled rice and i also mean white rice. the perfect rice is fluffy not soggy. you must be able to see the individual particles of rice and pick them out. rice should be sticky to touch and when you chew on good rice, it must feel like hot knife through butter. it must not be wet and most certainly shouldn't be crunchy or sandy. it shouldn't be mushy. it should be pure white in colour.

the best rice is thai fragrant rice or japanese rice. thai fragrant rice, as you can guess, smells really nice. the aroma reminds me of a forest floor: very earthy and rustic. a natural scent you get from brown leaves, mixed with the wind and under shadows. there's a japanese film i heard of where one of the characters gets turned on by the smell of boiling rice. he must have meant thai fragrant.

japanese rice is expensive and they only use the highest quality. when i talk about thai fragrant and japanese, i am still no expert and am aware their must be many grades of quality. i use the lowest quality and it still kicks the shit out of american long grain. when i say kick the shit i mean literally eating dog turds versus a slap up dinner at the four seasons. japanese people eat japanese rice and it's difficult to get any other rice in japan. japanese rice is the easiest to make light and fluffy. their rice cookers are primed to make the perfect pot of rice everytime. (i should remark that a standard rice cooker takes 20 minutes to cook rice. a japanese rice cooker takes an hour. the first time i used one i thought the damn thing was busted and had to starve for another 40 minutes waiting for it to cook. it's always worth the wait.)

i have to eat rice everyday and when there is a day i haven't eaten rice then i feel something has gone amiss. my body is unsatisfied and lets me know. it doesn't moan or ache, but just falls into a blue funk. it grows lifeless as i get ready for bed. i have to make a promise that the next day i'll eat rice and my body reminds me every second to keep that promise.