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Originally Posted by steven
Nyororin, great info! I never knew that senmai was called "seimai"... I know people around here say "senmai" for sure... and I always just connected it with the word 洗たく... I guess 洗 can be read sei, too then?
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Actually, nope. The sen is 洗 as you wrote, but the sei in seimai is 精. It makes it polishing rather than cleaning. A 洗米機 is usually an automatic washer for the rice...
But, it seems like a lot of people refer to polishing as senmai - at least up along the coast.
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I asked my girlfriend about the seimaiki... and her parents do have one, which I kinda expected, them farming rice and all. I might get one, but we have a lot of other stuff to get (as appliances tend to all die at once, and that process seems to have begun recently).
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I know what you mean about the appliances. We`ve been lucky this year, but the in-laws had a rash of failures. First the refrigerator went, then the washing machine, then two of the rice cookers (they run an inn so usually have 3 or 4 going at once), and then the hot water maker... All in the span of about a week.
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As far as "last year's rice" goes, I think a lot of what you get in stores is "last years rice". You can get newer rice, but I'm sure the price goes up with that.
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Last year`s rice - usually polished this year.
In proper storage with controlled humidity and in sealed bags it can keep quite well. But after being polished and sitting in a regular house, it loses moisture and ends up pretty crappy after a few months.
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About soy sauce, I remember studying about that in a Japanese History class in college... the old kind of soy sauce, that is. I wonder if anyone makes that around here-- I'll have to ask around to see if I can't try some (although I'm slightly afraid of super salty things, and I think that may be what I'm in for)
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I`ve had it and it`s somewhere between soy sauce and miso in flavor. Not too salty - but either way it`s a condiment so add to taste sort of thing.
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What MMM said may have been a figurative thing, but I've seen people take that sentiment very seriously and almost hold a grudge against people who pour soy sauce on rice.
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Personally I think it`s incredibly nasty, and would pretty much agree with him on no one in Japan doing it. If you took 1000 Japanese people and all asked them if they thought it was okay or did it, you may find 3 or 4 who do... But they would be thought of as just flat out weird by pretty much all the rest. I am sure that you could find just as many people who think it is perfectly fine to walk around inside on their tatami with shoes on - but it`s pretty safe to say that no one does it in Japan.