Rice

[ishikawa]

Originally Posted by JayT

Eeeeeeery one in Hawaii eats brown rice.



Plain please.

Brown rice isn't always something I want to eat though most of us have to if you eat school lunch.

[ishikawa]

Originally Posted by steven

I usually put an umeboshi on it when I eat it (especially in the morning). It's good plain, too. I also like it with tsukemono.

I'm surprised though, this being "japan forum" and all... does anyone crack a raw egg on their rice? I've heard that a lot of people do that around here (and it's not bad if you've got good eggs). I do that sometimes when I get eggs from the local chicken farm people in the mountains nearby.

Pretty much anything goes good with the rice I eat-- I can't complain, I got 30kg from my girlfriend's parents.

I've always heard that putting straight soy-sauce on your rice is weird (from Japanese/Japanese Americans). I used to eat it that way when I was a kid, but I think I grew out of it somehow. When I told my girlfriend that my bro drenches his rice with soy sauce she tried it herself and actually kinda liked it, but said it reminded her of "poor people", or the "olden days" (of world war 2).

That brings up something interesting... I have a theory that putting soy sauce on rice might've come from Japan during the occupation as there were plenty of Americans there and it was a relaively poor (monitarily speaking) point in Japan's history. If that's the case, then the idea of putting straight soy sauce on rice like that came from Japan, and now Japanese people look at Americans for being weird for doing that (not that too many Japanese people know that Americans do that or anything).

Does anyone have any info on that? I thought it was an interesting idea.

My grandma cracks raw egg on my auntie's (she's mentally .. disabled) food and they eat it. You can do that. I personally don't like the taste and would rather have it cooked a little, have furikake, and natto, and mix all of them. Now THAT tastes good. But rice and raw egg.. no thanks.

[steven]

I've heard of rice being uncommon during the war... but I meant during the post war occupation period, which I should've further clarified as being during the early 50's (like during the korean "conflict" and all that). That's when I would suspect a lot of weird loan words came from, as some of them seem a bit old fashioned from my perspective. Again, this is all speculation though.

I always thought that the soy-sauce on white rice came from chinese food as well... but just recently I thought that maybe it could've come from Japan.

The whole white rice/brown rice thing was something new to me too. The first time I had brown rice was at a study abroad student friend of mine's apartment a few years back in California. Just last year I helped my friend take her rice to the "senzai", which was completely shocking to me as I didn't even know that process existed. Since then I've planted some rice and I've cut a little bit of rice (the old fashioned way with a sickle). I can't imagine how expensive white rice must've been back in the day! The process of turning brown rice into white rice is simple now but man it would've been painstaking work back then.

I wonder if chinese food in america/california always came with white rice. I know you can get white rice now... but I wonder if it was always like that. I suspect the chinese food I ate in california was made with california-mai (CA Rice). I'm starting to confuse myself now-- I guess I should ask if Chinese people put soy sauce on their rice, or if they did back in the day?

EDIT: Ishikawa-- I understand what you mean. It's not very good if it's too slimey and the flavor isn't there. If you have really high quality eggs and good rice, it's surprisingly good, though. The egg makes a huge difference. It's definitely not something I would've done when I lived in California and frankly I don't think I could handle it as well with a regular old store bought egg. Most Japanese people I know do it that way, but for me I'd rather cook my eggs and eat it some other way haha. When you get really good eggs though, it's nice to kinda eat one of them raw like that with some rice.

[nobora]

I like my rice with butter and chile

[MMM]

Originally Posted by steven

I always thought that the soy-sauce on white rice came from chinese food as well... but just recently I thought that maybe it could've come from Japan.

No one puts soy sauce on rice in Japan.

[Shanis]

I often put a curry sauce on it, plain wait just doesn't taste good in germany, the rice isn't the same as in japan...

[steven]

Originally Posted by MMM

No one puts soy sauce on rice in Japan.

I don't mean to be abrupt, but I've heard from Japanese peoples' mouths that people used to do that back in the day. I don't imagine Japanese people would drench it like my brother does, but I could picture them putting a little bit on there.

It's not a far fetched idea as people put soy sauce on sushi and in donburi and stuff like that. I wouldn't be so quick on the draw of "nobody does this" type of statements.

Here's a word for putting soy sauce on rice: 醤油かけご飯

Take a look for yourself on google:
@nifty

白いご飯に醤油をかけて食べると行儀が悪いといわれま すが、それはどうしてですか... - Yahoo!知恵袋

Can you read that stuff? It's obviously not something everyone does and it's most likely a minority, but people DO put soy sauce on rice. The second link, I found quite interesting. I'm guessing the question is from a Japanese person, but it's basically asking "why do people say putting soy sauce on rice is bad? please give me a real answer for this..." or something to that degree.

The "best answer" is an interesting look at this. The reason given is 『お金がない人の食事』. In other words, it's considered a "poor man's food". I'm just paraphrasing, but the answer goes on to explain that when you don't have side dishes or tsukemono and junk, you will still have soy sauce, so in times when you're not exactly livin' large, you can at least put soy sauce on your white rice. Therefore, what is wrong with it is that if you've got money, you should cook something that actually has meaning to eat with your rice, instead of simply pouring soy sauce all over it. At the end the person says if you pour some high quality soy sauce on some freshly cooked rice, then it makes for a great meal. The answer then shows a link to a fan page of putting soy sauce on rice (which is the first link I posted). This is all in Japanese, so I think it's safe to say the majority of the parties involved are Japanese people.

To be fair, this is my first time actually looking this stuff up. I've just heard it from word of mouth up to now. What I've heard basically coincides with that "best answer" quite well.

I was first told something along the lines of what you said, MMM, when I took a Japanese class in high school with a Japanese American teacher. He was on everyone's nuts about putting soy sauce on their rice and wouldn't shut up about how gross it was. I personally don't like it that much but found it offensive and kind of a far fetched idea that absolutely NO ONE in Japan put soy sauce on their rice ever. So I made it a point to ask actual Japanese people when I got here to settle it for myself, and what I found out was a surprising story not unlike the "best answer" I just read talked about.

So as a side note, this is one of those reasons why I can't stress enough about the importance to talking to actual Japanese people (for learning Japanese/culture stuff). It's a quick way to test out myths. I think I'm lucky in that I get to talk to my students about this stuff as well as middle aged and older people. I get a nice perspective across the spectrum on these things. Of course none of it is hard data, but it helps to build a better understanding of the culture, which in turn plays a role in language acquisition for me.

[MissMisa]

I like it plain. I didn't actually know anyone put soy sauce on rice, I thought it was more of a cooking ingrediant. >.< That's what I usually use it for.

[steven]

There are a lot of different kinds and qualities of soy sauce. While it is mostly used as an ingredient, people do use it as a sauce. I guess that's where the English name came from.

You can use regular old soy sauce for sashimi, but there is a difference when you use better soy sauce for stuff like that. If you eat a lot of sashimi, you start to appreciate those things I suppose. I had no idea until I came to Japan.

There is actually a soy sauce flavored ice cream in the town next to mine. I haven't tried it yet, but I might get around to it some day.

By the way, MissMisa, you're from England, right? Do people there generally not put soy sauce on rice, or is that just your personal preference?

[Tenchu]

If you cook it right, you don't need anything with your rice. Just a bowl and a pair of chopsticks. That's how I like it, but I'm the only one I've met who can cook it right. Thais can't cook to save their life. I should go to China.