Did you know that at one time we produced a large amount of rice only second to sugar cane on Oahu? In fact, Waikiki was once a swamp of rice paddies, water buffalo and taro patches.
Having a Japanese mom, I ate rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast could have been as simple as rice and miso soup with a few pickles. Lunch could mean using leftover rice for fried rice, or an after school and before baseball practice snack of a musubi or my favorite — yaki onigiri. Of course, growing up in Hawaii, all plate lunches include two scoops of rice. For dinner, almost guaranteed, we had rice on the table even if mom made spaghetti or potatoes. She loves cooking for others and trying new dishes to make, but it didn’t mean she ate it; she would always prefer rice, pickles and usually fish, so rice was always around.
From our immigrant past, the majority of local families here in Hawaii have roots that come from Asia, where meals often times revolved around rice in some form. Hard-working plantation workers had kau kau tins with the bottom portion filled with rice. Back then, they needed all the energy they could get for a day’s work. Do that today and it’s a recipe for Type 2 diabetes! We all love sushi, whether it’s nigiri sushi, maki sushi or cone sushi. Whether it’s called congee, jook or porridge, soft rice soup evokes childhood memories, as well as any form of ochazuke.
Recently, one night with friends, the subject of fried rice came up. If you are making it at home, usually it is a delicious way to use up leftover cold rice and every single person has their own way of making it. Today, a lot of households use one of those rice cooker/warmers so cold rice in the fridge is not as common as before. Fried rice usually comes out better when the rice has been refrigerated, versus warm. It’s a science thing that happens to the starch on the rice. Nothing worse than mushy sticky fried rice! Fried rice is so popular that some make rice just for fried rice. One of the things I do is “stain” the cooked warm rice by adding soy sauce, oyster sauce or vegetarian stir fry sauce, and sesame oil — mix it all up well, then it goes in the fridge uncovered to allow it to dry out overnight. Basically, it’s seasoning the rice ahead of time to develop flavor before you start the fried rice process. Warm or hot rice will be more receptive to absorbing any flavor you put onto it versus cold rice. Think of your skin after a hot shower, the pores are more open than after a cold shower.
Through my travels and experiences, I have had the good fortune to eat and learn about other cultures’ rice dishes. I like the Spanish paella, especially the socarrat or crispy bottom. I love Korean bibimbap with the rice made crispy in a stone pot. What is funny is that even though I have enjoyed great rice dishes all over the world, the part I enjoy the most is the “koge” part, the crispy almost burnt bottoms of the pot or pan like the socarrat of a paella or as in the bibimbap.
One day, just make an old-fashioned pot of rice on the stovetop instead of pushing the button on the automatic cooker and enjoy this toasty rice on the bottom with a little dash of shoyu. You can also just take cooked rice and make a musubi, then grill it crispy to make my favorite yaki onigiri, or if that’s too humbug, now you can buy it in the frozen food section already done.
By the way, I remember burning the rice pot the very first time I tried making it in a pot on the stove a long time ago. I went to someone’s house to cook and looked for the rice cooker and they said, “No more! You gotta cook ‘em on the stove!” For someone at that time who only pressed the button, you should have seen the look on my face — even more so after I burnt it. Not crispy, just black! We got so used to pressing the button on the automatic rice cooker at home we forgot how grandma and grandpa used to do it every day!
Chef and restaurateur Alan Wong has wowed diners around the world for decades, and is known as one of the founders of Hawaii Regional Cuisine. Find his column in Crave every first Wednesday. Currently, Wong is dba Alan Wong’s Consulting Co.
