ariels@orca.UUCP (Ariel Shattan) (02/07/84)
There is absolutely, posotutely a difference between Uncle Ben's and the 100 lb sacks from the Oriental food store! You should wash the rice from the Oriental food store, because the stuff they use to polish the rice (remove the hulls, make it nice and white, etc) is talc. Talc is very not good for you to eat. Rice you get from Uncle Ben, or brown rice, doesn't need to be rinsed. In fact, it probably WOULD remove some of the nutrients from the Uncle Ben's if you rinsed it. Ariel (just telling you what my mama told me) Shattan ..!tektronix!orca!ariels
barbaral@tekig1.UUCP (Barbara Lee) (02/12/84)
Do you wash rice before you cook it? My mom (Chinese) taught us to wash rice 3 or 4 times, til the water was clear, before steaming it. On the contrary, I have heard that white rice is dusted with various nutrional enrichments, and shouldn\t be washed. Is there a difference in procedure between rice such as "Uncle Ben\s" and the 100 pound rice sacks from an oriental food store?
lorinda@uiucdcs.UUCP (lorinda ) (02/25/84)
#R:tekig1:-152600:uiucdcs:8600041:000:644 uiucdcs!lorinda Feb 24 03:40:00 1984 my dad (also chinese, and also a restauranteur) taught us to wash rice too. one reason was because you got rid of unwanted foreign particles (chaff, bugs, etc.)from rice that was harvested under not so savory conditions (like in the old country). another reason (more relevant to us here) was that a lot of rice grownin this country is dusted with vitamin d powder. i guess the idea was to make it more beneficial when exported to developing nations (and the u.s. is the 2nd biggest exporter, after thailand - china grows more but not for export). however, that dusting of vitamin powder seems to make the rice less fluffy, so we wash it off.