It is commonly used to prepare Japanese cuisine in North America, and is reasonably good as a sushi rice. It is used in sushi (寿司) and onigiri. These varieties of rice used to be hard to find outside of Japan, but you can now find Koshihikari rice being grown in the US and Australia in recent years. However, we do not eat vinegared sushi rice for regular meals. So, thanks to the stickiness, it's easy to pick with chopsticks. Generally speaking, short grain rice is short and stubby. In Hokkaidō, Japan's northernmost prefecture, hardier cultivars such as Oborozuki and Yumepirika have been developed to withstand the colder climate. Uncooked brown rice grains are mixed with green tea leaves and used to brew a kind of tea called Genmaicha (玄米茶) (brown rice tea). It may also be used for making a kind of pickle called nukazuke (ぬかづけ), as an organic fertilizer, and in livestock feed. Outside of Japan, it is almost common to see ‘sushi rice’ being used as a label for Japanese short-grain rice (Uruchimai 粳米). Despite its age, it has been the most widely grown cultivar in Japan for more than 35 years, making it the most important rice for the Japanese people. Buy our best-selling e-cookbook full of 33 easy and simple Japanese recipes! Buy our best-selling e-cookbook for 33 more easy and simple recipes! In its early days, there was no reason to predict that Koshihikari would become so widely disseminated. Akitakomachi is also quite popular. Literally means ‘new rice’, shinmai is the first crop of the season to be processed and packaged for sale in the same year in which it was harvested. They also contain more moisture and are sticker than other types of rice. When cooked, it has a sticky texture such that it can easily be picked up and eaten with chopsticks. Then, before cooking it is usually soaked in water for between half an hour in summer, and two hours in winter. When you visit a Japanese grocery store, you can ask for their recommendation for a good Japanese short-grain rice and ask if the rice is ‘shinmai’. You can purchase Komachi on Amazon. However, price increases in recent years have led a small but increasing number of Japanese consumers and restaurants to seek out the small amount of less-expensive rice imported from China, Australia, and the United States that is available in Japan. Uruchimai is also used to make alcoholic drinks like sake (日本酒), and sometimes shochu, as an adjunct in Japanese beer, and to make rice vinegar. [2] However, the trading of these futures contracts has been postponed to an unspecified date since it has not been approved by the Japanese government.[3]. In actual fact, the Japanese would ONLY say “sushi rice“ when we are referring to Sumeshi (vinegared rice 酢飯) to make sushi. I make sushi rice for my sushi recipes with Japanese short-grain rice. I also love Komachi, the finest California Supreme Short Grain Rice, from Far West Rice. That’s the rice you use to make sushi, rice balls and everyday Japanese dishes. Design by, used mainly for making mochi (rice cakes) and traditional sweets like. Sumeshi, or vinegared rice, is made with cooked Japanese short-grain rice and seasoned with sushi vinegar, sugar, salt, and kombu. Haigamai is rice that has been partially milled to remove most of the bran but leave the germ intact. The manufacturing process involves tumbling the rice in a tube for a short duration, causing the bran to stick to the sides of the tube.[1]. Hatsuga genmai (発芽玄米) is brown rice that has been soaked in heated water until germinated. https://whatisthebestricecooker.com/what-is-the-best-japanese-rice-brand Terraced rice fields cover many rural hillsides and are relatively small due to mountainous terrain and government controls on farmland consolidation. It is also used to produce sake. Have fun exploring the 700+ classic & modern Japanese recipes I share with step-by-step photos and How-To YouTube videos. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website. Each grain should be white and smooth, almost pearl-like, and should taste subtly not just of starch but of delicious grain. In order to fulfill self-sufficiency goals in Japan and to support domestic rice producers, the Japanese government enforces quotas and high tariffs on foreign rice. It is also exported to a number of countries including Japan, although it has not gained much popularity with Japanese consumers. Outside Japan it is sometimes labeled sushi rice, as this is one of its common uses. When buying Japanese rice, there are a few things to consider: freshness, sweetness, texture, stickiness, flavor, and place of production. Or Japanese cuisine is known for sushi, so they label the ordinary Japanese rice as “sushi rice” out of convenience and for marketing purpose?