Rice – The Fundamentals

The corpus of worldwide Rice literature is vast. This abstract converts some useful facts about Rice to encourage your further research and learning.

According to cultural scholars, Rice production began around 5000 B.C. and through the various Food ways circumnavigated the historical globe with Explorers, Traders, and Mercantilists and continues into the 21^st century as a staple food 7000 years later.  

Rice is the principal staple in most Asian countries and readily consumed, so it leaves little for export. Among the Asian countries, Thailand is presently the leading exporter.

Essential Chinese cuisine is the division of fan (rice, grains), and ts’ai (vegetables & meat). To prepare a balanced meal, it must have the appropriate amount of both fan and ts’ai. Fan makes up one half of the meal in various forms (fan can also be noodles or other grains), and the vegetables and meat make up the other half. The Chinese philosophy of food is that the cooked vegetables and meat products are for the purpose to assist in the intake of bowls of fan. (Excerpted from Food in Chinese Cultures edited by K. C. Chang Professor of Anthropology, Yale University, 1977, Yale University Press.)

InnovAsian Cuisine’s Global Reach

Rice is a principal component in the Innovasian Cuisine® product pantry, offering three basic varieties – long grain, medium grain and short grain. We continue to expand our Rice product offerings.

Long Grain

White Rice: In our Fried Rice Blends, we use Texas or Arkansas long grain, parboiled white rice, blended with soy sauce, vegetables, eggs and proteins (with the exception of our Vegetable Fried Rice). The white rice is also known as polished rice or fully milled rice because most of the outer layer (the husk and the bran layer) are removed from the kernel, through the milling process.

Brown Rice: Innovasian Cuisine® imports from Thailand one of the world’s premium rice, Jasmine Brown Rice. Even though there are Jasmine Rices from other parts of the world including the USA, according to Dr. Sackville Hamilton of the International Rice Research Institute: “The unique aroma of Thai Jasmine rice is a result of a combination of the presence of the version of the major gene for fragrance, other minor genes, and the climatic and soil conditions in Thailand. Duplicating exactly this combination of genetic characteristics and growing conditions would be difficult, assuring a place for Thailand’s distinctive Jasmine rice.”

There are similarities in brown and white rice; however, the basic difference is the milling process. As a result, in brown rice, only the husk is removed while the bran layer remains. Because of the bran layer, brown rice contains more nutrients than white rice. In particular, brown rice is very high in fiber and vitamin B.

Medium Grain

Innovasian Cuisine® White Sticky Rice is made from premium California medium grain rice. It is Individually Quick Frozen (IQF) and fully cooked that simply requires re-heating in a microwave, steam, or pan stir fry. The medium grain rice is shorter than the long grain but also tends to be a little plumper.

Short Grain

Innovasian Cuisine® has recently introduced to the market its Yaki Onigiri (Baked Japanese Rice Cakes) using the highest premium Japanese short grain rice. The short grain rice tends to be stickier, which is similar to the Italian Arborio rice used in Risotto.