What's the difference between Japanese and Chinese rice?

Question

When school starts this year I am going to be making my own bento to take to school with me everyday. And all the recipes I look at say to use Japanese rice. What is the difference though? I mean I can't just go buy regular short grain rice and steam it? I thought it would be the same. I don't have a rice cooker either I steam my rice on the stove top. So would the brand really matter? And the rice I get dosen't say Chinese or Japanese rice it just says rice.

Answer 1

Japanese rice is much more sticky & than how the Chinese make their rice. The Chinese rice is less sticker than the Japanese rice. Japanese rice uses short grain, which they use in making sushis & just eating it plain with other dishes. The Chinese uses med grain to long grain rice which is better when making fried rice recipes or just eating it plain too with other dishes.

Answer 2

In China, long grain rice is more popular than short grain rice.

Well, I'm Japanese and I haven't had Chinese short grain rice before, so I can't really know the difference between the two in flavor. But even in Japan, depending on a brand, short grain rices taste a bit diffrerent. Some short grain rice is stickier than another. So it all depends on the flavor of short grain rice that you like when you want to choose which brand of rice you want to buy.

And if you are cooking Japanese food, it's always better to use Japanese rice because it tastes much closer to the authentic Japanese food. Well, Nishiki rice is the brand that is sold at Asian food section in a normal grocery store here in the states but usually we don't like the rice because it doesn't taste anything like the real Japanese rice sold in Japan even though it is short grain rice. If you want to make Japanese rice that tastes close to the real Japaneser rice, go to an Asian grocery store and get Japanese rice there. The brand that many Japanese people like is Akita Komachi, Hitomebore, Koshihikari, or Tamaki Rice Gold.

I'm from Kanto area so I'm used to eating Koshihikari. But other than the brand, I've had Akita Komachi and Hitomebore. Hitomebore was very stickier than the rice I usually have so I don't buy that brand anymore. And Akita Komachi is actually pretty good. I'm eating Koshihikari now. But after finishing eating the rice, I will probably go back to Akita Komachi.

By the way, you don't need to have a rice cooker to make Japanese rice. In old days when we didn't have any electricity in Japan, we didn't have a rice cooker...you know.....

Anyway, when you cook rice, just follow the directions. Depending on a brand, the amount of water that you need to add to rice is a bit different. So it's always good to just follow the directions. And when you make rice, you do need a lid. So use a pot that comes with a lid. It would be nice if you have a glass lid because you can actually check if the rice is done or not.

Anyways...I'm just going to tell you how we basically make rice.

1. wash rice with water until the color of water becomes clear.

2. strain the rice and leave it in a strainer for about 30 minutes.

3. put dry rice into a pot.

4. add water----see the directions to find out how much water you need to add to the rice.

5. heat up the pot until water starts boiling.

6. when water starts boiling, turn heat down to simmer and put a lid on the pot.

7. leave the lid until the water in the pot is totally gone.

8 lift the pot off of the stove with the lid on and move it on a kitchen counter with the lid on for about 10 minutes.

9. ready to eat rice.

Answer 3

When they say Japanese rice, they probably are referring to the short grained rice which has more starch in it and therefore is "sticky."  

I'm Korean and use (much to my mother's dismay) Japanese rice called Nishiki all the time.  Sushi grade rice is supposed to be a better quality.  Think BMW versus Voltswagon...but again, the same sticky and shortgrained rice.  Before Asian markets became popular in America, my mother would buy Calrose short grained rice from the BX and it worked just fine in our recipes.

Now Chinese rice is a different story.  My mother worked for a Chinese family and we use to eat at their house all the time.  Their rice was NOT short grained.  It was actually long grained.  Not nearly as sticky as Japanese or Korean rice, but not as dry as Uncle Ben's either.  Because the rice was not so sticky, they were also more apt to bring the bowl up to their face to "scoop" the rice into their mouths with their chopsticks.  I looked online to verify, and quite a few websites state that the Chinese mostly use long grained rice in their cooking...though it does mention short grained rice occasionally as well.  

We won't even get started on sweet rice.  Though I have a killer recipe for mango sticky rice that I've used in my bento box on previous occasions.  :-)

Answer 4

Chinese rice has lead in it.

Answer 5

many chinese rices are long grain Japanese rice made for sushi is a special type of sticky short grain rice....im sure you're food would taste fine but it may not be exactly the same

Answer 6

ONE IS LIGHT AND TANGY

AND one is

heavy and sweet

i prefer basmati

Answer 7

i think chinese rice is more stickier

Answer 8

one rice comes from japan and the other comes from china.

Answer 9

hold up... you're buying white rice right?

Answer 10

Japanese rice is slighly less Asian.

Answer 11

There's really no difference. Since your making Japanese foods, they say japanese rice, instead of chinese rice. It IS kind of weird to make japanese food and they say to use chinese rice, right? :) Lol, I hope you have good lunches!