Good Food
Rice: how we grow, cook, and eat it
Whether cooking basmati, jasmine or red, everyone has a way to make rice. Measure up to the first knuckle? Wash until the water runs clear? Stovetop or rice cooker with bells and whistles?
By Evan Kleiman • • 56m ListenWhether cooking basmati, jasmine or red, everyone has a way to make rice. Measure up to the first knuckle? Wash until the water runs clear? Stovetop or rice cooker with bells and whistles? This week, Good Food gets granular with rice — how it's grown, how it's cooked, and how it's eaten. Dr. Amber Spry opens her identity politics class each semester by asking students to share how their family cooked rice. Culinarian historian Michael Twitty shares how red rice came to the American South by way of Western African. Rice royalty Robin Koda documents her family’s legacy of growing Japanese rice in California. Matt Goulding explores the controversy over paella in Spain. The history of the rice cooker is explained by Anne Ewbank. Finally, Sophia Parsa is making tahdigs with her mother for this week’s edition of “In the Weeds.”
In this episode
6 storiesUsing a ‘ricebreaker’ to start a conversation about cultural identity
Dr. Amber Spry is an Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Politics at Brandeis University.
Read the story10 minHow did rice find its way to the American South?
In the American South, rice turns a collection of dishes into a meal. Michael Twitty is an African American Jewish writer, culinary historian, and educator.
Read the story10 minGrowing Japanese rice in California
Like anything in America, the story of rice is not monolithic. Just look at California, where rice has been grown in the region surrounding the Sacramento Valley for more than a century.
Read the story11 minStirring up controversy in a paella pan
Paella is precious in Valencia, Spain. Food writer Matt Goulding asserts that you can find the entire history of Spain within the perimeter of the paella pan. The key to the dish is the rice and saffron.
Read the story9 minThe rice cooker: liberating generations of chefs
Cooking rice on a wood burning stove was an art, says Anne Ewbank. Around 1945, engineer Masaru Ibuka started a small company in an abandoned department store that fixed radios.
Read the story9 min‘In the Weeds’: golden, crispy domes bring solace
Golden Rice Co. , a pop-up run by the mother and daughter team of Farah and Sophia Parsa, was originally a backyard supper club that ran for five years.
Read the story7 min
