Saturday, September 4, 2010

The tale of the traveling rice cooker

Living in a country that is totally obsessed with rice in all of its various forms, it goes without saying that we own a rice cooker. I would never have ever thought I would buy or need one, but here I am. They are most definitely nasi(cooked rice)crazy.

The interesting thing about our rice cooker is that it has migratory skills. This is truly a unique skill for a rice cooker to posses. One just never knows where it will appear. This magic rice cooker, and its side kick the extension cord, love to go a travelin'.

Some days sugar pie comes home to find it plugged in, via its extension cord, and cooking away at the front entrance to the garage. Other times it has sprouted legs and has moved to the back of the garage. There have also been sightings on the stairs leading up to the housekeepers quarters and also next to the staff cooking area. Only rarely does it sneak in to the house and sit on my counter top. I think this has only happened once or twice. Our happy little rice cooker never gets bored. However, I think if it goes too many more places, it is going to need a passport.

With rice in mind, we have never eaten so much of it before. Yes, living in Texas there are a lot of folks who eat rice. Living in Louisiana, Monday was red beans and rice day. And my goodness what about jambalaya and gumbo? No rice - no way. So we have been exposed to the joys of this versatile grain for many years.

Here however, it is at a totally different level of consumption. Today as a matter of fact, we stopped for lunch at a KFC. Yes, there is KFC here - in fact it is all over the place. They love it! We each ordered a dua (two) piece kombo (k is used instead of c for that hard c sound)meal. With that comes two pieces of chicken, a drink, and cute little packet of nasi.

Most of the rice is short grain and very sticky. The packet of rice at KFC is about the size of a tennis ball if they were to shape it as a ball. Since it is so sticky, it stays together and you can pick it up and nibble on it kind of like a cake. You can also easily break off chunks and eat it with your fingers Indonesian style. To really complete the experience, you have to have some sambal on the side. Sambal is pretty much the Indonesian version of hot sauce. It can be smokin' Joe hot so you have to venture carefully to see what the heat index is before you consume a big dollop of it on your food.

I loved the longer grain rice that we had in Texas called Tex-mati. While cooking, it smelled like popcorn and each little grain would separate from its neighbor. No group mentality with that rice. Here, they love it all stuck together as one big happy family.

They use gelatinous rice for desserts. I am really not into that very much, it reminds me too much of rice pudding. As a child, my mother would make rice pudding. It was sweet and had raisins in it and according to my brothers and sister, she made a good one. I never liked the texture and it was one dessert I didn't eat very much of.

They have rice noodles that are very thin and dry like angel hair pasta. Instead of boiling it, you pour hot water over it and let it soak just a few minutes and it softens up and become clear. You place it in a bowl and ladle some yummy soup over it and chow down. Good stuff!

There is lontong which is sticky rice wrapped in a banana leaf and cooked and cooled before serving. By cooking it in a banana leaf and cooling it, the rice is shaped and compressed so it can be sliced in to chunks to serve.

There is also congee which is a hot rice cereal. Now, I don't want to spoil it for you, but when you look down in to the pot of steaming rice cereal all you can think about is that it is just a pot of starch staring back at you. The rice is cooked with lots and lots of water and so it pretty much dissolves. If there are any congee lovers reading this, no offense but it just looks too much like wall paper paste to me. I did try it and nope, not going to try it again. However, if I had to choose between eating a big bowl of congee or a piece of durian. The congee would definitely win.

Now that you have heard way more about rice than you cared too, I will move on. May your rice always be cooked just right, may your rice cooker stay in one place, if you own one, and if you go to KFC and order the kombo meal ask for a side of nasi - you might like it.