POLL: Brown Rice

[Jenise]

My breakfast today was a small avocado, sliced and mashed onto some brown rice crackers from a new (to my area) maker called Mary's Gone Crackers. They're made of brown rice, sesame, flax and some other seeds, and are really really good. And I was thinking as I ate them how much I otherwise am not a fan of brown rice. I never make it, and in restaurants if I'm given a choice I choose white.

That's because the only place I've really had it is in restaurants, and I've never liked it there. Nutty, I've heard it called. Well all I taste is cardboard, and the mouthfeel isn't as satisying as well-made white rice. Yet I'm generally a fan of all grains, and usually the more offbeat and browner the better. Where have I gone wrong? What do you fans of it know that I don't?

Not a fan of brown rice. Maybe it's the Chinese blood. Actually, with the exception of sushi and risotto, I'm not a fan of anything other than long grain rice, preferably basmati. Please don't all flame me.

Due to my yeast allergy, I am supposed to avoid white rice, white flour, and other refined grain products in favor of whole grains and flours. Doc said it's because refined starches are more easily converted to sugars in the body and feed the yeasts easier. So I generally, but not always, eat brown rice. I'm particularly fond of Lundberg Farms brown and wild rice blends, because they use several different varieties of brown, red and black rices in the various mixes, all of which are quite tasty and, yes, nutty.

White basmati and jasmine rices can't be beat for aroma and taste, though.

I don't know what it is about brown rice, but I prefer white. When I want something brown along the rice types, I reach for my Farro, better for you than rice. In fact tonight I'm having a Farro dish with roasted red peppers, garbanzo beans, scallion, topped with roasted asparagus and sprinkled with Feta. It is tossed with EVOO and a balsamic.

Jenise,

I definitely prefer white rice, but I almost exclusively make brown now. With the kids and hubby, I have tried to convert everything we eat into whole grains...except for pasta...I just can't do the wheat pasta, and I have tried and tried. My son eats brown rice pasta...and that is fine...and his brown rice bread tastes much better than the white rice version.

I have been eating mostly brown rice for 2 yrs now, and I still prefer the white. Which is completely different from wheat bread, wheat waffles, whole wheat tortillas, and pumpernickel bagels, which I definitely like better than the white versions.

For me, brown rice tastes completely different than white rice. Brown rice reminds me more of barely. So if I am in the mood for "rice" I don't feel satisfied by the brown version. (But still eat it anyway, otherwise, I know nobody else in my family will...LOL!).

Jenise,
Those crackers are made in Gridley, CA, not far from Redding. They are available at a local health food store here. Thanks for the info. Eating with avocado sounds great! I'm always looking for something different for breakfast.

Not sure how to vote. I don't like it any better or worse than white, it's just different. What I use depends on the dish I'm making- I wouldn't substitute one for another.

They're two completely different things as far as I'm concerned - most of the dishes I make with rice tend to require white rice - ranging from a basic Indian daal ot other gravy/curry to something like biryani or a Chinese stir-fry, where brown rice simply wouldn't absorb the flavours and work in a dish as well as a good basmati or a fragrant Thai rice.

If I'm doing something very, very basic then I'm indifferent, but otherwise I almost exclusively use white Indian basmati or Thai jasmine in my cooking.

Not a fan of brown rice. I'm not a fan of anything other than long grain rice, preferably basmati.

There's long grain brown rice and there is brown Basmati..

I think brown rice has more flavour and is more interesting to eat.

[Jenise]

There's long grain brown rice and there is brown Basmati..

I think brown rice has more flavour and is more interesting to eat.

I believe it was Christina who sang the praises of brown basmati here some time ago; I even bought some to try based on her recco. It disappeared into the pantry before I got around to cooking it, though, and hasn't been seen since.

[Jenise]

Jenise,
Those crackers are made in Gridley, CA, not far from Redding. They are available at a local health food store here. Thanks for the info. Eating with avocado sounds great! I'm always looking for something different for breakfast.

Try them! I like the herb and onion flavors better than the regular, but they're all good.

I prefer brown rice these days over white but I still eat both.

-mike

It's impossible to imagine sushi made with brown rice, but in many recipes it's not that important which rice is used if it is texturally OK. I agree with Jenise that lots of brown rice doesn't meet the texture test, but also agree that brown basmati (I buy mine at Trader Joe's) has great tooth and great flavor, too.

Then there's that great scene in Seven Samurai when the villagers finally kick in to the ronin by offering them standard white gohan--a rarity in 18th-century Japan but maybe Kurosawa's leaning on the consensus that white rice is superior.

I like both--a lot. But I reach for white rice over brown usually...I like rice so much that when that cookbook came out a few years ago, the one just titled Rice? I thought: I shoulda thought of that...

Barb

[Jenise]

It's impossible to imagine sushi made with brown rice, but in many recipes it's not that important which rice is used if it is texturally OK. I agree with Jenise that lots of brown rice doesn't meet the texture test, but also agree that brown basmati (I buy mine at Trader Joe's) has great tooth and great flavor, too.

Then there's that great scene in Seven Samurai when the villagers finally kick in to the ronin by offering them standard white gohan--a rarity in 18th-century Japan but maybe Kurosawa's leaning on the consensus that white rice is superior.

Michael, you have reminded me of something I forgot--that a Whole Foods Market in my old neighborhood had great sushi to go, and one of my favorites was brown rice and avocado. There might have been a strip of cucumber of some sprouts in there too, but essentially it was just brown rice and avocado which complemented each other wonderfully. Versions involving brown rice and seafood, and without avocado, were definitely better with white.

There! You not only imagined it, you ate it. But who knows what binding agents Whole Foods might use? Without such agents, it's hard to see how anything but calrose or other Japanese style shortgrain white rice would work for sushi. Was the avocado brown rice sushi you ate made with short-grain? It's got to be sticky for sushi.

[Robin Garr]

I answered, "it's okay, but I generally prefer white," but in reality, I realize that I can't remember the last time I've ever had brown rice in the house or ordered it in a restaurant. We love white rice in its many forms - long-grain, basmati, Arborio and other risotto rices, sushi rice - and because I use it in so many different styles of ethnic cooking, it's certainly a contender with pasta and well ahead of potatoes as the No. 1 starch in our house.

But brown rice? I don't hate it, but I'm sort of "meh" about it. What's the point?

...But brown rice? I don't hate it, but I'm sort of "meh" about it. What's the point?

It's much better for you. http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=128.

I like brown rice--I have several types--but I use it only occasionally. It takes longer to cook, and the taste and texture can be different (which may or may not be apropos for a recipe).

[Jenise]

I answered, "it's okay, but I generally prefer white," but in reality, I realize that I can't remember the last time I've ever had brown rice in the house or ordered it in a restaurant. We love white rice in its many forms - long-grain, basmati, Arborio and other risotto rices, sushi rice - and because I use it in so many different styles of ethnic cooking, it's certainly a contender with pasta and well ahead of potatoes as the No. 1 starch in our house.

But brown rice? I don't hate it, but I'm sort of "meh" about it. What's the point?

I'm surprised how many of us there are--I had this sense that everyone else in the world was on the brown rice train but me. I wonder, since I find most cooks and most restaurants use what for me would be too much water in their rice if there wasn't a cooking method that would produce something you and I would like better than what we've had.

We eat brown and white but prefer brown. My favorite is brown mixed with wild rice. Although I do really like basmati too.

Not sure how to vote. I don't like it any better or worse than white, it's just different. What I use depends on the dish I'm making- I wouldn't substitute one for another.

I'm with Stuart on this one. I grew up eating white rice and brown rice did not enter my repertoire until my mid adulthood, so out of habit I go for the white rice. When I cook brown rice I always wonder why I don't prepare it more often. Probably because nobody else in my family likes it! Don't you just hate eating with people who are not gastronomically curious?