The beauty of Japanese rice is that you can eat it with chopsticks without fear of it falling off. Other rice requires a spoon.

Good point. I actually don't even think sushi would have been invented if Japanese rice had not been short-grained and therefore sticky.

Yeah, even with all that vinegar in it!

Niigata no Koshihikari, the best rice in the world. Mmmmm.... if I was in Japan now I'd run out and buy a bag of it.

Yes, sushi with other rice would be a joke.

Pfft. Try Koshihikari from the place that actually developed the strain - Fukui. :P
Niigata has basically become a "brand name", with anyone in the area trying to cash in.
Fukui Koshihikari is from the original strains, and is *excellent*. I would choose it over Niigata any day. (And have, as we`ve tried the supposedly great Niigata grown and found it either the same or not as good as the rice we regularly eat. Costing more on top of that.)

Here in some stores we can find Shinode brand, sold as sushi rice. I sometimes use it, added with rice vinegar (once I made myself maki sushis with it, but it took me a so long time!)

Hey, well if you can't afford the best, I understand... :mtongue:

Just kidding, I'll see if I can find some of the Fukui stuff and make up my own mind.

I know I decide what is best based on quality rather than price... :P

Anyway, enough with the joking. Fukui is actually the location where Koshihikari was developed, but wasn`t the first place to push it into the national market. Niigata was, so they became forever associated with good rice. I have nothing against Niigata Koshihikari - it`s not bad at all. The thing is, it`s price is inflated by the "brand" name. As production isn`t centralized, there are some really crappy crops that are passed off at unbelievable prices just because of where they were raised.

I`ll check for you what the type we eat is sold as when packaged. We buy it directly from the producer, in 30kg bags (genmai) that are only labeled with basic information. We`re pretty picky with our rice, so tried a bunch of different types before settling on this one. It isn`t cheap, but also isn`t frighteningly expensive. It`s also the best tasting out of the bunch.

Okay, thanks. Up in Saitama, I've seen Niigata no Koshihikari and Akita no Koshihikari but I don't recall any Fukui stuff.

Then again, they say the Irish invented whisky but the Scots perfected it...:vsign:

I use Nishiki rice, usualy buy the 10kg or 20kg bags. You also have to make sure you have a proper "Japanese" rice cooker, not a Korean or American one, something like a zojirushi model.