My mother was a sucker for new food products. Finding a Sunday coupon only fueled her enthusiasm for the quirky, bizarre foodstuffs that the Nabisco’s of the world throw at us.
I inherited this trait, albeit with a little different twist. If it’s “gourmet” and “expensive,” it will jump off the shelf and into my shopping cart.
How else could you explain the $13.49 bottle of bamboo rice that followed me home?
Yep, that’s right. $13.49 for 15 ounces of a Chinese, short-grain white rice infused with bamboo juice. Is bamboo juice scarce?
I do admit I was a bit breathless looking at the grassy green rice in the upscale, Urban Accents plastic bottle with a metal cap.
Directions are simple: Bring 1 cup of bamboo rice and 2-1/2 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan.
Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let it rest, covered, for 5 minutes. Gently fluff with a fork. The result?
A pale, icy-green, soft, sticky rice.
The taste? Mild, perhaps a bit grassy. Does it taste like bamboo? I have no idea. I’ve never tasted bamboo (canned shoots don’t count because they only taste like the can.) Between you and me, it could use a little salt, unless you’re serving it as a base for a naturally salty stir fry.
I could see using this rice for sushi, if you’re so inclined to make sushi at home (too much trouble for me, when we have a respectable sushi restaurant just minutes away).
The color would add an interesting element to any dish. I used it as a base for a fresh, brightly flavored stir fry, with tofu, shiitakes, sugar snaps, ginger, garlic, jalapeños, cilantro and a touch of hoisin.
Will I use it again? You betcha! Gotta get my money’s worth. Will I buy it again? Yeah, probably as a gift for my hard-to-find-gifts-for foodie friends.
My mom would have loved it, too. She never met a rice grain she didn’t like.
1 Comment
November 6, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Aloha
My company holds the patent for bamboo rice — and we manufacture the extract the rice is infused with. Our partners who are distributors with commercial kitchens make the rice and sell it in Hawaii. We are soon launching into California. Ours is the highest quality bamboo rice on the market — and the only one that has been medically verified through university research. We use one fpo the few totally safe species of bamboo and we don’t know what the other providers are using — particularly those from Yunnan whose bamboo is not mountain/wild-harvested. Ours is also bamboolicious and way cheaper — only $2.49 per pound. Hope you let your readers know! Thanks for making a difference with your blog.