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Comment by apeescape | Hacker News Reader

Isn't Japanese rice pretty different to Costco rice? Genuine question.

Yeah, as someone who started with Costco rice and slowly moved up the quality chain, there is a clear difference in taste between even average Japanese rice and most Costco rice. It would be interesting to see a price/quality comparison between the U.S. and Japanese Costcos though.

This is one of these case where cross-country comparison might bring little relevant information.

Another example could be wine sold at US Cosco vs French Costco. It would be an indicator of something, but I'd personally be lost if I had to interpret it in regards to wine trends in France in general.

In fact Costco has some of the most powerful wine buyers in the world

Costco sells a few varieties, this is the one we buy: https://www.costcobusinessdelivery.com/kokuho-rose-us-%231-e...

It's sushi rice, grown in CA, and it's very good. Same stuff we used to buy from our local Japanese grocery store in CA.

I can't remember how much I paid, but I was able to buy 10KG of grown-in-Japan short grain rice at Costco in Canada within the last year.

Snobs will tell you yes, but Kokuho Rose is a California grown sushi rice that's good enough to be served over imported Japanese rice at Japanese restaurants. Really disappointing that the farm is closing up shop.

Closing up shop?! I missed that news. Crushing. It's really the only rice I buy that's accessible but good quality. Sad.

Speculating from online comments around it and from looking at bags of Calrose rice, they seem to be few decades behind in cultivation techniques and selective breeding improvements. The grains look smaller, less shiny and more yellowy. but technically they should be of the same strain.

Japanese rice variety I think is called Japonica. I'm not sure if costco sells it.

haven't seen japonica often in the US, but jasmine rice is similar and available pretty much everywhere.

in fact, jasmine rice smells and tastes better, and stickier!

maybe I mis-understood what you meant by similar here but jasmine rice is nothing at all like japanese rice.

Jasmine top, Japanese bottom

https://postimg.cc/6y2b0JdB

They have a completely different consistency when cooked and are used for different things.

yes in fact, it is. relative to american rice.

it's has a similar stickiness, the taste is a bit different, but better imo.

it pairs well with asian dishes as opposed to american rices and can be used for sushi.

it's not 1:1, but it's certainly a good substitute when you can find japanese rice.

Jasmine rice can NOT be used for sushi! It's not sticky enough to hold together. The fact that it's not sticky makes it good for fried rice, not for sushi.

hmm, well the jasmine I buy is extra sticky.

maybe it's how it turns out in the rice cooker.

either way, I've done it and it tastes good /shrug

If your jasmine rice is turning out sticky you’re cooking it wrong.

might be confusing mushy with sticky - the individual grains of sushi rice is intact and whole. Mushy rice is a grain that has too absorbed too much water, and is burst.

In my experience it's just barely sticky enough for sushi provided you don't wash it but I don't think the texture is right for that usage. I prefer it for most things though.

Calrose, the primary rice grown in California is a Japonica, its just Japanese rice grown in America. Tamanishiki, which is one of the high grade sushi rices is grown in the US and Japan

It is O. s. subsp. japonica

> Calrose, the primary rice grown in California

Surprising, because while its widely available in California it seems to be a tiny minority of available rice. A search I did says it is 80% of California's crop, so presumably a lot of it is exported?

It doesn't serve every culinary purpose and most California grocery shoppers are not Japanese. You wouldn't make Moros y Cristianos with it. You wouldn't make Hoppin' John with it. It's no good for your Indian menu. It isn't really what you'd serve beside fried chicken.

There is no "best rice" any more than there is "best pants".

Good to know, however I always buy short grain brown rice, I like that one better.

Costco sells a couple of Kokuho-brand Calrose varieties, which are decent drop-ins for for generic East Asian rice.

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