On rice!
I mostly have Thai Jasmin Rice, which I steam in a regular casserole on my electric resistor stove (1 volume of rice, 2 volumes of water, bring to a boil uncovered, stop heating and cover when the water is simmering, allow the rice to puff for 15min, uncover to remove steam).
Thai Jasmin Rice reconciled me with my asian culinary heritage (I am half filipino), after years of cheap Parboiled Carolina Rice (there wasn't anything else available in my city for most of my childhood). Such rice does
not go well with asian food, since it's not sticky when stickiness is the criteria for a well cooked rice there ( a fresh chinese exchange student I know tried to cook some rice for hours until I pointed to him that this variety would never get sticky
)
Recently I've been trying short grain rice (Japanese and substitutes), to go with north-east asian food. But steaming it is a little more tricky, as it requires less water and most methods I've read require keeping low heat for awhile.
By the way, for those living in western Europe, Italian risotto rice make a decent and cheap substitute for Japanese rice (a japanese friend gave me this advice), as they are similarly round grained rice. The best so far is the Vialone variety (risotto and soup rice).
And you can also stock it to make some Risotto, milk rice, soup....
I even found some japanese rice grown in Italy, but it was super expensive (even more than US grown Nishiki).
Basmati rice is nice, but I only have some when preparing Indian cuisine, as it is more expensive that Thai Jasmine Rice.
On a side note, Red Rice grown in Banaue is very tasty, I'd like to try more of those rustic varieties (like the thousands of Laos
), but of course I'd have to travel for that.