Coming from a South East Asian background, rice is basic life. No rice, no life. I ate them for breakfast, lunch and dinner back when I was still in Indonesia and Singapore. On the European side of the world though… they’re not so integral to a German’s daily life. But what can one do if sudden memory burst of fried rice, or rice with fried chicken and prawn paste chili comes to mind ? Worry not ! There’s no need to be tormented by such cravings. Luckily there are ways to find and cook rice in Germany
Step 1: Try the Supermarket
Despite bread and potatoes being the staple of German diets, one can also find rice in the supermarket. A few of the common ones includes Langkhorn Reis, Milch Reis, Brasmati Reis and Risotto rice (Reis is German for rice). However, for best enjoyment (and for the sake of not over complicating this post) we are going to look for Jasmine rice. This type of rice is less common in big supermarket. However, they do sometimes pop up from time to time and usually is priced anywhere from 2-3 Euro per 500 grams. If the local Rewe or Edeka don’t sell them (god forbid Netto, Penny or Aldi. They don’t really offer much rice choice), one can go to step 2.
Step 2: To the Asiamarkt !
This is a special store in Germany where one can buy any food that comes from Asia. Do note that Asiamarkt in bigger cities like Berlin would have more items on sale compared to a small city like Cottbus. So I suggest for one to go to one of the big cities to get Jasmine rice. Price also differs from shop to shop. However one can expect anywhere between 2-3 Euro per 500 grams of Jasmine rice. While in the Asiamarkt, it is also wise to grab any ingredients that would never make it to the isles in Rewe or Edeka. I’m talking about oyster sauce, sweet soy sauce, fish sauce, chili sauce, etc.
Step 3: Cooking an aromatic jasmine rice
There’s 2 way to do produce that aromatic rice that mom used to make back home.
One is to use a large pot to boil the rice:
a) prepped a large pot with lid
b) water ratio usually go as follows: water (cup) to rice (cup)
1:1 for rice below one cup
1.5:1 for rice above 2 cups
c) put the water on boil first while you wash the rice. This removes some of the excess starch from the rice (you can see this from the water becoming milky white once the rice is washed)
d) out the rice inside the pot once the water boil and leave it for 30 minutes or until the water has run out
Another step is to cook the rice in a rice cooker. The rice cooker itself can be found in most Asian store for around 30 Euro.
repeated steps a) and b). This time, pour the water inside the pot that comes with the rice cooker and switch the rice cooker from warm to cook mode.
c) wait 30 minutes and Presto ! Your rice is ready
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