Japanese Rice Guide: How to Make Japanese Rice on the Stove

The fact that the Japanese word gohan means both “rice” and “meal” indicates the importance of this staple food in Japanese cuisine. The most popular types of Japanese rice are of the Japonica variety, meaning that the grains are short and low in amylose starch. This is what gives the rice its sticky texture. (The other subspecies of rice is Indica, which includes long-grain rice like basmati and jasmine rice.)

There are two common types of rice in Japanese cooking, both of the short-grain Japonica variety.

1. 1. Uruchimai: When cooked, this short-grain rice clumps together and can easily be picked up with chopsticks. This type of rice is typically boiled on the stovetop or cooked in a rice cooker. It is used to make onigiri (rice balls wrapped in nori), sushi, donburi (rice bowls) and is served with almost every Japanese meal. Although there are many varieties of uruchimai, koshihikari rice is one of the most popular cultivars. Uruchimai is typically available as white rice—called polished rice—but you can also find short-grain brown rice, which has the nutritious rice bran intact.
2. 2. Mochigome: Glutinous rice, also known as sticky rice due to its sticky texture, is steamed rather than boiled and used to make mochi and other desserts.

Calrose is a medium-grain rice developed by Japanese Americans in California. In the United States, Calrose is often used as an alternative to Japanese short-grain rice.

Although you may find bags of rice labeled "sushi rice" at the grocery store, sumeshi (sushi rice) is actually a mode of preparation rather than a type of rice. Sushi rice is made by seasoning cooked Japanese rice with rice vinegar, sugar, and salt. These seasonings mimic the sour flavor of the original form of sushi in Japan, which was made from narezushi—fish fermented with cooked rice. After fermentation, cooks served the sliced, fermented fish on top of the sour-tasting rice.