Japanese rice

I want to buy some rice similar to what I get in Japanese restaurants, but NOT sushi rice.

Almost every Japanese restaurant I go to uses at least 2 different kinds of rice. The white rice you get as a side dish is clearly not the same as the rice used for sushi. The sushi rice is shinier and stickier. The standard rice is dull and sticky enough to clump and be picked up with chopsticks, but it's less "gluey".

I bought a small bag of koshihikari. It's more like sushi rice, though. I rinse it thoroughly, soak it, and cook it with a minimal amount of water. It tastes good and would be fine for sushi, but I'm looking for something more like the side dish rice.

Does anyone know which variety I'm talking about? Maybe someone who has worked at these restaurants knows what kind of rice they usually serve on the side? I thought it might be Jasmine, but it seems like a shorter grain than Jasmine.

>I rinse it

It's the same rice without the vinegar and shit.

>NOT sushi rice
>I got sushi rice

Yeah pretty much this, it's a short grain white rice. If it doesn't have the same flavor, try another variety of short grain rice.

If the problem is the texture, and you're making it on the stove in a pot and not in a rice cooker, you have to be really precise with the temperature or the rice won't cook properly. When you're making rice on the stove it's easier to set the heat too low or high.

This. Sushi rice is both a style of preparation and a grade of rice. You can have the style of rice you are looking for even if you bought what is called sushi rice, just don't add the vinegar.

I have two suggestions that might bring you closer to what you want. First don't rinse your rice and see how it turns out, second don't soak it and see if if it what you want. Depending on the rice either or both of those may work for you.

There is truth to , but one of the above might get you close enough without the need to spend additional money.

No, it's not.

>try another variety of short grain rice.
The point of this thread is to find out what kind of short grain rice to buy, not keep buying different kinds of short grain rice until I find one that's close.

My heat and water levels are correct, which is why I end up with rice that's exactly like sushi/onigiri rice. Idk why you find it so hard to believe that restaurants use 2 different types of rice, or that rice cultivars vary in texture regardless of cooking.

>First don't rinse your rice and see how it turns ou
It goes without saying that leaving the starchy residue in = more sticky, not less. Just saying, this is far from the first time I've cooked rice

>don't soak it
Tried that when I first got it. Definitely doesn't help.

There are different cultivars for different applications, like sushi. It's not just grade or preparation. I feel like you're talking out of your ass, in part because you just told me to try not rinsing rice in order to make it LESS sticky.

I guess I'll just wait and see if there's someone who knows wtf I'm referring to, because anyone who has eaten this rice regularly knows the difference.

Calrose is a variety that can be used both ways. If you got glutinous rice aka "sweet" or "sticky" rice, you won't be able to get it to be loose just like if you buy long grain or jasmine rice you won't be able to get it sticky without cooking it to mush. Calrose is in the middle and the people telling you "it's the same rice" are probably talking about calrose.

They are literally the exact same rice. The sushi rice is just mixed with vinegar. I'd personally stick with a calrose rice but pretty much any will do for either situation.