Look at the two bowls of rice above.

Can you tell the difference?

They're washed the same way.
Soaked and left for the same amount of time.
Cooked with the same rice cooker, same settings.
The same type of rice.
The same amount of water.
No added stuff.
Fluffed immediately after.

Harvard you wanker you used filtered water, didn't you?

I'll see your filtered water, and raise you

SPARKLING WATER.

A friend was flipping through my old Japanese cooking magazines and saw an ad for Sodastream.

The ad promises ツヤ・モチ・ふっくら (shiny, mochi, plump) rice if you cook it with sparkling water.
Here's the commercial:
https://youtu.be/m-lp9dL9Ky8?t=15

-

Gotta give it to the Japanese right?

While the west was questioning the political implication of ScarJo being the face of a company that operates from Israel, the Japanese dared to ask the real question:

So, uh, can we cook rice with this?

The 'science' is the tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide that will 'coat' and separate the rice grains so they cook evenly, hence the shine, the mochi, the plump.

I call bullshit.

Tempura batter maybe, but rice is heavier than air.
Oil makes more sense.
Ever wonder why chicken rice and nasi lemak are always so defined?
Mmm greasy rice.

I was supposed to be on a flight to New Zealand today, but it was canceled due to a last-minute COVID bum-rush in Australia.

The wife and daughter had moved on, enjoying their day at the zoo while I sulked at home, cleaning the fridge and making curry for dinner.

That's when I thought, hey, no better time to conduct this stupid experiment.

-

So back to my original question:

Can you tell which bowl is the sparkling water rice?

Apparently, my wife could.

(Answer: right bowl.)

But when it came to taste, she preferred the normal non-sparkling way.

I tested on my 2 Japanese guests who came for dinner.

One preferred the taste of sparkling water rice (‘obviously this is better!’); the other, non-sparkling (‘obviously this is sweeter!’).

Although, appearance-wise they could all tell one was more 'separated' than the other.
So maybe the extra CO2 generated more pressure in the rice cooker.
I'll give 'plump' a tick.

I personally don't care.
I think buying good rice is all that matters.

I wrote about Japanese rice in my latest newsletter - even at $8-kilo, Special A-grade level rice in Japan, it's still down to personal preference.

Some (especially old people with dentures) like it soft and mochi-mochi; some prefer hard and al dente.

Besides, buying rice harvested by the Japanese is like buying wine from the French, right?
You're paying for hard labor from first-world country residents, you've made it in life.

Do we really need more elevation?
All that sparkling?

I mean, it just sounds so ...try-hard upper-middle class.

Rice brought to you by Sodastream™.

Made next to the air-fryer next to the slow cooker next to the instapot next to the stand mixer next to the vitamix next to the bread maker next to the thermomix next to the coffee maker next to the deep fryer next to the sous vide machine next to the dehydrator next to the hot water dispenser.

Having said that, I can so imagine the fine-dining restaurants, the ones with white tablecloths, nordic timber tables, felt curtains from ceiling to the ground and the bald head chef with tattooed forearms, introducing 'San Pellegrino / Antipodes / Voss Sparkling Water rice with Gold Foil Furikake' to their degustation menu. Some poor intern's job to make sure all the rice grains are separated to the head chef's liking.

Foodies would shit bricks and pass out with froths in their mouths.
(I can taste the minerals! I really can!)

Sometimes, perception is important to enjoying food (life) too, no?

Or else we'd all be eating astronaut food.

If cooking rice with sparkling water can make you feel better about life, why not?
Go for it.