How do you cook rice?

Growing up Asian means that I only knew one way to cook rice: with a rice cooker. I hadn’t even considered other methods until last week, when a friend sent me Uncle Roger’s video critiquing how BBC says to make egg fried rice (warning: some profanity / inappropriate references). I never knew I felt so passionately about the subject until Uncle Roger laid bare the reality that ultimately, there are two types of people in the world:

1. People who cook rice correctly.
2. People who don’t.

Personally, I found Uncle Roger hilarious, albeit mildly racist. I sent the video to Asian and non-Asian friends alike, but for different reasons — to my Asian friends and family, I was implicitly saying / asking, “Look at this hilarious Asian stereotype — you think it’s funny for the same reasons I do, right?” When I sent it to my non-Asian friends and family, I was asking, “How do you cook rice?”

“I think I know why you like this,” my cousin Brian said. “He’s so judgmental…it reminds you of you.”

While Brian is not totally wrong, I was genuinely curious if there were, indeed, other valid ways of cooking rice. I immediately pinged my friends in the UK to see if any of their friends cooked rice like this. One responded, “Not my friends…I vet them carefully by watching them cook rice. However, I wouldn’t doubt this nation of imperialists to have closet cooked rice rinsers.”

On the other hand, my dad’s response was surprisingly tolerant: “That’s obviously not Chinese style…but it may still taste good.” (I mean, can it taste good, really?)

I also pinged several Indian friends to see if this was how Indian people cooked rice. Responses were a bit mixed since there are different types of rice — cooking rice in a pot was common, and some even drained rice in a colander — but I have yet to find people who also rinse their cooked rice.

Perhaps the most ironic thing of all is that a few years ago BBC put out a video titled, “How you’ve been cooking rice WRONG your entire life,” which is more judgmental than anything I’ve suggested on the topic.

It does seem like cooking rice is a metaphor for all the other controversial topics in these end times, where people are so entrenched in their own world view that it’s hard to fathom why anybody would bother with the other views out there. I know it’s hard to believe, but even I fall victim to this sometimes (e.g., why would anybody cook rice without a rice cooker?). But, I am making an effort to understand different perspectives before being understood, and to reserve judgment where possible.

The timing couldn’t be more coincidental, as my church just started this sermon series on joy, and this past Sunday’s message was on how being judgmental takes away joy. Not going to lie, I felt both judged and convicted while listening to the message, and wondered if somebody had sent the speaker some of my “judgey” blog posts. There’s definitely truth to the speaker’s message, and it’s certainly a goal I am striving towards. In the meantime, though, I’ll be living vicariously through Uncle Roger’s videos.