your thoughts on plain white rice with butter (and salt)

i was thinking back on my childhood. as a chinese kid we ate rice one way. plain. whatever outside flavoring comes from the stuff leaking off of the adjacent other food. the "plunk" of the rice cooker switch made that distinct sound.

remember like it was yesterday. my dad was dying of cancer. the crossing guard lady as seen us grow up and she was there to keep us safe crossing the street forever. she saw my mom struggling trying to isolate us from the sickness. one day, she offered to take us three kids to her house for dinner. just to give my dad and mom a break.

i have ZERO clue to what that lady fed us..but i remember one thing. it came with rice, shiny with butter and it was salted!! it was like my mouth experience MARS food or something. haha..we all came home and that was all us kids talked about. my mom never batted an eye..did we ever get our rice doctored..NO!

as an adult, in charge of my own destiny and food..i admit it..i sometimes butter my rice. it's so funny to me, that i remember that one meal. well, one part of that one meal. the white rice with butter. it might be my most memorable meal as an eight year old..(i dont know how old i was..around that time)

Salt and butter is the difference between the rice you ate every day growing up and the rice I ate every day growing up. And my mom didn't do rice cookers. She grew up in north Louisiana, which is pretty much South Arkansas, and didn't know how to cook rice when she moved to South Louisiana. My father's grandmother taught her how to measure the salt in her palm. Nearly fifty years later she still cooks rice this way.

The thought of cooking triggering childhood memories is something that resonates very well with me. I still remember mum frying off garlic and ginger during cooking.

Now where is that like button [emoji106]

I started cooking at such an early age, I barely even remember my parents' cooking.

I couldn't tell you a thing about my mother's cooking other than it most likely being bland because the television told her that salt was bad.

Being German, your rice is my bread. I grew up with my Grandma's slices if dark brickoven sourdough bread with thick butter and either salt or sugar on it. Got over the sugar bread, but I still enjoy an occasional piece of dark bread with butter or schmalz and salt.

Stefan

Touching story boom. My mom salted and buttered the rice. My dad added the black pepper.