I like Minute Rice.
You do you, Bud. I’ll hold out for flavor, texture, and brown.
Dan
I like Santa.
Vaguely on topic: i like rice, but it (white rice in particular) is off the menu for me – after I developed diabetes, I quickly discovered that white rice spikes my blood sugar like almost nothing else.
I’m not sure I’ve ever had Minute Rice or any other “instant” rice. Is there that much a difference with regular white rice? Or, rather, how is the latter supposed to be better than the former? I’ve always just made regular rice because it’s cheap and easy. I like jasmine, basmati, white long grain, short grain, it’s all good. I’ll use parboiled rice for jollof rice, too. Brown is … not my favorite but I’ll eat it if somebody serves it to me.
I like jasmine rice. Costs more, but it’s worth it. YMMV
I’m in your court, Hatchie. My mom gave it to me as a kid because it was easy to make. Back in the day, people didn’t have rice cookers, so making regular rice was a pain. While I like steamed white and brown rice, especially sticky rice, as well as wild rice, I sometimes make Minute Rice because it takes me back to my childhood.
Well, I guess it is good that somebody does.
Stranger
I like that the ratio is 1:1 and you never have a pot with half-burnt rice to clean.
Maybe I’ve only used crappy rice cookers.
Turn down the heat.
Though if your rice cooker is burning your rice, I dunno. I only do stovetop.
I loved it was a yout. I used to make it with some milk and add butter when it was done. I still make buttered rice today but it is from our daily pot of jasmine rice.
The chewy, almost crunchy rice is the best part, especially in bibimbap. In the company of heathens, I say!
Stranger
Minute rice makes a great backpacking food. Use instant soup for reconstituting, toss in some bacos or other simple protein. Great satisfying one-pot meal, quick and easy. And at a fraction of the cost of pre-packaged backpacking meals.
Not that I would ever eat the stuff at home…
I’m with you. The smaller the better.
When I was young, I loved Minute rice. But I’ve grown into a rice snob, probably because I married a Korean and picked up their preferences about rice.
For a hot dessert, rice with cinnamon, sugar, and warm milk, Minute rice is perfect. (This is criminal in Korea. 
)
For Korean and other East Asian dishes, it doesn’t work. The texture is wrong, stickiness is wrong, the flavor is wrong. I’ll eat a dish with the wrong rice, but have pity for the cook who couldn’t afford proper rice. For a so-called Korean restaurant, it means their customers don’t know any better, but we do and don’t go back. (We’ve also seen restaurants try to pass off pickled iceberg lettuce for kimchi, which is also a no-go.)
Doesn’t the rice cooker get a layer of starch glue that sticks on the sides and browns of the bottom? My experience with rice cookers is a lot of soaking and scrubbing.
I just had instant grits for lunch.
Minute rice (or any store brand instant rice) is just quicker to prepare. It also works great at soaking up flavors from any add-ins one may use. It’s also ready in five minutes after the liquid boils. Regular rice takes longer.
Is there a quality difference in the finished product? I suppose so, but I have a lack of regular rice cooking patience and skill.
We had whatever cheapie rice cooker was around for college back in 1997 or so. Never had an issue with it. It really was a miraculous device that popped out perfect rice every time.
I don’t have one now – I just do it on the stovetop – it’s easy enough, though I know rice seems to be one of these things half the people think is dead simple and the other half find difficult to turn out well.
Crusty rice is good, but it depends on what you’re going for. 99% of the time I cook rice I don’t want crusty rice. If I’m making Persian rice or paella, sure. And there’s a fine window between “crusty and delicious” and “burnt and now half or all my rice tastes burnt.”
Beef flavored.
I don’t like my rice too small or - heaven forbid! - broken. But there is a rice variety for any recipe: I currently have basmati, Japanese, Italian arborio, Spanish paella rice, parboiled (used to be my favourite, is now last in my list) at home. They are all good, only for different dishes.