Pretty much summed up in the title. Was a shower thought this evening after ordering Thai. I never order rice from a restaurant, always make my own.
What else would you guys consider a similar habit to this?
Edit 1: by cooking I mean rice cooker, stove top, microwave, whatever your personal preference
I'm addicted to coconut rice and every takeaway does it differently. Easier to just do it myself.
How do you do it?
yeah you can't just leave us hanging like that…
Hijacking to share my fail proof recipe.
Jesus.. 1/2 cup of coconut milk, 1 teaspoons salt & 1.5 tablespoon sugar per cup of rice.
No wonder it tastes so good.. lol
Sugar on rice? A bit unnecessary, otherwise solid recipe.
Garlic rice goes hard as well, just fry up a some garlic in butter. Chuck that into the rice and cook as usual.
I don't, but I always get set meals anyway. Like if I'm buying something that I would pair with rice, then it probably already comes with rice, so its not like I can just take it out and get more money. Very rarely do I find "just meat" on its own or something and typically if I do the price difference isn't that noticeable.
To add to this, the only places that I've seen that don't have the rice with the meat/main you can buy the rice at like $2 a bowl (at least the last place I did it was) which IMO is still fairly cheap if I'm already going to splurge on takeaway.
Yep, two cups of rice in our 20+ year old Japanese rice cooker, on fast cook mode, is almost always cooked before the delivery arrives.
When getting a take-away on the way through, it's simpler to also pick up the rice so that the meal is ready to eat when you get home.
Most of the time, home cooked rice is better quality than what the shops serve, when it comes to short grain, jasmine or ordinary long grain. I can cook a decent Basmati rice, but usually the shop bought Basmati rice has slightly more flavour, but poorer texture.
For Indian a lot of shops add ghee, salt and sugar to rice. That's the slightly better flavour.
Always. Cooking 2 cups of rice in the microwave takes 20 minutes and comes out perfectly fluffy every time.
Since buying a rice cooker at the beginning of this year, anytime I've ordered takeaway Thai or Indian, I've always cooked my own rice.
Now the real question is, as I had this thought a couple of days ago - has anyone brought their own rice in when sitting in the restaurant eating, being a true "Ozbargainer"?
Tried it and got charged corkage.
got charged
corkagericeage.
fixed…
More like ricerage
you eat jasmine rice with indian food??
I always have rice in my rice cooker so no need to buy them from the shop. If my eating habit doesn't include mostly rice, then yes, I will be buying them, no point in cooking them just for that take away.
I always have rice in my rice cooker
Doesn't it go mouldy ?
I mean I cook them almost everyday :)
Only after the third week. And it needs to be humid.
no point in cooking them just for that take away.
Why? It only takes about 7 minutes and some water….
$5 for 2 portions of takeaway rice versus $25 for a 10kg bag of rice. The equivalent cost of 2 cups done at home is $1.
Sure do add water and electricity cost and may it goes to $1.10. Still a 78% saving!
I make my own curry too… Works out at $3.58 per serve (including water and electricity) rather than $15…. That's a 76% saving !!!
Sure, but the comments above already address the effort required. Cooking rice requires 3 minutes of labour (or less). A Curry is at least 30 minutes of prep and cooking. And home made curries are rarely as good as restaurant made curries, unless your name is Justin Narayan.
already address the effort required.
no more effort required than ordering take away… 5 mins prep at most… the rest of the time it is cooking away… I don't include cooking time… Otherwise you need to factor in waiting for the delivery, or time taken to pickup your food…
@jv: Great for you if 5 minutes is all you require.. And nothing against home cooking by the way, I cook most of my meals as well. Just pointing out that cooking rice versus Thai dishes are significantly different labours to me shopping, prep and time wise.
Side note jv, your reply above is surprisingly lucid and reasoned. R U OK?
@jv: almost same procedure for cooking both rice and lentils, instead of water, just add coconut milk (NOT cream) along with onions, spices etc.
Who doesn't buy their rice on bulk or at half price from Coles and Woolies…
10KG Aussie rice (medium grain or brown) can be had for $16 or less.
Those who prefer Thai jasmine rice from brands such as Lion, Rose or Golden Phoenix.
Fair enough…
Ever since SunRice stopped supplying Australian Jasmine to more popular grocery stores (I can only find them from distributors or if you're in NSW Harris Farm seems to stock it) I have stopped buying Jasmine Rice.
I do miss it sometimes but not enough to justify double the price… 😅
@JimB: Nothing replaces the nice aroma and sweetness of Jasmine Rice, but we've been fine without it.
As mentioned before we get the Australian Medium Grain from SunRice (blue pack) and Australian Brown Rice from SunRice (brown pack). Both of which can be purchased for under $2/kilo if timed right.
Additionally we get SunRice Small Grain Sushi Rice (khaki Green or black pack depending on where you buy), this one is more expensive but it's a nicer rice for making Sushi or when we're feeling luxurious (goes really well with home made KBBQ). Coles/Woolies are ridiculously expensive for this rice ($3.50 for less than 1 KG) but our local Japanese Grocery Store (which the owners are just such lovely people) sell 5kg/10kg/20kg bags for a much better price (less than $3.5/kg depending on size).
If I was still in Sydney I'd probably get the Aussie Jasmine from Harris Farm, it's called SunRice Premium Topaz Jasmine Rice. IIRC it was about $40 for a 20kg bag.
@OpayuOnam: If you like the nice aroma and sweetness of Jasmine Rice why not just buy it even if it costs slightly more.
Rice is so cheap in the overall scheme of things and lasts forever, just get the one you want.
I buy the Dragon brand for Jasmine which is like $45 for 20kg.
And for Sushi/Japanese meals, I get Sunrise Koshihikari- https://www.sunrice.com.au/products/bulk-bag-rice/sunrice-ko… about $60 for 20kg.
Due to the amount of water required to grow rice and Australia's climate, I'm not so sure we should be growing rice in Australia.
@JimB: Having lived in Asian counties and knowing the quality of rice there I'm not so sure if I want to get them…
that's the only thing stopping me and wanting to get Aussie Rice.
People here might not know but many rice farms in Asia are infested with dangerous levels of arsenic. So as a cautious measure I prefer to get Aussie rice.
Happy to be proven wrong. and jasmine rice is nice but it's not so good to die for.
Plus I do add a bit of slat, pepper and lemon to my rice when cooking and that gives it a very nice flavour 👍🏼
@OpayuOnam: That's a good point.
We don't eat rice everyday so I'm sure we're safe. More likely to die of Covid.. lol
Then again there's millions (billions?) of people who eat rice everyday in Asia.
@JimB: It's not an immediate death but more of a long term issues arising when you are much older :)
I know many friends from variety of SEA countries who do not touch homegrown rice and only resort to Aussie rice…
Again I'd like to re-iterate that price is not the main factor and I'd happily buy the Australian Topaz Jasmine if I could buy it easily. Perhaps I should check with my local restaurants and see where they source theirs.
Believe it or not Aussie rice is a massive export to SEA and Middle Eastern countries and it sells at a premium over there. Yet here we are stuck with imported grains locally lol
edit: and yeah we consume rice at least once a day, so both quality and cost are very important as exposure will be high 😲
@OpayuOnam: Never knew that they exported Aussie rice to Asia.
I'm sure if you called Sun Rice they could tell you who stocks their products.
I do know that Asian restaurants in Melbourne buy their rice from Catering Wholesalers, all their Jasmine rice are Thai/Viet/Cambodian.
Just found this on Aust Topaz (Jasmine Rice) https://www.abc.net.au/local/archives/landline/content/2015/… quite interesting.
I'll give the Aust Topaz a go once I finish my existing near 20kg bag of Jasmine..
Seems to be widely available
- https://www.goldengrocery.com.au/products/sunrice-premium-to…
- https://www.asiangroceronline.com.au/buy/rice~jasmine-rice/s…
- https://www.neweastland.com.au/products/r004j-sun-rice-austr…
@JimB: Have actually been down this path before, SunRice gave me a none answer ("we will contact you when we have options available in your state" that was 2-3 years ago).
Those 3 websites didn't have delivery to my address, at least last time I checked. Will try them again.
🤷🏻♂️
@JimB: Will try that once finish our current stock of brown/medium/sushi rice, thanks for the encouragement 👍🏼
@OpayuOnam: I hate to burst your bubble but Australia has some of the highest arsenic levels in rice.
So high some countries don't allow it to be imported. Not really an issue for Aussies who don't eat it with every meal.
But if you ate rice with every meal might be worth looking at imported rice.
Why stop at cooking your own rice?
Why not buy frozen spring rolls, or samosas, or dumplings, etc., and cook your own to save money?
Why not buy fresh ingredients and make the curry, or stir fry, or whatever, to save money?
For those people inclined to buy take-away, surely one of the attractions is to not do any cooking?
I wouldn't exactly call 'boiling rice', cooking though, as I wouldn't call make a pot of tea cooking…
Of course. Never buy entrees - they're not good value for money.
Since we've got air fryers, it is no longer acceptable to pay for takeaway dim sims, spring rolls, chicko rolls, meat pies, sausage rolls…
All of the above is not cooking.
But you went too far with curries and stir fries.
Air fryer is good but still can't beat that deep fried goodness
Nah, it's a big difference. Cooking rice is extremely simple. (frozen spring rolls, or samosas, or dumplings) takes alot more prep and dedication. Some people go through the lengths of even making the pastry.
because if asian,
already have pre cooked rice in fridge
I cannot pay for rice.
Username checks out.
I use a rice cooker. Takeaways are expensive enough as it is.
The comments are bonkers. Dropping a cup of rice and a cup of water in a rice maker and pressing go is hardly a case of "might as well cook the whole meal"!
I'd say people who think cooking rice requires effort likely don't use a rice cooker. Hopefully it doesn't involve collenders :|
No-one seems to have considered the cleaning up, even just from boiling some rice.
And no-one has mentioned those 'take-away' options that arise during lockdowns where you get all the restaurant-made dishes to re-heat (or 'finish'). We had one that included 'ready-to-finish' naan, and we had to cook it!!!!
Takeaway already so expensive in Australia, what's another $4.
Not worth it for me when the local sell it for 2.50 a serve which is a large
Haha, you can tell who lives in an Asian household or not from the comments.
I think the biggest variable here is if you already have a rice cooker and rice at home. Which is a resounding yes for most Asian households.
If so, cooking rice takes the same amount of effort as making a glass of cordial.
If you're from an Asian household you'll likely never had cordial and experienced it for the first time either at school camp or a friend's house.
This is accurate.
wow, 100% true there. But cordials are un-healthy though, all the sugars…….
We get takeout very rarely. Maybe once a month, when we do we don't expect to cook any of it and usually rice makes up a tiny amount of overall cost. So no, we never cook rice for takeaway.
I never buy plain rice dishes as takeway as I could make a full meal with plain rice at home easily, only get fried rice for $10 as takeaway to cater my nostalgia.
You can make fried rice at home very easily too…
I only have an electric cooker, so can't use a wok :(
Not rice but we usually airfry a 1kg bag of fries instead of ordering it with fast food.
Brown rice cooked in the rice cooker at home
Which is the official OzB rice cooker please? And is it better than rinsing the rice and using the absorption method on the packet?
Not really. Sometimes I would if say I cbb to cook today but I will cook tomorrow so I just make rice eat some With my take away and leave the rest for tomorrow
The whole point of ordering on menulog or ubereats is the luxury and convenience of having a hopefully delicious meal delivered to your door without the stress or hassle of having to do any cooking or washing up. Trying to save a few $ by cooking your own rice just isn't in the spirit of things.
Thought whole point of menu log and other delivery services is to use the free $20 and never use it again
my family uses plates with takeawy, more washing anyway
I usually order dishes I can't make/replicate at home
Eg Italian -never get spag Bol/lasagne/garlic bread
Thai/Chinese - never get fried rice.
Burger joints - order burgers only, bake/air fry chips at home.
Unless it is for fried rice, or other flavoured rice, we don't usually take away 'plain' rice.
The type of rice the takeaway place use is not normally the same one that you prefer, and most of the time they are not quite right (too soft /sticky / too hard, not warm enough etc). + it is also one less extra takeaway container.
Pop on the rice cooker as soon as I put in the order.
Why not?
Saves a few $$
I order takeaway Tom yum Gai soup.
Do my own rice.
Adding rice to soup as I go.
$8.90 for soup(great!), $4 for rice (pass).
These problems go away if you stop eating rice.
I'm doing this increasingly. We keep a fairly healthy stock of microwave rice in the house and probably use that more often than not.
Yo which ones do you recommend?
We generally use the Sunrice packets. They come in three separate sizes that don't seem to be disproportionately priced based on the size you choose.
We're primarily using the jasmine variety.
microwave rice full of plastic
I cook extra noodles at home to go with my takeaway Raman.
Never thought of doing this, will admit I don't consume much rice and if I do it's never at home (home cooked).
Having flown in and out of Korea heaps I always enjoyed the steamed rice packets they served with meals on the flights (dont worry didnt pay extra for the rice), wonder (will start looking) to see if I can buy the same or similar ones to cook to add to meals now though.
I like my steamed rice. If the place I order from doesn't offer steamed rice (or it doesn't typically turn out the way I like it) I'll make my own. Not really a fan of fried ride of boiled rice.
Let the truth be told. Most Asians almost never buy boiled rice with takeaway unless it's friend rice or they are dining out.
They'll need 8 serves of rice if takeaway.
This may be the same price as 1kg of crispy pork or 1 whole duck.
I know which one I'd rather spend my $30 odd bucks on.
If it were up to me, I would make the rice myself (but I must admit I have never done this). My partner on the other hand would prefer to purchase the rice, with the same argument raised by others that if you are going to make the rice, you might as well make the whole meal.
Rice takes literally 20 seconds to put in a rice cooker with water.
That's the dumbest argument ever. It's like saying "If I have to drive to the airport, I may as well skip the plane and drive all the way to Sydney".
That kinda depends on the states of the kitchen. Sometimes making rice would mean I'd have to clean the kitchen.
I know, I should keep the kitchen clean and everything, but life happens, that's why I order takeaways.
You literally only need a space 30cm2 in order to place down a rice cooker next to a power outlet. How filthy is your kitchen??!!
@Charmoffensive: Its more like 900cm2 or 0.09m2 if you assume a 30x30cm square or 707cm2 for a 30cm diameter circle. Sorry I just couldn't let this pass.
Also yeah, HOW FILTHY IS THIS KITCHEN????
@IM-Cheap: Ummm, I am kinda going more of, what if you have not washed the rice cooker bowl. The sink I have is tiny, so I have to put the cooker bowl thingy under all the dishes which means I can't just pull that one out and rinse it.
I thought the whole point of takeaway is, you don't have to worry about dishes much (outside of the cutleries).
I swear my kitchen doesn't look like some kind of summoning ground for monsters, with mosses everywhere. But, I do get lazy sometimes and don't do the dishes after the meal or the rice cooker basically stays on until the rice dries onto the bowl, meaning I have to soak it (though this is more, my rice cooker is shit).
@iridiumstem: Never understood stacking dishes in sink or why people do that. So weird to me to clutter an important working space.
Small sinks or 2 decent sized sinks, all dirty dish stays on dining table or bench tops and clean as you go. It's so much easier to wash things when they are fresh than after soaking. Everything goes straight into dishwasher and if no dishwasher, wash and drying rack.
Also I'll add, that I tend to order dishes where I don't have to order rice separately for example, Pad Thai or Pad See Ew ;)
I just buy it for the convenience. If I were to make the rice myself, I'd just go ahead and make the rest of the meal
I've cooked my own rice a few times when ordering Indian / Chinese. It saves a few dollars each time, because they all add up
Take whatever from this, but Adam Liaw recently recommended to buy extra rice when buying take-away, and use the leftover for fried rice the next day.
I always cook my own rice. It cooks between the time ordering and picking up/being delivered.
I prefer it to be steaming hot. I also find many takeaway rice soggy.
I always cook extra for fried rice or whatever the next day.
The effort of cooking rice takes no more than a minute… no where near what it takes to cook a full meal.
Rice and Macca’s just don’t go well together.
Chop each nugget in half, big squirt Chinese bbq sauce, small squirt sriracha, mix,… done
not in asia
I only do it because lately they seem to be cheaping out and handing out old stale rice, which just ruins the meal. Luckily its super quick and easy to make in a pot at home urself.
Absolutely - its the Ozbargain way.
It takes five seconds to chuck rice and water in a rice cooker - to save $5!
If you want to chuck money away on rice - go ahead. Not me.