The Kim family album

During the quarantine many people asked me how to store rice. So: five things from a man who has stored it for 38 years.

• Dry rice below 14 percent moisture. If you press a grain with your teeth and it cracks like a nut, it is dry.


• Keep it in a clean closed jar or a bag of thick material, not in a plastic bag that sweats.


• Put a dried bay leaf in the jar. The old women are right.


• Cool and dark, off the floor.


• Do not buy more than you can eat in a year. This sounds obvious. Last spring, it was not.

Brown rice goes bad faster than white. Rice that is very fresh (this year's) cooks sticky; rice that is two years old cooks looser. For Iradi plov you want rice that is about a year old. That is the secret nobody tells.