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This is the rice that all foodies love to hate.

To make it instant, white rice is precooked, and then dehydrated. It will cook in about 5 minutes. If foodies hate this rice, your first suspicion must be that it is wildly popular, and you would be right. After all, the first step in a movie being wildly successful is for movie critics to pan it.

It may be, though, that the reason Instant Rice is so wildly popular is not so much how quickly it is ready, but that you always get rice that is perfect, all the time. Who could blame the cooks that have been disappointed one time too many by lifting a lid on a pot to discover overcooked, undercooked, dry or soggy rice, while the rest of dinner is on the table waiting?

And it was thanks to Instant Rice that households in North America and in the UK got a taste for rice, made it a staple item on kitchen shelves, and from there ventured into trying many other kinds of rice.

If the very thought of Instant Rice sends you into paroxysms of indignation, you need a chill pill.

Equivalents
As for white rice.

History
Instant Rice was developed during WWII for American troops, and introduced to the American consumer market in 1946 as "Minute Rice" by Kraft.

Other entries for: Rice

Brown Rice, Converted Rice, Cream of Rice, Instant Rice, Long-Grain Rice, Medium-Grain Rice, Paella Rice, Rice Milk, Rice, Risotto Rice, Short-Grain Rice, White Rice, Wild Rice

Other entries for:

Grains
Amaranth, Barley, Buckwheat, Cereals, Corn, Flax, Kamut, Millet, Oats, Quinoa, Red River Cereal, Rye, Semolina, Sorghum, Spelt, Teff, Triticale, Wheat