Three Short Grain Rices, and Why They're Not Interchangeable

Short grain rice is a category, not a single ingredient. The three we carry at Flavourfull are all short grain, all starchy, special, and all wrong for each other's jobs. Here's what distinguishes them and why it makes a difference which one you use.

Tamaki Haiga

Haiga rice is partially milled: the outer bran layer is removed, but the germ is left intact. That's where the name comes from. Haiga is the Japanese word for rice germ. The result sits between white rice and brown rice in texture, colour, and nutrition. It cooks like white rice, eats with a little more flavour and body, and doesn't need the long soak that brown rice requires.

Tamaki is the version worth buying. It's grown in California's Sacramento Valley using Koshihikari, the strain considered the gold standard for Japanese short grain rice. It's sticky enough for onigiri, has good cohesion for rice bowls, and behaves exactly as you'd want for everyday Japanese-style cooking. We use it at home as our default.

Absorption is moderate and predictable. Follow a standard white rice ratio and it won't surprise you.

Seggiano Organic Carnaroli

Carnaroli is a risotto rice, and arguably the better one. Of the three classic Italian risotto rices, it sits in the middle: more control than Arborio, slightly more forgiving than Vialone Nano. Arborio is easier to find, but Carnaroli has a higher starch content and a firmer centre, which gives you more control over the cooking process. It releases starch gradually as you add liquid, which is what creates risotto's creaminess without the grains collapsing into each other. With Arborio, the window between perfectly cooked and overcooked is narrower.

Seggiano's version is organic, grown in Vercelli in the Po Valley, which is where most serious Italian risotto rice comes from. The flavour is clean and the grains are consistent in size, which matters for even cooking.

For risotto, absorption is the whole point. You're adding warm stock incrementally and watching the rice drink it in. Carnaroli absorbs well but holds its shape, which is exactly the behaviour you want. Use it for risotto, arancini, or any dish where the creaminess of the sauce and the integrity of the grain both need to be present at the end.

La Fallera Bomba

Bomba behaves differently from both of the above. It has a lower amylopectin content than other short grain rices, which means it doesn't release much starch into the cooking liquid and doesn't turn creamy or sticky. Instead it absorbs, up to three times its weight in liquid, while the grains stay separate and distinct.

That absorption capacity is what makes it the right rice for paella. You want every grain saturated with saffron-scented stock, but you don't want them fusing together. Bomba delivers both. It also has a slightly longer cooking window than other rices, meaning it's more forgiving if your heat isn't perfectly even.

La Fallera is grown in the wetlands of La Albufera outside Valencia, under D.O. Valencia designation. It's what Valencians use, and not easy to find here.

On making paella

Paella is more approachable than its reputation suggests, but a few things matter: the sofrito, the stock, the pan size, and not stirring once the rice goes in. I wrote a full guide to paella for Chatelaine, including a seafood paella recipe, that covers all of it. The socarrat, the timing on the seafood, the stock question. It's all there.

[Read the Chatelaine paella guide and recipe]