Both varieties are unseasoned and require some kind of salt or other seasoning to bring up the flavor.

Black pearl rice, with chocolaty notes, was once reserved solely for the emperors of ancient China—it is also known as “forbidden rice.” It’s rich in amino acids and high in vitamins and minerals such as iron, potassium and magnesium.

• We added Pacific Island American Soy Sauce to the Black Pearl. Pacific Island Soy Sauce, which we discovered in our review of the best soy sauces, is a very interesting blend of soy sauce and vinegar, plus lemon, green onion and jalapeño. You get the tangy vinegar notes, as well as the soy, and it has 50% lower sodium than lite soy sauce.

Annie Chun’s Black Pearl Rice. Photo by Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

• The second time around with the Black Pearl rice bowl, we created mock rice pudding, adding milk and artificial sweetener, then reheating for 20 seconds. (Feel free to add half and half or cream and the sweetener of your choosing—white or brown sugar, maple syrup or honey.)
• To the Multi Grain Rice we first added a tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese and some fresh-cracked pepper. We keep grated Parmesan in the freezer. The trick is to have it grated very finely at the store, not in flakes, and keep it in an airtight container. Then, whenever you need a spoonful to season anything from soup to eggs, take it from the container—it “defrosts” instantly.
• For our second Multi Grain sampling, we seasoned the rice with a bit of the Pacific Island Soy Sauce and topped it with a poached egg and some minced fresh parsley (any herb will do). Some salt would have been fine instead of the soy sauce, but the vinegar in Pacific Island was a nice counterpoint to the poached egg.

A 6.3-ounce bowl is $3.19, a 12-pack is $31.08 at AnnieChun.com. The products are also available at retailers nationwide. We enjoyed all of these as snacks. With the whole grain goodness and comfort food warmth (especially during this three-week stretch of rainy days), we felt triumphant over our jones for ice cream.

• See more types of rice in our Rice Glossary.

The new Jif Natural Peanut Butter Spread is 90% peanuts; with sugar, palm oil, salt and molasses as the only other added ingredients, it is delish. It also has half the sodium of regular stabilized peanut butter. MSRP $2.70/18 ounce jar and $4.15/28 ounce jar.

Reduced Fat Jif is 60% peanuts and has eight grams less fat per serving than the regular Jif To Go. It also has corn syrup solids, soy protein, sugar, salt, molasses, fully hydrogenated vegetable oils, magnesium oxide, ferric phosphate, niacinamide, copper sulfate, pyridoxine hydrochloride and folic acid. No surprise, we happily kept the Jiff Natural, and gave the Reduced Fat product to reduced-fat-buying friends. Available in 6-pack To Go cups, MSRP $2.99-$3.19, and 18-ounce jars.

Natural Jif and Jif To Go Reduced Fat PB spread. Photo by Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

• See more of our favorite peanut butter brands.
• Your friends and family will flip for these fab, award-winning peanut butter sandwich recipes from Jif’s sandwich contest.

Yuzu. Photo courtesy Wikimedia.

If you didn’t have a chance to celebrate National Martini Day yesterday, make a splash this weekend with a Yuzu Daiquiri. Whozu, you say? If you haven’t yet discovered the joys of the Asian citrus yuzu, it may well become a favorite in sauces, beverages, desserts and more.

Yuzu is believed to be a hybrid of the sour mandarin orange and Ichang papeda citrus, related to the kaffir lime. The fruit looks somewhat like a tiny grapefruit, and tastes like a relative, with a lot more sparkle (think grapefruit mixed with exotic citrus).

Buy yuzu juice at your specialty food store, Asian market or online; and try this recipe, courtesy of Riingo restaurant in New York City.

YUZU MARTINI RECIPE

Ingredients

Learn more about yuzu.
  

Shaken or stirred? Who cares—it’s ‘Tini Time. Photo courtesy of European Sources Direct.

First, that bit about James Bond liking his martinis “shaken, not stirred,” a variation actually called a Bradford (as you can tell, the concept didn’t originate with 007). The traditional way to create a martini is to mix all of the ingredients in a mixing glass, not shake them in a cocktail shaker, so as not to “bruise the gin.” What, you say? Yes, the shaking action breaks up the ice and adds more water, slightly weakening the drink and altering the taste. Evidently, British gin martini drinkers take their mixology seriously: No less than W. Somerset Maugham declared that, “Martinis should always be stirred, not shaken, so that the molecules lie sensuously one on top of the other.”

So what does this mean for 007, bruising (or weakening) his martini? We’ll have to defer to experts to comment on that.

• Read the history of the martini and traditional martini recipes, including the Gin Martini, the Dirty Martini, the 50-50, the Gibson, the Perfect Martini and the Vodka Martini.
• Throw tradition to the winds with fun martini recipes: Chai Martini, Greentini (green tea), Lemon Meringue Pie Martini, Pomegranate Martini, Watermelon Martini and numerous other ‘tinis.

O.K., get moving. It’s ‘Tini TIme.

What’s mash? Not something made in a still. According to Boylan’s, one of our favorite brands of all-natural soda (and a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week), mash is not a soda, it’s not a sparkling juice, it’s not a fizzy water. It has attributes borrowed from sparkling juice, and it’s sweetened with sucralose. The flavors employ 1% to 2% juice, sweetened with a touch of sugar and sucralose (Splenda); the whopping 20-ounce bottle has only 100 calories (or, 40 calories per 8-ounce serving). You may just develop a mash (crush) on it.

Read our review of Boylan’s Mash, in lovely two-note flavors including Grapefruit Citrus Zing, Ripe Mango Blood Orange, Lemon Peel Ginger Root and Pomegranate Blueberry. The drinks are certified kosher.

A great summer refresher, just 40 calories per 8-ounce serving.