I’ve heard eating rice in green tea is a dish that people sometimes eat. Is eating rice in plain water a dish that people eat sometimes? This is something my mother used to do and was wondering if it’s a wider cultural thing or if it was a quirk of hers since she gave up tea when joining the Mormon church.
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Oda Nobunaga supposedly washed down a bowl of rice with hot water before going into battles.
Tea would be more flavorful but liquid is there to help you gulp down the rice.
According to [wikipedia](https://ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B9%AF%E6%BC%AC%E3%81%91), it seems like 湯漬け(yu zuke) was something that was common before green tea became popular in Japan during the Edo period. I personally have never seen or heard someone doing it around me, so maybe your mother or her family just happened to discover a traditional style of eating rice on their own.
Do you mean okayu お粥？
Apparently, some Japanese people still eat 湯漬け and in Yamagata prefecture, some people eat 水まま which uses cold water. It’s probably very refreshing during the hot Japanese summer.
Which makes me wonder, is your mother from Yamagata prefecture or anywhere near Yamagata?