The Chinese etc restaurants will steam it.
Some Chinese dishes (eg Dim Sum) require "sticky rice", so they do vary the cooking procedure somewhat depending if it's destined for the table or for use in a different dish. Wrapped in leaf and tied with cooking twine, like a package you are sending in the mail, and cooked over plenty of water in a bamboo steamer on the stove. Banana leaves work well for this but there are a few others that Oriental cooks will use, such as cabbage leaves. Traditional Oriental rice is short grain, most rice sold in North America is long grain.
Most oriental cooks will prepare more than they need for the meal, store the remainder in the refrigerator, and use it over the next day or two to make stir fries, fried rice, soups, and some other dishes. The natural de-humidity of a 'fridge will dry the rice somewhat, making it easier to deal with when cooking in a wok or skillet.
Oriental cooks will also wash the rice in clean water, just fill the pot, swish around and drain most of the water, continue until the water runs clear. Usually about 5x or so. But, it's not absolutely necessary, it just removes starch, hulls, and insects (not a problem with any food grade rice in North America) and provides a somewhat cleaner appearance. Especially with Japanese cooks, who are fastidious about freshness and cleanliness and appearance.
There are a lot of ways to cook rice, and different varieties require different procedures. But if you know any Asian families, as soon as they can afford it they buy rice cookers.
Panasonic makes excellent rice cookers, get the computer-controlled one, if you want to go that way, but even a $20 Wall-Mart special will cook white rice just fine. It's other varieties that it may have less than perfect results with. Or your local Oriental Grocery Store will probably have some that you could buy, usually inexpensive China-sourced units with mysterious brand names.
If you want to try it at home, spending no extra money (maybe), try this:
Use just less than 2x water to white rice.
Combine water and rice in a pot on the stovetop. Add a pinch of salt if you like.
Bring oven up to the lowest temperature it will reasonably heat to ... perhaps 185F, but less than boiling temperature.
Bring to a boil, then cover with *a tight fitting lid* ... that is important. You may have to buy a new pot and lid if you don't have one with a tight lid at home now.
Remove from heat and pop into oven. Leave for at least 20 minutes, but you can leave it longer if you want. If you do, turn the oven off after 20 minutes ( or 45 for brown rice).
Never "check" rice by removing the lid while cooking once you place it on the pot.
You can try other liquids instead of water, for example chicken broth.
I'm not sure about contaminants in the rice fields, especially since the US (California) is a huge grower of rice and is a net exporter. Just buy CA rice if you're worried about imported rice, but honestly I don't think it's a problem myself.
