For rice it depends. Cooking any starch in water will first cause the starch granules to swell and eventually tangle up with each other (the gelatinization). Dissolving sugars or salts in the water slows down the process by raising the temperature the swelling starts. While few prefer pasta as a stuck blob of strands, the same is not the case for rice.
You do not necessarily need to add oil, although a little oil on the cooked rice may in some cases make it more palatable. It is better to add salt in the cooking water. Sprinkling salt on top of the rice usually produces an irregular distribution of the salt, so you et bites that are salty and bites that are insipid. When this occurs you usually react adding more salt, making the rice oversalty. Adding the salt to the water means that the rice will absorb just enough salt to be flavorful, but the excess will be left in the water. You will actually eat far less salt than if you sprinkled it on top of the rice, and at the same time will have better tasting food.
Method 1 won't avoid the grain surface starch gelatinization, but it will help with stickiness (you may oil coat it after draining). Method 2 delays the starch release allowing you to finish a risotto in seven minutes. Cool for parties or for restaurants.
salting up your rice if you cook 1-2 cups at a time and save it in the fridge does seem to help it stay fresh longer. This is anecdotal and my googling lead me to this thread lol.
you should think about rice the way you think about pasta, in the sense that adding salt to the cooking water is a non-negotiable if you want the starch to taste anything but bland by the time it's done cooking. The outlet recommends adding between a ½ teaspoon to 1 teaspoon for each cup of rice you're preparing. Self, meanwhile, suggests adding other seasoning at this point as well; you can even add a bit of butter.
As with every rule, there's an exception: in Asian cultures, including Korean, Japanese, and Chinese, it is not traditional to add salt to rice while it's cooking, perhaps the salty soy sauce, fish sauce, and other condiments used in these cultures add plenty of salinity to the rice post-cooking. But when in doubt, we say go ahead and salt that rice cooking water.
