米饭

米饭 (mǐfàn) specifically means COOKED rice — the white rice on a plate or in a bowl, ready to eat. The compound combines 米 (mǐ, uncooked rice grains) with 饭 (fàn, cooked grain food / meal), so the word literally tells you the rice has been cooked. This distinction matters because Chinese splits the rice lifecycle into separate words: 稻 (dào) is rice still growing in the field, 米 (mǐ) is the harvested raw grains you'd buy in a sack, and 米饭 is what arrives at your table. In northern China and casual contexts people often shorten 米饭 to just 饭, but 饭 alone can also mean 'meal' generically (吃饭 'eat a meal'), so 米饭 is the unambiguous word when you specifically mean rice. In restaurants, 米饭 is the side of plain steamed rice, distinct from 炒饭 (fried rice) or 粥 (congee).

Memory hook: 米 (raw rice) + 饭 (cooked meal) = cooked rice. The compound is literal.