Assembled in the USA from 100% Chinese parts.

Neat article!

I've been thinking about buying a rice cooker, and about what kind of features I want in one. Right now I have a dinky litle microwave one, and it's actually awesome for making just enough rice to mold into onigiri for the kids' lunches, but I'd like a little more capability. Are there brands that you'd suggest, by chance?

From:

Well, I have a very old-fashioned Tatung that looks like the TAC-10KS at the top of this page: http://www.tatung.com/en/dm_200.asp. It's very simple, relatively cheap, and probably available at one of the Asian markets in your area (I hear very good things about the Vietnamese food over there).

It doesn't have to be that model or that brand, but simple is good, in my opinion. One of the ones where you put water in the cooker and set the metal rice cooker within it is the kind I'd recommend. That is, one where you have an outer water stage and various metal food containers which go in it...hmmm, I'm having trouble distinguishing it from the kind I don't like. We should talk, perhaps?

From:

Talking through it would be great! I was planning to make a pass through various of the Asian markets this weekend anyway (we've got good Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean supermarkets, and some small Japanese groceries), so I'll have a look at what seems to be available to me, and then drop you a line to see when you're available to talk. Thanks!

From:

Sure!

From:

Hey, circling back to this--

My shopping adventures this weekend were kind of disappointing (on this level, anyway -- on the upside, I found a place to buy quail eggs! Also, the motherlode of Pocky -- I now have flavors I can't even identify), in that most of the markets seem to carry really only (a) the bigger capacity cookers, or (b) the fancy fuzzy-logic kind, and I don't really need that kind of capacity or want to make that kind of investment. There were a couple of smaller, inexpensive models, but they seemed to be the direct-heat kind (they didn't specify in so many words on the outside of the box, but given the dimensions of cooker and pot, it seemed like the pot would be in contact with the heating element) and I agree with you that the indirect-heat method seems superior. And nobody carried Tatung; there was a lot of Tayama, a lot of Zojirushi, and a lot of Tiger (which seems CRAZY expensive compared to models of apparently-similar features in other brands, not sure what's up with that or if I'm missing something).

So I'm thinking of mail-order. I don't think I need a great big pot, but about a 5-7 cup capacity seems appropriate, and I found this one; does that seem appropriately priced to you?

Oh, and I remembered that my Black&Decker steamer/rice cooker, which I've had for 13 years and mmmmmmaybe cooked rice in once or twice 12 years ago, *is* a rice cooker as well as a steamer (which I use it for all the time). I made some short-grain rice in it last night, and it did okay! It's only a 3-cup capacity, though (which is enough for a single meal, or for making onigiri for lunch boxes for a day or two, but not for significant make-ahead work), and it doesn't keep rice warm, so I still want another one, but it's handy to have remembered I had it.

From:

Also, the motherlode of Pocky -- I now have flavors I can't even identify

Isn't that amazing? "Men's Pocky" is the one that really makes

bedfull_o_books laugh.

I've never even heard of Tiger-brand rice cookers.

$50 isn't bad, particularly including shipping. We got ours for around $30, if memory serves, but that was years ago. That model of Tatung is dead-simple, and should last forever. Make sure you either keep the little measuring cup or carefully figure out what the volume measures are (on both the cup and the rice pot), because I personally am sunk for proportions if I can't find the thing. Fortunately we have two, so we can usually find at least one of the measuring cups.

I also find that perforated steamer platform very useful for steam-heating dumplings and buns.

From:

Yeah, you have to laugh at that one. The one that stumped me for a long time was Gokuboso, until I figured out that just meant "skinny." The new ones I found this time which I hadn't found before were blueberry and marron, which apparently means "chestnut" -- both yum -- and then everything I've ever seen before anywhere, all in one spot. Handy! Also, the Lotte versions (I like the mini almond crunch ones of these -- they're about half as long, so they pack into lunches nicely), and Pretz. I noted that they have beer-flavored Pretz, which strikes me as remarkably efficient.

I just looked up more info about Tiger; apparently they're big in Japan. The H Mart carries a bunch of lunch jars and stuff from them also.

Thanks so much for your advice on this! It's good to know that's a reasonable price; it seemed in the right ballpark to me, but it's always good to sanity-check these things! And yeah, I'll take the warning about the measuring cup to heart -- if I'm smart, I'll actually WRITE DOWN the information, in the manual or something, so that when I both lose the cup and forget what the measurement was, I won't be doomed.

From:

Oh, I found this which illustrates the Tatung rice cookers, so I think I see what you mean; there's an outer stage with water in it, in addition to the water-and-rice in the inner actual cooking pot, so the bottom of the rice doesn't scorch -- basically a double-boiler for rice! Clever, and I can see how that would be an awesome feature.

From:

Yes! That's what I was trying to describe. :)

(BTW, the price that site is asking is too high.)

From:

Yeah, I figured as much. I was just using it as a reference, not planning to buy there.

This has been really helpful -- between this and the reviews I've read, I think I've got a much clearer idea of what I'm looking for. Now I just need to see what's available locally. I'm definitely looking forward to shopping on Saturday!

From:

nezumiko.livejournal.com

I love my fuzzy logic sanyo rice cooker. I got it at Mitsuwa Japanese market. It's light blue, perfect size for a person who lives alone. I love the timer that lets me set it to start the rice so it's piping hot when I wake up in the morning. MMM, hot rice.

Now I want some.

From:

lillibet.livejournal.com

I've had a couple of rice cookers, in fact we have one now. Family guests cooking for us occasionally use it. I've tried to like it, but the texture of the finished rice just never comes out right and I have so many years of practice cooking it in a pot that I prefer to do it that way.

From:

Hmmm. I've never had any problems with the texture, but then again, my definition of the correct texture comes from cooking rice in a cooker.

From:

bloodstones.livejournal.com

I have burned rice in a rice cooker, and its a pretty simple on/warm/off one. What am I doing wrong?

From:

browngirl.livejournal.com

You forgot to propitiate Eris.

From:

Indeed.

From:

Seriously, I'd have to have a look at what you do when you use it.

Fortunately this is possible. Perhaps we can do that next time I come by.

From:

My college roommate/suitemate from Hong Kong had a rice cooker, used it every night. BTW, I'd heard they don't work for brown rice--is that true? Because if they do, I'd seriously consider investing in one.

From:

I've never cooked brown rice in my cooker, but once you tweaked the time and perhaps the water proportion a bit, I can't see why it wouldn't work.

This review appears to recommend a specific cooker for brown rice. I have no idea whether that particularly cooker is necessary for cooking or not, but it seems like someone's had success with brown rice.

From:

Thanks! A bit rich for my blood, but maybe there's something else out there like it.

From:

I think you can definitely get a brown-rice-capable rice cooker for less than that, if you're then willing to do some experimentation to find the right ratio of rice to water for your particular cooker. I can make quite decent brown rice (albeit only about 1 cooked cup at a time) in this dinky microwave rice cooker, so I just don't believe it's as challenging as it's sometimes made out to be.

Brown rice needs more water and a longer cook time than white, and it also benefits from some soaking before you start the cooking process, so that the water can penetrate the hull. The last factor is easy to control -- you just let the rice sit in the cooking water for a bit before you actually turn on the machine. How much control you get over the second factor is going to depend on the machine, and the simple ones may actually be better for this, because there the cook time is controlled by the water -- the way they work is that the heating element goes all the way on, and because there's water in the pot, the temperature can't rise above the boiling point of water (more heat energy just goes into making the water boil faster) until the water is exhausted; at that point, the internal temperature starts to rise and a simple thermostat kicks things over to the next setting (either "keep it warm" or "off" depending on features). You can see, then, that with this type of machine the length of the cooking cycle is a direct function of the amount of water -- if you have too little, it'll reach the end while the rice is still underdone, and if you have too much, it'll keep cooking after the rice is finished and turn it into mush, but if you get it just right, it ought to click off just as the rice is perfect. Fancier "fuzzy logic" cookers don't do this all-the-way-on-till-finished thing, but keep constantly adjusting the temperature and moisture -- some of them are reportedly awesome at this, like the Zojirushi 'ness mentioned, and there's a Sanyo that's supposed to be really good also -- but others, not so much. I think if you're not going to be eating rice as an everyday staple, and especially if you don't need fancy timers and so on, going with a simple cooker, and then doing the experimentation to learn exactly the right ratio of water for it, will do you just fine.

As for other features you might look for, let me refer you up the page to the conversation 'ness and I had about the cooker he's got -- as we noted, his has a separate chamber with water in it, outside the cooking chamber with water and rice, and this keeps the bottom of the pan from being in direct contact with the heating element, so the rice at the very bottom of the pan doesn't scorch. With the longer cook time that brown rice needs already, I think this feature becomes even more desirable. Also, I've read a bunch of reviews (and this really nice review-of-reviews) that gripe about glass lids, and I note that the cooker 'ness has and likes doesn't have one. Watching rice cook isn't exciting, and if you've got your water ratio right, you don't need to watch it to see whether it's done, so I'd forgo the glass lid.

Just in case you're curious, here's what I change to cook brown rice versus white in my dinky cooker: it's got internal markings for white rice and water, and the cook time is 5.5 minutes for my microwave's power level with white; for brown, I fill it 1/4" less full with brown rice, and then add water to 1/2" above the water mark (as much as I can get away with without making it boil over -- this is why I reduce the rice, to give more margin). I do this the night before, and set the cooker with the rice and water into the microwave, so I've got a nice long soak time, and then when my alarm goes off, I wander out to the kitchen and start it cooking for 8 minutes, and go have my shower. By the time I'm done, it's cooked and rested and ready to go into bento boxes or be eaten for breakfast.

From:

wow, thanks for the detail!

(deleted comment)

From: