[178] in Vegetarian_Support_Group
Re: Shopping for rice cookers
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Erhhung Yuan)
Fri Sep 23 17:42:05 1994
To: vsg@MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 23 Sep 94 17:39:49 EDT
From: Erhhung Yuan <psycz@MIT.EDU>
I would not hesitate one bit in recommending any vegetarian, or anyone
who likes Asian dishes, to buy a rice cooker. In shopping for one,
however, do know that there are 2 general kinds of rice cookers.
The "cheaper" one that I've seen in places like Lechmere, for example,
is a small, personal-size, one with the heating coil on a spring under
the pot. This version is adequate for cooking fresh rice. The other
kind, which I have and prefer, I think you may have to go into Chinatown
to find one. This kind is a double-boiler type cooker, in which you
would put water on the outside as well as inside the pot with the rice.
This kind of cooker is generally a little bigger than the other one I
described above, and I think is much better if you need to reheat the
rice or steam vegetables (in this case you would just put water on the
outside--if you have to put it inside as in the other kind, you can see
that if you put too little, too much, that whatever you're cooking will
either be scorched or soupy). Besides having better control of the
cooking, this type of cooker, from experience, cooks a lot faster
than those little ones (I presume it uses more power, I never checked).
My friend had one of those little ones, and it takes over 1/2 hour
to cook a pot of rice. So before you go and grab one (and there
probably won't be many choices at all if you go to Lechmere), go
to stores in Chinatown to take a look (brands such as Tatung has
a good reputation for rice cookers in Taiwan).
-Erhhung
