Rice Cooker

My Favorite Kitchen Gadgets

Zojirushi Rice Cooker

What I Use It For

I cook white rice, brown rice, buckwheat, quinoa and all other grain-based side dishes.

Why I Like It
I can cook perfect rice without rice cooker. But convenience of programmable,
high-tech machinery beats tiny difference in quality. I'm not sure even if there is any difference in quality of cooked rice. Load cooker with rice at 11pm, set to be ready at 6:50 and you'll wake up with a great aroma of cooked jasmine rice under childish melody that lasts several seconds and tells you "I'm done". Right away it switches to keep-it-warm cycle which last for a few hours. Usually I turn cooker off completely at this point because, kept warm for a long time, rice lose its quality. Anyway, just closed, cooker keeps rice warm for at least hour and a half without being on keep-it-warm cycle.
Although there is something that I could never possibly do without this rice cooker. It is brown rice preparation. There is unique to this cooker function - GABA rice preparation. GABA rice is brown rice cooked in such a way that it starts processes of sprouting when all nutrients are activated and nutritional values are at its pick. Besides that, brown rice cooked on GABA setting is delicious, its not that plain brown rice which I was eating before just because "it's good for you". Now "it's great for me" because it is delicious.

Note
I invested big bucks in this cooker about 6 or 7 years ago and still do not regret any cent.