The humble rice cooker ....

Nobody I know in Australia uses a rice cooker. It seems to be one of those gadgets that seems like a good idea at the time but quickly makes it to the back of the cupboard along with the foot spa, soda stream machine and bread maker that someone was once given for Christmas. Not so in China where the rice cooker is one’s best friend - big restaurants use them, street stalls use them and nearly every apartment comes with one. I wonder why they lie dusty and unused in so many Australian homes? They are incredibly useful and so quick – simply load it up with rice and water, hit ‘cook’, and presto, a bowl of rice ready in minutes. No stirring, no boiling over, no messy pots (and stoves) to clean up – amazing! You can even steam your fish, meat, vegetables, jiaozi (dumplings) while the rice is cooking. My only gripe with my wonderful rice cooker is that I still haven’t worked out how to get it to cook brown rice without half of it sticking to the pot. The humble rice cooker is a gadget that no family should be without and should definitely not be sitting dormant at the back of a cupboard. So, guess what my family are all getting for Christmas?