The 1st Curry

A rice cooker seemed like an unnecessary appliance to this mid-westerner. Yes, my Chinese college roommate had one but I never understood the point since you could just put a pot on the stove and get the same cooked rice (and don't forget "Minute Rice"). Mike expanded my horizons in NYC with our first rice cooker and I soon discovered how much easier it was just to dump the rice and water in a pot and press one button. Presto! You've got perfect cooked rice which is especially nice when you eat a lot of rice.

One night last week we went to the giant Yodobashi store in Akihabara to see about a new rice cooker that would work on the Tokyo 100v 50Hz AC power infrastructure. Rice cooking must be an art here. There were more than 40 different rice cookers on display ranging in price from US$80 to US$800! Different styles, bowls of varying metals, heating methods (most induction heating), sizes, and finishes. We settled on one with a medium size bowl, induction heating, and pressurized cooking to reduce cooking time for a mere 24,000 Yen (US$200).

The next day I managed to match Kanji characters on the bag of rice with some cryptic instructions in the manual and made perfect brown rice which I then enjoyed with a quick Japanese Curry sauce. This packaged curry mix had two bags of sauces that only had to be warmed in hot water for a few minutes. Wikipedia helps explain what Japanese Curry is but let me just say yum! Here's the bear on the box, my curry, rice cooker and bag of rice: