The Late Night Perils Of Shopping for Rice Cookers
This week - like so many other weeks - my kid was sick: fever, barfs, the whole lovely nine yards. In a show of solidarity, my beloved rice cooker decided it too would whine, sputter, and completely melt down. It still cooks rice, but in a sad, sick, wheezy way that takes hours - hours I don’t have when I’m panic-cooking dinner with an oh-so-pleasant sick kid and I’m hangry.
A word on my rice cooker: I love it. As a family that likes having fresh rice ready for meals throughout the week, the rice cooker is a girl’s best friend. Andddd, depending on your model, your rice cooker can also do other things. So, when my rice cooker died, I was devastated.
From my daughter's sick bed, I did the thing that so many of us elder-millennials do and browsed a bunch of list-icles online, only to then feel overwhelmed, tired and otherwise completely paralyzed with indecision. But, we needed rice and the internet waits for no one, so here is an overview of my late night, specialty kitchen gadget journey.
First, I outlined our needs:
Cooks rice quickly and consistently
Is made of a “healthy” metal (is teflon going to kill us? Does anyone actually know?)
Is reasonably priced - say around $60
Is easy to use - of the utmost importance, as I don’t have time to f*ck with a lot of buttons and functions
Next, I identified our options:
Buffalo Rice Cooker: this one has great reviews, comes in two sizes, seems easy to use, and doesn’t have a chemical coating - something I wanted to avoid. But, it was a bit more than I wanted to spend.
Elite Gourmet: an inexpensive, no frills option that looks easy to use with decent reviews.
Yum Panda Mini Ceramic Rice Cooker: Amazon’s choice, with a few different cooking options and settings. But, a bit more than I wanted to spend for a smaller machine that has more settings than I personally need.
Greenlife Healthy Ceramic Rice Cooker: a cute little guy that comes in a variety of colors, with dishwasher safe parts (as my all time favorite client said: “if it doesn’t survive the dishwasher, it doesn’t survive this house”), made of non-stick ceramic that’s easy to use. Good price point, too. But, it’s a bit too small for my family’s needs.
Aroma Housewares ARC: this one was intriguing - a good price point, good reviews, and a variety of easy to use functions. Also, this is the Goldilocks of rice cookers - not too big and not too small.
Pro tip: this process generally works well for solving problems in and out of the kitchen!
What I bought:
Welp….this is embarrassing. I didn't select any from my very well intentioned and well researched list. Instead, I yielded to my inner thrifter, and bought a high-end used Buffalo model to which I added a new inner pot. So all in all, I’m in for $80, and my new-to-me machine has a CAKE BUTTON! Lolol. Follow for more tips!