How to Buy the Right Rice Cooker For You

I consider myself to be a rice cooking expert of source. Ever since I married my Asian wife many years ago (actually since we started dating), I’ve been eating white rice almost daily. When I met her, I didn’t know what a rice cooker was. Today, I know what to look for when buying them.

Okay, let me point out something real quick. You can use a good rice cooker for all sorts of rice and vegetables. There’s more you can do with them than just cook white rice (shocking, I know).

For my money, the best brands of rice cookers come out of Japan. They have great features and last a long time. Don’t get me wrong, some other countries have good ones too, but I like the Japanese models the best.

Here’s a big note: cup size. The Japanese cup size is 200ml while the American cup size is 240ml. It’s important to know this difference when reading the product specs for a cooker or a recipe.

Do yourself a favor and get a rice cooker with a great keep warm function. They are not all the same. You want a cooker with a long keep warm mode and you want one that keeps the rice tasting like it was just cooked.

If you’re a rice fanatic, then you’ll want to look for model with induction heating. Keep in mind, the price will go up greatly, but you’ll get great rice results out of it.

Another point to look at is the cooking bowl. You want to make sure it’s a good non-stick bowl unless you really like cleaning a lot.

Speaking of great rice cookers from Japan, here’s an industry resource where you can find them, like the Zojirushi rice cooker [http://www.ricecookersreviews.com/zojirushi-rice-cookers.html]. This is a really great brand. The site RiceCookersReviews.com [http://www.ricecookersreviews.com] has some good information, including where to get the cheapest deals on good cookers. Check it out.

By the way, if you cook other types of rice, besides white rice, make sure your cooker can do it. They are not all the same. The Zojirushi brand is awesome and you can even do steel cut oats in some of the models.