Don't Miss
- Exciting events happening in Yokohama
- The Salesman
- RICHARD THE STORK
- Logan 2017
- The Light Between Oceans
- HAROLD AND LILLIAN: A HOLLYWOOD LOVE STORY
- WHAT A WONDERFUL FAMILY 2 (KAZOKU WA TSURAI YO)
- Nikuon June 3 & 4
- Curry Festival 2017 at Yokosuka, June 3 & 4
- Stop by for beer and German sausages at Hibiya Park Oktoberfest 2017 (June 2-11)
- Japan’s next generation bicycle tires don’t need air
- Say Mother’s Day with a European style floral arrangement
- Award-winning short film ‘The Sad Monk’ in theatres
- Tokyo U-14 International Youth Football Tournament 2017
- Picnic Cafe Wangan Zoo Adventure
- Beauty and the Beast 2017
- Food delivery at hanami spots
- Fun events at Huis Ten Bosch This Spring!
The rice cooker convert
By Karen Pond on November 5, 2015
I looked at it.
“So, what do you think?” my husband asked. (To be honest, when he had called earlier and told me he was bringing home a “surprise,” I wasn’t really thinking cookware. I was thinking more along the lines of jewelry.)
“Well,” I said as I looked over the new rice cooker. “For starters, it is definitely too heavy for me to wear on my finger.”
So, here we go: Another new journey in Japan. Over the years, I have tried arranging flowers, making pottery, folding furoshikis, learning a new language, eating with chopsticks and singing karaoke. I tried new trains, new noodles and new combini snacks. And now, we are trying a new gadget.
I looked at the buttons on the panel.
“So, what do you think?” my husband asked as he also studied the panel.
“The bad news: No English manual,” I said. “The good news: This cute rice cooker looks a lot like R2D2 from Star Wars.”
“Well,” my husband said. “We might not be able to figure out how to cook rice. But it looks like we can get a holographic message from Princess Leia.”
“The pressure’s on, R2,” I said to the cooker. “You won’t fail us, will you?” I am pretty sure it beeped back at me to please find Obi-Wan Kenobi.
I looked at it.
Then, I added some rice. I added some water.
I pressed the one English button.
“Mom,” my son asked me with surprise. “What are you doing?”
“I’m making rice,” I said confidently.
“No, Mom,” he said. “According to this button, you are making fuzzy rice.”
I looked at the button again. He was right. It did say “fuzzy.” Fuzzy rice? Fuzzy rice? I know fluffy. I know mushy. I know burnt. I know minute. I know long-grain, short-grain, brown, and jasmine. I really know soggy. But I don’t know anything about fuzzy. I’m a bit fuzzy on fuzzy.
Twenty minutes later, I peeked at it.
“It is perfectly-cooked,” my husband said.
“That was easy,” I said.
That’s it.
Move over, microwave. Put a lid on it, stove top pot. The rice cooker is now the center of attention. And I admit it: After being a rice-cooker skeptic at first, I’m now on an automatic, no-stick, one-step kick.
So, sorry, princess, you are on your own to fight the Empire. It’s fuzzy cookin’ time.
Did you have a good laugh? Read more of Karen’s hilarious adventure stories in Japan in a book called “Getting Genki in Japan”
