Written by By Ruth Garvin / Translated by 羅文穗

The popularity of rice cookers has also grown internationally and they are easily found in most electrical or appliance stores throughout Europe and North America. Where some homes in Taiwan don’t have refrigerators, it’s much rarer to find one without a rice cooker. The oldest rice cooker manufacturer in Taiwan is Tatung and, personally, for rice cookers, they are hard to beat. Their simplicity and longevity have made Tatung my favorite brand. Our family’s rice cooker was bought in 1961 and was eventually sold at a garage sale only four years ago, in 2004. It never needed repairs and survived many moves over the years. In these days of disposable everything, that is a record. For all I know, it could still be getting use somewhere in British Columbia!

I have always used the traditional rice cooker, the kind that you put water in the liner with rice and outside the liner as well. It’s so simple – just push the lever down and walk away. Now, of course, there are numerous types of cookers available. You can use one that only needs water in the liner, one with all kinds of electronic buttons, one with “special” buttons (which I can’t figure out), one with attached lid… the list goes on… I still like my simple, straightforward, albeit old fashioned rice cooker.

Rice cookers are most often used for making rice or Shi Fan. However, there is SO much more that can be cooked – even baked - in a rice cooker! Soups, stews, egg custard, cakes and even bread are easy to do. I have a friend who cooks macaroni in hers when preparing casseroles. Steaming fish is easy, as are vegetables and even Christmas pudding comes out beautifully, which is something I do every year.

An added bonus of cooking with a rice cooker is that most rice cookers automatically have a “keep warm” function when it shuts off. Reheating food is easy and also provides moist heat so that your meal is not dried out when you really want last nights leftovers to be flavorful once again.

Like any new toy, rice cookers often get great use for a bit and then, once the novelty wears off, get put on the shelf where they slowly get pushed to the back, never to be seen again until you want to make rice. Here’s the challenge:

Take out the appliance, give it a good wipe down and wash all the removable inner parts. Give it a place of honor and try out a few recipes. Experiment with the mighty machine and see what YOU can do!