Rice Cooker of the Gods

Rice is a serious business in this country. And I ain't talking about Minute Rice.

We all know that rice is a staple food in Japan, and the selection of brands, varieties, bargains and premium selections is overwhelming. So is rice-nationalism - just try importing it. Another staple of the Japanese household is the rice cooker. Now you can find rice cookers in many countries - basically hot pots that, well, cook rice. They might look something like this:
While a bit nostalgic, that's the technological equivalent of a tape deck. Wondering what happened to Japanese techno-dominance? It's all about the rice cooker, baby.

I finally got introduced to the latest trend in rice cooking technology. No, not 'fuzzy logic'. That's so 90s. I'm talking about Variable Pressure Control Induction Heating.

This baby (our new one, by Sanyo, US$400) cooks rice sixty ways from Sunday. Actually 46. There are 46 pre-set pressure settings so you can pinpoit how you want to cook your rice. Rice for Curry? Sushi? Sticky rice? Summer sticky sweet rice for sushi? If your tastebuds can handle it (or, uh, notice it), there's a setting for it. But wait, that's not all! There is also a 'custom' setting that lets you set your own levels for "sweetness" and "stickiness". Not cooking rice? No worries. You can make soup, bread, boiled eggs (however you like 'em), and even Tofu with this baby.

For the last 2 weeks we've been testing our new rice cooker - a new setting every night until April!

If you really want to go all out on your rice cooking, check out Mitsubishi's WClass IH line, which I'm sure kicks ass over our Sanyo (looks better), and lists for 115,000 Yen for the smaller version (about US$1000). It's also black.

I found a brief thing on IH rice cookers in English here.