I've had this for about a week now, and used it a couple times a day (to explore the features). It makes pretty good rice, but you have to realize that at this price point, you are paying for more than that.
Here are things with which you can justify spending $135 on a rice cooker:
1) Cooks brown rice well.
2) Steams food
3) Useful for things other than rice. This includes breakfast, oatmeal, and goes as far as stir-frying in the pot.
I realized how big #2 was when I got the "Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook" everyone was talking about. A low-tech rice cooker can be used to steam vegetables and meat by eye, watching through a glass plate, or at least controlling with a timer. This one cannot (although I haven't tried doing this on "keep warm"--perhaps it would work.)
I did a lot of research, and when I found a bargain price for the ZCC, I jumped at it over the Sanyo ECJ model, which I was holding about equal. Now I wish I had gotten that one--it has a manual mode which this lacks and a steaming tray for convenience. Really, most rice cookers >$100 will make the same rice (brown rice excluded? I don't know enough yet). But it is the extra things you can do with it that should justify your purchase.
Update2:
This cooker will never make a bad batch of rice, or require you to scrape burnt grains off the bottom. It also cooks brown rice quite well. The timer is very handy (be careful, porridge starts to smell heavenly about an hour before the "finish time" you program), and the pan is a dream to clean.
Some complaints still, though. As a college student, bringing out the frying pan for some veggies or an egg is sometimes a little more effort than I can muster some nights. A steamer basket, like that for the Sanyo model, would be nice (I have seen baskets in the store, but am afraid the metal would scratch or the pan wouldn't fit.) You can steam vegetables just by putting them on top of the rice at about the 10m marker, but I would be hesitant to steam meat (and I'm not so sure other models can either).
Also still wish it had a manual button. And having the machine only display the ETA about 15 minutes from finish is annoying, especially since it seems to be able to calculate it just fine when setting the "done by" timer. If I were to do it again, I'd try out the cheaper Sanyo and just return it if I had any complaints.
I don't think the Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook is that great, especially for a fuzzy logic cooker like this. If you're interested, borrow it from the library first.
My favorite add-ins are snow peas @ 10 minutes, sliced fresh tomato at 5 minutes (white rice--haven't perfected on brown).Get more detail about Zojirushi NS-ZCC10 5-1/2-Cup Neuro Fuzzy Rice Cooker and Warmer, Premium White.
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น