Last week, I managed to destroy our old rice cooker.
My wife had acquired it long before our marriage. It had soldiered along reliably for years, providing us many nights of hot, steaming rice, until I got the bright idea of jamming a chopstick into the switch to override the automatic shutoff. In our household we split the rice duty and that night was my turn. I wanted it to be perfect, not too wet, not too dry. I'd mismeasured, though, and now I had a problem. The chopstick technique had worked before; however, I started reading a blog and forgot all about the rice cooker, which soon blew a fuse.
It was, I argued, about time for a new rice cooker anyway. One wants to feel a sense of advancement in life, and one way to do so is to go out and procure something brand-new, top of the line, hot off the shelf… So we hopped in the car and drove over to the store.
There are basically two general categories of rice cookers – the kind that look like glorified kettles, and a more advanced variety that resembles a bread machine, with many funky settings. The kettle type averages about $20-$40; the futuristic ones start at around $80 and go up from there. Top brands include Tiger, Cuckoo and Zojirushi.
The Zojirushi NeuroFuzzy NS-ZAC18 immediately caught my eye. It had a unique feature – a "melody signal." When the rice is finished, the cooker celebrates that happy event with an electronic rendition of "Camptown Races" or some other jingle. If that isn't enough, the machine has a cute logo – an elephant.
"I can see you really want it," said my wife. "You keep staring at it."
To be honest, I did. Not just because of the melody signal, which could, after all, get annoying. I also liked the idea of owning a product called NeuroFuzzy. And the logo was neat. However, the model was about $30 more than the Tiger JAE-A18U, which doesn't play any songs but boasts a thick round-bottom pan.
Practicality trumped commodity fetishism; we got the Tiger.
On the way to the cashier, we passed stacks and stacks of high-end models, in packaging that featured euphoric housewives hugging their new cookers. One had her fist clenched in a gesture of triumph. I was already over the NeuroFuzzy; it was not necessary, I felt now, to possess it. Enough to have seen it, to have contemplated the vision it offered. A model kitchen, perfect rice. And a happy tune.
8:42:32 PM 
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