Everyone in Hong Kong had a rice cooker, which was used multiple times during the day. I don't ever remember rice being cooked on a stove-top.
Partly this is for convenience, and poartly because of the stove situation. People didn't have big, 4-6 burner ranges like we have. Most people had 2 or 1 burners, so there wasn't room for rice.
Also, I don't know if this is a factor or not, but the burners were high-intensity, they got much hotter than the typical US stove, which is needed if you really want to do your stir frying correctly. It may be harder to control the low temperatures needed for rice on these burners. Or maybe not. This is my biggest complaint about cooking Chinese food here in the US. I just can't get the wok hot enough.
I almost always use a rice cooker for the same reasons, convenience, and because I need the stove for other things.
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