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Old 11-08-2008, 07:32 PM   #13
ERCougar
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Clark Addison View Post
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.
This makes some sense, although I'm not sure I've ever needed all four burners plus one to cook rice on. Question for everyone--how is it more convenient? Don't you still have to measure out everything?

Anyway, don't want to beat a dead horse...I'm just curious. One of my former roommates was the one who had a rice cooker, but it was a pain in the rear to clean, so we ended up just cooking on the stove. Which made me wonder--why the rice cooker?

While we're on the subject of Asian cooking--I'm in the market for a new wok. Any recommendations?

While on the subject
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