Choosing a Rice Cooker or Steamer

While you may initially look at buying a rice cooker as a scary confirmation of your addiction to Thai food, you will quickly find that using one increases your efficiency and repertoire so much that you will wonder how you ever lived without it.

From jasmine to sticky, sushi to congee, basmati to Japanese short grain, different rice is cooked different ways. Mastering the cooking technique for each variety on the stovetop can be elusive, challenging and time consuming. Cooking rice on the stove takes patience and attention. Furthermore, unlike most other dishes, rice is the soldier, not the star; few people equate cooked rice with artistic culinary self-expression. It's a great activity to delegate to an electronic device. In countries like Thailand, rice cookers are as common an appliance as toaster ovens are in the US.

It's important to educate yourself so you purchase the correct rice cooker. Most all models will cook mainstream rice well enough. With more expensive models come life-improving features.

Types of Rice Cookers

There are 3 levels of sophistication across all rice cooker lines:
- Basic
- More refined design with a better housing and a non-stick pot
- Computer controlled

Basic Rice Cookers

The basic model rice cookers look very utilitarian and have a glass or metal lid that lifts off completely. The pot is likely uncoated or thinly coated aluminum and can be a challenge to wash. These rice cookers work fine for most meals, but a number of manufacturers limit the size of them to 2-5 cups. The basic models normally cost under $30 USD.

Mid-Tier Rice Cookers

The mid-tier model has similar electronics, but adds a number of improvements. Like with the low end model, cooking is simple: there's one button to push. The lid is normally hinged and has a water catcher so that the condensed steam doesn't get all over the counter. There's a carrying handle and a more attractive exterior if you want to put it directly on the table. The pot is normally coated with a more durable non-stick surface and is removable for easy cleaning. The cord is spring-loaded and retracts into the cooker for storage. These models cost in the $70-$100 USD range.

High end Rice Cookers

The major features of the top of the line rice cookers depend on a small computer that controls the cooking. There are three primary benefits:
- selective cooking for different kinds of rice to various levels of doneness, hardness or wetness
- faster cooking times
- scheduled cooking
The computer offers little songs that play at the start or end of cooking. There are also clocks and timers. These rice cookers generally look somewhat more attractive, with cleaner lines and more stylish colors, like cobalt blue or fire-engine red.

Does the rice taste better from these more expensive, computer controlled rice cookers? Are they worth the extra cost? The answer is that it depends on how you like your rice, how discriminating you are and what your life style is. If you want different kinds of rice perfectly cooked or want rice to be done when you get home from work, then this is the rice cooker for you. These models cost up to $250.

With the breadth of models, choosing a rice cooker can range from a splurge to a major investment. If you have any sense that you'll depend on the rice cooker regularly, you will appreciate the benefits of the middle or highest tier models. Your rice cooker should last for many years, with problems normally stemming from either scratching the non-stick pot or the eventual demise of the electronics. The only other care recommendation
we can give is don't let rice sit in the pot for more than a couple days when the weather is cool, or a day when it's warm. If mold invades a rice cooker, you'll need to carefully clean it to make sure it doesn't spoil future batches. Take care of the pot, enjoy the consistency of fool-proof results and you'll not need to ever worry about cooking rice again

Revealing A Temple with Food

What: Great Real Thai food
How Much: $5 per dish, $3 per snack
Where: Thai Temple
When: Every Sunday
Who: Thai expatriates and families, Thai students, Americans with great love of authentic Thai food, neighbors

The Thai temple in San Bruno, California has been one the best finds for us. Many go to just hang out, but what keeps us coming back is the food. Most Thai Temples in the US have similar spreads.

A big part of what's fun is that you won't find the most popular Thai foods in the US, but you will find the most popular Thai food in Thailand. If you want to see what Thai people really eat when they cook for themselves or are in Thailand, this is the place to go.

Papaya Salad is the most popular dish in Thailand. Here you can order your papaya salad to your personal taste: hot or not, sour or sweet, with lots of shrimp or few. Papaya Salad goes exceedingly well with Sticky Rice and Grilled Chicken. While they don't serve grilled chicken, you can get a half chicken deep fried Thai style for $5. They also have Laab which has been hit or miss. The very first time we were there, the laab was heavenly good; lately it has been so-so. Other popular dishes in Thailand we've had there and enjoyed include Steamed Curried Fish - haw moak, meung, Mackerel with Chili Sauce - nam prik pla tuu and Mussel Sprout Pancakes - hoy tod. Many people (including us) buy extras to take home for the next couple days.

In, Thailand, most markets and some street stalls have ready made food in huge trays ready for you eat there or take home. Here at the temple, they have 6-8 trays of food that you can have with rice. They usually have a few trays of curries like pumpkin curry, curry with bitter leaves and flowers of a tree - gang keelek, five spice pork and eggs - pa-lo, sour curry - gang som, spicy fish stir fried or fish ball green curry.

Noodles come in boats: Next up two coolers sit on top of a Thai boat. What is the boat doing at the temple? Thailand used to have an elaborate canal system similar to the road system that we have today. People used to paddle everywhere. Noodles sellers used to come by your house in a boat. Now that the canals are gone, these boats refer to a type of noodles - thin rice noodles with beef and beef ball with dark dark broth. Here at the temple they have several types of noodles that you can order (you might want to read up on how to order noodles in Thailand). You can pick from two types of noodles, rice vermicelli and rice noodles and numerous meats including beef, beef balls and fish balls.

They even have types of noodles that are unheard of in western Thai restaurants, yen ta fo noodles - flat rice noodles with fish balls and reddish broth and guay jub. Guay jub is fresh flat rice noodles that has been dried and re-cooked with lots of water until mushy. The noodles are served with pig's blood and edible internal organs like liver and intestine. The broth is dark and has the aroma of five spice. The soup is served with tofu and a hard boiled egg that has been cooked in the five spice broth. While this dish may not sound great to westerners, but it is a comfort food for many Thais.

For snacks, nothing is as nostalgic for me as kanom krok and fried banana and taro. Seeing the cook pouring the kanom krok batter into what looks like a massive escargot or poached egg tray brings back the memories of my grandmother. She loved kanom krok and we'd have it every morning when I visited her house. I always let the cook know that I like mine really crispy on the outside. Kanom krok is slightly similar to pancakes, except that it is wetter than pancakes, has coconut milk and is only cooked on one side. Fried banana and fried taro tasted really great here even though my favorite ingredients are missing, grated coconut and sesame seeds.

Another recent addition to the long list of foods is roti. This roti is a type of fried dough originally from Indian but has different twist to it. The thin dough is fried in butter and topped with sweet condensed milk and sugar. It is crispy, sweet and salty at the same time.

While the dessert lady is kind of the last in line, I visit her first. Desserts vary from week to week - some are really good and go quickly. My favorite is the rainbow colored strips in coconut milk. She also makes other snacks like tapioca balls stuffed with minced pork, salted turnips and peanuts.

Every other Sunday, a minivan full of Thai spices, vegetables and goods from Thailand is at the temple's parking lot. We buy some holy basil, lemon grass, Thai chilies and galangal from the lady.

As we drive away, we can never get over what a great find that was