Fluffy Rice...It's All About the Rice Cooker

3 cup rice cooker made in Japan

Have you ever noticed how fluffy and shiny rice is a good Japanese restaurant?  Go to any authentic Japanese restaurant and the rice just looks and tastes better.  After a conversation with some students in Japan, their Australian English teacher chimed in "it's all about the rice cooker"!  Jason, lives in Japan, owns an English school and married a woman from Japan years ago.  Several years ago they decided to give living in Australia a try.  Jason said the didn't care for the rice they found in Australia, it just wasn't the same as Japanese rice.  He ordered rice from Japan thinking that would be the answer to their rice cravings.  The rice came and much to their disappointment, the rice was still a bit dry.  They thought perhaps it's the rice cooker.  They owned a Japanese brand rice cooker in Australia, but it wasn't made it Japan...and that is what apparently makes all the difference in the world.  After ordering a rice cooker MADE in Japan, they found their rice to be shiny and fluffy, just like in Japan.

See rice in the background

If you don't believe us, try it!  The male half of this couple thought the female half of this couple was exaggerating when she said, the rice is coming out too dry because of the cooker.  Tonight we tried the rice cooker made in Japan given as a gift by some hula students.  Shiny, fluffy, moist rice.

We'll try to take a better picture of the rice.  Trust us, the same rice cooked in a cooker made in Japan comes up much better than the same rice cooked in an American made Japanese rice cooker.  See photo of the cooked rice, see how shiny it is?  We used the same amount of water in this pot as we would in the American made pot.

We're seriously considering bringing back some 3 cup rice pots from Japan for gifts!