Before I forget…
Thursday, January 21
NB Lounge at the Lombardy Hotel
111 E 56th Street
between Park and Lexington
from 7:30 PM To 11 PM (3 sets)
no cover, no minimum
Mamiko Taira (vocal)
Toru Dodo (piano)
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A rice cooker is a very common small appliance in Japanese household. I bet more than 80% of homes in Japan must have a rice cooker (sorry, no evidence or research involved!). My family used own one in looooooong, long time ago, but we stopped using it when I was early in elementary school. So, I should say my family fall in the other 20% of population who don’t own the cooker.
BTW, I didn’t start to cook until I came to the states (!), so I never used nor own a rice cooker before in my life. Even when I was helping friends cook, I never had a chance to even touch the button of the cooker. (Surely I can open the lid somehow and shut the lid in grow-up manner- cleanly and neatly. Hahaha.) Anyhow, I cook rice in regular pots and pans when I want eat rice. Oh, wait! I had once when I was in sophomore, I think. Someone who went back to Japan gave it to me, and I gave that to Yoko because I thought I don’t need one (she was living in the dorm without kitchen). Yoko, do you remember?
I love cooking rice in a pot. I love the taste of it, and love the process of it. BUT I had to admit that I always had a strange obsession of having a rice cooker. “It would be so nice that a warm, perfectly cooked rice is waiting when I came home. AH… that’s too, too good to be true!”
It is certainly a luxury to own one (because without it, I can still live), but I, all of the sudden on Sunday after midnight, thought of buying the rice cooker. It was perhaps a bad decision to browse Amazon after midnight…. I was basically knocked out by the line saying:
Rice Cooker/Warmer with Bread-Baking Function
Bread-Baking?
When and how exactly did rice cooker start baking!?
I mean… who’d thought of this marriage putting rice and bread in one place!
Oh, it’s so Japanese… everything is efficiency.
Look at it. It’s so small, too.
Love it!
Before I get obsessed of buying rice cooker, a bread machine was my obsession in one point. I don’t know why I didn’t buy it (a small bread machine is perhaps a half the price of having Steak for 1 with a glass of wine at decent steak house here in New York.) Anyhow, this particular rice cooker can shoot both of my old and new obsessions in one! I logged into my Amazon account, and clicked purchase with no hesitation (almost!) with my golden excuse for this impulsive purchase, MY BIRTHDAY. Happy Birthday, MEEEEEEE! It’s just about a week early, but hey, I need some boost in my everyday life! (Another execuse.)
Now, where should I store this new friend in my tiny, tiny kitchen in the studio? Should I build shelves? OR instead, should I forget about having it in my apartment bring it to my work to make my fantasy come true? (referring the FB comment in few weeks ago.) Oh, I don’t know, but surely I will enjoy having warm, freshly cooked rice for a while without putting it away in storage…
******
炊飯器、結局、小さいのを誘惑に負けて買いました。
だって、パンが焼けるっていうから…
お誕生日だしー…
未だ、パンは焼いていないんですけれど、
とりあえず、ご飯は炊いてみました。
不思議だなーって思ったのは、
ご飯が軽くなるような気がしました。
おなべで炊いたご飯より、軽い。
なんでだろう？
でも、なんで炊飯器でパンが焼けちゃうんでしょうか？
誰か説明してください。
眠れなくなっちゃいます、このままじゃ。
（そこまで考えなくてもいい、って話もありますが。）
そうそう。今日は木曜日ですから、
NBですよ、皆さん。
どどさんと二人でお待ちいたしております。
それから！
今、同じニューヨークに住むジャズシンガー仲間と４人で
おひな祭りの企画を練っている最中です。
もうすぐお知らせできるようになると思うので、
今しばらくお待ちください。
３月３日（水）にマルをつけておくのだけは忘れずに！
面白くなりそうですよ。ふふ。