Not bad, but not great
Written: Apr 25 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Cooks rice better than I do, very versatile
Cons: Warm feature should be marked "Burn"
|
|
|
| bwestman's Full Review: Panasonic SR-W06PC 3-Cup Rice Cooker |
For some reason, rice is one of those things that I just cannot do. I cook pretty well most of the time, but I just seem to lose my touch when it comes to rice. Pity...rice seems to go so well with so many other things I cook. My whole family loves rice. I had finally given up and resorted to minute rice...not a perfect solution, but okay.
Then, one day I entered an online contest and won a gift certificate to Costco's. My hubby and I went shopping and I saw this little gadget and felt sure it was a match made in heaven. All the way home from the store, my head swam with dozens of ways to fix rice. When I got home, I made a big pot of rice, even though it was nearly 9:30 at night.
I gotta say, this little gadget did improve my rice making abilities, but not as well as I expected. It has it's flaws. On the face, it appears very simple. Just put your water and rice in the pot in the same ratio you usually do (2 parts water to 1 part rice). Plug it in and push the button down to cook. Supposedly, when the rice is done, the button will pop up to warm and you can leave your rice there while the rest of your dinner cooks. Good theory. Bad practice.
First of all, if you are making 2 cups of rice or less, it's perfect. For large quantities, I found that I usually have to push the button down to "cook" twice. Second, the "warm" feature should be marked "burn". If you don't unplug the unit the minute your rice is done, the warming element will continue to cook the center portion, thus leaving a burn ring in the center of your rice about the size of a silver dollar. The longer you leave it on warm, the more rice gets burned. This unit has no "off" feature. If it's plugged in, it's on.
On the up side, the inner section and the outer section have a layer of air between them that will keep your rice warm for about 30 minutes without having to leave the unit on. Also, the inner part is teflon coated so it makes for very easy cleanup.
I have used this gadget to make rice, heat soups, serve Rotel cheese dip, and serve hot cidar. Even though it doesn't earn stellar marks as a rice cooker, it's versatility has been handy.
As a rice cooker, I'd give it a 6 on a scale of 1-10. It does cook rice, and it does it better than I can without it's help. The added bonus of being able to be versatile improves it's value tremendously.
Overall, I have used the thing probably 20-30 times. Maybe half of those have involved rice. Given the chance to go back and do it all again, knowing what I know now, I'd still buy it, but with lower expectations of it's ability to cook rice and keep it warm.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
bwestman
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Location: Maine
Reviews written: 240
Trusted by: 45 members
About Me:
I am hopelessly impulsive. I admit it.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.