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Each month, Engadget shows what our editors are up to, be it video games, podcast or gimmicks. These are not official reviews; they are simply our first-hand experiences. This week, Senior Editor Nicole Lee gives her take on the Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy Rice Cooker.
A long-standing joke among my family and friends over the past several decades is that I’m not a true Asian. Why? Because I didn’t have a rice cooker. Since rice is a staple of the Asian diet, rice cookers are commonplace in most Asian homes. But for years I refused to get one. That is, until recently when I finally gave up and got one $195 Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy Rice Cooker. And ironically, I ended up not liking rice at all.
The reason I held back was mainly because I didn’t think I needed it. Since I only live with my husband, I’ve decided that I don’t need a single-purpose device. After all, I could already cook rice with a pot on the stove. I’ve become adept at making small batches of rice over the years. Plus, it only takes about 18 minutes. A rice cooker, on the other hand, can typically take 35 minutes or more. While I enjoy rice enough to make it regularly, I just couldn’t justify the apparent inconvenience.
However, this was questioned during the past winter break. We had our family on Christmas Eve so I ordered takeaway from a local Chinese restaurant. Eventually we ran out of rice so I set about making more on the stove. I had to make rice for about 10 people, which I’m not used to. Long story short, my calculations were wrong and the rice I made turned out crispier than I wanted. My family didn’t complain, of course, but I was still a little mad at myself. So I thought again about buying a special rice cooker.
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After some research I settled on the Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy Rice Cooker. Sure, it’s expensive – you can easily get one Basic models for less than $50 — but I wanted one that could cook all types of rice, such as short-grain and medium-grain white rice, long-grain jasmine rice, sweet (or sticky) rice, brown rice, and more. More importantly, I wanted a stove with “fuzzy logic” (yes, that’s a technical term), which essentially means the appliance has a computer chip. This gives it the intelligence to adjust temperature and cooking time to account for other variables like human error (like I experienced at Christmas) to ensure perfectly cooked rice every time.
I’ve had it for a few weeks now and I love it. It really makes cooking rice that much easier. Instead of worrying about the stove, I can just rinse the rice, add water, press a button, and walk away. It also has a “keep warm” feature that lasts over five hours, giving me plenty of time to make dinner while the rice cooks. It also comes with a handy guide that tells you the right rice to water ratio for all different types of rice. In addition, it has a timer so you can have the rice ready at any time.
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But I would argue that the Neuro Fuzzy’s killer feature isn’t rice at all. I’ve discovered that it actually makes amazing oatmeal from steel-cut oats. I got this from a NYT cooking recipe for “Rice Cooker Steel-Cut Oats”, (link requires subscription) and it really is such a game changer for me. Steel-cut oatmeal usually takes about 20 minutes to prepare, and I don’t usually have time for it in the mornings. But with the rice cooker, I just throw in a cup of oats followed by four cups of water and a teaspoon of salt before I go to bed, set the timer for 8am, switch the menu to the porridge setting, press Cook and I Wake up to fresh oatmeal every morning. Plus, the resulting oatmeal is the best I’ve ever had. The texture is so creamy and smooth, making it the perfect vehicle for both sweet and savory applications. I like mine with Spam, Spinach and Furikake.
Also, and admittedly it sounds silly to talk about a rice cooker like that, but the Neuro Fuzzy is just adorable. Its long oval shape gives it a rounded, egg-like look that I find aesthetically pleasing. It also plays a tune when it starts or finishes cooking. However, my favorite design feature is the power cord: it’s retractable! This way you can store it away without worrying about a tangle of wires.
Perhaps the only real downside to the Neuro Fuzzy rice cooker is that it’s quite slow. White rice takes about 40 minutes to cook, while brown rice can take 90 minutes or more (on the other hand, stovetop time ranges from 18 minutes for white rice to about 45 minutes for brown rice). Still, that’s a small price to pay for perfectly cooked rice, creamy oatmeal in the morning, and hopefully no more ruined Christmases.
