Zojirushi NP-HBC10 5.5-Cup Rice Cooker

This is the top-of-the-line rice cooker. I was first attracted to this when I noticed that nearly 100% of reviews I found were 5-star. Seriously. I was skeptical, but with those figures I decided to give it a chance. I add my 5-stars! The cooker uses a trendy cooking method (induction) that heats the rice in a special way. The results are stunning. I've had a lot of rice but I feel as if I never really tasted what it could be!

The cooker has multiple settings for regular rice (three settings, hard, medium, soft) as well as for other types of rice or grains: brown, sushi, sweet, a "porridge" setting and there is a setting for a special treatment of "GABA brown rice". The latter is a special long cooking of brown rice that allows vital amino acids to develop. The cooking time for the GABA rice is 3.5 hours -- 2 of those hours are a soak at 104 degrees to "partially sprout" the rice" and the remaining time is to cook it. The result is a nutty, soft, vibrant food unlike anything I ever tasted. No burned rice, no hard grains and the flavor! The other rice cooks with similarly notable results

The machine also cooks "porridge". I put steel-cut oats in it and it cooks them beautifully. No stirring, no standing. Just put the rock hard grains in with the water, close the lid, push the button, and after a while, open the machine, stir, and you have perfect oatmeal.

The procedure for using this machine is very easy. You do need to wash the rice or grains -- this is important but hardly difficult. You wash it 3-4 times in the machine's removable cook basin. When this is done, you cover the rice (or other grains) with water, up to a line that is indicated on the cook basin itself. In fact, there are multiple lines for water levels, depending on the kind of rice you are cooking. This is a very versatile machine.

My only criticism is the time delay. While it works perfectly, the time indicator does not "count down." For example, if you want oatmeal 12 hours from now, it will show "12:00" the whole time and begin to count down only in the last few minutes. That's odd, but I'm perfectly willing to forgive this shortcoming in exchange for wonderful rice and porridge.

So, again, I heartily recommend this wonderful product. It's expensive, but it will cook the best rice (and different types at that) you've ever had. It's not difficult to use and it it also an attractive stainless steel appliance.