Review : My Zojirushi NP-HBQ10 Rice Cooker (Part 1)

Before I start off with my rice cooker review. Let me briefly tell you what I had been using all these while.

This is my old rice cooker. The big one belongs to my Mother-In-Law. The small one is mine. My mother gave it to me. All of us loved this rice cooker so much because of it’s petite size. It can only cook upto 3 cups. That is juuuuust nice for us. The big rice cooker is more suitable for party time tho. Haha…

Seriously, I don’t feel like throwing away the mini rice cooker that my mama gave me. I just keep it.

As all of you aware, I’ve got myself a new Zojirushi Rice Cooker that cost me alot.

I love eating rice. I’m rather particular and opinionated on how rice should taste. But people always says rice makes me fat. Serve me some noodles, porridge, bread, pita & whatever, and I’ll kindly stick up my nose and pout about the lack of plain rice to eat my meal with. Okays, I shall cut the crap about myself.

Here’s the function available on this rice cooker…

Another reason why I spent so much for this rice cooker is because it comes with stainless steel inner bowl. It has real heavy weight. I like it.

And another impressive part is that, the upper detachable lid is also stainless steel. In which, none of the Tiger rice cooker models has this. This lid is a real thing!

It has this steam vent set on top, to capture the steam water. Detachable and washable.

This morning, I decided to give it a try. But I’m not really hungry. So, I just cooked half cup of rice. I used Japanese Sakura Hitomebore Rice here. Added the water according to the white rice level. The water indicator is really really useful.

Pressed Regular White Rice on the menu and start cooking. 45mins later, my rice finally ready. It looks ordinary when it’s just cooked.

But when I loosen the rice, the rice gives me a deliciously fluffy texture.

Side track abit… Saw the rice paddle? The rice paddle comes with little bumpity bumps, which are supposed to help with mixing your rice and is supposed to keep rice from sticking to your paddle. Unfortunately, I don’t like the paddle, as rice still sticks to it. If you want to keep it rice-free, you’ll need to have a little bowl of water to store it in, otherwise when you store the paddle in the holder, the rice will simply crust on it.

Let’s take a close look at the rice.. Nice?

Ahhh… The rice tasted utterly fantastic.

And let’s see the fluffiness… It doesn’t looks only nice looking. It taste delicious too.
It’s not just it’s immediate taste; there’s a distinct aftertaste with the rice that is, in fact, sweet and tasty. I appear to be addicted to the rice, which isn’t exactly the greatest thing when you’re trying to lose weight.

Let’s add some furikake on top…

What about making it into Onigri?

Yummm~!!!

In overall, this rice cooker produces very delicious rice on a consistent basis provided you use the correct amount of water and the setting.With Extended Warm, keeps rice moist and fluffy for a much longer period of time without drying up. It’s easy to clean outside and inside too. For the cons part, so far the rice paddle not the greatest, which it doesn’t really affect me. I can always get another one.

Upcoming next, I will blog more about my experiment on my rice cooker. The next one would be GABA Rice.

Stay tuned!

Random : My loots from Tangs today!

Weeeee~!!!! Tangs is having sale today!

After so much of research, so much of reading and comparison, I finally bought my Zojirushi (傻猪老鼠) Rice Cooker today!!! Mad happy can!!!

The total damage for today…
1) Zojirushi Stainless Steel Vacuum Mug. Getting it at promo price = S$30.00
2) ZojirushiRice Cooker. S$539 – 10% Discount + 12% Citibank Rebate = S$426.88 *pain*
3) Tiger Stainless Lunch Jar. S$78 – 10% Discount + 12% Citibank Rebate = S$61.77

Luckily my husband is the one who paid for my rice cooker. Hahahahas!!!

Model : NP-HBQ10 – My Zojirushi 5.5cups Rice Cooker. It looks like Star Wars helmet to me tho. Hahahas…

And here’s the general info of this super expensive rice cooker. Of course, it must be MADE IN JAPAN. Wuahahaha!!!

I won’t blog about my rice cooker now. I will blog about it in more detail as a review in another post maybe a few days later…..

Another Zojirushi product that I’ve bought. Attracted by it’s promo price (usual price is about S$69 I think), and it’s beautiful baby purple color. Quality quite good. It has non-stick interior that impressed me. But it’s Made In Thailand tho.

Initially, I wanted to get a Zojirushi brand Lunch Jar. Looking at the design and the color that they have, it doesn’t really attract me. And the price is not that cheap. So, I walked over to Tiger’s counter. I did a compare. Both are equally alright. Tiger is also equally expensive. And for product design / quality wise, it is about the same. I walked to & fro Zojirushi counter & Tiger counter for at least 4 to 5 times with my gloomy and indecisive face. Grumbling to myself on why can’t I just made up my mind. Although I would very much love to buy Zojirushi brand at the beginning, but I end up picked this Tiger Lunch Jar. The reason is because the design is pretty good. It has smooth straight body. Nice baby pink color. And most importantly…… This is the one and only Lunch Jar that is Made in JAPAN!

I couldn’t find any Zojirushi Lunch Jar / Box that is made in Japan displayed there. So, I assume that all their Lunch Jar / Box are not Made in Japan tho.

When I reached home, I open my Lunch Jar box… There’s a instruction manual in there. And it’s all written in Japanese! Zzz..

Dear Tiger, you really well done la!

Max say “This is what happened when you wanted a MADE IN JAPAN product“.
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.
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Sigh!!! Don’t they know that they must localize?

Luckily Zojirushi’s rice cooker instruction manual printed in English & Chinese language. Imagine with that multifunction rice-cooker, and if the instruction manual only printed in Japanese language? I tell you, I confirm will bang my head to the wall.

Overall, I’m really happy with my purchase today. I will be reviewing on my Rice Cooker soon.

Stay tuned.

Considering ZOJIRUSHI Rice Cooker

For those of us who love to cook, convenient countertop appliances is a must. For example, my sexy red color Kitchen Aid mixer is my baby! I can’t live without it!

I was reading this blog about the review of Zujirushi Rice Cooker, seeing how this product can elevate a cook’s skills to a whole new level.It looks indeed fun and the review is quite promising. But at another part, I knew it well that Zujirushi rice cooker does comes with a big price tag.

At 1st, I was attracted by the Zojirushi’s new Umami rice cooker. According to the blog, Umami means it’s the “delicious” flavor, and Zojirushi is putting forth the claim that by cooking your rice on their Umami setting, your rice will have enhanced deliciousness. I was totally sold by this! Pearl White color! Nice!!!!

After I did abit of google here & there. I was kinda quite confirm what I want. But what about the price? I’m unsure about the price. So, I asked Max to drive me to Orchard to take a look.

Urgh! The price tag! Although it doesn’t surprise me, because this model has “slow cook” function that it can be used as a slow cooker. But still, it makes me swallow my saliva real hard when I saw it.

Takashimaya : 5 cups – S$378 / 10 cups – S$428
Tangs : 5 cups – S$376 / 10 cups – S$408

And when I see the actual thing, I realized that they don’t have Pearl White color that I liked. The one selling in Singapore is greyish color. Urgh!!! After the salesperson gave me a brief introduction, I get to know that the “slow cook” function is kinda redundant to me. Because the maximum level of liquid for “slow cook” function… to me, if I were to cook a pot of soup, it can only serves 3. And the slow-cook function can only allow you to cook 4 hours maximum. This is not the “slow cook” that I’m looking for. So, I concluded that, thou this rice cooker can cook great fluffy rice that I long wanted. I have no doubt. But also, there’s no point paying extra for such “slow cook” technology (thou it’s good to have). So…. I hesitated buying and I think I need to consider.

Aside the Zojirushi’s new Umami rice cooker, the salesperson recommend me the newest model. Zojirushi’s Induction Heating Pressure Rice Cooker – claimed that it uses precise heat control and pressurized cooking to create perfect rice. Cooking rice with pressure helps turn beta starch into alpha starch, which makes the rice softer and easier to digest. It sounds so fun!

Let’s see…

Again, Singapore doesn’t sell this color. The one I saw is slightly more copper kinda glossy brown. It looks like a Star-Wars helmet to me. Hahaha!

So, what is it so good about this? According to Zojirushi website. – A pressurized system elevates cooking temperatures to higher levels for softer rice. Vacuum insulated inner cooking pan distributes heat to the rice quickly without allowing it to escape outside. I saw the real thing. The good about this rice cooker is that the inner rice bowl & inner top cover where it has direct contact with the rice bowl are stainless steel, and Zojirushi Umami’s one is just standard aluminum. The moment when I hold the stainless steel bowl, I’m so in love with the heavy weight of that bowl. But now I have a bigger problem here….

The Price!

Takashimaya : 5 cups – S$499 / 10 cups – S$539
Tangs : 5 cups – S$539 / 10 cups – S$599

This is a good slap on my face! A rice cooker that cost S$500?! Although I’m really sold by the fact that the inner rice bowl & cover is made of stainless steel that makes me uncontrollably gone “Whoaaaa!!!” for awhile. And I knew that it is fun to use. But the fact is that… the price of this Rice Cooker is 10 times more expensive than what I’m using now!!!

What should I do?

UPDATE : I realized that Singapore doesn’t carry these two models. For Asia Pacific market, it does carry the model that has simillar function, which is NP-HBQ10/18 and NP-YSQ-10/18. Zojirushi Umami NS-YAC10/18 & IH Pressure NP-HTC10/18 is only available in USA market.