Brad and his rice cooker: a tale of lovers.

Like kimchi, rice is standard fare at every meal in Korea. But you're dead wrong if you think Koreans F around with boiling water in a pot. Anyone who consumes as much rice as the average Korean has got to know that is the stone age of rice preparation. Let's compare rice prep to guns, shall we. If rice-in-boiling water-pot is a musket, then the rice cooker is an M16 with a flame thrower attached.

Nobody doesn't like rice. It has to be the most inoffensive food on the planet. Though, I've always found that Asian (Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indian) restaurant rice always kicked the ass of my mom's rice at dinner. Sorry mom. There was always one reason: stickiness. These joints knew how to bang out the stickiest, most moist servings of rice. After 22 years of restaurant rice, I was convinced that they, and only they, knew how to prepare it with such exquisite texture and taste. That was, until I used my rice cooker.

Everyone home in Korea has one of these darling contraptions. In fact, some homes have more than one. Nobody, NOBODY, cooks rice in a pot of boiling water, and here's why. Boiling the rice just isn't practical if you're going to have at least two servings throughout the course of your day. You know that ish will get cold. Not with the cooker. Throw in your desired cups of rice, fill the insert bowl with to the appropriate level, and click one button. Approx. 20 minutes later your rice is hot, sticky, and ready to be shoveled onto your plate with glee. Though the joy doesn't stop there. That one click of the button tells your machine to keep that rice consistently hot for up to three days. So, whenever you're feeling like a bowl, or just a spoonful, of delicious grains, they're hot and waiting for you.

I am convinced I will need one of these devices for the rest of my life. It matters not how difficult one is to procure in the occident. People ask me whether I live alone, and I tell them I do. But in my heart I know that's a lie. I know that in room 801 of the Jangbo Officetel, it's really Brad and his rice maker.