Kaye2006-01-18

There is something I reeeally regret I did (or didn't do) during my stay in Finland.

P and I went to the department store to look for a rice cooker. There were only a few kinds, all simple "cook and warm" type. P said "This one is on sale." He was pointing at the box of Tefal rice cooker. It was not displayed on the shelf, so I looked at the picture on the box. Actually it looked the best of all the ones on the shelf. Other ones looked "classic," the kind we never see in Japan any more, like this:

So I just casually said "Oh, then let's get that." He bought it for me, which was very nice.

We went back home, and he opened the box. I was doing something else, and I heard him say "Oh, it's silver. And it's big." The box had a picture of a white rice cooker, and I didn't know it was silver, either. And I had no idea it was THAT BIG!

You cannot tell from the photo, but this cooks 10 cups of rice!! The biggest rice cooker I have ever seen! Why didn't I read the description on the box?! I just thought "Oh, it's on sale, and it's Tefal, so it must be OK. Looks cute on the box, too."

No one will ever cook that much rice at a time unless you are feeding a baseball team. I cooked 2 - 3 cups a few times. The bottom got burnt a bit every time. Maybe because it is powerful enough to cook 10 cups? I don't know. I felt really bad because it takes up so much space on the kitchen counter. It's not like P cooks rice everyday, so while he was at work, I put it in the empty cupboard above the oven. Sort of like hiding it. It's so huge it is intimidating. Once P was looking for something, and he opened the cupboard without knowing the rice cooker was there, and I reacted "Did you open the cupboard?!" That cupboard is not to be opened. It's a scary cupboard. I should have asked him to install a lock.

But the good news is that I found this was sold for 119.95 dollars in Australia (74.64 euros), so we got a great deal, P!