All you chefs might be interested in the economic stew Luke Lea's cooking up over at Born Again Democrats. It's some really B.A.D. cooking designed to give Karl Rove and his boys a heart attack.

The address is BornAgainDemocrats.com, then go to the blog entry: Income Redistribution -- is it economic poison or the salvation of free trade. Comments are welcome.

Luke

Ah, but can it tackle the hamdog?

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20050213/D887OPR80.html

"The dish, a specialty of Mulligan's, a suburban bar, is a hot dog wrapped by a beef patty that's deep fried, covered with chili, cheese and onions and served on a hoagie bun. Oh yeah, it's also topped with a fried egg and two fistfuls of fries."

Can anybody tell me where the usb port is? I'm getting sick of "amaryllis" and I want to download some new rice tones. Mine's name is Leon, by the way, and since my son put on the whiskers, it looks really cute and friendly. Put whiskers on your zojirushi, Brad, I promise you won't regret it.

Culinary Rule #1 is to not ever trust anyone from Chicago talking about food.

Like Charlie Trotter, ogmb?

After reading the whole interview let me amend Rule #1 to Don't ever trust anyone from Chicago talking about food, but especially not Roger Ebert!

I am going to go over the hill to Azabu and tell the Zojirushi people what Roger Ebert's been up to...and if you think their rice cookers are sinister, just wait until their latest thermos designs!

Actually, a rice cooker is a clever and unique device. Mine at least shuts off automatically when the liguid water has all been converted to steam (which it presumably know because the temperature rises above 212F).

This makes it good for steaming anything and then holding it until it is ready. Try bread with a small amount of water, or tortillas, or vegetables.

Much more convenient than steaming on the stove...

Have not tried stew and that one doesn't make much sense to me..

"'The' rice-cooker cookbook", Ebert? Cause on a skim of a quick search on Amazon, I see at least four contenders for that title already.

Feed me!

[What?]

Feed me!

[Who said that?]

Feed me! Feed me!

[W-w-what do you mean?]

Feed me, Bradford! Feed me now!

If you wanna be profound
And you really gotta justify
Take a breath and look around
A lot of folks deserve to die

[If you want a rationale
It isn't very hard to see
Stop and think it over, pal
The guy sure looks like rice to me...]

In my last job, I had a small rice cooker in my office, and had a plastic bin with a mixture of lentils and basmati rice. A few cups of lentils-and-rice, mixed with soy sauce and butter, made a very respectable and cheap hot lunch.

In my current job, until I work up the courage to ask permission to run a rice cooker in my cubicle, I have to make do with instant ramen noodles.

One thing we used to use ours for often is hot-pot. Rice cookers are excellent for the job -- just put in your stock, prepare whatever it is you like to add to your hot-pot, bring it to a simmer and away you go.

I actually cook oatmeal in my rice cooker every morning. I can pop it in before my shower and it's done by the time I'm dressed. It's lighter and fluffier than normal oatmeal too. (1.5 cups water to 1 cup oats.)

Hot Damn!

My own home-made Thai food!

Fiddle with rice cooker latch. Now rice cooker thinks its lid is closed. Fry steak in rice cooker.

This is old Brazillian Gai-jin trick.

Never tell Japanese people you do this or they will never eat at your house again. Generally they believe that rice cookers are only for rice and cooking something else in it would make most Japanese feel dirty. The warning on the rice cooker that says only use for rice is to preserve wa (peace or harmony) is it not there for any practical purpose.

NOTE: The concept of wa is often is often translated into English as "peace" or "harmony." However, neither of these words really convey its true meaning, which I define as follows: "The walls are made out of paper, so shut the hell up."

@ Seth: Why stop at a rice-cooker? I've got practically a whole barista setup going here -- grinder, vaccuum-sealed canister for the beans, European-style brewer...

This is a flagrant violation of company policy, but since I provide high-quality coffee to my entire team, they keep it quiet. *g*

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