My Rice Cooker Broke—and It Changed My Life
Finding joy in the little things that matter to each of us
Last month, my rice cooker suddenly refused to work. I got upset and yelled at it. “Come on!” It was just before dinner time.
I hit the cook button, again and again, unplugged, plugged, and hit it again. But there was only dead silence after an unfamiliar beeping.
It was a mere annoyance because I had been productivity driven for a long time. Productivity gurus on YouTube—like Ali Abdaal—were my heroes.
Feeling ashamed of my poor operations management in the kitchen, I gave up on coaxing the machine to work and pulled out my phone, and googled, “how to cook rice in a pot.”
Leave rinsed rice in water for half an hour, boil the water with rice, keep the lid shut and simmer for 10 minutes, turn off the heat and wait another 10 minutes.
When I sheepishly opened the lid, the rice was shining like pearls. To my surprise, it was the best rice I’d ever made. Each grain was perfectly fluffy with just the right amount of stickiness. Feasting on rice that was sweeter than usual, I was overjoyed.
