By 苏剑林 | July 17, 2024
A while ago, I accidentally came across the concept of a "low-sugar rice cooker" (also called a "low-starch rice cooker"). At first, I thought it was some new high-tech product, but after a closer look, I realized it simply involves draining some of the rice water while cooking the rice. Since the rice water contains some starch, pouring it away is equivalent to eating slightly less starch—hence the so-called "low-sugar/low-starch" label. Although this type of product seems like a "marketing gimmick" (to reduce sugar, you might as well just eat half a mouthful less rice), it triggered childhood memories of cooking and a nostalgia for rice soup.
Classic wood-fired stove (Source: Internet)
In my memory, and in the recollections of my parents, I started trying to cook when I was about five years old. At that time, electric rice cookers were not yet widespread, and we used traditional wood-burning stoves. The basic steps for cooking rice with firewood were as follows:
- Wash the rice, add a generous amount of water, and start the fire;
- Once the water boils, pour out the excess water;
- Continue cooking for a short while, then stop the fire.
The excess water poured out in Step 2 is the protagonist of this article—"rice soup" (mi tang).
In traditional belief, people think that rice soup is not only nutritionally rich but also has many miraculous effects, with some even claiming it is comparable to ginseng soup. Of course, I don't intend to delve into how much truth lies in these claims, but at the very least, it is certain that rice soup tastes quite good. With the popularity of electric rice cookers, rice soup has gradually faded from people's sight; only when people occasionally remember it or have special needs do they specifically boil rice just to drink the soup.
To my surprise, with the rise of low-sugar diets, rice soup has returned via high-end concept: the "low-sugar rice cooker" or "low-starch rice cooker" mentioned at the beginning. The principle of these cookers is simple: a container with fine holes (a steaming basket) is added inside the inner pot, and the rice is placed inside to cook. Some products might be more integrated, but the principle is the same. They also share one common feature—they are "expensive." Two or three hundred RMB is considered the cheapest; slightly pricier ones cost six to seven hundred, and the most expensive can reach over a thousand.
Stainless steel rice steaming basket (Source: Internet)
For readers interested in drinking rice soup like I am, there is absolutely no need to consider buying these rice cookers. You only need to spend a dozen RMB on PDD to buy a stainless steel rice steaming basket of the appropriate size and put it into your existing electric rice cooker. It is suitable for almost all electric rice cookers. Instructions on how to cook and how much water to add are usually provided on the product page. The only reminder is that when using this method with a conventional electric cooker, because the inner pot remains wet, the device usually cannot shut off automatically. The solution is to observe carefully during the first use, determine the necessary cooking time, and set an alarm for subsequent uses to manually turn it off. In this way, I successfully tasted the flavors of my childhood—simple, convenient, and saving several hundred RMB.
Taking a moment to ramble about daily life reminds me that this place was once a lifestyle blog, and it reminds me to pay more attention to life. I hope visitors will simply enjoy it.