Homepro said: I made my oatmeal, steel cut, the night before and they were still perfect in the morning about 10hours later. This could be another option but I am awaiting your experiment!

First of all, I would not recommend making steel cut oatmeal and then letting it sit all night. It's a waste of energy, and the oats are probably not at their best. They may still be good (or great), but why needlessly run an appliance?

Secondly, THIS IS NOT AN EXPERIMENT. The Zoji rice cookers have timers and porridge settings for a reason! Take advantage of them. Do some Googling around and see for yourself -- thousands (millions?) of people use the overnight setting for porridge and are coming away unscathed!

Chefkev, I'll tell you what a Zojirushi customer service rep told me: If you are going to use the cooker primarily for rice, go with the induction. If you plan on trying different recipes and grains, go with the fuzzy logic models. He didn't go into detail, but he said the staff felt like the end products were better when following that rule of thumb...

JoeBlowe,
The oats are just like they were freshly made. I had a house full of guest who were waking up at different times. I don't like when my oats are mushy which is my experience with adding the water and leaving it in the oats when I used to make them on the stove. Anyway that works for you is fine with me. I am just providing my approach

Chefkev,
Can't really answer the question about Fuzzy logic versus induction.

Good luck!

joe_blowe - Thanks for the good advice as always. I think I'm set to buy the ZOJIRUSHI NS-ZCC10 neurofuzzy logic model. I've found it online for only $145 including shipping. I just want to check my local asian market first to make sure it isn't available locally.

I loaded the rice maker with steel-cut oats and water Friday night and set the timer. We were awakened at 2:00AM by the smoke alarm and soon after that, the sound of sirens in our driveway. No, just kidding. The oats came out great, and there were no disasters. The toughest decision was what to put on them. I was in a hurry, so I settled for brown sugar and raisins.

Overnight oats will definitely become part of our repertoire. The boxes of instant that are sitting on a shelf in our pantry are already starting to look like orphans. We'll donate the unopened ones to a food bank.

I have been cooking steel cut oats for years in my Zoji using the timer. I have settled on a 3-1 water to oats ratio which makes the oatmeal nice and thick. I add chopped dried fruit (apricots are especially good) and/or raisins, and a pinch of salt, before cooking, and then serve with brown sugar and a splash of heavy cream. Yum.

I never thought about adding the fruit before cooking. It doesn't get too mushy? I probably wouldn't get away with it anyway; someone would say "I didn't want it with raisins". Sigh. Maybe we should hang on to some of that instant, just in case.

Great info here - thanks!

My sister purchase a cheapy - WPuck 10cup. I used it to make a huge dirty rice recipe for Christmas lunch at work. I use store brand rice and decided I won't do that again. But, I got rave reviews on the flavor. The first time I used it, I cooked plain white rice - a lot, and was amazed at the difference between the cooker and the stove-top method. I also made my NYE dinner - black-eyed peas and smoked turkey. Boy was it good - much better than ever before. Sis has make everything but rice with it and also noticed a difference.

Now that I've tried the cooker methed, I'm rally interested in purchasing one of my own. When I checked online, I kept going back to the Zojirushi brand. I may go with it, but I do have a concern about the teflon liner. It does seem a little thin. If I can find them at the stores, I'm going to check out one of the newer models mentioned here. LOVE cooking this way. It's better than a slowcooker - Sid braises in it too. Can't wait to try the oatmeal! Great info here!

I've been meaning to respond to this, but well the Holidays...got too busy.

Flyingflower, in regards to your comment 11/9/08:
"The Sanyo, like the Zoji, uses their own measuring cup. I wish they'd abandon that funky measurement (somewhere between 3/4 and 1 cup) and use standard measurements. I finally had to write "FOR RICE COOKER" on the cup with a black sharpie pen so DH would stop mistaking it for a yogurt cup and try to throw it away!"

What you have to understand is that the electric rice cooker was a Japanese invention. So, it was created to use the traditional Japanese rice measurement "go", and they've never bothered to change it for the export market.

I personally don't have any fancy rice cooker. I have a vintage Toshiba rice cooker that we use all the time. Yup, it's at least 40 yrs old, and it's still working. It's not pretty to look at, but it does the job. I inherited it from my mom. It makes perfectly good white rice. I haven't bothered to make any other sort of rice in it. The old rice cookers worked a little differently...more like a double boiler. It would be impossible to scorch the bottom of the rice pot. You have to put water in the cooker, then place the rice pot in the cooker. Once the water evaporated, then the temperature would climb, and the cooker would turn off once the proper temp was reached.

Every so often I get an urge to buy one of the new IH Zojirushi rice cookers, but it's hard to justify it at present (and I don't know what I'd do with the old Toshiba...I've grown up with all my life...I'm a bit attached to it)

I'm a little late chiming in, but I love using my Zo with the timer to make steel-cut oats for the next morning. I do know you have to be careful not to overload it with oats, because they do foam up quite a bit -- some people with the little Zo's have horror stories about the oats that bubbled up through their vents and over their counters ;-) I've got a 5-cup, so I've never had a problem. You also want to be careful about putting perishable things in to just sit over night -- milk can get pretty funky, pretty fast.

As for the fancy fuzzy-logic vs. the $20 on/off model, my understanding is that if you just want to cook white rice *right then* with your meal and you don't want a timer or to let it sit for three hours or do anything fancy, just buy the on/off and be happy you just saved $100+. However, if you like to cook brown rice, steel cut oats, and/or need a rice cooker with a timer, a really good hold feature, or anything else fancy, just spend the money on a nice one and be done with it. I've had both, and I *love* my Zo. But then, we use the timer a lot, and make brown rice and steel cut oats.

The "hold" feature is amazing -- DH thinks they have tiny Japanese elves that keep the rice from getting hard and crusty ;-) Perfect for those, "I'm sorry, *when* are you getting home?" evenings.

Finally, as much as I love my Zo, I just bought my brother the coolest looking Sanyo, which has a slow cooker setting, a steamer setting, a tofu making setting, and an extra bowl. And the bowls really are *much* heavier than mine. If I were still single (or newly married) I'd probably pick that over the Zo, just for the extra features. Then again, I haven't eaten rice out of it yet -- and my rice standard has gotten pretty darn high ;-)

We like the Zojirushi's rice so much that we toss the white rice from the restaurant when we have leftover Chinese, Indian, or Thai food.

I wrote "DO NOT DISCARD" on the bottom of our measuring cup. I hope everyone I share our kitchen with can read.

Have any of you successfully made beans (red or black) and rice in an induction or fuzzy logic rice cooker? Are there good recipes for them in the "Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook"? While I'm happy using Zatarians mixes (hmmm, I wonder whether I can make them in the rice cooker), I think I should try my hand at something closer to homemade (and with less sodium). I wish our Zojirushi had come with a recipe book as good as the one included with our slow cooker. That would at least have gotten me started.

I love love love my Zoji fuzzy logic. I researched it 8 yrs ago and really had to think hard before paying $268 for it. But as we eat indian food and make rice EVERYDAY, we figured it was worth it. I use Zoji actually several times a day. It makes it perfectly each time. I love the non-stick interior as it really makes the clean-up easy. Here is what we make:

1/2 cup brown rice (thai red or brown basmati) for my mom
1 cup white rice for the family
and at night, I pop in 1 cup steelcut oats (McCanns) with handfuls of rainsins, cranberries, nuts for perfect oatmeal the next day.

I often make veg pilafs and risottos for partys. This is probably the hardest working appliance in my kitchen.

Only things I would change.. It is sometimes hard to clean if there is water overflow. For some of the aged rices, I need to use 3-4 cups of water per cup of rice and that means that in my 10 cup rice cooker I can only make 3 cups of rice. Still would buy it again anyday.

OK - all of you people have me obsessing about a rice cooker! Could it be that I really need this appliance in my kitchen? I make mostly brown rice, basmati and I love the idea of oatmeal in it. I called Zojirushi and of course they told me I needed the induction stainless one so I would get more nutrients out of my brown rice with their GABA technology. Of course, it's also super expensive. I don't think I can justify that price. Could I get away w/ the fuzzy logic?

Also, can anyone tell me how long it takes to make regular rice, and brown rice? Thanks.

I LOVE having a rice cooker, and think it's worth the investment to get a good one. For many years we had the old-school Zojirushi 10-cup, which I honestly think worked perfectly well for both brown and white rice (though it's not advertised as being "good" at brown rice). The only issue we had was that it didn't cook small amounts of rice very well, but then again it wasn't intended to. We now have the fuzzy logic version because I've heard that the induction cookers don't handle other grains well, and I wanted to be able to do couscous, quinoa, etc. Still have the old one, but wanted a smaller version---we'd inherited the big one from friends, but now we have a 5-cup one. We've only had this one a few months so haven't tested everything in it yet, but oatmeal on a timer was pretty cool! (DH just wanted the small version of what we had, but I really wanted the timer feature....you could always go with the simple version as a first-time rice cooker, though.)

Our old one took 15-20 minutes for white rice and half an hour for brown. The new fuzzy logic one, oddly, takes much longer---half an hour for white and 45 min to an hour for brown. The upside is that it can be prepared in the morning and set to start on its own, which I like, so we still save time on balance.

I just freecycled my 10-yr-old non-stick Zoji (maybe 11 years old, about when my youngest was born and he turned 11 today) IMO, it worked perfectly fine, used it for all kinds of rice and steel-cut oats, no problems with the non-stick, used probably once a week. (We got it to replace the un-nonstick rice cooker that had practical features: an "ON" lever, red dot "ON" light, and "ding" when it was done - Panasonic, I believe, just a pain to clean so a new one was a splurge.)

Why would I give away a perfectly good rice cooker? Because according to my Japanese mother (who's been living with us a few months now), it wasn't cooking the rice right. So now we have a Sanyo ECJ-D100S and we can cook proper Japanese rice (and sushi rice, of course.) I personally can't tell any difference.

My best advice to anyone buying a rice cooker: get non-stick. Then take care of it: hand wash, plastic or smooth wood utensils only, and don't wash the rice in it! (or my mom will have a conniption!)

being from the islands where everyone has ricecookers

I have both zoj and tiger
I like my high end tiger more ?
the aluminum is thick and is not so easy damaged or bent up

a smaller one will run about $100 or so though

again both are/have good and bad models but I can say in general spend the money for a good one whatever brand cause the lower end models that are so so so common here on the mainland are junk and dont do rice properly they just boil it and ding when done !!!
BLAH rice that way
like c9pilots inlaw says !!!!!

make sure the bowl is very heavy and wont bend etc.. take it out and feel it !! if it feels light and you can bend it then move on up the model

also learn to use a rice paddle !!! or more flat type spoon dont use spoons they pack the rice to much ! for sticky type rice at least

as said hand wash nothing but plastic or wood in it !

I just got my Zojirushi NS-ZCC10, waded through the instructions and made my first batch of brown rice. It really was better! The texture was so perfect - soft, but just enough bite. In the past I've always felt it was a sacrifice to eat brown rice instead of white, but this was just as good or even not better. DW and DD didn't notice as much, but it's worth it to me. Perhaps I won't try cooking white rice in it so I'm not tempted.

c9pilot - If you're still following, the Zoji manual says it's OK to wash the rice in the cooker, why does your mother say not to?

Also how many times is it really necessary to wash brown rice?

OK, I bit the bullet - just ordered my rice cooker. Got the same one as chefkev (on ebay). Could not justify another $100 for functions that sounded good, but in reality I wouldn't use. Really looking forward to "proper" rice and some tasty oatmeal!

Our NP-HBC18 did a fine job with a package of Zatarians red beans & rice. I thought about opening midway through cooking to add a little butter, but the results suggested it was unnecessary.

I agree with chefkev, why would the manual say to wash rice in the bowl if doing so would cause damage?

I am not the person who does not wash in the bowl ?

but my thoughts might be if you scratch it up ?

also leave small dirt in the bowl etc.. and again that can scratch it

I found a fine mesh screen bowl or large strainer you might call it works awesome to wash rice drains through and cleans quickly

Wondering if anybody is still following this - Got my rice cooker and my first batch of rice (jasmine) was a success! However, I got a little brave and this morning I bade some steel cut oats using a recipe from The Ultimate Rice Cooker cookbook. I was going on and on about how good it smelled in front of DH (who is a little dubious of this contraption) when it started bubbling out of the top of the cooker and made a huge mess! I unplugged it and opened the top and then plugged it in again (it's still cooking), but I'm wondering does anybody know why this might have happened? TIA

Coleen,
I don't know why that may have happened. Can you post the recipe? Maybe there was too much liquid? I find that I need less than the recommended amount of liquids for any I cook in the rice cooker.

Good luck!

Thanks Homepro - I don't know - but I don't think so -I followed the recipe exactly except for the substitution of raisins for dates. The recipe stated to use a fuzzy logic cooker, medium size (6 cup) - although, technically, I think the Zoji medium is 5.5 cups.

Here's the recipe (which was very tasty):

Creamy Breakfast Oatmeal (The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook)
2/3 c. steel cut oats
1 and 3/4 c. milk mixed w/ 1 t. vanilla extract
1 and 1/4 t. cinnamon
Pinch of sea salt
2 T maple syrup
1/4 c. chopped dates

Put them all together, stir to combine, cover and set to porridge cycle.

About halfway through, it all bubbled up and out of the vent onto the cooker and my counter.

Any ideas?

Sorry to hear about that Coleen. Maybe that 0.5 cup made a difference, or perhaps one or more of the ingredients made the liquid more bubbly? I made 1 cup of steel cut oats with 3 cups of water (instead of milk because it sat overnight with the timer set for breakfast) on the porridge cycle in our large Zoji this morning without any problems.

I was concerned about "flavor contamination" because our Zoji was last used to make red beans and rice, and there was a slight hint of that scent (the first thing I'd smelled in days after a bad head cold) left in the bowl. Not to worry, however, because the oats tasted just fine.

Chipshot - you may be right - but after I opened it, it went back down and then it cooked for the rest of the time without bubbling over again. Maybe I should have bought the larger one.

And speaking of beans and rice - the cookbook does have a recipe for Mexican Beans and Rice. If you're interested I'll copy it here for you to see how it compares to Zatarain's!

Coleen,
I think it may have had too much milk. Try and reduce the recipe and the amount of milk. Heated milk really bubbles badly.

Happy rice cooking:-)

Sure, I'd love the recipe. I've been meaning to buy that book but haven't seen it on local store shelves (prefer that to buying on line for a variety of reasons). I imagine (and am happy to be corrected) that the Mexican version differs from Cajun and Creole primarily in spices, so there's lots of opportunity for experimentation and variation.

I'm thinking of making something in the Zoji for the Super Bowl to go with Buffalo wings and such. Any suggestions?

chipshot - Here you go:

Mexican Rice & Beans (The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook)

1 c. long grain rice
1 c. chicken stock
pinch of salt
1 T olive oil
1 large onion chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1 15 oz can pinto beans, drained & rinsed
1 15 oz. can plum tomatoes w/ their juices
1 t. crumbled oregano leaves
2 T capers, rinsed
frreshly ground black pepper
3 T chopped fresh cilantro leaves for garnish
1/2 c creme fraiche or sour cream for garnish
2/3 c crumbled queso fresco or feta

1. Coat rice cooker bowl w/ cooking spray or thin coat of vegetable oil. Add rice, stock and salt, swirl. Set for regular.

2. While rice is cooking, saute onion & bell pepper in skillet until soft, about 5 minutes. Open cooker and add jalapeno, onion/pepper mixture, beans, tomatoes, oregano, capers and some ground pepper. Stir and close the cooker, allowing it to finish the cycle.

3. When the cycle finishes, let it stay on keep warm for 10 minutes. Fluff w/ spoon.

4. Serve w/ cilantro, creme fraiche and crumbled cheese.

Now I'm hungry!

Enjoy!

Sounds good (if a bit more involved than dumping a box of Zatarian's into the bowl).

Has anyone tried making grits in their rice maker?

Or has anyone tried making polenta?

I've had the Zojirushi 10 cup induction / stainless for 3 months now & it's as fabulous as others say. No problems. Easy to clean by hand, we use bamboo paddles. Truly great rice. Who knew!

I generally make brown rice or sushi rice. For sticky rice I steam in bamboo on the stove.

I hesitated on the size but I'm so glad I got the 10 cup. We are a family of 3 with frequent visitors. Sometimes I use it at full capacity and sometimes I just make a few cups. I am always happy with the result.

The little odd sized cup is annoying as is the idea that one day, years from now, the built-in lithium battery may give out. Don't know if I'll send it in for repair or live without but I understand I may have a decade to think about it with machine that keeps on making fabulous rice.

Tonight I used up all my leftover little bags/containers of rices. I mixed long grain brown, med grain brown, brown jasmin, a Trader Joes grain mix with parboiled brown, black barley & daikon radish seeds and just for good measure threw in some wild rice. All came out plump and perfect in my Zojirushi Neurofuzzy 5 cup model (regular brown rice setting). Looks like some more experimentation is in order.

Interesting that the white rice didn't become soggy as the brown finished cooking.

Chipshot - no white rice in the mix, just 4 different types of Brown rice, black barley, radish seeds and wild rice.

Oops, I got distracted while posting. I had meant to type parboiled brown instead of white.

Actually, now that I think about it, a few of the rice grains were just the tiniest bit on the soft side - perhaps those were the parboiled brown rice - they weren't mushy or anything though.

Unfortunately grits didn't turn out so well. They were pretty lumpy, even after stirring, and there was evidence of a near boil-over (first time I've had to clean food residue off the steam vent). No, I didn't use instant grits. I had quite a time finding the "real" cooking kind. I think I'll give them another try, this time using the "harder" white rice setting.

Keep us posted - I want to try polenta which should be similar to grits. I am wondering if either the porridge or semi-brown settings would work if the harder white setting doesn't.

I'm thinking of shorter cycles not longer ones. If harder doesn't work well I'd be inclined to try quick cooking.

Does anyone here know whether the Zojirushi induction cookers vary their temperature (aside from keep warm) and if so by how much?

Rolled or steel-cut oats tomorrow. Fuel for skiing.

I have a national/panasonic, as well as an older Sanyo. In both of mine the porridge instructions mentioned only being able to make 1/2 as much porridge as you can rice, and I have had boil overs in both on occasion when making porridge and trying to push the volume just a touch...

I still use my rice cookers for all kinds of goodies, but for breakfast porridge (oatmeal, brown rice farina, multi-whole-grain-mish-mashes) I use a cheapo small slow cooker/crock pot with a ceramic pot (the one you can get anywhere for $10 or so)--fill it when I go to bed at night, and in the morning wonderful whole-grain porridge awaits...

A few stupid questions from a newbie here (I just got my Zo Neuro Fuzzy and have run just a couple of cycles) -- first, if you use rices that don't mention "wash first" in the instructions, do you wash them anyway? What measuring cup do you use, the regular (white) or the prewash/rinse-free (green) one? What cycle options, regular or prewash/rinse-free? I have some jasmine and some basmati rice that don't mention anything about rinsing, just measure and cook and, in particular, I also make Uncle Ben's Converted (parboiled) rice frequently, and I'm not exactly sure what cycle option, measuring cup to use etc in each case.

On another front, what causes the crust (not burnt really, just brownish/harder) of rice to form on the bottom of the pot? How do I make it happen (for the folks that love it and think it's not rice unless it's formed) or avoid it (for the folks that hate the flavor with a passion)? And yes, both sets of guests are often seen in my house.

Thanks in advance,
-- Paulo.

tuba_paul - I've only had my Zo Neuro Fuzzy for a month. But after reading the manual carefully and having used it about 6 times, I'll take a crack at your questions. Anybody else feel free to jump in...

1. Follow c9pilot's Japanese mom's advice and wash all rice before cooking unless it is specifically labeled "pre-washed". In the past I was skeptical about this step because it seems to me like it could be a waste of water. But after experimentation I've found it does make a difference.
2. Use the "white/clear" measuring cup unless rice is specifically labeled "pre-washed" - in which case you would use the green one.
3. If your Jasmine and Basmati rice are white rice - use the white rice settings, if they're brown, use the brown rice setting. Use "prewash/rinse-free" only for specially labeled "pre-washed" rice. For Uncle Ben's par-boiled, you may have to experiment between the different white rice settings *regular, softer & harder).
4. The crust forms on the bottom because the bottom grains are getting a little extra heat and are actually browning/caramelizing. I have found that it can be minimized to the point of being relatively undetectable by immediately stirring/fluffing the rice the second it is ready. Letting it sit on hold without fluffing for any period of time should make it more pronounced.
I am thinking of experimenting to see if an extra tablespoon of water would make it less likely to form and a tablespoon less of water would make it more likely to form. I'd be interested in what others experience was here.

Happy cooking Paolo - keep us posted - I'm still figuring mine out but very happy with it.

Paulo, unless you are in a hurry, I think you should use up your parboiled rice and start using the "real" stuff (which Uncle Ben's also makes).

ChefKev, you are much more precise than I am. An extra tablespoon or a tablespoon less? I doubt I'm anywhere near that consistent batch-to-batch. And that's one of the things I like about my rice cooker; it seems to be quite forgiving.

Should I feel gypped that I only received the white/clear measuring cup with my rice cooker? Why didn't I deserve a green one?

chipshot - We have different models. You have the induction NP-HBC18. pcpr and I have Neuro Fuzzy models. Ours has "rinse-free" and "semi-brown" rice settings which your does not have (and hence no green cup). But do not fall into the deep and endless pit of despair and depression. Yours has a "GABA" brown rice setting which ours doesn't plus the induction (which should provide the absolute most even cooking). Yours should be the nicer model, unless of course the "rinse-free" or "semi-brown" settings are a priority. Personally, I'd rather have the GABA setting, but the induction model wasn't in my budget. I think they're both really killer rice cookers - I couldn't be happier with mine so far.
GABA GABA Hey Ho, let's go! from chefkev

Chefkev and Chipshot, thanks for the suggestions, I appreciate them. Both the jasmine and basmati are white. I have some brown rice I'm gonna make (actually the reason I wanted the cooker is so I can increase the amount of brown rice in our diets) but brown rice seems straightforward, just follow directions. My feeling is that in Asia all rice is just *supposed* to be washed and then they specifically label the ones that are prewashed, while here in US we expect the rice to be already clean and no one labels them prewashed, they just note on the directions the ones that need to be washed.

I believe the model that Chipshot has should have included a green (smaller) cup because I thought the online copy of the user guide mentioned a "rinse-free" option (our model calls the same option "pre-washed"). I'd check the user guide and control panel and ask for the cup if it's missing, I'm sure Zojirushi or the dealer would fix the situation promptly. Chipshot, I believe the clear cup is equivalent to 3/4 cup if you use the Imperial System, and the green cup is equivalent to 2/3 cup. They claim in the user guide that the reason you want the green cup for rinse-free rice is that it will measure the same weight of rice if you were using the clear cup and traditional (must be rinsed at home) rice.

As for the Uncle Ben's converted, I'll try and find a way to make it in the Zo -- some of our guests will eat nothing else and it's not really a bad rice for a white rice -- it has about 80% of the nutrition of brown rice and it fools people into thinking it's just white rice. The reason I'm reluctant to prewash it is that it would strip at least some of those nutrients and, if I'm gonna end up with just white rice in the end I might buy just that from the start, I don't mind washing the rice.

Our cooker's manual describes rinse-free rice in a chart showing various rice types but doesn't explain any special handling or setting requirements. Only one cup is mentioned in the manual. It is described as being approximately 6.1 ounces (which I assume to be volume).

I understand about the nutrients, Paulo. I generally consider rice other than brown rice to be all but nutrient-free and expect the meal's benefits to come from other foods. When rinsing rice, I can definitely see each succeeding rinse getting clearer and clearer. I have no idea whether I'm seeing bran, nutrients, or a combination of the two.

Does "mixed rice" mean multiple types of rice, or rice with other ingredients and/or seasoning?

This morning's small batch of rolled oats left residue on the inner lid. I hadn't seen that before. Perhaps a sign that our cooker is operating at a higher temperature than before?

For any of you in the Chicagoland area, Mitsuwa Market, a Japanese grocery store in Arlington Heights, has their anniversary sale at the end of February/beginning of March, and usually have good deals (25% off or so) on rice cookers--they carry a number of brands, including Zojirushi, Panasonic, Tiger, Sanyo...

They also have a semi-white rice that's only been partially milled which cooks--and tastes--exactly like white rice, but is almost as healthy as brown: California Koshihikari short grain rice with germ (tamaki haiga). It's the only white rice I use anymore (except for sushi rice).

I also picked up some brown sweet rice and some brown jasmine rice while I was there a couple of days ago, usually get my black rice there, too, but I still have some... Put a few teaspoons of black rice in with white and it comes out the most incredible shade of lavender!

Recently, a Super-H mart opened up in my neighborhood, which is pretty much a Korean version of Mitsuwa--great fish there, but the rice cookers aren't on sale this week, and Mitsuwa has a larger selection, anyways. Super-H Mart also has the best fresh made kimchee, but that's for another thread, I suppose...

In looking up the link to Mitsuwa, I see they have locations in Jersey and California, as well...

Chipshot, in our model, if you use regular rice you are supposed to measure with the clear cup, wash it, put it in the pot then adjust the water. For rinse-free rice you are supposed to measure with the green cup, put it in the pot, adjust the water and press the "prewashed" option before selecting the cycle.

I believe when you prewash regular rice you are only removing starch and bran. But I'm not so sure with converted (parboiled) rice that the nutrients won't be washed away -- apparently the process is to heat the rice in a partial vacuum and then inject either water and/or steam, then dry the rice and remove the husk, thus driving most the nutrients into the rice and preserving them, but they are water soluble.

I'm with you when it comes to white rice, I figure the actual food (except for starch) will have to come from the other dishes... as a matter of fact, for the longest time I worried that in America we were getting excess vitamins and minerals, everything seems to have "(7/9/11/15) essential vitamins and minerals" -- but lately, lots of news have been popping all over the place about people who have deficiencies that are unthinkable in a first world country (like the B complex of vitamins) and I discounted them as "they only happen to other people", until friends of mine were diagnosed with mild scurvy and/or Vitamin D deficiency; so many things are low/no fat, or are processed in such a way that more than just fat/sugar/salt gets removed and the doctors have not caught up yet, they still think that if you have a balanced diet you'll get all the nutrients you need; but who gets a balanced diet, I ask -- I had to pester the managers in my local supermarkets 'cuz every single yogurt they sold was "fat free", which simply doesn't work for baking, for example, not to mention that now one thinks one is eating actual yogurt but one is actually missing several of the key ingredients and nutrients. More news recently are popping up about how one of the vitamins in the B complex (niacin? I'm not sure) controls cholesterol better than the medicines given to people who have high cholesterol. The number of friends who are on those pills is a little disquieting and I figure I won't poke fun anymore, there'll always be other foods that are nutritious on my table, but I don't see why I should remove any nutrition from things I know people will eat no matter what diet they may be (rice, for example) even if they eat less of the rest of the dishes.

Anyway, I just made some parboiled/converted rice today, used the clear cup and regular cycle and didn't wash the rice, and it came out OK, even if a tad harder than when I cook it on the stove, but still perfectly edible, so I won't worry too much about it, I may try the other cup/cycle options but it's perfectly acceptable as it is. I'll try the other white rices with and without washing and several options etc and see if there's any difference. If anything, it seems that the computer is compensating quite well for the differences and it might very well be that your model is advanced enough that it compensates fully for everything and you don't need to worry about it. My impression is that "mixed rice" might be like when you have a regular rice mixed in with some wild rice, for example, but it might very well be that it means rice with beans or peas instead. Lots of fun trying the different things, that's for sure.

I have not had anything yet get the inner lid dirty (except for steam), but I continue to remove it and clean it every cycle. Maybe it only happens when one uses more rice/cereal and water?

And I'm still a little surprised by the number of kitchen stuff (this rice cooker included) that is imported from areas that seem to care way more than we do about saving energy and resources but then manufacture things that are not dishwasher safe or, even if they are ostensibly made with materials that are traditionally dishwasher safe, tell us to wash the things by hand. All things being equal, using the dishwasher saves not only time, but also water and energy, and I vastly prefer to put things in the dishwasher -- so far, the only thing I don't care for in this rice cooker is the hand washing, everything else has been working better than I expected.

I home cook for my dog, got so tired of babysitting for rice, the Zojirushi is fabulous! Problem: I have a large amount of Uncle Ben's converted (parboiled) brown rice. How do I cook this in the Zojirushi?

I've had one for years. I love it so much, I gave it as a wedding gift. My friend said it was her favorite gift. I believe her. They both work and she cooks a lot. I told her about the porridge and timer settings for oatmeal for breakfast. The rice is amazing!
Also, it's the only way I like brown rice. The gabba brown is great as well; it just takes time. I set the timer and it's all ready for breakfast or dinner.