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29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very interesting cookbook and semi memoire, October 2, 2010
This review is from: The Pot and How to Use It: The Mystery and Romance of the Rice Cooker (Paperback)
This is not your usual cookbook.
First, it lets you know that you really can cook other foods besides rice in the most basic (or fancy) rice cooker.
Second, it's not an extensive recipe book. There are some recipes, yes, but the book encourages you to try your own ideas.
Third, the text is lively, witty, and entertaining. Roger Ebert's voice is not stilled.
Fourth, buy it just to read it as a book, but you'll probably end up also buying a rice cooker or using the one you have for more foods than rice.
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
FUN READING, AND NOW WE OWN A RICE COOKER!, September 28, 2010
This review is from: The Pot and How to Use It: The Mystery and Romance of the Rice Cooker (Paperback)
If you think reading a cookbook isn't fun you haven't looked at the latest by Pulitzer Prize winning film critic Roger Ebert. In what other collection of recipes will you find limericks and directions such as "add a splash of" or "throw in some pineapple chunks"? But then, as Ebert writes, "This is not an instruction book. It is an evocation of the ancient spirit of the Pot." And, of course, what those directions in the form of asides do is encourage you to experiment, create dishes that suit your taste and preference.
However, there is one teaching on which he is quite clear - in fact, it is the heading of Chapter 4 "Get The Pot" And his pot of choice is Zojirushi. A pint sized beauty now resting comfortably on our kitchen counter. One test try with this and we're converts to Ebert's way of thinking - the rice was so much fluffier, actually tastier. We tried his "Salty Rice with Tuna" - completely satisfying with a modicum of saltiness.
Now, we did not follow his directions exactly because he suggested we add "a squirt of that spicy red chili sauce in the bottle with the green lid and the Chinese characters on it." Didn't I tell you THE POT AND HOW TO USE IT was fun? We're still looking for that easily identifiable bottle.
While this book is a breezy, enjoyable read it is also studded with nuggets of information re healthy eating, what is nutritious and what is not. Plus a chapter is devoted to "Your Comments," consisting of readers' responses to Ebert's blog. Here we find discussions of various rice cookers (from those that "spewed water all over the place" to a $12.99 beloved cheapie), as well as favorite recipes that include everything from "Seafood Jambalaya" to "Chicken and the Usual Suspect Vegetables." After a bit you'll be amazed at what you can and what you want to prepare in your rice cooker (yes, you can steam eggs, and yes, you can bake a cake).
Enjoy!
- Gail Cooke
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34 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A guide book not a recipe book, September 29, 2010
This review is from: The Pot and How to Use It: The Mystery and Romance of the Rice Cooker (Paperback)
Like a new guide on an African Safari this book tells you everything you needed to know, but nothing particularly useful! It is cleverly written but spends entirely to much time telling you why you need to have the pot, and of course why you need to have the pot, not to forget why you need to have the pot. I bought the book knowing I needed the pot, I didn't need to be told why!
After I got half way through I figured I could be my own Safari guide, particularly when I got to the multiple pages of people just like you who had bought the pot and decided they needed to say something... I skipped to the end, I'm sure there was useful information in there but I had already been told why I needed to have the pot. There was around 20 pages of recipes, in a 128 pages of book.
For an entertaining read I'd borrow this one from the library, and buy an actual cook book for the pot.
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