I came from a rice-eating culture, but I do not eat it that often. It makes my stomach go haywire. So, when I migrated to a different country that does not have rice on the menu at all, I got accustomed to eating either bulgour or couscous. There are times when I miss eating rice, though. When that happens, I only eat brown rice, not white. We buy a kilo every 6-8 months.

I received a rice cooker as a wedding present last year. Unfortunately, we have never really used it until yesterday. It was a nice-looking Melissa Rice Cooker in gray and black. We were not supposed to use it yet, but my husband ended up spilling a lot of the rice we recently bought, all over the kitchen counter. Not everything spilled, but I did not want to store it back.

Anyway, remember to never tell someone to clean a rice cooker if he/she has never used one.

A rice cooker has three parts: the base where it contains the boiler plate, the inner pan / big bowl where the rice is actually cooked, and the cover.

This was actually quite funny as he ended up washing even the area where the boiling plate was.

Me: What are you doing?
Husband: You told me to clean the rice cooker for first use.
*while shifting the rice cooker in different angles so water would get to its every part*
Me: Just the pan/bowl. That [boiler plate] has electric wires.
Husband: Uh-oh.

We had to unscrew the rice cooker from underneath and I used a blow dryer for the wires for about 15 minutes.

We tested it and it started to smell like it was burning. So, we opened it again and used the blow dryer on it for another half an hour before we were able to cook the rice properly.

We were then able to eat a perfectly home-made gourmet meal: fried chicken with chanterelles and brown sauce plus rice, of course.

Now, that was an adventurous dinner.

Hmm, right.