Out on the Limb

I thought I was fairly intelligent...until I bought a rice cooker. Somebody has a screw loose. It is either me......or it is them. I vote "them."

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but it used to be that a cup is a cup is a cup. Not so with this rice cooker. To a carpenter, a foot is NOT a foot (or a foot). Maybe someone let the carpenter in the kitchen.

I have a couple of gripes about the instructions for my new rice cooker. (see picture below)

1) Why is it so damn important that I use the little wimpy plastic urine specimen container to measure rice and water? Trust me, that is exactly what their "cup" looks like. Is there something special about their cup size that I don't know about? (snicker) Their cup is marked on the side "1/4" "1/2" "3/4".....and perhaps fill level is one cup, but it looks like it falls short to me. I'll never know, because the first thing I did was toss it.

2) Instructions tell me to measure water "from the cup provided" but they did not specify same for the rice. Since they are telling me a cup is not a cup, I need them to be specific.

3) The "line method" mentioned in Step 2 refers to the line marked on the inside of the cooking pot. These lines are marked "CUPS"......ARGGHHHH! So are the lines not standard cups and not urine cups, but a third kind of cup? I'm so confused.

We are talking about steamed rice here. I no longer own a stove (crapped out recently)...so I thought a simple little rice cooker would be handy to have while we are roughing it.

We are cooking white basmati tonight...the same way I've always cooked it: 1 cup rice to 2 cups water.

I have not told you the makers of this rice cooker because perhaps it is a great cooker with lousy instructions. If you absolutely must know, please contact me.