No one puts baby in the corner

When the Fulbright coordinators came to Ben Tre to check on my three weeks after my arrival, they insisted that my hosts provide me with a rice cooker. This is not something I myself would have ever insisted upon, as in my many years of consuming rice I have never felt ill equipped without a rice cooker. However, I received one. And, until today, it sat in its original packaging in a corner of my living room. At some point, feeling guilty about the school's expense for my sake, I bought 5 kilos of rice in the hopes that this would spur me to use the cooker -- or at least provide resistance for any exercise I might feel motivated to do. Add the sack of rice to the untouched corner.

Need I mention that it was quite a while before I used my burner, and even then it was few and far between. Now I use the burner often enough that I have to buy gas canisters a couple times a month, though I don't do anything remotely fancy. So why has the rice cooker gone unused? Well, I'm not going to eat plain rice, and my palate is not tantalized by the thought of cooking any of the exhaust-smoked meat sold by the many butchers on the side of the road. Not to mention the fact that by the time I might be looking to buy, it would have been sitting out in the heat of the day for several hours. And not to mention the fact that I am not equipped to identify the cut of meat, ask about it, or express how much I want. So I have had no need to make rice.

In the last few months, some of my fellow ETAs have been blogging about using their rice cookers for more than just rice. French onion soup or rice pudding, for example. Their accomplishments have been impressive but not quite inspiring, only because my access to necessary ingredients seems rather limited. Even the grocery store, our source for western(-like) ingredients is stocked mostly with processed, prepackaged, and pre-cooked foods. Good for lazy cooks, not good for cooking experiments.

Tonight, I didn't feel like going out. I didn't feel like pasta and I'd already fried/defrosted spring rolls for lunch. But, I had some of my prized, rationed, refried black beans courtesy of my mom's visit. Dare I try the rice cooker? I dared. I took the cooker out of it's corner, took it out of it's Thai-labeled box, and sat it on the only place close enough for the cord to reach the outlet: the top of the refrigerator. After a while of cooking, the air in my room grew sweet with the smell of burning plastic. I went into the living room to inspect, but the smell disappeared as I went up to the rice cooker. Back in my room, it only grew stronger. Were strange currents afoot? The fridge and cooker are fine, so it shall remain a mystery. The only other semi-misstep was forgetting that I was only making rice for one. Rice for breakfast tomorrow? More importantly, tonight, my spirit cuddled in the taste of black beans and rice.

Now, I've started looking up some rice cooker recipes that I can make without exotic ingredients (exotic in this case referring to western). Perhaps some mac'n'cheese with pseudo cheese? Or this tropical rice with some modifications? If I try, you'll be the first to see the results.