(An interesting discussion from the forums. Jump in, and enjoy your weekend!)

I do the cooking as my SO has a tendency to burn boiled water. He came with a massive 1-setting cheapo rice cooker, and he doesn't understand why I want to boot it into space. It's a 10-cup cooker, at least, and at most we only need a couple cups at a time. I've had to resort to cooking rice in a pot so I don't have to make a cup extra just so it can get burned to the bottom. And EVERYONE says that I can't make proper japanese-style rice in a pot, so I wanna get a small rice cooker, and I imagine those 1-setting rice cookers wouldn't cut it. (You know the type. Just a switch you press down, and when it pops up it's done.)

So here's the question, after my whine - Do I NEED a nice fuzzy logic cooker? I want one, but being dirt-poor 20-somethings, shelling out $100-$200 makes us balk. The pot method isn't cutting it. It does jasmine rice a treat, but the short grain stuff keeps coming out gluey. (more like porridge than proper sticky rice, sadly)