When my friend Clare left Japan five years ago she had some things to give away which, being the scav that I am, I felt the need to take. Among the items I took was a rice cooker and I had good intentions to use it but sadly it just collected dust as the years rolled by. I came very close to using it at the start of 2010 but it never quite happened. However, a few months ago I finally did get round to using it and have been using it almost weekly ever since. Its not used more regularly due to the unsociable hours which I work during the week which mean its far too late to cook when I get home between 9.30-10pm.

It’s been quite nice cooking some simple rice dishes such as:

Taco rice which is a popular example of Okinawan cuisine and consists of taco-flavoured ground beef on a bed of rice with cucumber, cheese and I replace tomatoes with carrots.

Hoikouro (above) consisting of pork accompanied with cabbage, green peppers and carrots.

Unagi-don which is a bowl of rice topped with some eel warmed up in the microwave.

Maguro-don which is pretty much the same but with tuna instead of eel.