Review: YumAsia Mini Panda Rice Cooker
By @edent
· food gadget review · 4 comments · 450 words · read ~3,089 times.
I read this wonderful article about the invention of the rice cooker and, because I am easily influenced, bought one.
This is the YumAsia Panda Mini. It seemed to hit the sweet spot for physical size and price. For £80 you get a rice cooker, steamer, and utensils. Makes enough rice for 2 people. Although, when full, we felt like it was more like for 4. Depends on how hungry you are.
It's pretty easy. Measure out rice. Measure out water. Hit button. Wait for the machine to go beep. Eat rice.
One of the best things about it, is that it keeps rice warm without it drying out. So if your curry is taking longer than expected, the rice is ready the moment you are ready to eat.
The manual is well translated, and the interface is pretty simple to use. It has different settings for different sorts of rice. It also came with a recipe for a vegan chocolate brownie which could be made in the cooker. It was superb.
It's also possible to make porridge and other things in there.
Some sellers also have it in pink!
Replying to @edent@edent Woah this looks like an identical reskin of our rice cooker by a different brand, same buttons and shape!! pic.x.com/og80k2pft1
The only downsides is that the internal bowl isn't suitable for a dishwasher. It's pretty easy to wipe down by hand though. Similarly, the condensation trap is at the back and a little fiddly to remove.
Overall, it's a lovely little gadget. Perhaps a tad extravagant. And I don't really understand what its "fuzzy logic" is meant to do. But it gives out perfect rice each time.
FAQs
"whY not jUST bOil rICe oN THe stoVe?"
Because when we're cooking half a dozen different dishes, it's a pain to keep an eye on the rice to make sure the water isn't boiling over, or that it hasn't gone dry.
"dOeS it CONneCT to the INteRnet?"
No. That would be silly. I love connecting things to the Internet. And I can see the value of leaving my office in the city and telling my house to have rice waiting for me when I get home. But I'm WFH for the foreseeable future, so it isn't that important to me. The cooker has a preset timer on it, if I know when I'm going to be hungry.
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I remember doing a module on Fuzzy Logic at Uni, being told rice cookers use it, and still being none the wiser about how and what difference it actually made
Pauline says:
Fuzzy Logic rice cookers are able to more or less work out how to cook the rice and go through the different stages (such as boil, simmer, steam etc). Therefore they can adjust the timings due to the absorption rate of the water to rice. With a pan on the stove you have to keep checking it. I have both the Panda and the Tsuki models and they are amazing.
Jack says:
So I'd be very interested in the actual fuzzy-logic algorithm.
I've searched all over the internet, and can't find any rice-cooker fuzzy-logic example code. It's not even clear what sensors these devices have - I assume temperature, at least, but I would have thought humidity might be needed too.
As others have commented, it's not clear what these cookers actually do, other than 'cook perfect rice' or whatever. Is there an ideal temperature-humidiy curve, for example? And how does fuzzy-logic help achieve it?
@edent says:
From https://yum-asia.com/uk/product/panda-mini-advanced-fuzzy-logic-ceramic-rice-cooker/
As for the why - read https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/rice-cooker-history