Thanks. The Zojirushi seems to be the gold standard. Have perused several of your cookbook suggestions and will order at least one. I'll probably take a trip into Chinatown to hopefully be able to check out the difference between the 3- and 5.5-cup sizes as well as compare brands. Not knowing the minimum & maximum capacities of either size in terms of quarts of "total stuff" gives me no real basis of comparison regarding practicality. If none of the larger ones won't handle a single serving of oatmeal, and if the small size seems like too much money for too little functionality/flexibility, then I'll just give up and stick with the little instant packets :-( ... Or start making big batches on weekends on the stove (LeCreuset works dandy) to divvy up into individual servings that can be nuked during the week ... And keep my ancient slow cooker or replace it with an automatic model (quite a bit less money than a micom rice cooker). LeCreuset surely will do a decent job on brown rice too, which doesn't need to be ready first thing in the morning anyway. But the idea of a little rice cooker that does easy fresh oatmeal each morning AND some other valuable tricks sure does sound nice.

So if you were only eating white rice and didn't need a timer or a keep warm function, a cheap push button rice cooker would work just fine. If you were only eating a little bit of rice now and then, I'd say make it in a pot, or the oven, or pressure cooker. However, if you actually want to make *brown* rice on a regular basis and/or want a timer and/or a really good keep warm function, then you might want to swing for a nice fuzzy logic model. My sister and I have both had the cheap push button models and they were really just set up for white rice - brown rice required multiple cooking cycles and constant tinkering with the water level. And it still usually burned on the bottom. I've had a Zojirushi with fuzzy logic for a few years now and love it - it makes perfect brown rice, sushi rice, basmati, etc.; it keeps it warm for hours without burning the bottom or drying it out; the timer's easy to use and allows me to set it in the morning and have hot rice when I get home (even if I'm a couple hours late). I also really like to put steel cut oats in it at night so I can have hot oatmeal ready when I get up the next morning. So for us it's worth it - we eat a lot of rice (especially brown) and actually use both the timer and keep warm function a lot. They do work - amazingly well - and make much better rice than I could ever make on my lousy stove ;-) They're definitely an investment, but it you're really going to be using the timer and making brown rice on a regular basis, it might be worth it. My sister has this 3 cup model and it's perfect for a couple or small family - unless you're huge rice eaters, it makes enough for 2 to 4 people and is really small, so it doesn't take up much room on the counter. Amazon sells it for $125 - not cheap, but really nice quality. As you can (hopefully) see in the picture, it has the timer, keep warm, and brown rice functions, which are essential to me. There are lots of really good ones out there, this is just one I have personal experience with. Good luck!

In digital speak, knobs = a "rotary control interface." :>) This is a personal preference that others share and have mentioned as I did in this thread from four years ago: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2339367/does-anyone-here-who-went-induction-regret-your-choice So, there is no need to apologize for your preferences much less fear the wrath of rabid induction fanboys. (Fortunately, this site is usually pretty civil and we don't have alot of flaming.) >>>" It is hard to believe that there are not more people out there who want . . .knobs and mechanical buttons . . ."<<< Well, there are enough of us that there are presently at least nine or ten knob-controlled induction range models currently on offer. Besides the premium priced Mieles and Vikings that homepro listed, the next price tier down ($4k-$5k) has Dacor, Fisher & Paykel, and Bertazzoni. In the $2500 pricing tier you can find Samung's knob-controlled "Chef Collection" induction slide-in. Frigidaire makes a slide-in with knobs ($1500 to $1700, depending on where, when and from whom you buy it) and several knob-controlled freestanding models including three sold under Sears's Kenmore brand. FWIW, nobody seems to make rotary knob controllers for ovens on induction ranges. >>>"the simplicity of knobs and mechanical buttons, which I bet correlates well with longevity. How I long for the good old days before we became a disposable culture."<<< You have a lot of company here on this point. It represents one of the basic tradeoffs in choosing any stove these days. At least it is if your budget can accomodate premium priced pro-style gas ranges that dispense with digital whatevers. Unfortunately, pretty much everything else these days comes with at least digital oven controls. You want a "Sabbath/Shabat" mode or a self cleaning oven? Your stove will have microprocessor driven control boards for the oven. This is the "digital trade-off" --- choosing between simple but very limited mechanical systems and feature rich electronic systems. For the extra "digital" capabilities, we get uncertainty about how many of whose boards are durable enough to last for the long haul and whether or not yours will be one of the long lived ones. Add to that the sheer expense of replacing the boards when they do fail. Against this is the perceived simplicity and (hopefully) low costs of replacing parts in mechanical systems. (This is not a universal truth as some folks with older, supposedly "mechanical" VIking gas ranges and Italian imports have learned to their sorrow --- even OEM sourced parts may be discontinued or impossible to find, and may be very expensive and hard to install.) Now, many electronics-based stoves may last for a good long time, but a goodly number will fail along the way. For everybody who,like my aunt who still has her 1980s-vintage Kenmore induction range, you can find other folks posting stories of woe about massive board failures on three and four year old induction ranges. In this regard, I am thinking of Kaseki's recent post here where he suggested that we might want to think about induction stoves as rental goods. If the stove costs you $2k and lasts for five years, consider that you've been renting it for $400 per year. If it last ten years, then you've rented it for $200 per year. You won't be thinking that way with, say, a mechnically driven BlueStar range. Of course, none of this means your BlueStar will be hassle free. You may have different problems, particularly if there is some kind of manufacturing or design defect, judging by some of the postings I've seen here over the years. There seems to be no getting way from choosing a stove being a choice of trade-offs. >>>The "Burning Question<<< It seems to me that there always will be something of a learning curve when getting a new stove. Whether the learning curve is steep and long or easy and brief is as much a matter of personal background and training as it is the stoves. I'm not talking about personal defects, just personal differences and preferences. That I -- who grew up cooking on electric stoves --- might find induction super easy does not mean that there's anything wrong with you because you find the adjustment harder than I did. For those used to gas stoves, it may seem easier ("more intuitive") to work with the visual cues from the flame spread on a gas burner. With electric stoves, you have to take sometimes subtler cues from what is going on in the pan. One person's "intuitive" system can easily be another person's steep learning curve. All that being said, I personally have both a gas range and an induction cooktop. I strongly prefer making my morning oatmeal on the induction for exactly the same "fire and forget" capabilities explained by sjhockeyfan. Speaking of learning curves, I've never burned anything on the induction cooktop. After I got my current gas range -- it is my first pro-style range --- there was a bit of learning curve over my previous stove, a dual fuel range. The new stove's bigger burners were just enough different from before that I had three instances when I burned things so badly that I needed oven cleaner and a steel scraper to clean the pots. >>>"But I really hate all the electronic gizmos. That could be subject of another rant. I hate the sound of the beeps. And sometimes, it doesn't take and I have to press again."<<< Again, you've got company. A lot of stoves these days come with digital whatevers that beep, ding, flash and otherwise. This is to the annoyance of some and to the pleasure of others. That brings me back to saying that every range will be a mix of engineering compromises and design trade-offs. Getting some features may require putting up with unwanted aspects while dispensing with digital controllers may be a trade-off for giving up features like self-cleaning ovens. For example, take the burner timers that I believe your Bosch range has (like those on sjhockeyfan's and my induction cooktops.) This kind of feature will appeal to many but be totally useless to others. There is more of it coming as indicated by GE's latest cooktops and the latest iterations of the controllers for its induction ranges. They have bluetooth and wi-fif connectivity to allow burner timer and temp control from smart phones. That sort of thing can be a factor, maybe, in somebody choosing an induction stove over a pro-style gas range with minimal electronics. Or vice versa. Digital burner control is not easy to do with gas ranges, but it is possible. Remember last year's "Meld Project?" The folks were trying to manufacture and sell a Bluetooth-enabled digital-gas-knob controller. Basically, a wireless, pot-mounted temperature probe sent readings to a receiver in the burner knob which directed motors to rotate the knob to maintain a chosen temperature, all programmed and run from a smart phone app. With Kickstarter funding and media and blog coverage, the developers and testers had a lot of fun but ran out of money before products could be developed sufficiently for sale to customers. Some of us seeing that will say, "I want that." Others of us will say "its one more &()##*^% layer of technology that will screw up and be either unrepairable or too expensive to replace, so I don't want to mess with it."

I have a rice cooker and use it often. Although the cooker has its own measuring system, I use the directions that are on the packages of various rices. Have never had a failure. Also have made Spanish rice in the cooker with no problem.