Rice cooker Vs Crock Pot?

jaded1

Hi everyone!
I'm a college student who lives in a dorm. (I only have a microwave to cook food.) I've been thinking about getting a rice cooker (it also steams veggies) or a crock pot for my dorm room. Which do you think is the better choice?

(btw I'm a vegetarian)

Thank you.

eviltwinkie

I have a combo sanyo rice cooker / slow cooker. Does both. I love it. They're more spendy than a plain rice cooker, but far more functional. I've used it for rice, steaming frozen dim sum, cooking baked oatmeal, chicken rice porridge (tossing a can of chicken breast into rice porridge basically - great comfort food), and slow cooked pork loin. I have a small one (5 cup) and it only has one setting for 'slow cook' but it does a great job. It can handle about a 2 lb pork loin (cut in half to fit), but I don't think it could do much more (considering meat size + liquid to burble around it.)

eh, gues those are meaty examples, but that's what I've used the slow cooking for.

Unit seals very well (lid is hinged and pops open - not a loose lid), makes awesome rice, and is easy to grab and go if taking to a friends/work (cord winds into it and has a built in handle.)

I highly recommend it or ones like it.

Biggest difference if you've used a cheaper rice cooker - the steamer doesn't fit on top over the rice. It's a true steamer insert that sits in the bottom of the unit, just over the water. So it does dim sum very well, but you can't steam things at the same time you're cooking your rice.

jaded1

Wow! That sounds really cool. I'll start looking online for that manufacturer. I'm excited. Thank you very much.