Japan’s double-decker portable rice cooker/bento maker is better than ever with new version

Now there’s even more to be thankful to Thanko for .

Japanese gadget maker Thanko has repeatedly shown its knack for innovations to be grateful for, but the company’s best idea of all is arguably its One-Person Rice Cooker Series .

These compact kitchen appliances let you cook enough rice for a single serving, and their easy portability means that you can take them with you and cook your rice at your office desk or wherever else you need to be in the early part of the day, letting you enjoy freshly steamed rice once your lunch break comes around.

Of course, even Japanese people don’t eat just rice for lunch, so Thanko also makes two-tier one-person rice cookers .

The bottom section is for cooking the rice, and the steam that rises from it is channeled into the upper section stacked on top of it, where it can cook, reheat, or thaw whatever vegetables, dumplings, curry roux, or other side dishes that you’re pairing with your rice .

With restaurant prices rising, Thanko says it’s seeing even higher demand than usual for its one-person rice cookers, and so the company’s designers have made a few improvements.

First, they’ve managed to make the cooking process even speedier, and it now takes just 14 minutes to have a batch of rice ready to eat .

They’ve added a timer function that will automatically start the cooking process one, two, or three hours after you set it.

This new feature was added in order to make the one-person rice cooker easier to use with brown rice , which benefits from a longer soaking period than white rice, and thus increase the variety of meals that can be made with the device.

The one-person rice cooker is even a handy option for car camping, since it’ll work with vehicle power outlets as long as they put out at a voltage of at least 300 watts.

And yes, it’s still as compact as ever and easily breaks down into its component parts for easy cleaning. ▼ The parts shown at the bottom left are even dishwasher-safe.

The new and improved double-decker one-person rice cooker is priced at 8,980 yen (US$56) and just went on sale this week through the Thanko online store here .

Source, images: PR Times ● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter !