TIL the $25 rice cooker from the Asian grocery on 8th Ave feeds me 12 meals a week

Jennifer West · 2026-09-23T11:40:03.731525+00:00

So about 6 months ago I was blowing like $60 a week on takeout near my office in Sunset Park and my checking account was looking rough. I walked into the little Asian grocery on 8th Ave and saw a basic 3-cup rice cooker for $25, the cheap kind with just a cook and warm switch, nothing fancy. I grabbed it along with a 10 lb bag of jasmine rice for $14 and a pack of frozen dumplings for $6. That first week I made rice with everything, topped it with a fried egg and soy sauce, mixed in the dumplings, threw in some frozen veggies from the same store. I'm not kidding, that $45 trip covered basically all my dinners for 6 days and I still had half the rice left. The cooker has paid for itself like 8 times over at this point and I actually stopped ordering delivery on weeknights. Now I'm wondering if the upgrade to a $60 version with a steamer basket is worth it or if I should just keep rocking the cheap one, has anyone made that jump?

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TIL the $25 rice cooker from the Asian grocery on 8th Ave feeds me 12 meals a week | Cheap Eats Winners - Librear