Mohtalim

Amber wants to get a rice cooker. Any good brands to stick with, or bad brands to stay away from? Any important features or worthless features?

We saw a Neuro Fuzzy at the Sur La Table.

Aside from huge archaic industrial strength rice cookers, I've been partial to Japanese ones made by Tiger. I got a Tiger after I graduated from CMU and it's been working like a charm. Then again, I haven't really used many other rice cookers.

For features, my only "necessities" are cook/keep warm modes and capacity. For extra perks, mine has a handy retractable power cable and a notch to hold an included plastic non-scratch rice serving scoop.

Most friends I know either use Tiger, or old cookers they've used for 10+ years. Pretty much any rice cooker should work, so I wouldn't sweat the decision too much.

Hope that helps,

Edit:
Added a little more info

I have an oster. Not sure if I recommend it, but it works well for me.