What is Bamboo by Yum Asia?
Bamboo is Yum Asia’s second rice cooker and it’s the first Induction Heating rice cooker made for the UK and Europe.
Yum Asia has been the home of Zojirushi in the UK and Europe for over 10 years and we launched our first own brand rice cooker, Sakura, in December 2016. Sakura is now our best selling rice cooker, so we decided to expand our own brand and launch a completely unique and innovative rice cooker. We have always had questions about Induction Heating (IH) models; as well as being very expensive, Zojirushi models have not passed CE Certification so cannot be supplied legally in the UK and Europe. We therefore decided to develop Bamboo, our own IH rice cooker and have included some very unique functions which we personally developed, designed and tested.
I don’t understand the capacity
Bamboo has two different types of capacity. It is a 1.5 litres, 8 cup rice cooker or 4 litres multi-cooker.
Let’s take the first two capacities – 1.5 litres or 8 cup. Rice cooker capacities are always referred to in litres or cups. Sakura is a 1.5 litres capacity rice cooker and it can therefore cook 8 cups of uncooked white rice or 6 cups of uncooked brown rice – each cup is 180ml/g. So, if you want to cook 1 cup of white rice, that would be 180g or if you want to cook the full capacity of 8 cups, that would be 1.4kg of uncooked rice.
The third capacity of 4 litres refers to Bamboo’s multi-cooking capacity. This means that the inner bowl can hold a maximum of 4 litres of liquid.
What is the inner bowl made from?
In our years of selling Zojirushi rice cookers, we realised that all of rice cookers on the market in the UK and Europe only had teflon/similar non-stick material inner bowls and were quite thin.
Based on a lot of customer queries and opinions, we took the decision to supply an inner bowl with a premium and durable thick ceramic coating. The inner bowl for an IH has to be made in a special way with different layers to conduct the heat correctly and is 3mm thick. We have ensured it is BPA-free and PTFE-free and is hard wearing. The inner bowl also has easy lift handles.
What voltage is Bamboo and what plug is it supplied with?
Bamboo is a 220-240v rice cooker and it is factory made for UK and European power. It is supplied with a 3-pin UK plug. However, if you live in Europe you can opt to add a 2 pin EU plug for £2.50 extra – select using the available options before adding to cart.
I have never seen this kind of display - what is it?
Bamboo’s display is unique and easy to use. It is a state of the art Korean designed ‘Motouch’ control panel with a rose white LED display which is super-sharp and bright. Unlike other rice cookers, the control panel doesn’t have any buttons, the ‘Motouch’ is pressure/touch sensitive and detects your finger when you place it on an icon.
What is the outer casing on Bamboo made from?
Bamboo is a stylish Asian design and is made from the best quality hard wearing thermoplastic polymer. It is easy to clean, very durable and hygenic.
Is there a warranty?
Yes, we offer our own comprehensive 2 years warranty on Bamboo. Please refer to the warranty card in the box or see www.yumasia.co.uk/warranty for further details.
Where is Bamboo made?
Bamboo is manufactured in dedicated Chinese factories which also make premium brand rice cookers like Cuckoo, Cuchen and Tiger brands. Our factory conforms to the highest international standards and has comprehensive quality control and manufacturing procedures which we have had independently inspected.
What is Induction Heating?
The heating method known as Induction Heating (IH) occurs when a magnetic material is placed in a magnetic field. For example, coils within the bottom of the rice cooker create the magnetic field. When the inner bowl is placed into the rice cooker and the unit is activated, a magnetic field is generated to create instant heat. Through this technology, the inner cooking pan itself rather than the heating element becomes the heat source utilizing both high heat and fine heat adjustments to control the cooking process.
Induction Heating rice cookers cook the rice more evenly and faster than a rice cooker that only has fuzzy logic. This results in a better texture and more flavourful rice.
Bamboo also has a Micom Fuzzy Logic computer chip which is the ‘brain’ – it helps the rice cooker to automatically make adjustments in temperature and cooking time depending upon the programme entered by the user.
This ‘brain’ makes the cooking of rice foolproof – instead of the cooker simply switching on and off reacting to temperature, the rice cooker now makes small adjustments in temperature and cooking time according to what the thermal sensor senses. This fuzzy logic computer chip means you can also have different programmes for the rice cooker which include cooking white, long grain, short grain, brown rice, Yumami, GABA and porridge (both rice and oat varieties of porridge).
How long can I keep Bamboo on ‘keep warm’?
Bamboo has a unique 24 hours keep warm cycle, so it means you can cook one big batch of rice which can keep feeding your family for longer! The keep warm feature keeps rice at an ideal serving temperature until it’s ready to be served and there is a handy count-up on the display so you know how long the rice has been left on keep warm.
Does Bamboo have a timer?
Yes, Bamboo has a pre-set timer feature. You can set this for up to 24 hours in advance, so you can have yummy rice ready for you when you get in from work or lovely hot porridge on a cold, winters day ready for breakfast!
How does Bamboo compare to other rice cooker brands?
After launching our Sakura rice cooker, we spent many months thinking about and designing a rice cooker with functions that were most appealing to people that love Asian food with the core emphasis being based around cooking great tasting rice. We decided that the cooker would not only have to function extremely well but look great and have superior reliability. Every part of the cooker from the display panel, moulded materials, inner bowl, packaging and instruction manual was designed with meticulous detail to ensure that customers would get the very best value for their money.
The factory we chose to manufacture Bamboo also manufacturers highly thought of brands like Cuckoo, Cuchen and Tiger.
We have extensively tested Bamboo and we conducted blind taste tests with the Yum Asia team and we are all in agreement that Bamboo produces rice which is full of flavour, texture and will not disappoint.
How is the inner bowl heated?
Bamboo is an Induction Heating rice cooker – this means there are magnets inside the unit which heat the spherical inner bowl to cook the rice. This means that the heat is dispersed around the bowl which ensures the even cooking of rice and other dishes with a superior keep warm technology.
What types of rice can I cook in Bamboo?
We designed Bamboo to primarily be a rice cooker and it cooks different types of rice perfectly. Bamboo has 7 different options for cooking rice:
- ‘WHITE’ setting is for cooking long grain white rice (for example, basmati, jasmine or Thai fragrant rice)
- ‘QUICK COOK’ setting is for when you want the rice completed a little faster.
- ‘SHORT GRAIN’ setting can be used for any type of short grain rice like pearl, sushi or Thai sticky/glutinous rice.
- ‘BROWN RICE’ setting can be used for any type of brown rice (short or long grain).
- ‘GABA’ setting makes it easier to cook GABA brown rice – usually it involves soaking rice for up to 3 days at a temperature of 30-40° celcius, with numerous water changes. When you select the GABA brown setting on Bamboo, the brown rice will begin activating through a carefully designed soaking period, after which it will start the cooking process automatically. The full cooking time is longer at 2 hours 40 minutes (including the additional activation period)
- ‘YUMAMI’ setting is for any type of white rice. This is a specific cooking cycle with different temperatures, it releases sugars contained in the rice and this phased rice cooking is said to make the rice tasted sweeter and ‘moreish’, hence the name ‘Yumami’.
- ‘CRUST’ setting is for cooking Persian style ‘Tahdig’ rice.
How does Bamboo cook the rice, is it boiled?
No, Bamboo does not simply boil the rice. As it is an Induction Heating rice cooker with a micom fuzzy logic chip, is designed to cook rice using 7 distinct phases to produce perfect rice every time and to carefully retain nutrients. These phases are Preheat, Absorb water, Heating, Boiling, Braising, Absorb water and then finally Keep warm (in this order). This phased cooking and adjustments in temperature are what produces perfect rice every time.
What add-on functions are there on Bamboo and are they any good?
As well as being a fantastic rice cooker, we hand chose the add-on multi-cooker features of Bamboo ourselves based on customer feedback we have received over the last 10 years.
The add-on functions we chose are:
Porridge (for rice or oat porridge), Steam, Slow cook, Crust (for Persian Tahdig style rice) and Cake baking.
We have extensively tested each function with excellent results. You can cook soups, casseroles, whole joints of meat, delicious cakes, steam any kind of food and much more in Bamboo with amazing results.
How can I buy Bamboo
Visit Bamboo’s page on Yum Asia’s website for more information about Bamboo
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