Plastic Japanese Rice Washing Bowl with Side and Bottom Drainers

This bowl makes short work of washing rice. My only "complaint" is that thinner rice, like basmati, will get stuck in the vertical slots in the spout section. But that's not a reason to remove a star. If you use basmati or similar thin or delicate rice, you might want to look for another, but for the average white or brown rice this bowl is a handy tool!

Easily rinses rice. Easy to clean

It's bigger than I thought it'd be, which is great. Water drains out of the bottom quickly. Feels sturdy, not flimsy. The upper drain area did catch some rice, but I didn't *need* to use that with the rice. It's more for fruits/veg. I really like it.

The flow of water is more restricted than on a normal colander or strainer so you can agitate the rice in the water to remove the surface starch. Works well, my only gripe is that a few rice bits seem to get wedged in the small slits and holes and make it harder than just rinsing it clean. No big problem. It is fairly large. It would be great for making rice for a family, would be nice if there was a smaller one for use with 1 or 2 people.

With almost 10,000 reviews and most of those positive it would seem there’s not much more that I could add. But there’s always more in my opinion, if it’s helpful. And I can’t see how it can be called helpful if someone tries to save a few pennies, orders from an unknown source and when disappointed they don’t just send it back for a replacement or a refund. I wish such behavior wasn’t rewarded as helpful, it doesn’t say anything about the product being sold that helps anyone else. So here are my thoughts. By the way I chose the option to have it shipped by Amazon and I got it in less than 24 hours, not that I was so desperate for it.FIRST IMPRESSIONIt is exactly as illustrated and described, and that’s probably why at least ten thousand other people have reviewed it so far. It’s not rocket science, just a piece of plastic. But somehow it feels just a little better made than what you would find in the dollar store. For eight bucks it should. The plastic is just a little thicker than you would expect, the holes are just the right size for washing and draining rice and the shape is easy to handle with wet hands.THINGS TO KNOWIf you expect something that’s actually made in Japan that’s what you’re going to get. The label is 100% in Japanese and there is no translation anywhere. If you are new to washing rice you should prepare to watch some videos or seek help elsewhere. I have a new induction Zojirushi rice cooker that wasn’t cheap by anybody’s standards so I thought I should start washing my rice, something I’ve never done. I hear it can made a big difference and now that I’m more than just a casual rice eater I guess I should learn how to do it right. I like how easy it is to use this bowl and how easy it is to clean up. I was concerned because my cooker calls for such precise amounts of the ingredients so I didn’t want any to go down the sink drain or get stuck in the bowl. Neither of those things is happening.THE RED HANGING HOLEWhat looks like a hole for hanging the thing up is actually pretty small, you could only use a small nail or hook, smaller than I would usually use for kitchen accessories. But I am stacking it inside my salad bowl and mixing bowl where it fits perfectly. I find the red rubber thing useful for holding the bowl while I pour the contents into the cooker, it really helps to keep the bowl from slipping out of my hand.YES OR NOI usually spend hours, sometimes days or weeks, researching things, especially if the product category is unfamiliar to me. For this one I decided on first sight after seeing almost ten thousand happy customers (except for a few who apparently got the wrong thing and didn’t just return it). That convinced me and I can’t imagine there being any bowl more suitable to the simple task of washing rice. I’m happy.

Nicely made. Makes washing rice much simpler

I grew up washing rice in the rice pot, it's fine, but you have to be very careful while pouring the water out not to spill a little rice with it each rinse. It's doable, but a bit tedious.Then I moved and got a lovely cheap rice washer at Daiso for under $5 and it was so easy to wash rice, fill, swish, just lift the basket and the water drains into a nested bowl, the pair had handles - perfect, no lost rice, wash it even faster. But I moved and it got left behind.Tried buying a replacement at an H-mart, same nested bowl and strainer with handles configuration, but the holes are varied in size and some are too big, if you fill it all the way full with water, the rice spills out the top half of the basket, and you have to pick them out of the bowl. Hardly a time save and tedious again. Great for washing fruits and vegetables though, so I kept it.Got another replacement at H-mart, focused on getting smaller holes. Had a mesh bottom and a handle, just one piece. So I use a lid of similar diameter from one of my pots to fill with water and swish. Works fine, but it isn't high enough, sometimes vigourous swishing spills rice over the size into my solid lid, I have to check my rinsewater for errant rice. I came up with the idea of pouring it back over the sieve and it worked fine, but I couldn't go quite so fast.Then I capitulated to buying another one and decided to go online this time. Well this one's the best one yet! The shape is deep enough not to escape even if you swish enthusiastically, no hole is bigger than rice, the translucent plastic makes it easy to see where the rice is, and the surface is smooth and easy to clean. On top of that, the holes are a great number and size such that even if you run the faucet into it, it collects in the bowl so you can wash your rice before it runs out! No need to do the old rhythm of run water, swish swish, pour water out, repeat 6 times. You can continuously run water into it while swishing, and it'll maintain the right amount of water in the basin. Goes so much faster than the old way, I'm never going back. I don't pour the rice out using the spout because they tend to get caught in the holes there, but pouring out the side is easy enough. Even the last few grains are easy enough to sweep out into the rice pot because the surface is so smooth. Easily big enough even for when I'm making 6 cups of rice.It's also nice for washing fruits and vegetables. I haven't used it to sieve pasta, as I'm not sure it'll handle the heat of boiling water and I don't want to give up easy rice washing for that, so I have my old metal colander for that, but for anything you rinse or soak in cool to lukewarm water, it is a great tool. It may be a one trick gadget, but it does it's job excellently and I'm completely satisfied with my purchase. Only regret is that I didn't buy this one before all those duds.

This product works great!