My National SR-MK18N rice cooker still works. However, the cooking insert had developed a scratch on its non-stick surface. And, as consumers of non-stick cooking products all know, today’s scratch is tomorrow’s flake. So, who used a metal utensil in my rice cooker? Anyways, Panasonic sells a replacement pan for $49 (which seems a bit steep to me), so I headed online for some comparison shopping. Sure, I can buy an entirely new Zojirushi 10-cup rice cooker from Costco for $99, but the item that really caught my attention was the $470 Zojirushi NP-HTC18 Induction Heating 10-Cup Pressure Rice Cooker and Warmer (via Amazon). The bonus? Amazon had already discounted the rice cooker from $550! For $470, I better be able to watch HD movies from the rice cooker’s LCD panel while the rice is cooking.

We reported last Saturday (April 19th) that Costco was rationing rice purchases. At the time, we didn’t realize that we scooped the regional and national press.

KPIX issued a similar report on April 21st, two days after us. The Huffington Post/AP reported on the Costco rice shortage on April 23rd.

The sky is falling! As if $4.00/gallon wasn’t bad enough, we now have food rationing. In America! At Costco!! The local store of abundance in the land of plenty ran out of rice this afternoon. Just a lonely note standing guard over two empty pallets. Although the store had no jasmine or calrose rice, it had plenty of basmati rice on hand. I spotted a customer with three bags of basmati in his shopping cart, perhaps in anticipation of the contagion spreading to the next pallet over.