Ok ok, I actually have about five kitchen gadgets I can’t live without… buuut… I caught your attention didn’t it?

My friends came over this past weekend, and since their boys love soup noodles, I had the perfect quick meal for them – instant udon noodles. All you do is add hot water and soup base to udon noodles. As I was grabbing the noodles, the father turned on our faucet and was about to boil a pot of water, when I shook my head and said it wasn’t necessary because we had this hot water boiler! One press of a button, and hot boiling water comes streaming down.

zojirushi

Zojirushi 4-Liter Electric Water Boiler and Warmer

I grew up with hot water boilers such as these, and most Chinese homes have them, but I have come to realize that this is actually not as common a kitchen appliance as I had thought. Over the last few years, I’ve had repeated instances of guests asking about this gadget because they had never heard of such a thing before. I’m always shocked because our electric water boiler is such a necessity for us. It’s so handy, in fact, that we use it every single day. I honestly can’t say that about any of my other kitchen appliances – not even my slow cooker, blender, or food processor!

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This gadget does one main thing, and that is to boil water, but more importantly, it keeps water piping hot. It is so nice to have readily boiled water whenever you need it. We use it daily for the French Press coffee we make at home every morning, and for our mugs of hot chamomile tea as we start unwinding for bed. It’s also perfect for all kinds of instant noodles, warming up baby bottles, or for the dinner rush for things like pastas and soups.

We own the Zojirushi branded water boiler because we’ve found their products to be super reliable and sleek, but there are a lot of different ones out there. Just do a search for “water boiler” on Amazon. The Zojirushi water boiler has four “keep warm” temperature settings – 140, 175, 195, or 208 degrees Fahrenheit. The front panel shows how much water remains inside, so you’ll know if you’re running low.

We usually have to refill our water boiler about once every other day. At the end of each night, I check to make sure there’s enough water in there because I hate when I wake in the morning, only to realize it’s practically empty, and have to wait even longer for my coffee (I’m a woman who needs her coffee first thing!). I suppose it really isn’t the end of the world if I do because it only takes about 15-20 minutes for this water boiler to get my water piping hot, but… why wait when I don’t have to?

Do you own or know about this amazing tool?