>>11020082but what you're seeing is accurate. when a recipe calls for oyster sauce for example you really don't have any alternatives with the same flavor. you can still make a similar dish and have it be perfectly edible, maybe even preferable, but it'll just be different. it's like if a recipe called for a large amount of mayo but the person has no mayo available. what the hell do you replace it with? sure, it's unlikely to kill the dish not to have but it's not something you can just "simplify" away without making a significant change
this i honestly don't have an answer to. i've only made rice without a rice cooker once and that's because the dish called for making it a specific way. i think the main advantages of a rice cooker is it doesn't require any tending, automatically determines cook time somehow, and keeps the rice warm afterwards. putting way too much water is still gonna fuck you up but a rice cooker is more likely to be able to adjust for that sort of thing as long as it's salvageable. i suppose there's also an argument it also gives you the mindset that the cooker will handle everything so you're less likely to do rarted shit like wash your rice.
