Wants and Needs

One time, we went over to our friends’ house for dinner and arrived before they were finished cooking. It smelled delicious so we asked what we would be having, to which our host replied: butter chicken and a spicy chickpea dish. Then, she turned to her husband and said, “Hey, would you check the rice?”

And honestly, for a moment, I was perplexed. Checking the rice? How do you check the rice? Don’t you just wait for whatever rice-cooking appliance you’re using to beep? There’s no way that someone, in this day and age, could be manually cooking rice, right?

Well, of course they could be. And it was a good reminder that almost none of the cool, futuristic-seeming kitchen appliances I love, with their sleek exteriors and their easy presets, are actually necessary. Pretty much everything can be made with a pot or a pan, a standard oven, and a little bit of patience.

But that’s the thing, isn’t it? How much patience do you really have?

Let’s look at this Ninja Foodi Pressure Cooker with Tender Crisp and Dehydrator, for example. Do you need something that can pressure cook? Not if you have a dutch oven and a bit of time. And do you need an air fryer? Not if you have a convection oven and a bit of time. And do you need a dehydrator? Well, actually I’m not sure. My research shows that you can dehydrate in your oven, but it might not be ideal.

Point is: it’s a nonessential appliance.

And yet it’s totally fair, and dare I say reasonable, if you want it.

Because maybe you don’t always have time to start cooking a meal at eight in the morning. Or you don’t want to wait twenty minutes for the convection oven to heat up to have crispy French fries. Or you don’t want to have to check the rice; you just want to look at the screen and see if it’s done or not. Or you want a not-super-oily kale chip without watching a twenty minute youtube video about “oven hacks.”

What I’m saying is, it’s not always about needs. Sometimes it’s about what you want. And if you want tender meats, or crispy Brussels sprouts, or homemade jerky without the hassle, then you want this Ninja Foodi Pressure Cooker with Tender Crisp and Dehydrator.