When I wrote about the used Japanese rice cooker I found at a Craigs List moving sale for nothing, the implications of this emergent "fuzzy logic" technology had not yet begun to sink in. I was not yet fully aware of how easy it had become to prepare high-quality, low-cost food, but now that it's become a habit, and I've had time to think about the implications, another post is in order.

As I will explain, I think this technology (along with the related smart "slow cooker" technology) is more revolutionary than most people realize, and if it catches on in a big way, it could become what marketing people call "disruptive technology." (Americans might love instant-ness, but they also love gadgetry, and this gadgetry is on a collision course with the long-established instant, um "tradition.")

Take oatmeal. It's one of those things that's good for you, but it's usually a hassle to make, especially when you're in a hurry and just want to slurp your coffee and have something handy, and ready to eat. This is why (as you can see if you go to every supermarket I've seen), the oatmeal shelves are dominated by instant oatmeal -- in endless varieties, flavors, and brands. Like many people, I have been buying instant oatmeal, although it's sometimes difficult to find the plain variety. I realize that "real" non-instant oatmeal tastes better (and is said to be better for you), but I just don't like to screw around with cooking when I'm barely awake. Too easy for the mind to slip into something else and end up with lumpy or burned oatmeal. As to so-called "steel cut" oatmeal, forget it! That stuff takes 40 minutes of stirring, and whether it's good for you or not, the goodness is offset by the badness of the hassle. And even though at my local Whole Foods, steel cut oatmeal costs $1.44 per pound in bulk, the hassles outweigh the low cost and undoubtedly higher quality of the food.

That has changed big time. Now that I've gotten used to dumping the steel cut oatmeal and water into the rice cooker (at a simple ratio of three to one water to oatmeal -- which takes less time than preparing my coffee maker), I just set the timer for whenever I want to eat in the morning and it's ready. Quicker, faster, and easier than any "instant," and far superior, for a variety of reasons.

In the morning, I don't have to do anything, and if I used instant, I would have to boil water, tear open a package, dump it into the bowl, and then wait while bleary-eyed, for a far less rewarding meal.

The rice cooker has made the most difficult oatmeal the easiest. And when hard becomes easy, that's disruptive of the market. What could be more disruptive than the realization that instant is no longer instant?

I realize that few ordinary Americans know about this. If they did, it would pose a dire threat to the huge "instant" market.

This touches on another pet peeve I have about instant marketing, and that is the systematic destruction of regular, ordinary, plain old grits. I am not a Southerner, but I grew up enjoying grits for breakfast, and they were not instant grits, nor were they even "quick" grits, but the "old" kind that take 20 minutes to cook.

Old plain, unimproved were were simply better, and they still are. Maybe not quicker to cook, but better to eat.

This vital point has been made all over the Internet, and was immortalized for ordinary Americans in "My Cousin Vinny."

At 9:11 in the following YouTube video, an eyewitness in court makes the following statement, under oath:

"No self-respecting Southerner uses instant grits. I take pride in my grits."

That's a pretty serious indictment of instant grits, especially if we consider that 75% of grits are sold in the South. (Wiki calls this phenomenon the "grits belt.")

And of course, now that I have the rice cooker (which makes it easier to have perfectly prepared regular old grits than to use instant), naturally I have been confronted with an annoyance grounded in a stubborn geopolitical marketing reality: trying to buy plain, real, grits in a very Northern state. Where it comes to this gritty reality, Michigan is more "Northern" than Pennsylvania. Not sure why, but it has been like pulling teeth to find plain old grits around here. The two local supermarkets (Krogers and Meijers) have quick or instant grits only, and to my utter dismay, Whole Foods offers no grits at all! Similarly, the local organic food stores that sell bulk foods have no grits. A local delicatessen specializing in gourmet food can get them for you but the price is a simply outrageous $25.00. Plus $7.99 shipping!

That's $32.99. For two pounds of grits

Asks a local writer about the place, "When did healthy food become a luxury?"

Beats me, but trying to find a way to work around the "instant" mega marketing mania can be expensive. And I can hardly blame a deli for the obvious fact that there are so few people around here who want grits of any kind, much less the old unimproved type. Although it is also understandable that it can cause people with a real grits habit to develop what might be called "grits derangement syndrome." (The website documents a long and fruitless struggle to get Arrowhead Mills White Corn Grits back into the market after the company's callused marketing decision to remove it.)

I was nearly ready to order real grits online. The best deal for the stone-ground variety is here, and the Quaker Oats company makes a brand called "Old Fashioned Grits" which I found at Amazon. (Six boxes for $17.70, plus postage.)

Finally, though (with the help of the old-fashioned yellow pages), I found the Quaker Old Fashioned brand for sale at Hiller's -- an old fashioned grocery store that specializes in the rare and unusual:

Our grocery stores offer premier products, gourmet delectables, healthy choices, and lifestyle shopping. It has been said that we eat with our eyes before we ever take a bite. You'll have such a sensory-rich experience at Hiller's - how good it will feel for shopping to be enjoyable and even fun!

The company was created in 1941 by Sidney Hiller with a commitment to quality, selection, and value. Now, led by Jim Hiller, Hiller's Markets is Michigan's home for discerning shoppers. We listen to shoppers, and we obtain items that you request, no matter how arcane, rare, or unusual.

But how did it come to be that plain has become arcane, rare, and unusual?

(Seriously, it's getting so I have a hard time finding plain yogurt, and they are often out. But if you want banana daiquiri, no problem.)

MORE: Damned if M. Simon's post (with a video of the "food guy" who believes in making you "change what you eat because it is killing you") didn't remind me of yet another wrinkle.

Instant food is probably worse for THE ENVIRONMENT!

Now why did it take M. Simon to make me think of that?

(This new technology might be more disruptive than even I realized.....)

AND MORE: Larry Sheldon's comment has absolutely cracked me up:

I've been reading too much politics.

I read through that article twice before I realized the title ends with the word "PLAIN".