Taming Otto

The other day we bought Otto home, an induction cooker. Induction cookers are a novelty to me, I’ve never used one, let alone one with control buttons written in Thai. I’m a stickler for reading instructions first....Stray, not necessarily so. I fast forwarded to the important, scary looking picture section of the manual and determined what I mustn’t use on the cook top...copper, glass, aluminium etc.

My translation efforts did turn up some amusing results at times....like ‘ass’ and ‘wind’. My poor eye sight and tiny odd looking symbols/vowels, isn’t always a great combination.

Anyway, I suggested waiting until I had translated the controls before we used it..."ah, how hard can it be?" he says.

The next morning I woke up to the smell of eggs cooking...and a pot which had browned due to overheating? burning? Granted the pot is flimsy and wafer thin.

Using the Thai keyboard, which is part of the Word In The Hand (software) dictionary (I still only have the trial version) and the translation section from Thai Language.com, I now know that I can:

Warm (at first I thought this was the ON button) อุ่น oon (the danger of knowing too little, sounding out what I suspected was a loan word)

Set Timer ตั้งเวลา dtang waeh laa

Stir fry/Deep fry ผัด/ทอด phat/thaawt

...and then the should have been obvious, the big red button, Turn On/Turn Off เปิด/ปิด bpeert/bpit

What a difference one little เ can make!

It also has a weird, but groovy, pulsating function, which is probably discussed in the manual...somewhere.

It’s funny how something so basic can turn into a mini adventure when you can’t read the language. I’m still not sure what a ’mo steel’(หม้อเหล็ก) pot is, but it's OK to use one.

Women Learn Thai highlighted and held a competition for the Word In The Hand dictionary ages ago....I DIDN'T WIN! So, I’m off to purchase the full version now, I reckon it’s a small price to pay for such a great product.

See what else we're up to at Cooee!