When Andrea Nguyen, author of The Pho Cookbook, visited Milk Street , she used this mesh spider/strainer to cook a small portion of noodles in the same pot she also was using to cook vegetables. This was new to us and we immediately fell in love with this inexpensive kitchen tool for cooking small portions of pasta, blanching vegetables and even deep frying. Made from stainless steel, it has a wooden handle and two hooks for hanging on the side of a large saucepan or stockpot.

We love this stainless steel rice washer from Helen’s Asian Kitchen, a line of products by iconic Chinese-American chef Helen Chen. The rice washer doubles in function as a colander, and at 3 quarts it is just the right size for your everyday kitchen draining jobs. With rice, the device allows one to cover the rice with water and swish it around; there are tiny drain holes near the spout that hold the grains in as you’re washing your rice. You can use this simple bowl for rinsing any sort of produce, including berries—a simple but brilliant concept. We like that this bowl features a perforated lip instead of an open spout, which helps keep food inside the colander when draining. As for cooking rice, I use a ceramic Japanese rice cooker (the Kamado-San Double-Lid Donabe Rice Cooker—available in our store) and use slightly less water than rice.