mmm....that sounds so elaborate! Ours was always just rice in the rice cooker but a bunch of toppings in the center of the table. That reminds that about a library book I had seen a few years back about all kinds of things you could make in a rice cooker. I hadn't liked it back then because my rice cooker didn't have all the settings the book kept mentioning but I wonder if I would like it now. I should look into that. I love the idea of garlic already mixed into the rice. Wouldn't the garlic just be boiled though? Does that taste good?