Do I have microwave trauma? In the parlance of my fellow Midwestern people: You betcha. Between growing up in the 90s, when commercials for microwaveable food saturated every TV break, and having busy, divorced parents (more on this soon), I feel particularly touched by the phenomenon of the microwave.
For people born in the 80s, the microwave was always there. For me, it was there to make Bagel Bites and Hot Pockets when I got home from school; it was there for the frozen TV dinners and the Chinese food leftovers. It was there for the single-serve Kraft macaroni and cheese (my brothers and sisters in processed food, I know you fuck with me on this). The microwave was also there when my parents split up and my father never endeavored to “cook” more than frozen pancakes in the morning and frozen honey mustard chicken breasts from Sam’s Club for dinner. (The smell of the latter is permanently seared into my nostrils.) Suffice it to say, an extremely limited number of fresh vegetables crossed my path before I reached my twenties.
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When I got to college, as a whole generation of dudes my age were just beginning their love affairs with the microwave, mine rapidly came to a close. Since it was a symbol of despair and borderline malnutrition for me, I was done with it (though I should point out here that the microwave is generally considered a healthy way to cook—it obviously just depends on what you make in it). I learned how to cook chili and spaghetti. I tried spinach for the first time. I made a sandwich that didn’t have deli meat on it. In grad school and beyond, I didn’t even have a microwave in my home. In fact, I didn’t live with one from 2010 until 2023, when I moved into an apartment with a very nice kitchen that included a built-in microwave.
When the pandemic hit and chef-restaurateur David Chang (of Momofuku fame) became the world’s most outspoken microwave enthusiast, I could not have cared less. Yes, I watched his Instagram stories and grid posts where he cooked everything in the microwave, but since I didn’t have one, I wasn’t invested as a cook—it was just entertainment to me. Eventually, microwave culture grew even further, and yielded a powerful new brand of dishware specifically designed for cooking food in microwaves. It was called Anyday, and it was founded by Steph Chen. (David Chang is a partner and spokesman.) When Anyday emailed me recently and asked if I wanted to test out the bowls, I really did not; then again, I felt it was my duty as a food and kitchen writer (whose literal entire job is to test kitchen appliances and cooking tools) to see what all the fuss was about. People do legitimately love microwaves and Anyday, so I figured it was time to get to the bottom of my years of repression and finally pop one of these bad boys open for real.
First impressions and reheating food
At first, I didn’t really get why microwaves needed their own type of dish. Don’t people nuke food on regular old plates and in Tupperware every day? (They do—I’ve seen it.) A number of factors, however, make Anyday’s dishes unique. First, the bowls are made of frosted borosilicate glass, which hold heat in pretty well and also look good if you’re serving out of them; the lids are made from the same material, and use platinum-grade silicone to create a seal so the steam stays in (if you want it to). On that note, probably the coolest thing about these bowls is that they feature a knob that, when closed, creates a sort of vacuum to keep steam in.
Moving into testing, I had to contend with the fact that in my experience, microwaves existed almost exclusively to heat up prepared food—not to cook dishes from scratch. In my early tests, I started from a comfortable place of heating up food I’d cooked elsewhere. For example, I used the medium deep dish to heat up rice I’d cooked in my Zojirushi, and used the medium shallow dish to warm up gumbo I’d made the previous weekend. Usually, I’d just dump it all in a pot and zap it until it was basically too hot to eat, and then suffer through way-too-hot food until my tongue was decimated and I was full. The rice heated in the Anyday was, like, perfect—the bowl kept the moisture in, and after maybe a minute of cooking, I wound up with rice that was exactly the right temperature and consistency, not gloopy or dry like you might expect after putting it in a bowl with a random amount of water and then microwaving it for a bit with a paper towel over it. The gumbo took a couple minutes to reach temp, but it was similarly ready to eat, evenly heated and warm throughout. It was a surprisingly positive, and I’d even say great experience, in terms of reheating food.
Cooking from scratch with Anyday
I knew cooking, however, was the real challenge. First, Anyday has a ton of recipes on its site, and they’re calibrated to fit the number of servings you need and the wattage of your microwave (which is important to know, so you aren’t overcooking). Furthermore, I read parts of Chang’s book, Cooking at Home; Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Recipes (and Love My Microwave), which is a solid treatise on how to make the most of your microwave experience—I recommend it to anybody who is really committed to being a better microwaver. What the book asserts, and what Chang’s philosophy seems to be, is that you should be good at using a microwave even without recipes; once you learn the basics, you can do it yourself. This is the theory behind many home cook-oriented cookbooks these days, but this might be the only prestige one specifically about microwaves. Anyway, I made some recipes.
First, I made Anyday’s “The Easiest Scrambled Eggs,” which asked me to melt butter in the dish and then add a tablespoon of sour cream and two eggs and microwave them in 30-second intervals while whisking between stints. In the end, I found the eggs to be appropriately scrambled and savory, nearly creamy—maybe not as pretty as the photo, and certainly not as luscious as, say, Gordon Ramsay’s scrambled eggs, but totally serviceable for someone inclined to eat scrambled eggs made in a microwave. Then, I set out to make Anyday’s “Speedy Polenta,” which was, indeed, speedy—you mix polenta and water, cook for five to six minutes, and then stir in milk, butter, and salt. It was definitely… good. It might not have been the vision of hearty, rustic Italian polenta depicted in Bill Buford’s Heat, or at the level of some Anson Mills polenta with roasted mushrooms and Parmigiano Reggiano you might get in an upscale Italian restaurant… but then you remember you’re using a fucking microwave, and it’s satisfying.
Since Chang loves cooking chicken in the microwave and Anyday definitely comes hard with the chicken recipes, I knew I had to run at least one of ‘em. I absolutely love cooking Chinese food, so I was enticed by the “‘Mouthwatering’ Sichuan Chicken,” which featured flavors like ginger, garlic, black vinegar, Sichuan peppercorns, and soy sauce. All it required, really, was combining those ingredients (and a few more) in Anyday’s medium shallow dish, tossing the chicken in, and cooking for five to six minutes. The recipe called for boneless, skin-on thighs, but in the spirit of someone cooking chicken in a microwave, I did literally zero prep for this, and found that I had every ingredient necessary except chicken thighs, so I used a chicken breast. After the chicken was cooked (which I recommend confirming with a good thermometer), you toss some chili oil into the mix, stir it up, and it’s ready to go. I’m not usually a big chicken-cookin’ guy, but I’ve got to say, for what’s basically poached chicken with a spicy sauce, I found it incredibly flavorful, moist, and satisfying. If I was a chicken-and-rice lunch guy, I’d be very satisfied with this dish. Like, if I was having company and was serving Chinese food, I’d feel super confident pulling this one out. It’s really that good.
TL;DR: Now that all of my childhood trauma (at least involving microwaves) is resolved, I will probably return to mostly cooking food the old fashioned way (aka on the stove or in an oven). I do think, though, that Anyday bowls are fantastic tools for both reheating and scratch cooking, and that they will definitely improve your game if you are a microwave user. Honestly, even if you’re just a microwave reheater—which I definitely am now—having a few of these will serve you well. Chang, when you figure out how to make a whole pizza in there, please hit me up!!!
Try Anyday’s microwave cookware at Anyday or Amazon.
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