A heavy saucepan and one finger of water after a rinse is legit. If you have shitty pans, a ricecooker is the way to go.
He had me dying at the spoon in the pan, that is one of my biggest pet peeves. I had a roommate that ruined a bunch of high-quality cookware because she thought she was a dynamo in the kitchen. High heat and metal on $200 omelette pan. She would try to cook group meals when she was short on rent, and instead just caused tons of damage. We ended up leaving decoy pans out for her.
my only gripe with MSG is when there's so much of it in the food that you get a crunchy bite. i assume it clumps when it gets moist (say, from the steam rising from the food you're seasoning), like table salt.
now i want some pad kee mao with tofu, and i haven't even had my coffee yet.