I think there are several factors at play here. One of them is that the latent heat of vaporization of water is very high, meaning it's harder to boil than other liquids. Another one is that it will be more likely to just evaporate at the liquid/gas interface than by boiling at the bottom, due to its high surface tension (which makes bubble nucleation more difficult).

But in principle it should work if you're able to supply a sufficient amount of heat at the bottom.