Show Us Where You Live Friday: Kitchen Edition

Kelly has started a weekly tour of home on Fridays – after all who doesn’t love to borrow a good idea?

I doubt my kitchen will yield any redecorating tips, but here it is: my highly functional Chinese kitchen.

Come on in!

OK!

Our kitchen fits two people. No more. Well, sometimes more, but it’s tight. Very tight. The kitchen is 3’10” wide and 8 feet long.

On the right, we have the sink. Oh…ah…

On the left we have a refrigerator, microwave, rice cooker and crock-pot.

We’d love more counter space. Since summer is near, our crock-pot will go into storage as we cook with it mostly in the fall/winter. The rice cooker and smoothie maker (aka blender) must remain.

Our oven is on the left. It is very rare because it actually holds a 9×13 size pan. We found it in Shanghai and hand carried it back.

Having one burner has its pros and cons. One pro is that we can put the oven beside the burner which gives us a smidge more counter space. Another pro is that when cooking Chinese food, you just need one burner as every dish is tossed in the wok.

However, the con is that when cooking western food – such as spaghetti – it takes twice as long.

Most of our Chinese friends have two burners. It just so happens that our apartment has one.

We put our oil in a spray bottle to encourage ourselves and our helper not to cook with too much oil.

All Chinese kitchens have this open shelf specifically for oils and seasonings. It is always conveniently located near the wok.

Here we have: salt, pepper, fresh garlic, fresh ginger, soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce, apple vinegar, bouillon, etc.

Just off the kitchen is the dining room where we eat three squares a day.

To check out more kitchens go here.