A rant on kitchens and a plea for help

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

I have been in Taiwan for just about 5 years. I have lived in apartments big and small. My current apartment is about 38 pings. It has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen…if you can call it that. More like a closet with a removable 5 foot counter and a 2 burner camping stove. My kitchen is tiny. And my experience in Taiwan so far is that all kitchens here are tiny. I hate it. It is by far probably my biggest rant about living here.

My in-laws have a big house with a big kitchen. Their kitchen is the size of my living room, which is quite large. However, the use of space makes no sense to me! They have this huge room for what could be a very nice kitchen space…long counter tops, an island, cabinets, good size stove, refrigerator, oven, etc…

But instead they have against one wall a removable counter, about 5 feet long, with a sink, and a pathetic excuse of a stove…another 2 burner camping stove. Thats it! The rest of this massive room is just empty space…the refrigerator is in the living room! WTF!!!

Most kitchens in Taipei are so tiny you can barely turn around in them when you cook without bumping into a wall. It is starting to drive me nuts. I am used to bigger western kitchens with room to maneuver. I want one…I need one or I will crack soon. :ohreally:

So the wife and I are on a quest to find a new place to live that has a decent size kitchen space. Forget whats in it, we figure that we will have to design and add the inside cabinets, counters, oven, stove etc. on our own. I just need a space that is not a farkin closet!

I have looked everywhere: online, offline, with realtors, in the paper, and by word of mouth. Zero hits, zero leads…nothing. Shy of buying our own house and knocking out a wall, does anyone know anywhere in Taipei or Taipei county where apartments have decent size kitchens?

Why are the kitchens here soooooooooooooo small??? It seems that when they build homes here the kitchens and bathrooms are afterthoughts. :doh:

2

Yeah, the thing I hate worst about them is if somebody opens one of the overhead cupboards, I have to…

duck.

:roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:

3

Shy of buying your own place and knocking out a wall, you’d have to find a place where someone else has already done the same. That, or go up market and get a place in a higher-end community.

4

Hello, Quarters. Nice to see you again.

I totally agree with you on the kitchens. I don’t think ours could even be called a kitchen.

5

[quote]Yeah, the thing I hate worst about them is if somebody opens one of the overhead cupboards, I have to…

duck.[/quote]

5 years and that is still alive? Ha! :eh:

Seriously though…the counters are very low and the cupboards above positioned at head hitting height…annoying…just like the duck thing :wink: time to put that one to sleep don’t ya think? Nice to see ya again Chief. :bow:

6

Given the predilection of many Taiwanese towards eating, the shocking state of affairs of many of the nation’s kitchens is something quite unfathomable.

Mr. He has the best kitchen I have seen in Taiwan. Spacious, well lit, and well equipped. It’s a rarity, though, which makes it even more of a diamond in the rough.

7

Fact is (sadly) that many Taiwanese rarely use their kitchens or even opt to have none at all because it is so much more convenient and cheaper to buy your meals outside. Taiwan’s culture of convenience can be quite destructive and it’s one thing I dislike about Taiwan’s society. Sometimes I wish people here were a bit less “convenient” (read lazy).

8

[quote=“Quarters”]
But instead they have against one wall a removable counter, about 5 feet long, with a sink, and a pathetic excuse of a stove…another 2 burner camping stove. Thats it! The rest of this massive room is just empty space…the refrigerator is in the living room![/quote]
I was ranting about how ridiculous it was that Taiwanese have the refrigerator in the living room or dining room, until one young Taiwanese man, very affronted, said it is because they are trying to make it look like an American house - clearly implying that since I’m not an American, I’m not up on the current styles. Once I stopped laughing, I realized what he meant - in newer American homes, the style is a ‘great room’, with the kitchen open to the dining area and the living room. So to the Taiwanese, this type of room looks like the refrigerator is in the living room, so they copy that.
In other cases, the kitchen is just too small for a refrigerator, of course.

In happens in other countries too - I was in a friend’s apartment in Malaysia, a huge, palatial place, with a big kitchen, but they too just had a tiny counter with a sink, a a two burner ‘camp’ stove, and a lot of wasted space. It’s the kind of kitchen they’re used to, so when they have more space they don’t know what to do with it.

9

Lotus Hill kitchens are ok in the larger apartments (over 45 pings). Still not comparable to a western kitchen, but we’ve got enough room for 4 of us to be in there together without getting too crazy. We also have room for a refrigerator and a western oven. :discodance:

10

Today right now my wife is in final negotiations on our own pied a terre, and our plan is to not move in until the kitchen and bathroom have been renovated to our standards. Apparently there are all kinds of designers specialized in utilizing tiny spaces and apparently – apparently – it’ll be no problem, bar the cash outlay, to make the available space into a reasonable working area. We’ll see. I’m FINALLY getting a 4-burner with an oven and eye-height grill! YAY!

11

Congratulations! I envy you sir. Enjoy your new kitchen :notworthy:

12

My current place is pretty good. The living room and kitchen is one long room so the kitchen actually runs a fair length of the wall. Decent counter space, and lots of usable cupboards with, god bless them, roller shelfs inside. Lots of little doohickeys for hanging stuff on too, like towels, paper towels, etc.

So yeah, there are place with kitchens. I think most units here have them so I can put you in touch with my landlord if you want.

13

[quote=“TheGingerMan”]Given the predilection of many Taiwanese towards eating, the shocking state of affairs of many of the nation’s kitchens is something quite unfathomable.

Mr. He has the best kitchen I have seen in Taiwan. Spacious, well lit, and well equipped. It’s a rarity, though, which makes it even more of a diamond in the rough.[/quote]

If i am not mistaken, doesn’t Mr. He have his own restaurant? Way back when I was a FOB in Taiwan, I believe I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. He at a Forumosa get together at Alleycats. Did he design his own home kitchen?

14

[quote=“Mucha Man”]My current place is pretty good. The living room and kitchen is one long room so the kitchen actually runs a fair length of the wall. Decent counter space, and lots of usable cupboards with, god bless them, roller shelfs inside. Lots of little doohickeys for hanging stuff on too, like towels, paper towels, etc.

So yeah, there are place with kitchens. I think most units here have them so I can put you in touch with my landlord if you want.[/quote]

I appreciate the offer. Thank you. If you can PM me with details, I would be delighted.

Unfortunately the Mrs. and I are going through a debate on how much we want to pay for rent. Our place is too big for just the two of us, so we want a somewhat smaller apartment. We both agree on a bigger kitchen. What we don’t agree on is the price. I am willing to pay more than we are now for a nicer kitchen, but the Mrs. feels because we want a smaller apartment we should pay less rent. I am working on this one.

15

The only way I got a decent sized kitchen was to buy a house and equip it myself.

16

I agree and disagree with you on this. I don’t think families eat out more than they cook at home. I do think your comment is true about younger Taiwanese couples and singles. I think most Taiwanese families have grandma or mom staying home cooking all day.

17

Taiwanese need a small kitchen because they only fry or boil food and space is expensive. My MiL has a huge kitchen, but uses very little of it. The sink is in the corner of the kitchen. :unamused:

My kitchen is large and spacious, but due to poor design and FiL buying the counters we have very little usable space. Now if I could only knock out that bathroom and move the water tank out somehow. Yes, I have a huge water tank in my kitchen, welcome to Changhua. :astonished:

18

When we bought our place last year, the main change we made was ripping the doors and walls off the tiny kitchen (the prior owner had remodeled it so it could be closed up like a closet), opening it up and adding counter space and a real oven.

Why do Taiwanese have tiny kitchens? It’s just their culture. Apparently they don’t see cooking as an important and/or enjoyable activity and don’t value that space. Why do Americans have such massive garages? Why do Finns have saunas? The reasons why don’t matter; that’s just the way it is.

19

[quote=“Quarters”][quote=“TheGingerMan”]Given the predilection of many Taiwanese towards eating, the shocking state of affairs of many of the nation’s kitchens is something quite unfathomable.

Mr. He has the best kitchen I have seen in Taiwan. Spacious, well lit, and well equipped. It’s a rarity, though, which makes it even more of a diamond in the rough.[/quote]

If i am not mistaken, doesn’t Mr. He have his own restaurant? Way back when I was a FOB in Taiwan, I believe I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. He at a Forumosa get together at Alleycats. Did he design his own home kitchen?[/quote]
Unless the Great Dane has been holding out on us, I don’t think so. He’s more into Bagism as a career, and not the Lennon-Ono variety. That might have some trickle-on-doan with regards to his choice of kitchen.

20

Guess you will have to look for an even bigger, newer place, Quakers. A huge open kitchen was one of the features of a place I fell in love with house hunting - U shape, tall enough for my two door fridge. A bit out of my budget -heck, quite a bit- but good to know there are those places out there. Later on I saw older places, still with small kitchen, but some with open concept, so you could arrange your stuff and feel a bit more confortable. That is alos doable. Hitting all four walls while cooking is not my idea of pleasure. And cooking should be a pleasurable activity.