[quote=“TheGingerMan”][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.[/quote]
My bad, must have him confused with someone else. It has been a while since I have really been active on here. Nice to see a few of you are still around.
You know, given the shortage of space and the ingenuity needed to properly arrange a workable kitchen space, I would LOVE to see some photos of your kitchens out there.
If you have a small space…how do you make it work? Show us what you’ve got.
If you have a dream kitchen…show us and lets see what we are missing out on.
[quote=“Adam_CLO”]Here’s mine. It has a cool feature where if you stand in the middle, you can just about touch all 4 walls without having to move.
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I don’t know what is behind you…i am assuming wall…if that is the case, you have my sympathy…about zero counter space, wow.
Is that an electric or gas range? Hard to tell from the picture.
Our house is approx 65 pings with less than 1 ping kitchen space, go figure. Originally we had planned to move somewhere bigger and there was no point ripping out the kitchen but the economy is still not picking up so we will have to stay put a bit longer. My wife is going nuts over our tiny kitchen and spends hours looking wistfully in American kitchen brochures.
The only way to get more kitchen space will be to build an extension with a skylight then make an open plan living room + kitchen. Then my wife would have to be banned from any deep fat frying or our whole living room would be covered in grease.
[quote=“Adam_CLO”]Here’s mine. It has a cool feature where if you stand in the middle, you can just about touch all 4 walls without having to move.
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That’s the size of mine. I have two fridges, though. One resides in the “dining area”. My microwave is also in the “dining area”. My kitchen may appear small, but not miniscule enough to render me incapable of culinary masterpieces.
I was wondering the same thing. Look at how much cooking is done here. There are restaurants, food stands, and vendors every ten feet it seems. If you look at their kitchens, they are all small and crowded. My guess is it stems from tradition…its the way it was before so it is the way it is now mentality. Get a space for as cheap as you can, equip it as cheap as you can and maximize efficiency for product output, seems to be the way things are done and this is carried over into homes. I don’t think it is because of a lack of space.
In the US, the kitchen and dining area is a huge focal point of a home. It is where people gather to talk about their day, share and spend time together and cook delicious things. Meals are were always eaten slowly and enjoyed with my family (big Italian family). Most of our time at home was spent in the kitchen / dining area and family room…each room was open to the other.
Here, in Taiwan, if you pay attention to how people eat their daily meals…its fast, quiet and almost mechanical. Part of the daily grind i guess. I think that is why passion is not put into kitchens here.
Next question - are formal dining areas in homes common? When families eat at home together, do they sit around circular tables with the spinning wheel in the center - or is that only for restaurants? In most local households I’ve been to, they eat around the coffee table while watching TV. Obviously the TV part can’t be “part of tradition”.
Yes, there’s not much passion or thought put into designing kitchens here in Taiwan, but we’ve got a big enough one.
Maybe the dining room is more important for Italian-American families. For my relatives and friends, most meals were eaten in the kitchen or living room. The dining room was only used if guests came or if it was a holiday. We probably ate ten meals a year in the dining room.
Maybe some American families sit around the table, eating slowly; talking about their day at school or work, or perhaps talking about 18th century philosophers . . . That seems very French to me.
We fueled up, watched crap on the TV and got out of there, so we could talk to someone other than our boring parents.
The spinning lazy susan thing, never seen it in a home…does not mean that is true for every household though. I only see those in some restaurants here. As far as dining experiences at home, your experience is the same as mine. The coffee table is covered in newspaper to catch the bones and other stuff that gets spat out, TV goes on…usually to the news, food is brought out, everyone is silent and eating as fast as they can so they can get back to what they were doing before the meal. When the meal is finished, the newspaper gets rolled up and thrown away, TV goes off and everyone disappears to their respective rooms or duties.
[quote=“zender”]Yes, there’s not much passion or thought put into designing kitchens here in Taiwan, but we’ve got a big enough one.
Maybe the dining room is more important for Italian-American families. For my relatives and friends, most meals were eaten in the kitchen or living room. The dining room was only used if guests came or if it was a holiday. We probably ate ten meals a year in the dining room.
Maybe some American families sit around the table, eating slowly; talking about their day at school or work, or perhaps talking about 18th century philosophers . . . That seems very French to me.
We fueled up, watched crap on the TV and got out of there, so we could talk to someone other than our boring parents. [/quote]
For us, we ALWAYS ate together as a family. It was a huge taboo to eat while standing or in front of the TV.
Breakfast was always at the kitchen table, same with lunch, and dinner was about 50/50…sometimes at the dining table and sometimes at the kitchen table. The dining table was always used for big holidays, birthdays and family get togethers. Occasionally, during a baseball game or football game we would eat with the TV on, but not often. I guess it really depends on family traditions…which are varied in the US. But from what I have seen over the past 5 years with all the Taiwanese families I know is the same. Eat in the living room at the coffee table, silence, and rushed. I am not saying it is wrong, it is just different for me. For my personal home, where I live and eat my meals, I prefer a comfortable kitchen where I can cook any cuisine I feel like…having an oven and counter space…cooking is a hobby of mine so I like to enjoy it.
We grew up meeting every night for dinner, no TV, having to wait for mum to start before eating and for her to finish before we could leave (she cooked the meal, after all). At my inlaws’ and all the relatives’ places I have been here in Taiwan, we sit down together at a round table with a lazy susan and eat together, talking about the day and sharing fun stories we hear. There is ten of us most nights so it’s pretty lively. No TV necessary.
My mother-in-law cooks for us all in her kitchen. We have four meat dishes, four vegetable dishes, a soup, and sometimes some other special dish. Every night. She does this in 90 minutes on a gas cooker and with a steamer. The kitchen has more room to move than others I have seen, but little bench space. There is the also the worship area in the kitchen. All the relatives’ places I have been to have separate dining areas, as we do.
I have quite a nice Western kitchen in my other place, but have yet to pull out a dinner like my mother-in-law does with such grace.
Perhaps one reason the kitchens are not so fancy is all the oil that is used. Plain tiles are just so much easier to clean. My mother-in-law does often lament that when they had the kitchen built many years ago, the builders would not listen to her. She is relatively tall and wanted a higher bench but the builders could not work around anything not standard. And she wanted more bench space but they just refused to do it. She often says she wishes builders would be a bit more like the Japanese when it came to building and innovate and consider it a craft, but it’s not likely to happen.
We’re in the final death-throes of buying our own place and the first things we’re doing, even before we move in, are totally redoing the kitchen and bathroom. We’ve got a fellow who’s very up-to-date on the latest in space-saving cabinetry, etc., and who already knows that we’re wanting a Western oven – a shiny Smeg, in fact, yum.
But I’d be very interested to see any options people might have.
I think Okami and the chief (yes, his name gets bolded, always) have collectively hit the nail on the head. Chinese cuisine does not really require big ovens and four burner stoves. And since most people just buy whatever they need from the market for a day or two, big refrigerators (and the accompanying utility bills) are not needed. So…
No need for big ovens. +
No need for multi-top stoves. +
No need for big refrigerators. +
Limited housing space to begin with
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Small kitchens in Taiwan. Does that about sum it up?
It’s possible to get a place with a big-er kitchen, but it’s not easy.
This is my kitchen, far from perfect as there’s hardly any work top space.
It only had the typical two burner gas cooker which we ripped out and had replace by a single gas burner and two halogen hobs and an oven. My GF’s mother didn’t quite get the oven and in exchange I really don’t get the dish dryer… If only it had been a dish washer… :neutral:
One resides in the “dining area”. My microwave is also in the “dining area”. My kitchen may appear small, but not miniscule enough to render me incapable of culinary masterpieces.
