As per the question. I’m not sure what the best way is to store onions, potatoes, garlic, and so on - the vegetables that you’d normally keep loose in a cupboard in more temperate climes. I usually just keep them loose in a cupboard here too, but I’m getting tired of opening that cupboard to discover that potatoes I bought just a week previously have sprouted, or red onions have already gone soft. Yellow onions seem to hold up fine. Given the climate we’ve got here, should I do this differently? Keep them in a basket outside a cupboard? Ziplock bags? In the fridge? Or is what I currently have pretty much as good as it’s going to get?
I put them in a metal basket on top of the fridge, in the nets where they sell them to you, or loose. When I have leftover onions, I put them in an onion shaped plastic container that closes hermetically and into the fridge.
In te fridge, veggies go into plastic containers to try to make them last a bit. So so success.
I read recently that hanging them onions, potatoes and other dry produce from nylon stockings works better -dunno, don’t use those. Wrapped individually.In the ol country, we have neat baskets we hang from kitchen ceilings and that’s where they go.
The people in charge of vegetable storage in my house seem to have settled on the veg drawer in the fridge for spuds. They tend to sprout rather quickly, I think.
I keep all fruit and veg in the fridge, except bananas and citrus. Also, unripe avocados, starfruit, etc, which won’t ripen much at lower temps (but then into the fridge once ripe if still not eaten yet).
If timetable/schedule permits I try and buy them in the morning and cook them that night. Walking through a market in the morning is one of the great joys of living in Asia. But not everyone works afternoons.
I think netting is the way forward. You can also get bamboo woven baskets for 20 dollars each at the buy everything store.
I just discovered how healthy and delicious bottle gourd is. So easy to cook.
Indeed!
In a basket on the balcony.
Keep the garlic out of the sun, it makes it sprout.
Put them in the fridge. Who says they can’t be? I’ve been doing that for years.
They keep growing when you shut the door.
but much slower. that’s the point.
same as the mould and rot. much slower in the fridge. Slight problem of them drying out, though.
OK, thanks all - maybe I’ll try moving them to the fridge, if I can find the room. Man that thing fills up. I’ve found that potatoes seem to sprout in the cupboard, but get soft in the fridge. Either way I can’t keep them for long.
Morning markets: unfortunately, they seldom fit in my schedule. You’re right though - I should make much more use of them. I just don’t like the idea of going out early to buy groceries so I can get home in time to go out again for work.
For the purists, it affects the taste, like tomatoes.
In the case of bananas and onions in particular, they exude an enzyme that contaminates the rest of the food and makes it spoil even faster, among other things. That is why I mentioned how important it is to keep onions locked after cutting them if you will put the remaining part in the fridge.
Bananas are best stored in the fridge two ways: peeled and cut and frozen in the freezer, or wrapped in paper and then a plastic bag in the veggie compartment.
[quote=“lostinasia”]
Morning markets: unfortunately, they seldom fit in my schedule. You’re right though - I should make much more use of them. I just don’t like the idea of going out early to buy groceries so I can get home in time to go out again for work.[/quote]
That would suck, I hardly ever do that. I did it once today and thought it was a waste of time. I normally buy a squash and some carrots and take them to work.
I have hardly used a fridge in 3 years. They are expensive to run electricity wise, annoying, and I reckon they spoil more food than they preserve. My apartment: No Facebook, no internet, no fridge, no DVD. Apart from a guitar amp and mp3 player, we are virtual Mennonites in our house.
Why are they annoying? Just wondering.
I have two fridges. A large one for fruit, veggies, seafood and condiments, and a medium one for drinks.
If I had the space, I’d get a third, smaller one for condiments, sauces, dips, spreads and pickles.
Guy
They are large, they sit there and hum, you have to clean the nooks and crannies, they contain freon and other toxins, and they hoover up electricity. What offends me most is their size.
I would like an Einstein fridge, but the normal ones aren’t for me.
Microwave ovens piss me off. And toasters. Basically, having half a dozen devices to apply heat to animal or vegetable material for consumption is just annoying.
Found this. Maybe it helps:
[quote=“Icon”]Found this. Maybe it helps:
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Heh. On the right side of the chart, bananas, garlic, onions, and potatoes are the only things I’ve normally kept at room temperature here (and avocados until they’re ripe). It’s one of those things where most of the North American climate-controlled cooking advice I read doesn’t really correspond to a place where my kitchen’s room temperature is as hot as Vancouver’s hottest days for five or six months of the year.
Silicon utensils are another puzzle. Here, they always seem kind of … sticky? fuzzy? Like they’re not quite clean. But that’s how they feel immediately after washing.