Our Chinese Kitchen

There are a few differences between our Chinese kitchen and then one we left back home. Apart from the obvious (small fridge, large water dispenser, low counters) there are few things that make it especially Chinese.

It took us a good week or so to figure out what the metal contraption in the cupboard next to the sink is for. All I knew was that it was taking up vital cupboard space. Eric took a look and discovered that it was a rice dispenser. The rice gets poured into the storage bin and then dispensed out the bottom slot in even, measured amounts. Press the blue button on top and presto! Perfectly measured out rice for dinner. We don’t use it for this, so it is really not much of a help to us, but if we start eating rice daily like the typical Chinese family, I suppose it could come in really handy.



We have found that it is the perfect place to store plastic bags

  Another feature unique to our Chinese kitchen is the wok burner on our cook top. I, again, wasn’t sure what the concave burner was supposed to be for, but it is measured perfectly for a wok. We use ours on almost a daily basis now so I love the convenience of our uniquely Chinese burner.

There is also the presence of our colorful plastic tubs. While I don’t think I have ever seen these types of tubs in the U.S., I have found them in Kenya, Thailand, India, and China. Green is for water and washing, pink is for food use. Because our water takes forever to warm up in the mornings we have a green tub under the shower head catching what normally would just go down the drain. We wash all of our dishes by hand so the water we catch from the shower goes to the kitchen to do our dishes. We also use the green tubs for hand washing some of our clothing. The pink tub is the perfect size for mixing up pizza dough, muffin batter, etc. It is hard to find large mixing bowls so we make do with the pink tub.



Using our saved water to wash up vegetables




Making pizza dough