Sunday, August 12, 2012

a tour of the kitchen

I keep meaning to send some photos of our house, but it's hard because it doesn't feel like "home" yet. Lots of the items around the house are borrowed from the Woodstock hospitality office, and so we're slowly replacing them with things we find at the bazaar or in Dehra Dun. But perhaps we can give you all some idea of life in India by doing a room-by-room tour over several posts. Come on in to the kitchen!...

 As you can see, our space is small -- very narrow. When Chris and I are in there together, we're constantly jostling for space.

(Mom & Dad, you'll be happy to notice that there's a fire extinguisher above the fridge!)
 One of our most important kitchen friends is the Pureguard water filter. When we first got to WS, ours was broken -- a huge pain. Without it, we live on bottled water only, an expensive and environmentally unsound option.











WS also hooked us up with this sweet gas bottle stove. Cooking Thanksgiving dinner with only two burners would be a crazy challenge, but it's worked well so far... though we admittedly struggled to light it on the first several tries.

One of the most expensive things we bought our first week out is this tiny oven. (I put a bottle of oil next to it for scale.) We couldn't decide what would be better -- a microwave or an oven -- but I like to bake, so we sprang for this. I'm going to test out a high-altitude apple pie recipe later this week, my first real go at baking here. Fingers crossed, or our advisees will hate us. :)


Another grand India purchase: the electric kettle. Why did I not have this in the states?? Stupid girl. Of course, the awesomeness of an electric kettle might not make up for the fact that our coffee standards have dropped to a horrible new low. We have a french press, but it's such a pain to clean / dry that we often rely on instant coffee. Bleck! One thing I really miss from IC: Java Coolers, man. I could go for one of those. Anyway, I'm rambling. Needless to say, the electric kettle has been good to us thus far...


Just so you know we're not starving, here's a peek at our food pantry... Notice that we have lots of junk food -- nutella, pringles, and bags of cookies, fresh from the "Bread guy" who visits us twice a week with way too much food. I thought I might lose weight in India, but this evidence begs to differ. The only other thing worth mentioning is that we need to store all open packages in tupperware or plastic bags. It's monsoon, here, so anything left unsealed molds within a few days. The three tupperware on the right are full of spices and dal ingredients requested by our ayah (maid/cook), Shanti -- more on her in another post. 


And finally, I guess I'll mention washing dishes. India is certainly teaching us many lessons, one of which is patience. Things we took for granted in the U.S. take much longer here. The simple act of doing dishes is a full process -- below you can see Chris being an awesome husband and cleaning a load!




So that's our humble kitchen! I'm still learning how to cook successfully here. I've tried pancakes and stir fry -- classics at home -- but the results have been rather "meh." Not sure whether it's the ingredients or altitude or cooking  implements, but I'll figure it out sometime soon I'm sure. I like cooking too much to give up. :)

A final image: pizza from a local restaurant. Our first Indian pizza, and it wasn't bad! Certainly not Carbone's, Pagliai's, or Pepe's, but solidly better than Papa John's and some other typical U.S. delivery places. Oh, and we got to stare at the mountains while we ate... That improves things as well. 


Sorry this post is so long -- hope you all have a fantastic week!

12 comments:

  1. You have done an awesome job in such a short period. Happy cooking and baking.

    Vandana

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    1. Thanks, Vandana! And thanks for all the free dinners! Please join us for tea and a snack sometime. :)

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  2. Fascinating stuff. I'm also interested in how your interactions with technology are different. Do you have internet/cell service at home?

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    1. Hey Amari, Thanks for the note! Technology is strange here, but we do have internet via a wireless router. However, the electricity is on and off, so sometimes in the middle of work I'll lose my connection. As for cell, we don't have one yet but will soon. Cells are huge in India, but foreigners have to fill out a lot of paperwork to get one. We've been lazy so far.:)

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  3. Hey Mel and Chris! I have been enjoying your posts and glad to see that you are settling in. I wanted to point out that I think you may have more counter space than I do. And a small oven means you can start cooking dutch oven style. Curries, stews, and soups!

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    1. Glad you've been enjoying the blog, Anne! I do think you're right about the counter space. :) Good tip on dutch oven cooking -- I need to broaden my horizons for sure.

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  4. Thanks Mel , we love seeing your daily life. Way to go Chris doin' the dishes, especially when it's not just loading the dishwasher. Love Dad 2

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    1. Hey Dad 2 -- I'll pass along your note to Chris! Thanks for checking in! love, mel

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  5. We lived in a place in northern England not too different from this. Tiny everything, no counters, and no central heating. It will soon seem like home.

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    1. I'm sure it will be home soon, and I can't wait!

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  6. Love hearing about your day to day experiences in an exotic, foreign country. So fascinating! Thx for sharing.
    Love, Aunt Joan

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  7. Thank you Melanie, for the wonderful kitchen tour. I especially enjoyed seeing your fire extinguisher, but I would also love to see your smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector. :) Now when we're talking on the phone, I can visualize your "home sweet home". Can't wait to tour the rest of your place. Take good care. Love ~ Mommy

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