I know it’s blasphemous but we won’t have an oven in our new house. We had a nice Thermadore stainless steel convection oven in our now demolished house, but it was used at most once. We’d rather use that space for extra cabinets and drawers…ovens just take up too much valuable space. If we ever need one, we can get one of those counter-top ovens.

However we will have a rice cooker. This is hands down the most important kitchen appliance for many Asian households. What a magnificent invention. Rice cookers are really sophisticated nowadays and expensive, the most expensive ones are close to $900. They have reservation timers, adjustments for white, brown rice, and porridge, and keeps the rice warm for days. Some even talk to notify you that the “rice is ready”. Because it generates steam, you need to place it somewhere with good ventilation. I’ve ruined a kitchen cabinet in the past by placing the rice cooker under it, the bottom shelf disintegrated.

Talking about kitchen cabinets. The new house has no kitchen cabinets in the traditional sense. It has no wall cabinets, all the cabinets and drawers are consolidated into the island. My wife’s not tall and finds the hanging kitchen cabinets unfriendly. In college she was in the 5 ft and under dorm. It wasn’t discrimination but the beds in that dorm physically couldn’t support anyone over 5 ft. Coincidentally all her close friends from college are 5 ft and under.