Here in Taiwan we have a very nice modern apartment. It is fully furnished and the landlords were quite generous with the appliances they provided as part of the rental. But here in Taiwan, there are some interesting differences with the appliances.
Let’s start with the kitchen. We have a 3-burner gas cooktop. Cooking is much faster than with the electric stove back in the US. The number 4 is considered bad luck here (the word for 4 sounds like the word for “death” in Chinese) which may or may not explain the 3 burners as compared to the usual 4 in the US. There is no built-in oven. Instead, we have a combination microwave/convection oven. The kitchen is so small that the “oven” is on an appliance cart in the corner of the dining room. But before we leave the kitchen for good, there are a few more items of note.
Since Dan really likes cooking with the Foreman grill in the US, we brought one here. It stays on the counter-height surface that is part of a pantry cabinet behind the kitchen door. When Dan cooked with it the other night, it took up half of the counter space in the kitchen, and since I left it there to cool down, dish washing was a challenge. I had no where to put anything!
Speaking of dishwashing – I am the dishwasher! There is no automatic dishwasher. We do, however, have a dish dryer. It’s a box mounted above the sink, with a rack for holding the dishes. You load it up, close the door, and push a button to choose the drying time (15, 30, 60, or 90 minutes). I have found that 30 minutes works pretty well. Big things don’t fit in it though. We have some square dinner plates that do not fit at all! Those have to be handled by the manual dish dryer with towel, because they are also too large and heavy for the dish drainer we bought! And any way, the counter is way too small for a pile of dirty dishes, clean dishes to be rinsed, and a drainer!
The last kitchen appliance I’ll mention is the refrigerator. It’s really nice. There is a large upper section with a door, and a large refrigerated drawer. Under that drawer is a freezer drawer. Plenty of space for food (and beer)!
I should mention some of the other items on our appliance cart in the dining room. In addition to the microwave/convection over, we have a toaster (we bought a standard one with wide slots for bagels) and a water boiler. The tap water here is not recommended for drinking. Many people use bottled water. We have a special tap in the kitchen with filtered water, which we use for drinking after boiling in the water boiler! The water boiler is an insulated container that holds 4.5 liters of water (about a gallon). You simply fill it up with the filtered water, close the lid, plug it in, and turn it on to boil. I haven’t timed it but it doesn’t take
too long. You can make tea or coffee (we brought a French press for simplicity) directly from it – quite convenient. When you are ready to use water from the boiler, you unlock it and push a button (you can choose “strong” or “weak” – 2 Chinese characters I have come to recognize) and the water is pumped out into whatever container you hold under the spout. We bought a couple of special plastic pitchers that are good to 120 degrees C, so we can “download” the water to them to cool and use for drinking. One goes in the fridge since Dan likes cold water. I have grown to prefer room temperature water, so my pitcher stays on the cart. We also have a wide mouth bottle with a lid that we use for water in the bathroom – mainly for brushing our teeth.
Outside the kitchen we have a small “balcony” that is equipped as a utility room. There are 2 air conditioning units mounted there, blocking most of the view (but also providing privacy from the street). We keep our cleaning supplies such as broom, mop, bucket, and squeegee out there. We also have a “state of the art” combination washer/dryer. No, it’s not a dryer stacked on top of a washer, or vice versa. It is one top loading unit that theoretically “does it all.” In actuality, it is a fine washer but useless as a dryer. I have yet to find where the warm damp air exits the thing. (Maybe that’s why it takes 3 hours to dry a few socks!) And since it is a top loader, there is no “tumbling” action. Imagine the drum turning with warm air blowing around in there on your clothes. Can you say “wrinkle?”
I should mention some of the other items on our appliance cart in the dining room. In addition to the microwave/convection over, we have a toaster (we bought a standard one with wide slots for bagels) and a water boiler. The tap water here is not recommended for drinking. Many people use bottled water. We have a special tap in the kitchen with filtered water, which we use for drinking after boiling in the water boiler! The water boiler is an insulated container that holds 4.5 liters of water (about a gallon). You simply fill it up with the filtered water, close the lid, plug it in, and turn it on to boil. I haven’t timed it but it doesn’t take too long. You can make tea or coffee (we brought a French press for simplicity) directly from it – quite convenient. When you are ready to use water from the boiler, you unlock it and push a button (you can choose “strong” or “weak” – 2 Chinese characters I have come to recognize) and the water is pumped out into whatever container you hold under the spout. We bought a couple of special plastic pitchers that are good to 120 degrees C, so we can “download” the water to them to cool and use for drinking. One goes in the fridge since Dan likes cold water. I have grown to prefer room temperature water, so my pitcher stays on the cart. We also have a wide mouth bottle with a lid that we use for water in the bathroom – mainly for brushing our teeth.Outside the kitchen we have a small “balcony” that is equipped as a utility room. There are 2 air conditioning units mounted there, blocking most of the view (but also providing privacy from the street). We keep our cleaning supplies such as broom, mop, bucket, and squeegee out there. We also have a “state of the art” combination washer/dryer. No, it’s not a dryer stacked on top of a washer, or vice versa. It is one top loading unit that theoretically “does it all.” In actuality, it is a fine washer but useless as a dryer. I have yet to find where the warm damp air exits the thing. (Maybe that’s why it takes 3 hours to dry a few socks!) And since it is a top loader, there is no “tumbling” action. Imagine the drum turning with warm air blowing around in there on your clothes. Can you say “wrinkle?”
After several experimental laundry adventures, we went off to an appliance store called “BEST” located in the nearby Carrefour. There we made our “BEST” purchase in Taiwan to date – we bought a simple stand alone, tumbling clothes dryer. It doesn’t have all the features of our Sears dryer in the US, but I am very happy – the clothes get dry in a reasonable time and no wrinkles!
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