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Q: do you have an oven ?
I'm trying to find an apartment before coming. The pictures sent are never very good, some don't even show the floor (maybe on purpose). But I ask about oven, I get typical answer which is not. I don't see ovens in pics.. Is an oven something rare to get in apartment. I bake because I like dessert. I like roasted chicken, beef. Has anyone tried cooking in a clothes dryer? just kidding
Ovens are very rare here, except tiny little wood burning ovens that aren't really useful for western style cooking. I knew one foreign couple that bought a proper oven, but they'd been living here over a decade.
It does bother me, cuz most of the stuff I know how to cook needs an oven, and I'm no good at cooking Chinese. C'est la vie, I guess.
nevermind:
Dude, get with the now. I bought an oven on taobao for 500 kuai that can cook a turkey. I do roasts, chicken, lasanga, pizza all the time.
Hell's ya, I do. It's not one of them ovens like back home, but it still cooks a turkey.
is oven easy to find other in big stores? taobao does not appeal to me
Xpat.John:
Easy? No. Not at all. You will be lucky to find a store that sells one at all. I once found a place in Guangzhou that had 2 western style ovens. Both of them were floor models and there was no other stock.
The next week I went to buy one of them and they were both gone. And the staff seemed to have collective amnesia about what happened to them. So it is possible it was just a wish inspired illusion that I saw them at all.
They have small, "toaster" size ovens in the big stores. Amway also sells a decent oven. Chinese don't use ovens often, but you can buy.
You can a decent sized counter top oven. I paid 300.
We roast chickens, make lasagna, the works
I wouldnt worry about it
I simply went to Metro and got a big, shiny, new oven for 600rmb. It does everything except take out the trash.
Hey Ted, where are you planning to move to?
In bigger cities, it is possible to get an apartment with an actual western oven (although probably electric) included. Be prepeared to pay for it though - those apartments are pretty much only rented to laowai.
It is completely possible to buy an oven here though. I scored a good size electric one that I can put on my counter. It's electric (oh, I miss gas ovens and even more a convection oven...), but it does the trick. It's big enough for a decent size pizza or lasagna and it even has a rotisserie attachment so I can use it do make a chicken or what not.
When I first came here I didn't have an oven - you can live without it, but it does kind of suck to not have one.
Hey, for people without an oven, did you know you can make a "baked potato" in your microwave?
It's easy - take a potato, wrap it in plastic wrap and stab it a few times with a knife. Right through the plastic wrap and into the potato. Maybe 8 or 9 times. Then throw it in the microwave for 8-10 minutes. The skin won't be crispy like a real baked potato, but it will eat like one.
Sometimes I splurge on a container of sour cream and I load the potato with that, chopped green onions, bacon, and sometimes cheese. Ohhh yeah.
TedDBayer:
I'm going to Guilin, now sorry I'm not going to Guangzhou,, know where i can get lowai apt? I'll post the question. I wanna make things like carrot cake (with poppy seeds). Lots of things like chilli don't get burnt or stick to the bottom if you bake them. Besides I might need someplace to stick my head on a bad day.
