Sunday, October 31, 2010

Oven Lust

Naturally I need to not go on wild shopping sprees while living here. Not only is that counter to the idea of living the minimalist life I’m trying to embrace, but imagine trying to move again! And this time, with more stuff! No, the list of acquisitions needs to remain small. I was hoping to not even have a list, but since being here I’ve realized I will have to buy a few things.

Like a heater. The heaters in my apartment are woefully inadequate; I can tell just by looking at them. They are mini heat pumps, one in each main room whose air handlers are situated high on the wall, approximately 30cm from the ceiling. Being as heat rises, how efficient are these things going to be? Especially if you consider the walls are 20cm thick concrete and the windows are single-paned. The walls alone sap the apartment of any heat inside.

Another appliance I will have to furnish for myself is an iron. Whereas usually there is a proliferation of cleaners who would ‘do’ my clothes for next to nothing in China, in this neighborhood of dust and diesel fumes we can’t even spell clean, let alone have a cleaner to iron my work clothes for me.

An appliance I did not have to buy is a blow dryer. That was one I had anticipated shopping for; strangely enough, there was one furnished with the apartment. Maybe I should not anticipate things so much…

I never really expected this, but I miss my toaster oven. Knowing that the standard Chinese kitchen does not come so equipped, while I was in the States I had originally planned to ship my toaster oven over and just use a transformer to convert power for it. But my oven proved too cumbersome and I reasoned: how often do I use it anyway? Funny how you never know how useful an oven is until you don’t have one.

I have a microwave oven, but it is just not the same. Not when you are faced with a steady diet of fried foods from the wok and soggy, overly soft, sweet bread from the local bakery. In short: when you wake up dreaming about brownies, the only thing you can really conclude is that you miss having an oven.

All that changed for me on the day I got a phone call from a friend. There was going to be a birthday celebration and she confided that, rather than buy a cake, she was going to bake one.

WAIT A MINUTE!!! Ovens do not exists in China! How… I actually spluttered this part… How are you going to BAKE a cake???

Come to find out ovens can be bought in China. Very nice ovens that bake, broil and roast whole chickens, all while looking very efficient and modern in these traditional Chinese kitchens. And it just so happens Della has one.

Since that day I have been possessed with oven lust. I long to purchase the oven of my dreams, and when I’m in my own kitchen I glance longingly at the space my oven will one day occupy. Part of the reason I took that very long walk (when I ended up in the mud puddle) was because there are several appliance stores along that stretch of road that might… just MIGHT have my oven.

I have been to Carrefour – a quarter way across town; Walmart – halfway across town; and every appliance store in between. I have found ovens, but they are not quite of the caliber I’m dreaming of. I have been to Chicone’s – a high-end department store, and Renrenle – a low-end department store; even they cannot seem to satisfy.

I conclude my only hope for finding my oven will be at Metro, the elusive, German-owned major store chain. I’ve set out to find Metro on 4 different occasions and each time I was thwarted. Even though the Metro website tells me exactly which bus to take in order to arrive at its welcoming portals, somehow I cannot seem to find the place. Maybe the store is just a myth and the website one of those prank sites… but then I think: No, that is where Della bought her oven. Surely Metro must exist somewhere in this town!

I know it is wrong of me to put all of my hopes into one basket. Maybe, if I make it to Metro and get a good jolt of disappointment at not finding MY oven, I’ll go to Wal-Mart and settle for one of theirs. Wal-Mart actually does have a fairly interesting ‘convertible’ oven, in which the chicken roasts standing up, and then you pivot the roasting element from the side of the oven to the top and turn it into a broiler.

Sigh! If I HAVE to make do…

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