OMG! An OVEN in Asia!!
May 16, 2013

I love my big kitchen in Asia and let me tell you that big kitchens are VERY rare in Asia and an oven is non existent in most apartments and homes. Most kitchens are tiny as street food is the name of the game here.Cooking in Asia is done outside mostly.
Remember when we used the toaster oven to bake cookies our first Christmas in Asia...we were thrilled and lucky to have even a toaster oven.

Most of you know we have been on an organic eating,super healthy kick for a bit, addressing my travel health issues and curing cavites naturally. So when we decided to eat no grains for a while, we thought it was worth spending sixty bucks to buy an oven so I could cook yummy things made out of coconut flour that we could eat.
I got one wth a super low heat too, so I could use it as a dehydrator for things like making my own coconut flour easily ( story coming) from the cheap and abundant healthy coconut here.

It's crazy! I may be the only one in tropical Asia to have both a crock pot ( for bone broths) and an oven in my kitchen and both of them going almost every day. Actually, the crock pot is usually on at night.

So now we have invested in an oven, crock pot, blender and juicer..all cheap here and we can store them all with friends when we leave, so they will wait for our return.
This is so not me, but I am loving cooking, baking, fermenting delicious and super healthy real food and my family is loving it. Mozart's worldschooling now includes lots of cooking and baking too.

We are all enjoying the homey feel to this place and getting healthier with good food.

More recipes coming as I have time.

I also love it that I get to experience the specatacular sunsets here from my kitchen windows as it usually sets while I am making dinner. Sweet gift...just like the gorgeous sunrises over the Andaman Sea that start our day from our bedrooms.

Completing Mandarin immersion here, ( we leave when she finishes the 6th grade level in reading and writing which isn't too far away as she plows through it with her new tutor) has this world traveling family slowed down a bit, but we are taking full advantage of these domestic adventures and loving it.
I love my big kitchen in Asia and let me tell you that big kitchens are VERY rare in Asia and an oven is non existent in most apartments and homes. Most kitchens are tiny as street food is the name of the game here.Cooking in Asia is done outside mostly.
Remember when we used the toaster oven to bake cookies our first Christmas in Asia...we were thrilled and lucky to have even a toaster oven.
Most of you know we have been on an organic eating,super healthy kick for a bit, addressing my travel health issues and curing cavites naturally. So when we decided to eat no grains for a while, we thought it was worth spending sixty bucks to buy an oven so I could cook yummy things made out of coconut flour that we could eat.
I got one wth a super low heat too, so I could use it as a dehydrator for things like making my own coconut flour easily ( story coming) from the cheap and abundant healthy coconut here.
It's crazy! I may be the only one in tropical Asia to have both a crock pot ( for bone broths) and an oven in my kitchen and both of them going almost every day. Actually, the crock pot is usually on at night.
So now we have invested in an oven, crock pot, blender and juicer..all cheap here and we can store them all with friends when we leave, so they will wait for our return.
This is so not me, but I am loving cooking, baking, fermenting delicious and super healthy real food and my family is loving it. Mozart's worldschooling now includes lots of cooking and baking too.
We are all enjoying the homey feel to this place and getting healthier with good food.
More recipes coming as I have time.
I also love it that I get to experience the specatacular sunsets here from my kitchen windows as it usually sets while I am making dinner. Sweet gift...just like the gorgeous sunrises over the Andaman Sea that start our day from our bedrooms.
Completing Mandarin immersion here, ( we leave when she finishes the 6th grade level in reading and writing which isn't too far away as she plows through it with her new tutor) has this world traveling family slowed down a bit, but we are taking full advantage of these domestic adventures and loving it.
« previous | | next »
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00e5502a95078833017eea2a5210970d
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference OMG! An OVEN in Asia!!:
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
The comments to this entry are closed.
Looks delicious and that IS a beautiful kitchen!
Posted by: Danielle | May 16, 2013 at 04:09 PM
Aw, thanks Danielle! It certainly gives me lots of pleasure from the time I open all the shades when I awake early, to when I close it down for the night before bed.
Our last kitchen here was extremely small and minimalist, so things are MUCH easier here for kitchen creations!
Posted by: Jeanne @soultravelers3 | May 16, 2013 at 07:41 PM
I feel your pain about the kitchens thing. Where we are now (in the Maldives) we have NO kitchen at all. It's a tad bizarre!
Also - refreshing to read a travel blog by someone else into bone broths, WAPF/GAPS type food (at least that was my impression). We are a paleo family and I've noticed a lot of vegetarian & vegan travel/expat bloggers for some reason. Interesting which people are drawn to this life!
Posted by: Meryl @ Expat Travels | May 16, 2013 at 10:18 PM
I am so glad I found your blog! One of my concerns with extended travel is diet, I am very partial to my raw/fermented/fresh/homemade diet. You are showing me it is entirely doable. Thanks.
Posted by: robyn | May 17, 2013 at 07:41 AM
Thanks Meryl, nice to meet you! I've done the no kitchen thing...not fun for sure...especially if you are on a strict diet.
Yes, we are organic eating GAPS/WAPF/SCD/Paleo template types these days ( very strictly this last year or so and no grains what so ever for the last few months).
I am still tweaking, reading and researching, plus using ourselves as guinea pigs as I learn more and try various things...primarily motivated by my health issues and also doing a eating program to cure and prevent cavities in kiddo and her dad. But I have always been into healthy eating and had year long organic gardens that supplied us at home before we began our travel lifestyle.
It's working and I love how much I have learned in the process!
I lean more in the template part of paleo these days like the Perfect Health Diet or Kresser and admire the ideal diet like the south sea islands..( especially with all the coconut here)...and we are not that far from my vegan friends in many ways.
We eat mostly a plant based organic diet, just add things like raw milk, raw pastured eggs, grass fed butter, home made kefir, lots of daily bone broths, wild salmon and sardines, pastured chicken ( no grass fed beef here alas as we won't eat conventional food)etc and avoiding things now like grains and legumes.
It is certainly much harder to eat like this on the move unless one is cooking food at home, so it adds challenge ( harder to do in some places) but we are managing and thriving. ;)
I think out-of-the box divergent thinkers are definitely the type drawn to this lifestyle...but managing food well on the move adds challenge for sure. ;)
Posted by: Jeanne @soultravelers3 | May 19, 2013 at 04:43 PM
Thanks Robyn ..happy to hear that!!
Yes, it is definitely possible to combine raw/fermented/fresh/homemade diet while doing extended travel.
Easiest when doing slow travel, and each area has to be tweaked to what is available and possible.
We've also done it with faster travel, but that is more of a challenge and usually involves some comprises sometimes.
I am still learning by doing. ;)
Posted by: Jeanne | May 19, 2013 at 07:34 PM