This Global Kitchen | Day 18: Indonesia (Large Kitchen)
Hi there! I’m Alicia and I’ve lived in Indonesia for the past eight years with my husband and our four children (8, 5, 3, 1.5). At some point, you will see almost all of them make an appearance in my kitchen tour — which is perfect, because it shows how often my kids gravitate into this part of the house. This is my fourth kitchen since moving to this country. I’ve experienced a little bit of everything at this point. Prior to moving to the house we’re in now, I had a tiny kitchen. Two was a crowd in that little nook of the house. When we found out we would be moving to another city, my husband prioritized having a larger kitchen during the house hunt. I could not believe my eyes when he showed me a video of the kitchen in the house we would soon call home. Not only did the kitchen have countertops, it even had upper cabinets installed — complete with spots specifically made for a refrigerator and a microwave!
Not pictured in this tour is how everything that goes down my kitchen sink will sometimes appear in the floor drain in the guest bathroom (which is as gross as it sounds). Also, we share a wall with a coffee shop and they like to have music nights every Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday until 11 pm. Normally, I’m a fan of coffee shop music. Unfortunately, their music nights are more like “let’s go to the club.” If I didn’t love their iced coffee so much, I might have thrown a match over my back wall to burn the place down a long time ago.
Yesterday, you had a tour of Denise’s kitchen. She and I often joke about how I’m the one with the large kitchen with all the bells and whistles, yet she is the one that actually loves to be in the kitchen and cook. This kitchen is certainly not the norm for Indonesia.
The only thing missing from the kitchen when we first moved in were the bottom cabinets. My husband was able to find someone who could install aluminum cabinets that perfectly matched the color of the existing wooden cabinets. Even though I’m not a fan of being able to see through the doors, I am a fan of any material that termites do not like. We’ve been the victims of a major termite infestation in the past, so I’ll take aluminum over a termite buffet any day. The door to the left of the refrigerator goes to a room my husband is able to use as his office.
While the cabinets match throughout the kitchen, the countertops do not. I have some fancy granite-type countertops on the other side, where my oven is located. This set of cabinets divides the kitchen from our dining area. The “backsplash” is actually etched glass that I painted over with black paint paint because you could see anything I set on the countertop from the other side. I’m no stranger to painting over etched glass. In one of our previous houses, I had to paint over a naked (NAKED!) lady that was on our bathroom door. Thankfully, this glass was G-rated and only had flowers and fruit baskets.
The space provided for my oven is much wider than I need — but I use the extra space for my lovely gas tank. Don’t forget to pin this image. I know a bright blue, dirty LPG tank is what dream kitchens are made of. My husband and I have talked about somehow constructing something that would hide the tank while also providing some extra countertop space next to the oven. It’s on “the list.”
Other projects on “the list” are to install a hot water heater for the sink and paint the backsplash. I know the tile isn’t that bad — and maybe I should just be happy it doesn’t have Teletubbies on it (like one of our previous bathrooms) — but I’ve always wanted to try painting tile. Also, when we had the kitchen faucet replaced, they replaced the tile that was knocked away with some that didn’t match. I brought some stencils back with me from our last trip to the States, so I’m eager to try a little fixer-upper project on the backsplash.
Also, please take a moment to appreciate how the sink is off center from the drying rack. Because of this, the right sink has an edge of the cabinet smack in front of your face. My solution? — simply designate the right side for dirty dishes so the left side can be used for washing. (But who am I kidding? Both sides get filled up with dirty dishes pretty quickly.)
There is a lower countertop space that is supposed to be used to cook on a portable stovetop. Most kitchens in Indonesia have a hole in the tile where you can feed a tube through that connects to a gas tank. As much as I love hunching over to cook, I decided to repurpose this area as a kid-friendly zone. All of their dishes and cups are located in the cabinets below for easy access. It’s the perfect height for them to fix their own food and pour their own drinks. The door to the right leads out to my laundry area (aka: an outside bathroom I hijacked to be my makeshift laundry room).
Here’s one photo of the kid-friendly space being used as it was intended, and one photo of it being used as a jungle gym.
I wanted to share a photo of this kitchen island so we could all have a moment of silence. This used to be my only counter space in my previous kitchens. It has served me well.
As you exit the kitchen (or enter the kitchen), you’ll pass by our coffee bar. My husband was so happy to finally get this space. Back when we didn’t have kitchen cabinets galore, this used to hold a lot of my kitchen appliances, eating utensils, etc. Now, it’s home to all the coffee gadgets and cups.
I like to add parts of the culture into my home decor. The little green tray holding the teaspoons and sugar represents the current province we live in and now call home.
If you ever come over to our house, you will most certainly be served a great cup of coffee. But we also have plenty of tea options — and we’ve even had kombucha available, on occasion (because we like to be all things to all people). Thanks for stopping by!
My Must-Haves for the kitchen:
An aluminum stovetop griddle. (You can do cast iron but that’s going to be much heavier.)
This collapsible colander with extendable handles for straining over the sink.
A sous vide for cooking any of your meats PRECISELY by using water. If you don’t know what this kitchen tool is, don’t worry. I didn’t either until two months ago. My husband did his research and decided to go for it. As it turns out, it works! Even my kids noticed the chicken tasted way better. You put your meat and the seasoning/marinade inside of a sealed bag (we just use a ziplock but they sell special bags for it) and immerse it into water set to a specific temperature. Depending on the meat, you just leave it there for 2-4 hours and let it work its magic. We do not have the “water oven” for it. We just bought a food grade plastic container and cut the plastic lid so we could seal the lid onto the container with the sous vide clipped on the side.
My Expat-Friendly Recipe:
Stovetop Popcorn
by Alicia | TakingRoute.net
You might be thinking to yourself, "does this really need a recipe?" Well, I'm not even sure this will count as a recipe, because I hardly do any measurements. But, anyone who has had my stovetop popcorn is always asking me how I make it so delicious. Part of the reason is because I come from a long line of popcorn makers. I'm hoping my dad will pass down his whirly pop to me that he received from his father. Until then, I've perfected the stovetop popcorn with a regular saucepan.
You will need:
- popcorn kernels (try and store them in an airtight container because kernels can get stale)
- oil
- butter
- a large pot or saucepan with a lid
Begin by filling the bottom of your pot/sauce pan until it's covered with kernels. Shake it around a bit to keep kernels from piling up.
Pour oil over the top of the kernels just until they are all submerged (see photo for reference). You might think you're using too much oil, but you're not.
Sprinkle about 1 tsp of salt over the kernels. No need to mix. Set the lid on top but do not totally close it. The steam will need to ventilate or your popcorn will be soggy.
Set your burner to high and let the hot oil and kernels do their thang. Every once in awhile, as the kernels being to pop, you can close the lid and shake it around a little bit -- just to make sure the kernels are all getting a fair chance to pop.
At this point, I usually melt about 2 TBSP of butter that I will later use as topping.
If you think your popcorn might overflow, have a bowl nearby where you can dump the top layer to make room for the rest. Just like microwave popcorn, let the popcorn continue to pop until the pops slow down. Then, you can turn off the burner.
Pour the popcorn into a bowl. It's best not to leave it in the pot/saucepan because it will get soggy from the moisture. Pour the melted butter over the popcorn and stir to coat. Add salt to taste (I usually add about 3 pinches). Enjoy!
Other posts you might enjoy:
This Global Life | Day 1: Indonesia (Alicia’s “day in the life'“)
How McDonald’s Helped Me Recognize the 4 Phases of Culture Stress
