My New Kitchen

There is a reason why New Yorkers eat out and order in so frequently, their kitchens or lack there of. Residents in this city are rarely allotted more than a cubbyhole size space to work with. Pre-war buildings may be very beautiful, however the pre-war appliances they are likely to come with, not so much. The kitchen in my first apartment post college, a studio on the Upper East Side, is a good example of such.

Firstly, it was small, so small only one person at a time could step foot inside it. Secondly, the appliances were extremely old, so old that each and every one was broken to some extent. The electric burners would often shut off randomly, so as you can imagine, boiling water was an issue. The oven racks were tilted forward, something I learned when my first casserole dish filled with bubbling hot baked ziti went sliding off and straight onto the floor. The refrigerator made a consistent ticking noise and from time to time the freezer required chiseling as it would turn into a solid block of ice. One of the biggest selling points of the apartment, due to the extreme rarity of such, was the dishwasher. Sadly it only leaked water, broke dishes, and was used all of about three times before I gave up on it. Funny how the last line of my lease mentioned that if the dishwasher was broken, the landlord was not responsible for fixing it. There was also the unfortunate rodent problem, which after realizing the mice were gaining access to my apartment through my kitchen, I was terrified to use it. And that's just the kitchen but for the purpose of this blog, I will stop here. I am one hundred percent okay with blaming my mediocre cooking on my past kitchens, as it does not matter how much interest you have in something, if the proper learning environment is not provided, skills are very hard to come by. Though there were a few pathetic kitchens to follow this one, I am happy to say that the days of, well, terrible apartments are officially behind me.

Within my beautiful new apartment in Brooklyn exists the most gorgeous kitchen I have ever seen (in my price range of course). It is big, big enough for a full-size dining table, has new(er) appliances, lots of storage, and counter space. I am so fortunate as I feel this kitchen is the launching pad to my cooking success. In the past, kitchens that were cramped and dysfunctional created a stressful and simply miserable cooking environment. In my new kitchen, I can look forward to learning and creating in the ease of space intended for a fun and rewarding cooking experience.