New Oven
Last week, I finally bought a new oven for myself. Here it is :
I don't know much about ovens, so I just took the easy way out of buying whatever my mom bought. At least it is tried and tested. She at first bought a Rowenta, which was really junk. It broke down very quickly and could not be fixed. Apparently, there were a lot of people bringing in similar models for repair at the service centre. My mom got so fed up with the Rowenta oven that she went to buy another one, which was a DeLonghi.
Since Tangs was having 10% off for electrical products last weekend, we went to buy our oven. Thought might as well get it before Christmas with all that roasting and cooking coming up.
Because of the new oven, we had to go and get a new shelf for it. Ok, to explain why we procrastinated buying an oven for years : we did not allocate space for an oven when we renovated our house. So having an oven means we must find the space for it, and one of the option was to use the space allocated for a dryer - which we still won't buy. But every time we tried to find some kind of table top or shelf for the oven, we would be stuck at the measurement. It's a bit of a round-about problem. We couldn't buy the shelf because we were not sure about the size of the oven. But without a proper place for the oven, we weren't too keen on getting the oven. And since we weren't too hard up for an oven yet, we didn't actively pursue the matter.
That is, until recently. *drum roll* Revealing what we have been living with all these years :
For years, we tried to scrimp on buying new electrical appliances, especially when I don't really bake. We started off with the turbo broiler (the round thing that looks like 血滴子 on top). This antique actually belonged to my late grandma ( who passed away almost 10 years ago, and at an ripe old age of 80 over years old, so you can imagine how ancient this thing is). It was passed on to my aunt. And since she was not using it, I asked for it and took over. Surprising, it still worked well.
But the turbo broiler isn't ideal for every purpose. So when my mom dumped her faithful old oven (the orange one below the turbo broiler) for the lousy Rowenta, I picked it up from her. This oven still works very well. Unfortunately, it is awfully dirty, after all these years of usage, and awfully difficult to clean. My mother, being a clean freak, was very conscientious about cleaning the oven, but because this is really an old oven, the way it was made was not very easy to maintain, despite her best effort. So there is still stubborn old grease stuck to it .
I give up on it because it is so difficult to clean. Also, it is a bit too small. A jumbo size chicken could barely go in - as proven two Christmases ago.
As can be seen from the pic, both old ovens sit on a stool. And that's the way I made do all these days. With a newer and bigger oven, I can't possible use a stool again. Hence, the shelf and hence, the round-about problem I mentioned earlier.
So last week, after having quite decided that I really can't stand the orange, greasy oven, and really want to buy a new oven, we decided that we should just bite the bullet and buy the oven first, and THEN work on the shelf problem. So we trotted off to Tangs to get our oven, took measurement using the most primitive method - the number of hand span - and went to IKEA to look for something. There MUST be something suitable. If not, the oven can sit on the floor and wait.
To cut the long story short, at IKEA, we decided that the most economical and flexible option we have is to get the GORM self (see first pic). We were sure it would fit into the dryer spot. The next day, when we fixed up the shelf, *whew* it fits just snugly in the spot. An inch bigger and we would have a problem. The shelf is also big enough for the oven. The best part is that with the new shelf, I can finally nicely store away some of the other things that I had no space to put and had no choice but to leave them sitting on the kitchen floor.
Since I got the new oven, I have tried a bake chicken dish with it and it turned out well. Now, I want to try baking something with it and see how well it works.
I don't know much about ovens, so I just took the easy way out of buying whatever my mom bought. At least it is tried and tested. She at first bought a Rowenta, which was really junk. It broke down very quickly and could not be fixed. Apparently, there were a lot of people bringing in similar models for repair at the service centre. My mom got so fed up with the Rowenta oven that she went to buy another one, which was a DeLonghi.
Since Tangs was having 10% off for electrical products last weekend, we went to buy our oven. Thought might as well get it before Christmas with all that roasting and cooking coming up.
Because of the new oven, we had to go and get a new shelf for it. Ok, to explain why we procrastinated buying an oven for years : we did not allocate space for an oven when we renovated our house. So having an oven means we must find the space for it, and one of the option was to use the space allocated for a dryer - which we still won't buy. But every time we tried to find some kind of table top or shelf for the oven, we would be stuck at the measurement. It's a bit of a round-about problem. We couldn't buy the shelf because we were not sure about the size of the oven. But without a proper place for the oven, we weren't too keen on getting the oven. And since we weren't too hard up for an oven yet, we didn't actively pursue the matter.
That is, until recently. *drum roll* Revealing what we have been living with all these years :
For years, we tried to scrimp on buying new electrical appliances, especially when I don't really bake. We started off with the turbo broiler (the round thing that looks like 血滴子 on top). This antique actually belonged to my late grandma ( who passed away almost 10 years ago, and at an ripe old age of 80 over years old, so you can imagine how ancient this thing is). It was passed on to my aunt. And since she was not using it, I asked for it and took over. Surprising, it still worked well.
But the turbo broiler isn't ideal for every purpose. So when my mom dumped her faithful old oven (the orange one below the turbo broiler) for the lousy Rowenta, I picked it up from her. This oven still works very well. Unfortunately, it is awfully dirty, after all these years of usage, and awfully difficult to clean. My mother, being a clean freak, was very conscientious about cleaning the oven, but because this is really an old oven, the way it was made was not very easy to maintain, despite her best effort. So there is still stubborn old grease stuck to it .
I give up on it because it is so difficult to clean. Also, it is a bit too small. A jumbo size chicken could barely go in - as proven two Christmases ago.
As can be seen from the pic, both old ovens sit on a stool. And that's the way I made do all these days. With a newer and bigger oven, I can't possible use a stool again. Hence, the shelf and hence, the round-about problem I mentioned earlier.
So last week, after having quite decided that I really can't stand the orange, greasy oven, and really want to buy a new oven, we decided that we should just bite the bullet and buy the oven first, and THEN work on the shelf problem. So we trotted off to Tangs to get our oven, took measurement using the most primitive method - the number of hand span - and went to IKEA to look for something. There MUST be something suitable. If not, the oven can sit on the floor and wait.
To cut the long story short, at IKEA, we decided that the most economical and flexible option we have is to get the GORM self (see first pic). We were sure it would fit into the dryer spot. The next day, when we fixed up the shelf, *whew* it fits just snugly in the spot. An inch bigger and we would have a problem. The shelf is also big enough for the oven. The best part is that with the new shelf, I can finally nicely store away some of the other things that I had no space to put and had no choice but to leave them sitting on the kitchen floor.
Since I got the new oven, I have tried a bake chicken dish with it and it turned out well. Now, I want to try baking something with it and see how well it works.