Thursday, September 3, 2009

Hello, Sucker - A New Addition to My Kitchen

What do you do with your dinner party guests when you're preparing food in the kitchen?
- Prepared lots of booze to get them drunk before dinner?
- Prepared delicious snacks for them?
- Leaving them enjoying some kind of entertainment, e.g. Wii/Xbox/PS3/TV/Karaoke machine/your sex tape/your pets/your spouse?
- All/none of the above?

How about me? What do I do with my guests while I was cooking?

I choked them to near-death with super hot chilli and pungent onion-garlic cooking fumes.

I don't think you see many situations where dinner guests scrambling, desperately trying to open your windows, teary-eyed, coughing violently, gasping for air. Oh, my poor guests...and the kind of sufferings they went through for a lousy dinner :p


But that was before the arrival of my new baby.
My shiny and new exhaust fan.
Why did I not have this before?
Isn't it a standard item in a Hong Kong kitchen?
Isn't my stove facing a huge window/excellent ventilation?


The kitchen didn't have a proper hood with exhaust fans on top of the stove, because the previous owner bought and renovated this flat with sole intention to resell, he never lived here, never used the kitchen and only focused on making the flat look good in the eyes of potential buyers. Thus, the hood would only mean another additional HK$2k expenditure that's gonna block the view for him. Understandably, he didn't have it installed.

In terms of blowing out hot fumes, the window right behind my stove didn't help at all. It generally blows the fumes IN instead of OUT. I admire my own hot fume tolerance. I guess I got used to it, but it can't be good for me. I thank sous chef for insisting to get a hood with powerful exhaust fans (he was the one of the victims choking in the living room while I was cooking) when I almost gave up on the idea.


Hello, sucker.
Welcome to the family.

Dinner guests, you can consider coming over for some super spicy food this time. No more choking. ^_^

13 comments:

Ravenous Couple said...

Asians always need heavy duty industrial strength "suckers" but the ultimate test would be making kangkung belacan!

YaYa said...

Congrats on the new kitchen implement, it looks a bit science-fictiony - all polished steel like a robot, do you know how to accessorise a kitchen or what? hehe

Anonymous said...

LOLOLOLOL SEX TAPE LOLOLOLOL now that is being the hostess with the mostess

Jo said...

Great job on the "sucker" and it definitely helps if you don't have much ventilation in your kitchen. I know what it's like cause my kitchen is the same. Unfortunately my cooking hobs are placed inside and not near any window.

Anonymous said...

You should try this: http://www.us-appliance.com/kislpoho.html It's retractable so you can hide the vent when you don't need to use it :)

KennyT said...

Tsing Yi?

Little Corner of Mine said...

Love your new hood, looks very powerful!

Unknown said...

RC, hehehe yeah! last time it was sambal goreng kentang that almost killed my guests hehehe

yaya, yeah! accessorizing is the key...hmmm i should've bought the hood in neon colors to match the 80s trend

ben, go and get one :)

ffichiban hahahaha...now u're scared to visit me?

jo, yeah! this sucker is so crucial for hong kong kitchens...

marmalade81, i saw those retractable ones...it looks really good if you have a cabinet right above the hood as it can be hidden completely. however, sous chef had such a unit before, and he said it didn't work very well, always had problems with it, so we decided to choose a conventional one...

kenny!!! no hehehe nonononono

locm, yeah! powerful, i can fry more sambal now yay!

Noob Cook said...

muhahah, nice new sucker toy you bought :D

Anonymous said...

It is very interesting for me to read the blog. Thanks for it. I like such themes and anything that is connected to this matter. I would like to read a bit more soon.

Staci Severns said...

That’s a nice exhaust fan for your kitchen! The kitchen hood and the exhaust fan together will definitely do a good job of eliminating the smell and the smoke in your kitchen while you’re cooking. It’s nice that you chose the one with a small mounted hood because it gives you a wide view of the outside. Now, you can cook whenever you want without having to deal with the hot fumes.

satejano said...

Where did you get it?

Unknown said...

Where can I buy one??