Real estate in Singapore has some standard quirks. When we began our house-hunt here, we quickly learned the difference between the “wet” kitchen and the “dry” kitchen and that we should expect to see this strange, divided set-up in each condo that we viewed. How does this work? Well, the wet kitchen is not air-conditioned, and in theory, it can be hosed down after use. (In practice, I can’t imagine actually doing this.) The stovetop is located in the wet kitchen, as is the sink. (We are fortunate enough to have a prep sink in our dry kitchen, though this isn’t always the case.) The washer and dryer are also typically housed in the wet kitchen area. The location of the refrigerator and oven seemed to vary by property. There are cabinets in both kitchens. Some properties we saw had dishwashers, while others did not. (This was a deal-breaker for me; ours has a dishwasher in the wet kitchen.) Some places had microwaves, while others had steam ovens, which seem to be a popular trend over here. We have a microwave that sits on the counter in our wet kitchen, and we do not have a dedicated steam oven (though it’s possible that 1 of the many settings on our oven actually enables it to perform this function).
Dry kitchen
Cooktop, dishwasher, and microwave in wet kitchen
Primary sink in wet kitchen
Post-9/11, the Singapore government mandated that all properties have bomb shelters. More often than not, we found that these were located off the wet kitchen. Additionally, it is extremely common in Singapore for families to have “helpers.” More on this in a future post, but in many instances, the bomb shelter doubles as the helper’s bedroom, and the helper’s bathroom is located in the same vicinity.
Entrance to bomb shelter off of wet kitchen
Using the bomb shelter to store sports equipment
Using the bomb shelter to store cleaning supplies, folding table and chairs, and pool toys
Helper’s bathroom off the wet kitchen (only used by me for the sink, my “utility tub” here)
How am I liking the wet and dry combo? Not very well, really. I used to get irritated at home because it seemed that every time I turned the water on in the kitchen, someone would start talking to me from another room and expect me to be able to hear them. “I can’t hear you when the water is running,” was a common refrain of mine. Now that we have this divided kitchen set-up, the kids (and occasionally Brad) like to wait until I have headed into the wet kitchen to start a conversation with me, and I absolutely can’t make out a single thing they’re saying. I also feel like the helper when I have to go out to the hot, humid wet kitchen to cook, do dishes, or change laundry loads. There is a window (not with glass, mind you- open-air), and just outside of it is the balcony that houses our air conditioners. Above the hum of the A/C from all the condos in our tower and the sound of traffic and fountains outside, it is quite noisy out there. If the washer or dryer is going, forget about it.
Glass-less window in wet kitchen, the source of lots of dust and dirt
An interesting phenomenon is that at meal times, you can smell everyone else’s food when you enter the wet kitchen. I also worry about making too much noise out there late in the evening, when presumably, the helpers in other condos are trying to sleep. This is tough because I get some of my best work done late at night, and doing the dishes always seems to be one of those late-night tasks. We have a trash chute in the wet kitchen that is somewhat noisy to use, so I try to empty my cans earlier in the evening. I really dislike having a sliding glass door that divides the dirty dishes that end up on the counter in the dry kitchen and the dishwasher that they need to be loaded into in the wet. I can’t store any food in the wet kitchen because of the humidity. When I am using the stove, it is so hot out there; I emerge a sweaty mess. Additionally, because it is open-air, the counters constantly need to be wiped down. On Fridays when the fogging occurs to rid the premises of mosquitoes, there is no way to close off the wet kitchen as the chemical cloud wafts upward. I bring my crock of cooking utensils into the dry kitchen every Friday morning to keep them pesticide-free; I really don’t like having them sitting out in the wet kitchen at all because of the dust/soot that collects out there, but there’s not really another convenient spot for them. I find myself back and forth, sliding the door open and closed, constantly. Given what we pay to air-condition our home, I don’t want to leave that door open for long and let cool air escape!
Washer, dryer, and trash chute in wet kitchen
In general, I find the kitchen combo to be adequate and modern. However, it can’t compare to the kitchen I left behind. At home, I had a 5-burner stove; here, I have 3 burners, and they are small and temperamental (and the largest one is designed to hold a wok; regular pots and pans do not work very well on it). The ovens here are ridiculously tiny; a quarter-sheet-sized baking sheet is the largest that fits on the rack. All of my baking sheets that are just slightly larger actually slide into the grooves that are meant to hold the rack. There is also a tray that comes with the oven that provides my largest baking surface. It is very hard to generate enough food for 5 people in this oven, and seldom are there leftovers. When using the oven, I spend most of my time rotating baking sheets. Also of note is the fact that the oven temp is measured in Celsius, so I have a foolproof conversion method: everything goes in at 180-200 degrees, and I know that it’s going to cook quicker than I expect because everything runs hotter here- oven, micro, dryer…
Tiny oven in dry kitchen
Our refrigerator, hidden behind cabinet panels, is actually 2 refrigerators, side by side, that appear to be a good size. However, upon closer inspection, they are actually very shallow, despite their decent width. There is no icemaker, and the ice cube trays are a joke- they are tiny and make cubes the size of hail that melt immediately upon being put in a beverage. Room-temperature is the coolest water our faucets provide. Poor Brad was muttering about the water and ice situation for days after we moved in. I now keep a pitcher of water in the fridge, but I’ve stopped bothering with the ice.
Shallow fridges in dry kitchen
At home, I had 2 floor-to-ceiling pantries; here, I have parts of 2 cabinets and a drawer that I’m able to allocate to food items. At home, I had a standard-sized kitchen garbage can that pulled out of my island; here, I have a small garbage can in each kitchen; larger ones wouldn’t work because the bags wouldn’t fit down the trash chute. There is no garbage disposal (while at home, I had 1 in each sink), so scraping plates into the tiny garbage can is getting old very quickly.
Is there anything in my kitchen(s) here that I like better than my kitchen at home? Nope! Actually, there is 1 item that we have here that we did not have at home: a wine fridge. Don’t get me started, however, on the price of wine in Singapore; this wine cooler at first seemed to be mocking us as it stood empty. Now, we’ve given in and anted up; our cooler typically houses a handful of wine bottles. I’ve also found this fridge useful to store extra bottles of plain sparkling water, my new beverage of choice (after adding a twist of lemon), given that my go-to, orange LaCroix, is not available here.
Wine fridge, heavy on the water, light on the wine
So, there you have it- a kitchen divided. I feel fortunate to have what I do, but I’m fairly certain that I’ll never really get used to it, and I will definitely not be employing this model when designing my next kitchen at home!
Simpler in Singapore? 