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If you didn't know my kitchen situation and looked in my fridge right now, you'd be forgiven for thinking we never eat at home. There's an unopened bottle of champagne, half a chocolate cake, and nothing else inside it. Nothing at all.
As it happens, we've been two-three weeks with no fridge at all. It arrived on Wednesday, we cleaned it on Thurday, and by evening it was mostly cold. We don't have much except wine to put in it until we go grocery shopping. (There's no lack of food not requiring cold here though!)
Food advice argues the importance of going shopping for fresh food on a regular basis, ideally several times a week. A daily shop of fresh fruit and veg is even better. I've been going food shopping even more frequently than that: twice daily, at least, once before lunch and once before dinner, with breakfast bars to start the day. It helps that there are three supermarkets within a ten minute walk.
Yet, I'm not sure I've ever gone so long eating so little fresh, thoroughly unprocessed food. The problem is this: with no fridge, there's no point buying any spoilable food that cannot be eaten immediately. No leaving three-quarters of a container of milk for a few hours. No leaving half-a-cheese or an open carton of juice until the next day. No half-an-onion until the day after that. No buying sauces which will keep in the fridge for three weeks.
Most fresh food doesn't come in units which can be comprehensively consumed right away with no leftovers, so we've been living on ready meals and premade salads. So much as I will now be going shopping less than twice a day, now, once again, fridge-enabled, I can return to fresh foods, to cheese and large cartons of juice, and parts of onions and sauces.
As it happens, we've been two-three weeks with no fridge at all. It arrived on Wednesday, we cleaned it on Thurday, and by evening it was mostly cold. We don't have much except wine to put in it until we go grocery shopping. (There's no lack of food not requiring cold here though!)
Food advice argues the importance of going shopping for fresh food on a regular basis, ideally several times a week. A daily shop of fresh fruit and veg is even better. I've been going food shopping even more frequently than that: twice daily, at least, once before lunch and once before dinner, with breakfast bars to start the day. It helps that there are three supermarkets within a ten minute walk.
Yet, I'm not sure I've ever gone so long eating so little fresh, thoroughly unprocessed food. The problem is this: with no fridge, there's no point buying any spoilable food that cannot be eaten immediately. No leaving three-quarters of a container of milk for a few hours. No leaving half-a-cheese or an open carton of juice until the next day. No half-an-onion until the day after that. No buying sauces which will keep in the fridge for three weeks.
Most fresh food doesn't come in units which can be comprehensively consumed right away with no leftovers, so we've been living on ready meals and premade salads. So much as I will now be going shopping less than twice a day, now, once again, fridge-enabled, I can return to fresh foods, to cheese and large cartons of juice, and parts of onions and sauces.
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Your kitchen must be warmer than mine, I think - I would be able to leave cheese for a couple of days in a cupboard, although I'd be buying a smaller amount than usual to make sure it would be finished in time.
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I was going to say this. When I was a kid (early sixties), we didn't have a fridge at all, and as far as I remember we never ever ate unprocessed food; Mum cooked. Milk and other perishables lived in the bottom of the cupboard under the stairs, which was the coolest place in the house. With two adults and four kids, I guess nothing had to live too long - and oh, cold milk was a treat when the fridge finally arrived, when I was, I dunno, eight? - but we got by fine.
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Also, I'm used to cooking on hob and in oven. We temporarily have these things (although I have yet to clean the oven since moving in, and therefore haven't used it), but because we're about to rip them out, I've been trying to learn what I can do with a microwave instead mostly.
There are other parts to our current kitchen limitations: we're back down to one knife and much as there's a lot I can do with a santoku, it can't do everything. We have scads of kitchen equipment, but only one knife - the rental flat came with enough others that we used those, and before in Toronto, the rest of ours were cheap ones, so we left them behind. Because we're about to rip out the cupboards, I haven't unpacked much of the kitchen stuff, so when we need - say - a pot or a cutting board, it usually involves digging into boxes to find them, another deterrent to using them in the first place right now.
Knives, at least, we'll remedy soon.
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Not that it matters to you, but next time you don't have a fridge, you might think about it! Oh -- or use small ice chest for milk!
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