Silly question: How do you bake without ovens?

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Newbie_hk

Registered User
Hi mums,

We have been told that when moving to HKG, it'll be hard to find built-in ovens in rental properties. Pardon my ignorance, but how do you mums bake your lasagnas, roast chickens and and cakes?

I once had a whizz bang microwave in Sydney that lets you bake but I never used it since I had a real oven anyway.

Can't imagine my family missing out on their Sunday roast without an oven!

cheers
Freshie Mum
 
Most local families don't bake, hence no oven. But what is your rental budget and where are you looking to rent? If you are renting a higher end flat, there will often be an oven. But if you are living in mass residential type housing (eg, 600 square feet), then you are less likely to find an oven.
 
I have a toaster oven. I can roast a chicken or bake a lasagna. I can still bake a cake, although it can turn uneven because of the heat. I have never tried baking cookies though... I don't want to bake in dozen of batches of 4 or 6 cookies each!
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Toaster oven is the way to go, buy the biggest and best one that can fit in your kitchen. Baking cookies takes almost an entire day and big cakes/ bread often has to be baked on low temp/ at the bottom shelf or else they burn from the top.
 
You can buy convection ovens here. They are about the same size as a mid sized microwave.
I have a toaster ove, in which I can bake small things, but never something like lasagne or roasts. I wish. A lot of nicer apartments, newer though not necessarily large, come with ovens.
 
When we were renting, we bought a Panasonic combination microwave-oven-grill that worked really well as an oven. They come in different sizes and it might be worth investing in the largest one you have space for in your kitchen. After all, it's something you can take with you. We now have a regular oven but still use the Panasonic, which works better for some things (eg roast chickens with crispy skin)!
 
Our place has ovens that come standard with the place - and has places from 500 square feet to 1000, so unless the landlord ripped it out, even rentals have ovens here. Although the quality of the oven isn't fantastic, they are VERY slow - I have to increase the temperature by 20-30 degrees and give it extra time as well. I don't know many places that do have ovens though, unless they've been added in...
 
Agree with the others, depends on budget, age of property, where you are looking etc, I've seen a number of properties without ovens but you can always get a counter top toaster oven as the others have suggested. Our property had a free standing basic towngas oven which I asked the landlord to remove as it doesn't heat evenly or reliably and I replaced it with a higher end electric one as I do a lot of baking. So there are lots of options; it depends on budget and how important your oven is to you :-)
 
I haven't seen many flats here with built in ovens but it's easy yo get a plug in one, mine's pretty old but still bakes ok for bread, cakes, lasagna, everything. The only other thing to consider is how big the kitchen is. Most kitchens are really small here so you have to make sure you've got enough worktop space for your oven. In my last apartment I had to bake in the spare room, not exactly ideal!
 
Shenzhennifer said:
You can buy convection ovens here. They are about the same size as a mid sized microwave.
I have a toaster ove, in which I can bake small things, but never something like lasagne or roasts. I wish. A lot of nicer apartments, newer though not necessarily large, come with ovens.
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Are toaster ovens the smallest oven there are? I didn't mean those, I meant convention oven. I have a Delonghi and its very good.
 
Toaster ovens usually have the same size of a microwave, or a little bit smaller.
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sorry, nicolejoy, but i've rented over 18 places in my years here and have NEVER had an oven.... they ARE rare. for many years, i used a "tabletop oven". i always bought the biggest one i could find and actually went shopping with a measuring tape to make sure i could fit a turkey into it!

have now moved to a village house and have a second hand gas oven.

so, in short, it IS possible to get by without (i did for about 14 years). it MAY be possible to find a place that has one built in, but you should specify that to your real estate agent as a necessity. it IS possible to experiment with different possibilities and still have your yummy treats, too.
 
Thanks everyone. Guess my question wasn't so silly after all. We've actually viewed 13 properties and only 1 of them has a built in oven and it didn't even make to our shortlist. I know that people still bake so I just needed to see how it's done. Guess we'll have to go the convection oven route. Guess the honey baked chickens and cookies will be back on our menu!!
 
I was just trying to say that if you REALLY want one, there are places around with one - that's all :) I know they're rare, but they're not non-existent either. I love having a "proper oven" although I have to admit, I don't use it as much as I'd like to...
 
We have a built-in oven (Midlevels Central). It was a pre-requesite at the places we looked at since we are often making cakes and roasting things. Glad to hear there are other options should we move and it not be an option.
 
Newbie_hk said:
Hi mums,

We have been told that when moving to HKG, it'll be hard to find built-in ovens in rental properties. Pardon my ignorance, but how do you mums bake your lasagnas, roast chickens and and cakes?

I once had a whizz bang microwave in Sydney that lets you bake but I never used it since I had a real oven anyway.

Can't imagine my family missing out on their Sunday roast without an oven!

cheers
Freshie Mum
Click to expand...

I didn't take the time to read all of the previous posts but I just want to say that it is possible to bake without a full-sized oven in Hong Kong.

About 4 years ago we bought a Summe "toaster oven" that goes up to 250 degrees C. I have baked chicken, birthday cakes, casseroles, cookies, cupcakes, bread and everything else in it for the past four years.

The photo below is one of the first dishes I baked in it--an absolutely yummy lasagna. The oven is no bigger than a bread box.

How much did this little wonder cost me? I guarantee you at the DSC Center where we bought it was probably under $500 HKD. Have never had a problem with it and with a little bit of adjustment you really can bake anything in there--you just have to bake it on a smaller scale but there are two shelves and a spit for rotiserie as well.

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Hi Thanka2,

Thanks for the reply and the photo. Wow, I'm impressed that you did all that baking in an oven toaster and the price is reasonable too! With all the costs of moving, a bargain like that would certainly come in handy!

cheers
Newbie_hk
 
thanka2 said:
About 4 years ago we bought a Summe "toaster oven" that goes up to 250 degrees C. I have baked chicken, birthday cakes, casseroles, cookies, cupcakes, bread and everything else in it for the past four years.

The photo below is one of the first dishes I baked in it--an absolutely yummy lasagna. The oven is no bigger than a bread box.

How much did this little wonder cost me? I guarantee you at the DSC Center where we bought it was probably under $500 HKD. Have never had a problem with it and with a little bit of adjustment you really can bake anything in there--you just have to bake it on a smaller scale but there are two shelves and a spit for rotiserie as well.

Picture8.png
Click to expand...

Hi, a question about your toaster. I see that you have stuff sitting on top of it and crowded around the sides of it. Do these exterior sides and top get hot?

I'm looking for what's called a "cool to touch" or "cool touch" toaster oven, where the exterior casing is made of a material that doesn't get hot. I know they exist, but have not seen them in Hong Kong.

If anyone's come across any, please let me know the model and where you got it. So far I've checked Fortress and Wing On, any other/better places to check?

Had not heard of DSC Center where you bought yours. Checked out their website but it seems to be in Chinese only. Can anyone advise as to their locations on HK Island or in Kowloon.

Thanks!
 
jabalong said:
Hi, a question about your toaster. I see that you have stuff sitting on top of it and crowded around the sides of it. Do these exterior sides and top get hot?

I'm looking for what's called a "cool to touch" or "cool touch" toaster oven, where the exterior casing is made of a material that doesn't get hot. I know they exist, but have not seen them in Hong Kong.

If anyone's come across any, please let me know the model and where you got it. So far I've checked Fortress and Wing On, any other/better places to check?

Had not heard of DSC Center where you bought yours. Checked out their website but it seems to be in Chinese only. Can anyone advise as to their locations on HK Island or in Kowloon.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Ha! Yes, there was a lot of stuff crowded around that oven at the time as we were living in a room where our kitchen, toilette, bed etc. were all in one space. It does get hot on the top a bit but have never had any problems with things being placed close to it on the sides--as far as what is sitting on top of the oven in the photo--those are two ceramic plates and I put them there on purpose to warm them up so that we could put our hot food on them to keep the food warm longer. If you give about 6-10 inches room on each side you won't have any problems with placing things around it. I keep my oven at a height were my son can't get to it and he knows that it's hot and not to touch it--just as he knows not to touch the stove when it's on.

The DSC stores are ALL OVER Hong Kong. I used Google Translate and translated the DSC page and below is the information about their centers and also their contact information. DSC is great for a lot of things--we bought our camera there for a great price and it works really well and we also have bought some furniture and kitchen appliances.

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