Open concept kitchens

All right, it is time for a big vent and rant...

We live in a brand new home, built according to the latest architectural trends. One large, open main floor, with a galley kitchen in one corner that is open on one side to the living area - dining, living, familyroom combined. Luckily we are renting, so I will only have to live with it for a couple of years. I suppose that will be just about enough for me. From now on I will not even consider looking at an open concept kitchen!

Why do I choose to post my complaints today? Because I had an "accident" again, one of many, today somewhat bigger than usual. What accident am I talking about? The sink is in the open counter between the kitchen and the dining area. Without any splashguard! So whenever the smallest splash occurs, it ends up on the beautiful hardwood floor of the dining area. Well, today it was even more dramatic. One of my "smart" family members perched a large soaking pot (with greasy spaghetti sauce) on top of a smaller bowl. Then another harried member started the tap full force for a quick cold drink, the pot got off balance, tilted sideways, hit the side of the sink, and splashed a big slosh of greasy slop clear across, all the way to the dining table and chairs, soaking a couple of the beautiful Chinese brocade chair pads. Not to speak of the floor, of course. I leave the rest of the next hour to your imagination...

Besides these sink incidents I have a few other beefs about open concept kitchens. These are:
a) Smell. No matter how effective the stove hood is, one cannot completely stop cooking smells from spreading all through the house because of the lack of separation. They escape from the stove, and even more so from the oven. Not very pleasant to sink into your soft bed at night and be greeted by the smells of garlic pork roast, oven charred eggplant, or pungent nam pla emanating from your pillows.
b) Heat. This is particularly an issue in the summer. In our old house I could open windows when baking, even on the hottest sommer day, while I closed the kitchen door so the rest of the house could stay cold. Not so here. The heat from the oven goes straight up to the second floor, making the bedrooms too hot for the night, while the basement gets icy cold because of the overworking airconditioner.
c) Noise. We like to use our living area for quiet relaxation (too). Impossible to do so in this house. The hood is loud, particularly so when at full speed; we have a convection type oven, with a fan going for a while even after turning it off; people come and go, getting water from the tap, using the blender for a quick smoothie, slamming cabinet doors, rattling in the cutlery drawer. Even when I am alone at home, the refrigerator goes off and on close enough to the living room sofa to interfere in the most annoying way with the reading of a good book.
d) Mess. With five people in our family the kitchen is never pristine (an understatement). There are always dishes in the sink, dishes drying in the dripper, cabinet doors left wide open, contents of cabinets strewn around on the counter, sometimes alongside little piles of apple peelings, not to speaks of spills, left for Mom to deal with when she next happens to be in the kitchen. This makes spontaneous entertaining very difficult, if not impossible.

Mark my word, the time is getting nigh when all these fancy new open concept kitchens will quietly be walled in everywhere...

Garlic in food

I made an interesting discovery today about the smell and aftertaste of garlic. This is what happened:

I was making some hummus b'tahine, which I prefer to be quite garlicky. Not overly so, though, I usually use one large clove for one can of chick peas (cca 400 ml), and I always press it into the blender with a garlic press. Today I had the smart idea to put half of the chickpeas into the blender first, add the garlic, blend it smooth, then add the rest. I did so, it became nice and smooth, but no garlic smell and taste. Hmmm, I say, a new species of garlic they sold me...! I added another, even larger clove. Still no garlic smell. Oh, all right, says I, let me just finish the whole thing. I can go over to the store later and get another, fresher bulb.

When I was done, I could not help having a taste with a bit of fresh pita. First the same bland taste, then "Ya Allaaaah!", the aftertaste hit me like a firebreathing dragon's breath after it ate its way through an entire garlic patch! And then I figured it out: garlic needs oxygen to produce its characteristic aroma. Since I blended in whole cloves, it did not have a chance to develop it. Until, of course, it spread around on my tongue, when its essential oils (allinaise) finally got the chance to properly mix with oxygen, blossoming into this powerful aftertaste.

I wasn't entirely unaware of this before. After all for years I have roasted whole garlic bulbs, and baked Garlic Chicken with 20 whole garlic cloves shoved under its skin, knowing full well that if the cloves are left uncut, the smell does not become overpowering. But I never before experienced such a dramatic example of the oxydization process! :)