Cheatsheet for Kitchen Appliances, Cookware, Tools & more
The kitchen will forever be the space we spend the bulk of our adult money at. The only thing stopping us is the lack of space in our home, and I definitely enjoy looking at kitchen stuff more than clothes or beauty products.
With all that time spent on kitchen (window) shopping, here’s a round up of where we tend towards when shopping for everything our kitchen needs!
Kitchen Appliances
I learnt something new today that I’ve been curious about for a long time. Many of you from Instagram actually voted that you prefer shopping on Shopee/Lazada for kitchen appliances.
Though kitchen appliances are big ticket items that usually take more consideration, buying on those 2 platforms usually bring about a lot of savings depending on the time of purchase. I’ve also bought many kitchen appliances on Shopee!
Our dishwasher was one of the best purchases and it came with free delivery and disposal of our old machine. The delivery happened within 2 days of purchase, amazing!
As for other items, we actually bought them in-person at the brand’s flagship store. We get asked quite a lot what brand of hood, hob & oven we are using in our home, so I’ll link them. If I were to shop for a new kitchen, I would take a good look in-stores before ordering when there is a sale on Shopee/Lazada, depending on the platform which offers the best price.
We love all of these appliances in our home!
You should know the usual physical stores you can shop at - Harvey Norman, Gain City, COURTS, Audio House, etc. One thing I learnt from being a not-so-new homeowner anymore, I won’t put too much weight on what I hear from the sales representative in the stores. It’s quite likely they don’t have first hand experience with the products they are selling and I’d much rather you get a proper, unbiased review from another homeowner. There truly aren’t that many perks with buying in-person anymore, it’s more so just to see, touch and feel the products.
Cookware
Our go-to would be Takashimaya and we tend to gravitate towards WMF & Staub. If there is a good sale, we’ll likely be walking away with something new to squeeze into our storage lol.
Pro tip: Look for ‘B’ Grade Staub pots, they are usually about 50% cheaper.
These two brands are also available at TANGS which is closeby, but if I’m being honest, we don’t go to TANGS very much out of habit, nothing against the store, it is lovely! The wiser thing to do is to go to both stores to do some price comparisons.
Again, I wouldn’t listen to the aunties/uncles working at the stores. We don’t have much positive feedback from the “tips” they give to us. In fact, quite a few items we bought by the recommendation of the Taka aunties were a flop. We shop on our own and turn down their help until we’re ready to make a purchase now.
On the rare occasion, we go to Sia Huat for cookware & kitchen tools. We made a post about it! It is where professionals go to buy kitchen stuff for their industrial kitchens and restaurants. So far, everything we bought from the place lasts a long time since they are mostly stainless steel. You can find a large range of tableware for your home as well, I highly recommend to drop by if you are in the Chinatown area!
Because of our narrow brand preferences, it’s also easy to shop on Shopee/Lazada. Good thing both WMF and Staub have official stores online so we do make purchases online when we need to.
In the last 4 years, we’ve tried several other brands outside of WMF & Staub but are not impressed. Here are some items we recommend at various price points:
Space-saving because it’s stackable and comes with 3 pots + 1 pan (all oven compatible as well)
Our first Staub!
We don’t own this, but it’s got a good price point for us to recommend everyone
But I prefer the round to the oval shape, we have 2 round pots now
What we use everyday at home, the longest-lasting and easiest to maintain
A more affordable cast iron alternative
Kitchen Tools
Tools & utensils is a kitchen collection that I find I’m constantly having to add to. There’s always something missing? I’ll try my best to include the most comprehensive list (with links!) I can manage, I hope it will be useful for those of you who are building a kitchen for the first time. I shared photos with links for those I recommend or require some differentiating:
Scissors (most kitchens will need more than 1)
Knives (most kitchens will need various sizes)
Grater (linked the most multipurpose one, but a small one is useful for ginger/garlic sometimes)
Cutting boards (linked below, also get extra wooden ones)
Ladles (set of slotted and non-slotted)
Spatulas (linked below)
Measuring cups and spoons
Long lasting, dishwasher-safe, plastic-free
Great for baking, but also gentle on nonstick cookware
Exact utensils we have since we moved in
Great for pan frying fish or eggs on stainless steel pans
Cutlery set also from WMF
Not recommended for nonstick cookware
Tableware
I feel tableware should be personal, and its most beautiful when its bought and collected around the world, or from different places over the decades. We try to make it a point to bring home a couple of pieces from our travels.
Granted, shopping local is so much easier for something fragile so here are some places/brands we love:
Crate & Barrel (online)
Staub/Le Creuset (also available online)
IKEA
Daiso (some outlets have nice tableware sometimes)
Takashimaya
Sia Huat
Stanley (love their cups!)
Shopee/Lazada/Taobao
