Me: "Well occasionally, but for most of the things I like to make, they require a big western style oven, so I can't make them here."
This exchange happens at least three times a week. While I long since stopped feeling bad that I will never have a big beautiful oven here, I was struck by a lightning bolt of genius a few weeks ago.
When writing the post about the pizza shop that bakes pizza in a brick oven, I started researching brick ovens. I found that you can not only cook a lot of different things in one, but you can also control the way they are cooked. But the biggest thing I found out is that they are ridiculously easy to make. Seriously, they are absurdly easy to make, so much so that anybody reading this should go make one now.
This got me thinking that I should make my own. Although the first problem is where to place it. It would have been great in my former apartment where i had my own personal area of the roof. My current place is a big communal building, and I'm thinking i could talk to the building manager about putting an oven on the roof that everybody could share and use, but it seems like a lot of work to educate people about what an oven exactly is and that it's not a fire death trap. Fear of the unknown is very strong here in Taiwan.
All meaning that this is probably yet another thing to add to my list of what any future apartment would have to have, "a place to put a brick oven."
But this is not the only other setback. The other issue is where to get bricks. Many years ago I wanted to build my own furniture, so i went to the Home Depot-esque store here, and I discovered that wood is extremely expensive here. It seems like gold is cheaper than wood in Taiwan. So i'm guessing that brick is equally as cost prohibitive to get a hold of here. Especially given that hardly any buildings are made with the specific types of bricks I require. However on a recent walk with my dog, I came across this pile of bricks.
Don't worry, I won't be stealing them though. As the last time I attempted to steal construction supplies (some wood for a high school project), my friend almost got his face ripped off by a lion (not a metaphor, it was a real lion). It's still a bit traumatic, and it definitely scared me straight. Although let's see how much bricks end up being in Taiwan. There is definitely a price ceiling where I'd prefer to outwit a lion.
