When is a kitchen not a kitchen? When it could be combined with any other room, namely a bathroom. There are several places in Manhattan that could double as two utile rooms. Is this becoming a trend or a take on an older New York City lack of space problem?
New contributor and food writer Jess Eng wrote about this in yesterday's New York Times Food section. Bath tubs in New ork apartments aren't new. In fact they've been over for more than a century thanks to the New York Tenement House act of 1901. It required all residences to have a sink and a bathtub to meet the city's sanitation standards. Then Lower East Side apartments the tubs fit into the largest room of the house which was the kitchen.Now , over a hundred years later New Yorkers have fallen in love with them , creating ingenous ways of dealing with a tub right next to the stove or fridge. There are also kitchens that wouldn' go amiss in a child's playhouse thanks to them being so tiny. Other kitchens even have stoves from the Twenties which still work. How do city home chefs cope with all of this?Being New Yorkers they've developed ingenous and creative ways of dealing with this strange cooking spaces. it could only work and happen in Manhattan.
Having a miniscule kitchen is no big deal for Phoebe Lifton and her partner Arthur Canedo. Their Upper West Side apartment is a dream with it's proximity to grocery stores, parks and restaurants. There are even picturesque views of trees blooming in the Spring. The one drawback? An almost doll sized kitchen. everything is miniature from the fridge to the two burner stove. There is no oven for baking or roasting yet, thanks to their Insta Pot and toaster oven they make it work. They created carrot saffron risotto and shakshuka. Then there is Elise Shatz who has a bathtub in her kitchen .Most of the units in her tenement building do have this quirk, a leftover from an earlier age. It's not used for bathing but could be used for storign ice and drinks at a potential party.Nikole Naloy takes advatnage of her kitchen shower's nearness to access a hot cup of chamomile tea on the nearby counter. The storage problem in a small kitchen can be a bit much too. Edythe Hughes unplugged her noisy fridge and uses it for her books and papers. She does have a mini fridge for perishables.
It's not unusual for a kitchen to have extras. It is , however when there's a bath and shower stuck in th emiddle of it. Then again that;'s what makes the city so unique
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