In addition to kitchen essentials – what we will not live in a flat without – we’ve learned through painful experience that many kitchens do not have the things we consider necessary. This post outlines our kitchen basics, cobbled together over years of being frustrated in other people’s kitchens. And, best of all, they pack into a small bag which fits neatly inside that cat (see further below on him).
Utensils
Many of our go-to’s, as it happens, are made by OXO (UK address here). We love their Good Grips series, nearly every piece of which we have owned at some point.
- Mini vegetable peeler: if the flat has one, it is always terrible
- Grater: small, useful for cheese and carrots – the flat never has one of these
- Whisk: for eggs; probably a fork would work in a pinch
- Small tongs: we use these almost every day for moving hot things around
- Portable knife sharpener: less hassle than carrying knives around
- Plastic travel silverware: just in case – we did have one flat with only three forks, which proved inconvenient at least twice a day
Beverage-Related
Corkscrew: for the obvious reasons(2024 update – we now just use the one on our Swiss Army knife)- That vacuum thing that keeps your wine fresh, plus two stoppers
Travel mug for tea(2023 update – this one didn’t make it; it leaked and we realised the thermos could do double-duty)- Thermos for water
- Tea strainer
- Cheshire cat tea cozy, from the Alice Shop in Oxford: this also works as a hat, or if you want to terrify people by putting it in their beds while they sleep.
Other Kitchen Basics
- About a dozen plastic containers for food storage; ours stack and we put socks in them for travel
- Plastic measuring cups
- Light wooden measuring spoons (a 2023 addition!)
- Meat thermometer: also useful for calibrating oven temperature if you happen to be baking
- Fridge magnets: good for pinning up grocery lists and reminders; ours hang potholders too
- Potholders: we bought a ‘double oven mitt’ in the UK which has saved our hands many times
- Kitchen sponges: the ones we’ve found abroad so far foam poorly. If you visit us, bring a couple of these and we’ll love you forever!
- Plastic zippered bags, small and large: we use these instead of plastic wrap, for storing pretty much everything: cheese, bread, frozen stuff…
That’s our list! We almost brought our baguette trays and a springform pan and other near-essentials, but once we looked at their bulk we scaled down to these truly basic kitchen basics. We’ve found that we can live with (or without) most other things. The mugs in our current flat are too small, and the tin/can opener only works about 40% of the time. If we ate more potatoes, we’d probably invest in a masher, but the ones we’ve seen are too heavy. In order to be more eco-friendly, we’ve considered carrying cloth napkins and beeswax (to take the place of plastic wrap).
Let us know your best travelling kitchen basics tips, as well as whether you think we’ve left out anything crucial!
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It would be great to see your approximate planned itinerary. I am enjoying reading about your adventures, especially after Covid cancelled what was to be my first European jaunt in 3 years. (I am fine now.)
Thanks so much! We’re sorting out all of the details, and obviously there’s no point in planning too far ahead. But check out the right sidebar for our plans so far. After that, a bit more time in Europe and then over Kyoto for spring 2024.