First household essentials: noodle bowls, chop sticks and a steaming pan!!

Once you decide to board an airplane for 24 hours or so to go to the Outback, you have to make up your mind about what memorabilia to take. This can be an easy task if you decide to ship all your personal belongings, furniture, clothing, pets, car and children included. It will cost you something, but at the least it can make things simple.

How I left

So that's what I didn't do. Being not very materialistic, I decided to travel just with my blinding yellow suitcase. What else do you need?

What I took 

Quite confident about my decision I started to sell everything within my apartment, including my so beloved wooden board, rolling pin, induction wok, water grill, and so on. Outch, that hurt. At least, I took my knives and some cookbooks. And our laptops of course.

First noodle bowl & chopsticks

The evening before we left, we found out we were too optimistic about the size of suitcases. Never knew you could bring so little. Not too desperate, we enthusiastically start to remove almost everything from our already packed suitcases. Keep in mind, we didn't have a lot of money because the apartment had not been sold yet. At best we could bring ourselves some clothing, shoes and memorabilia of our families. Okay, a few cookbooks and the best of my knives as well.

When I arrived

When we arrived, with almost nothing, we first spent some days in Sydney. What an amazing city it is, loved it! The food as well. After our first days and somewhat of an acclimatisation we travelled to our new home town: the city of Wollongong!

Nothing

Remember: no furniture, no stuff, not a thing, just the knives.

What I got

We arranged ourselves a brand new 3 room apartment, with 2 bathrooms (insane!) and a BBQ proof balcony within a week. Rent: too high, not because of the apartment, just because of the fact that almost every acceptable living space in Wollongong starts from 450$ a week. We decided not to worry and just pay for it.

Steaming pan

What I can

We immediately tried to find out where to buy a new mattress, furniture, pans, towels and other basics. Not too easy in Wollongong. We had to travel to another town: Warrawong. But there we managed to find ourselves a mattress and a dinner table and chairs. Back in town we bought our linen, a steaming pan, a wok, a cutting board, some bowls and chopsticks. No worries, I told my husband: I can cook with this. So I did.

What I needed

Not materialistic as I am, it took me about one week before I became annoyed. Though I used my steaming pan as a (noodle) cooking pot, as well as a rice cooker and steamer, I needed at least a wooden board, a rolling pin and flour to cook us the decent stuff. That's what we bought.

What I have

So, right now, here I am, in the city center of Wollongong with my wooden board, a rolling pin, my knives and some pans. And a mortar and pestle, I bought myself that as well.

What to expect?

Flour, wooden board & rolling pin

Really, I don't know. Ingredients are different. For example, we bought this huge 10 kg bag of flour, a stupid idea to start with because we didn't try it before, how predictable, resulting in a first failure because the flour types differ from the flour I am used to. Even if the protein level is acceptable, quality, ash contents, and extent of grading might be different. Lots of fun, especially if you turned yourself into a picky noodle eater years ago.

Maybe you can expect me to find out whether I can just do it again, starting to cook myself noodles from scratch in this unknown country.

Best to come

Failures might be hilarious, but it is really worrisome if you have to eat them yourself. Though, throughout the years I have learned it is the best motivator to turn yourself into a respectable cook within an acceptable timeframe.