How can there be a thread on food / cooking / recipes / kitchen
without my participation? 
A lot of nice-looking kitchens aren't practical. I dislike
open-spaced kitchens, where there's no separation between the
living area and the kitchen. No matter how strong the
rangehood is, cooking fumes and smells will permeate through the
entire area and long after the food has been consumed, the living
area will STILL smell. 
I was ooh'ing and aah'ing at the self-cleaning oven a while
back, when I flipped through either the Gourmet or Bon Appetit mags
and saw glossy photo ads on it. And then, I read this :
http://www.ovenu.co.uk/self-cleaning-ovens.cfm?gclid=CLCDieXn0ZICFR-kiQodimY_dQ
which reveals that in reality, the self-cleaning function is not
just a huge energy guzzler, it doesn't really do the job well, plus
the smoke that is emitted can be harmful to pets who linger near
the oven. 
You may also read more about how the self-cleaning function
works here : http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/question559.htm
So basically, nothing beats the good ol' getting on your knees
and cleaning out your oven the good ol' way.
The most important thing for oven owners, is to get to know
their oven well enough to be able to guesstimate the amont of time
and the settings needed to yield good results every time they use
it. 
The same goes for microwave ovens and cooking
ranges. You don't really need top-end devices and
instruments to get yummy results because I recall my maternal
grandma used to cook absolutely delicious food, cause she had a
stern and strict Peranakan grandma-in-law who would lord it over
her in the kitchen and back then in her era, it was expected of all
wives to be good cooks and domestic goddesses, and so, she had
astounding cooking skills.
But you know what, all she had was a tiny cooking area in the
old 2-bedroom HDB apartment at Commonwealth, with just one charcoal
stove, and one tiny gas stove. And right at the end, a
sink. That was it, and yet, you won't believe the absolutely
awesome food that comes out from that little kitchen!
I do dream of fanciful pro kitchens, as well as at least one
other person to cook for regularly. I also dream of having
groups of friends over for dinner where all they have to do is
bring themselves and all the makan, etc is provided by me.
However, unless I marry a rich man and can therefore be blissfully
self-confined to the kitchen and do all the cooking and
entertaining I want, my reality is a pretty good kick-ass kitchen
by Aussie rental apartment standards, and which also turns out to
be the best-equipped kitchen I've ever cooked in, and I'm happy
enough dishing out food that I want to eat, getting good results
almost all of the time.
LF, let's hang out someday, we go marketing together early in
the morning, and then let's cook based on whatever's freshest in
the market that morning! 
