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Other People's Pantries #120

From Helen (Daily Helen and Walking the Cape), in Cape Town, South Africa:

I live alone in a small apartment on the slopes of Table Mountain. While I'm not lucky enough to have a separate pantry I do have quite a few cupboards in my kitchen and use several of these for my groceries, sharing space with my kitchen paraphernalia.

Helensa1

In the cupboard above my stove I keep a selection of seeds in jars, some sauces and my various oils and vinegars. I eat salads every day and like to make my own dressings. In the small cupboard to the left live crackers, biscuits, jams, peanut butter and other spreads.

Helensa2

In another small cupboard I store my tinned goods -- I usually have tinned beans, tomatoes, fish and coconut milk on hand. Also olives, capers, pesto and mayo. In the cupboard to the right the bottom shelf is dedicated to various rices, pasta, dried beans and lentils and tins of cat food.

Helensa3

My herbs and spices live on the top shelf in a very narrow cupboard. This is not entirely satisfactory and I often have to search for the one I want. Unfortunately there isn't space anywhere for a proper spice rack. I do keep meaning to use a marker to write the names of the contents of the bottles on the lids as this might help me locate things more quickly! On the shelf below are salt, stock powders and my collection of spices for curries. 

Helensa4

In another cupboard the top shelf has boxes for bags of dried fruit and nuts.Lurking behind are fruit juices and long life milk. And chocolate. The middle shelf has all my ingredients for baking: sugars, flours etc. (not being used much recently as I'm trying to take a break from eating sugar and baked goodies). The bottom shelf has a box of vitamins, honey and a container with my homemade muesli, with spare oat flakes and other muesli stuff behind.

Helensa5

Because of our hot climate quite a few grocery items have to be refrigerated, so in the door of my fridge are mustards, Asian sauces, chili and tomato sauces and some more oils.

Helensa6

And lastly, a collection of tea bags in the cupboard above my kettle. Nothing like a cuppa!

On Saturdays, we peek into Other People's Pantries.

Come on -- show us your pantry.

Here's how.


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Comments

Baie dankie. lekker pantry you have there. thanks for sharing.

Interesting to think about where you're living - and nice to see small, compact solutions to the cupboard problem; it's inspiring, and I may actually get around to sending in pictures before the series ends.

What beautiful clean lines and nice organization.

It is always fun to see the kitchen/pantries from cooks in other countries. thanks so much for sharing.

I noticed the small wooden box with your vitamins -- if you can get more boxes like that, it might help with with spice jar organization. By category perhaps, like your curry spices? I used to have spices classified (sweet, Mediterranean...) until my oldest son decided to alphabetize them -- probably 30 years ago and I didn't change them back.
I try to imagine you in early fall -- maybe these posts should include a peek out the window!

I loved seeing all your pantry items. It is fun to learn what staples are called and look like from other countries.

I need to share my pantry too! It is quite empty right now since I have two homes and just returned to the summer residence. I could do before and after!

Thank you for your kind comments guys!

Melynda and Debbie M - oh, I agree. It is my favourite part of this series.

Susan Q - good suggestion. I do have a couple more of those boxes, but they are currently holding toiletries and medical supplies in my bathroom. I need to reshuffle stuff or buy some extras. So useful! And yes, it is fall here now. First winter rains have arrived. If you follow sport at all you should see plenty of and about South Africa on the TV as we are hosting the Soccer World Cup in a month's time. Whole country is very excited!

Nothing like a cuppa for sure. Looks like you've got the bases pretty well covered.

Thanks so much for sharing your pantry! It's wonderful to see one so far away from where I live - and yet there are so many common threads that run through all of these. Maybe it's the love of cooking that shines through.

Do you make your own curry mixes? Awesome...For your narrow cupboards - do you think you could get/make some kind of pull-out base or basket?

Thank you for sharing! I love seeing other's solutions to the kitchen storage problems. It seems to be a common issue no matter where we're from.

As far as the spices, it looks like a large cereal box cut down would fit just about perfectly, if you haven't been able to find a prettier solution.

I don't mind living in a studio apartment.

The Japanese are tidy and manage really well in small spaces...

By the way, Cape Town is great!

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