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I am a guy from India going to settle in the US(Houghton, MI) for higher education for a period of 2 years. I have been bombarded by a variety of stereotypes for cooking (You won't get this and that in the US, etc).

Since my university is located in such a remote area, I don't think there would be any shops selling cookware/utensils locally. So I have to rely on Amazon/Walmart only.

So my cardinal question is, for a student creating his kitchen from scratch, what are the essentials that should be bought and from where i.e. locally or online.

I am not going to recreate Indian food there, rather would be interested in learning local cuisine and preparing the food prepared in households in the US.

I would also like get some advice on this topic i.e. whether I should bring some utensils from India or I can totally rely on Amazon/Walmart for my cooking needs?

PS: I am getting an oven and an electric stove in the apartment I would be living in. Sorry if this question is off-topic here, please redirect me to the correct location.

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    I have a Indian friend who had a container shipped to him from his family in India containing cooking utensils, pots, pans, etc once he purchased a house (we're in Australia). I don't know about the shipping costs, etc, so I'm not sure how much he saved. There are ethic groceries that sell things like pressure cookers and other items (i.e. a tawa, handi, etc) at relatively cheap prices. For example, I bought my parents a very large aluminum pressure cooker from an Afghan grocery for almost a third of what I would've paid at online. – NRaf Jun 6 '15 at 23:12
  • @NRaf I have a feeling that pan, plates, etc I can get in the Walmart store locally. So maybe just the utensils which are costly/rare are worth bringing along with me. – Cool_Coder Jun 7 '15 at 6:48
  • I think there could be an answerable question behind that, but as it stands, it is not a good SE question. What should you do? We don't know, and we can't take a decision for you. It is up to your personal circumstances. If you know what information you are missing to make your own decision, but have no source for that information, we can probably supply it. In this case, please edit the question to ask about it, and we can reopen. – rumtscho♦ Jun 7 '15 at 9:07
  • Ok, can I ask the recommended utensils to buy from scratch and where to buy for a guy starting living in a new house? I will not go into comparison with Indian prices. – Cool_Coder Jun 7 '15 at 13:52
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    The most answerable thing I can think of is to list the things you think of as essential (and if there's any ambiguity, what you use them for) so we can let you know whether they (or something close enough) is easy to buy here. If it's not too long a list, that'd probably be fine; if it's long or if some things are very multi-purpose, you might want to break it up into multiple questions. – Cascabel♦ Jun 8 '15 at 15:43
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Remember you have to be able to get all you stuff there. Is it worth lugging a pressure cooker half way across the world to save 10$. I would bring any local seasoning that you use. Your gonna be in for some culture shock when you get there.

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  • I agree that it is not worth saving the $10, but then I have some space in my bag and can bring some utensils with me. The thing is that I am unable to understand which ones to bring and which ones to buy in the US. Can you please elaborate on the cultural shock :) – Cool_Coder Jun 7 '15 at 6:45
  • You might have trouble with some seasonings -- if they're seeds, they might be confiscated as 'agriculture'. It's possible that other 'agricultural products' might be as well if there are concerns that they might be a plant disease vector. – Joe Jun 8 '15 at 16:05

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