Lol that might have something to do with it depending on the neighborhood.

Lol you should make friends and try to angle for an invitation

Huh. Well I hope you don't have a gas stove! Honestly, I would ignore it anyway, but if you're not so inclined, simmer-pots and electric heaters can be really nice.

I have never seen this. I also don't see a ban on incense and candles being very popular with a large percentage of prospective tenants. Wouldn't this also effectively ban people from doing puja and other religious ceremonies in their own homes?

I can imagine this being included for large towers; we're not allowed any flames in my office, for example, but there was no mention of this in my last three Chicago leases, and Chicago is well known for its fire safety measures for historical reasons.

If I were to encounter this in a normal house / apartment, I'd assume it was some racist clause like "no cooking with strong spices" used by bigoted landlords to try to keep POC out.

Really? I've never once seen or heard incense mentioned when renting. In any case, unless you are absolutely fogging the place out every day with no ventilation, they'll never know. They probably wouldn't even know what a censer was if they saw it.

Oh, I see. It's a traditional Chinese method of burning incense. If you search "incense seal" on aliexpress, you can find censers, tools, and ash for it. You can buy incense powder, make your own, or just burn plain aromatic wood powders. It's a really nice, clean method of burning incense when done properly using good material. It's also great for testing formulas if you make your own incense sticks.

Check the link in the description; I was trying out incense powder from Wild Berry.

This is a Chinese method of burning incense powder formed into a "seal" with a stencil on top of a layer of ash. I made the incense powder myself.