Not always, but often I like my camp experience to last until late morning. Having a small fire and preparing tea while simply resting and embroidering, is pure enjoyment for me. Nowadays I have a few options to choose which stove to take along. A journey with kickbike, bicycle or hiking trailer asks for a different stove, when the weather permits. And the option I like a lot is the Bushbox XXL.
This Snowpeak pot is a stainless steel tea kettle and was bought for the sole purpose of having it a spout. Using the plain rimmed MSR Alpine StowAway pot to pour chai was always a mess, with quite some amount of chai lost.
It took me a long time to come up with a decent meal cooked in camp. Having eaten pasta with sugared tomato paste for over a year I knew that should not have to be repeated ever again but how do you cook a tasty meal when you are not a cook and one that is also low on gas and water consumption?
I know most people who read this are not interested in vegetables, and the thing is, I wasn’t so much either a couple of years ago. Same when I met a Dutch cyclist in Pakistan, I was not interested the slightest bit (a few years prior that I cycled 50.000 kilometres). May I try to inspire you once more, and promised, the next time with a touring story.
Food. One can not do otherwise than loving Indian street food, in particular the dishes available at truck dhaba’s. The inventiveness of African mom’s is not to dismiss either. They cook up delicious meals with leavy vegetables and home-made palm oil. A delight for a cyclist on sandy roads through the few patches of virgin forest. I vividly remember my breakfast at restaurants lining the streets in Sana’a, though busy with clientele I would eat in quietness. Fresh fish perfectly fried, while goat heads would simmer next to where I sat. In the far away past I would wander the streets of Bangladesh and Pakistan in search of a restaurant mentioned in the Lonely Planet, sometimes it took me hours to find such place, not seldom wandering off forgetting to eat. Though my own prepared sugary tomato paste pasta in the desert was tasty and bread fried in olive oil whether at a soppy wet Patagonian patch, the hostile windy pampa or a sweltering Argentinian yerba mate grove was always good enough. Food mixed up with sand in Mauritania, quick decaying beef in warm sunny Bolivia and constipation enhancing dishes in Paraguay, it all had its charm.
I realize I have become a bit of a nerd if it comes to the right pot for cooking in every situation. I must even admit that it is nice to buy new titanium cooking gear. Such buying gives pleasure to a trip long before I actually get on a tour. But now, I have enough. Really. And that’s why I share this post: who needs what and when? Yet, nothing so personal as one’s kitchen.
Some years ago, I liked my camp experience to last until late morning. Having a small fire and preparing tea while simply resting and embroidering, was pure enjoyment for me. As of today I have found a middle way in morning time at camps. The most obvious thing that has changed is that I have a home, bringing the choice of which stove to take along. An ultralight hike or journey with kickbike, bicycle or hiking trailer asks for a different stove, depending on the weather. However, in my opinion, there’s no magic bullet for making the perfect choice.
Heike has asked me again for an interview, this time about cooking a meal while cycling. I love being interviewed and had a lot of fun making pictures just for Heike’s questions.
Plus
I am was quite fully satisfied with the Svea 123. I even use it in hotel rooms, though I am very careful not to spill fuel and always put a folded windscreen underneath the stove as not to burn the hotel down.
I choose rice over pasta. I had my share of pasta while cycling South America, and am fed up with it up to this day. Any rice is fine and if I can get my hands on wild or brown rice, I use that.
For this recipe in particular, you need:
Bring a pot of water to the boil in which you have placed the rice. The rice should be about 1.5 centimeter below the water, this way it will boil dry.
While the rice is softly boiling, cut the asparagus and mushrooms. Slice the dried tomatoes and add these to the pot of rice.
When the rice is nearly done, add the asparagus, Parmesan tomatoes and/or -paste. Add salt, pepper and dried herbs. At last, add the mushrooms. Give everything a good stir and the dish is ready to be eaten.
Pots and pans, who needs what, and when?
Stoves and fires, who needs what, and when?
The comments don’t correspond with this post. My weblog is full and I have to overwrite posts. I am still curious to your ideas and thoughts : )