Campers, what do you eat?

[mysticmeg]

Milk, my guilty secret... normally take no sugar in coffee but tubes of condensed milk for camping = sweet white coffee, rich sweet porridge and I will have burnt off the calories during the day, surely.

 

[MarkF]

steve & snorri have got me to thinking. There's a certain degree of pfaff and discomfort/inconvenience (not to mention weight) to carting your own food, cookware etc around. When you can eat for sod all from supermarkets and the like, you have to ask yourself if it's worth it. Depends on many factors, of course, where you're going and for how long not least, but there are certainly arguments for not bothering.

I'm riding there and back to the UK early next month (basically a week on the road) and I'm not bothering with cooking stuff.

I agree, not helpful to the OP I know. I use supermarkets & my cooking kit comprises of 1 x spork.

 

[byegad]

I used to do this while camping.

One ring two pans and a deep dished plate.

Boil quick cook pasta.
Put cooked pasta on ground with plate on top and heat a packet sauce in other pan.
Pour heated sauce over pasta and put back on stove at low heat for a couple of minutes.
Wash sauce pan out and put ready custard mix and water/milk into pan.
Take pasta/sauce mix off stove and put custard on to stove. Eat Pasta.
Cut up some fruit, bananas are good and add to custard.
Clean out pasta pan and fill with water for tea, put on stove
Eat fruit and custard.
Make tea.

I later added a Hexi Stove bought from a War Surplus store. Damn useful as a second fast heat source, takes up very little space and weighs next to nothing.

 

[Teuchter]

I later added a Hexi Stove bought from a War Surplus store. Damn useful as a second fast heat source, takes up very little space and weighs next to nothing.

I spent many weekends as a teenager up the hills, cooking the old tinned army ration packs and things like cans of beans on hexi stoves. It was a revelation when I invested in a camping gas stove and realised I could actually control the heat I cooked with!

I got a few of them again a couple of years ago to introduce the kids to campsite cooking, having them cook tinned curries straight on top of the stove on a windswept hilltop. They loved it.

 

[Brandane]

In some of ethnic stores you can get prepared packeted Indian meals - originally produced for the Indian army rations. Forget boil-in-the-bag Uncle Ben's. These are GOOD.

Usually carry a couple. Otherwise - rice or pasta (with a few added flavours - I always carry garlic, chilli pepper, and black pepper)

Do "Vesta" still make those dried curries with rice? Just add boiling water and simmer for ten minutes. Then feed it to the dog, who will probably also walk away from it! They were rough .

 

[Durian]

Do "Vesta" still make those dried curries with rice? Just add boiling water and simmer for ten minutes. Then feed it to the dog, who will probably also walk away from it! They were rough .

I used to love them. Cleaning the saucepan out afterwards though was a pain, that curry sauce stuck like glue, no idea what it did to my insides!

 

[bigjim]

I don't find eating out in France too expensive. I've had 3 course meals for 11€ without wine last year. The motel chains usually have a good restaurant attached and I enjoyed an all you can eat 2 course buffet meal for 12€. Even less if you are staying at the motel as you get 5% off vouchers. Good food as well.
The roadside butty vans in France are excellent. Food is fantastic and silly cheap.
I cook on a single stove. Buy a tin of something in the camp shop, if there is one, plus youghurt and a pastry and a cheap bottle of plonk. Lovely.
I also use an esbit titanium stove. I've never found esbit tablets available in France though.

 

[Bodhbh]

I'm fine with cold stuff - and enjoy just trying all the local bread/cheese/meat/mustard/sausage/whatever. I can't be bothered with cooking or washing up - or with researching cooking gear, which is yet one more thing to noodle about. So it's the cold food mixed up with eating out for me. I do get that it's great cooking al fresco and bbqing and really enjoy it when car camping - you've got a whole day to fill - but not so much when touring.

 

[Profpointy]

I just cooker proper food when camping - not as "proper" as roast dinner (unless car camping), but stews, pasta, curry etc are easy enough on a single burner. Get the stew / curry / bolgnaise etc nearly cooked, then put lid on and get the rice / pasta / potatoes boiling then back to the stew for a last heat-up.

Pizza can be done if you've a frypan with a lid but a bit tricky on a tranga. Basically you fry/bake the dough - bit like a Nan bread or similar, turn it over, then put the (cooked) toppings and cheese on. With the lid down, the cheese melts in the steam.

Roast beef needs a bigger pan and a lot of meths and time, so better suited to car camping.

Sausages, chops, steak, fryups etc are obviously easy enough.

And cycling you can shop at any convenient shop along the way, so it's not as if you're in the wilds carrying it all on your back.

Why put up with tinned or dried crap?

 

[Brandane]

And cycling you can shop at any convenient shop along the way, so it's not as if you're in the wilds carrying it all on your back.

Why put up with tinned or dried crap?

Unless you happen to find yourself in rural France on a holiday weekend. The French take their Sundays and public holidays very seriously! I couldn't even find a bottle of water for sale; I ended up having to scrounge from people out in their gardens. The holiday weekend lasted for 3 days BTW..

 

[Profpointy]

Unless you happen to find yourself in rural France on a holiday weekend. The French take their Sundays and public holidays very seriously! I couldn't even find a bottle of water for sale; I ended up having to scrounge from people out in their gardens. The holiday weekend lasted for 3 days BTW..

fair point - has happened to me whilst on walking tour in semi tourist area - nothing much open till July. I could have got a haircut, or gone to the pharmacy but cafe, bread or dinner - no !

that said, some pasta / rice , garlic and chorizio in your panniers and you won't starve for a day or two till you can stock up.

 

[yello]

Yep, pretty much every French town has a hairdressers and a pharmacy!

Good money in pharmacies. The country loves it's (legal) drugs and the state funds much of it. The ideal middle man job if you think about it - punters fill their boots and someone else picks up the tab!

 

[steveindenmark]

When we were in Nice we went to Carrafours Supermarket. They had a huge deli were they were cooking about 5 dishes in massive pans. It was so cheap, you got loads and it was great food.

Look out for Carrafour delis.

Steve

 

[Teuchter]

I just cooker proper food when camping - not as "proper" as roast dinner (unless car camping), but stews, pasta, curry etc are easy enough on a single burner. Get the stew / curry / bolgnaise etc nearly cooked, then put lid on and get the rice / pasta / potatoes boiling then back to the stew for a last heat-up.

Pizza can be done if you've a frypan with a lid but a bit tricky on a tranga. Basically you fry/bake the dough - bit like a Nan bread or similar, turn it over, then put the (cooked) toppings and cheese on. With the lid down, the cheese melts in the steam.

Roast beef needs a bigger pan and a lot of meths and time, so better suited to car camping.

Sausages, chops, steak, fryups etc are obviously easy enough.

Agreed, and it is amazing what you can achieve with a Trangia!

And cycling you can shop at any convenient shop along the way, so it's not as if you're in the wilds carrying it all on your back.

Why put up with tinned or dried crap?

Unless you're in more remote parts that draw many tourers for the very reason of their remoteness. In the North West Highlands, the nearest convenient shop is probably 20 miles back the way you came and if it's the day before its weekly stock delivery from civilisation, you'd likely be faced with having to make a meal out of a packet of dried lentils, a two finger kitkat and a postcard of a sheep in a red phone box

 

[cardiac case]

Every meal should have a meat content so….