When it comes to food on this journey I value two attributes above all others. It needs to be nourishing and cheap. I appreciate a delicious meal, but when I’m hungry I find most food pleasing – as long as it’s proper food that provides my body with what it needs. Katrine has a similar approach to food, but with more focus on it being what she defines as nutritious which involves a healthy dose of fruit and vegetables.
Food has become religion to many people. Katrine and I are not in that boat. We eat most anything and don’t follow a specific diet. Being picky about what you eat represents a couple of challenges when you travel.
Outside the cities you’ll often have a limited selection of food to choose between. If you only eat certain things, it’s easy to end up malnourished.
People we meet or stay with during our journey regularly offer to share a meal with us. Some of them clearly don’t have much. In situations like that it would be extremely rude and inappropriate to ask them to cater for a specific diet or to decline the offer all together.
In some countries it is rather cheap to eat out, especially if you stick to the places where the locals dine.
It is usually significantly cheaper to eat out at lunch time than in the evening – even if you are ordering the same dish. As a result our main meal of the day is often lunch. When riding, a good long lunch break can also be a welcome opportunity to get out of the midday heat or to warm up depending on the weather. It is often during these breaks that we decide where to stay and book a room for the night.
One of the best ways to secure a healthy and cheap meal is to cook it ourselves.
When possible we opt for accommodation with access to a fridge and cooking facilities. I’m not particularly fond of cooking but decent at it. I prefer meals cooked from scratch with un- or minimally processed foods.
I brought my favorite recipes from home but soon realized that more often than not, it’s nigh impossible to get the ingredients needed to cook my regular dishes. What we have learned to do instead is to come up with dishes based on what we can find. Sometimes we have to get rather creative. The results range from edible to surprisingly delicious.
Initially we didn’t bring cooking gear but soon realized that it was a limiting factor.
On a couple of occasions we had been forced to move on from perfect camping spots, because we didn’t have anything to eat and no shops within range. Traveling on motorcycles limits what food we can bring. We were also getting tired of cold sandwiches for dinner every time we camped.
3 months into the journey we had had enough and picked up a Jetboil Stash. It’s a very light and compact stove that can supply us with boiling water in 2 minutes. It has been a game changer!
We quickly became fans of freeze dried food. After trying a couple of different brands we settled on the meals from Peak Refuel when available. They are not cheap, but filling, delicious and big enough for 2 people.
We also use the stove to make other stuff like Cup Noodles, oatmeal and coffee.
Aw, this was an incredibly nice post. Taking a few
minutes and actual effort to make a good article… but what can I say…
I put things off a lot and don’t seem to get anything done.