Bold Intentions and Good Eats
>> May 27, 2010
As backpackers, carrying everything on our backs, we aren’t big shoppers. We don’t find ourselves accumulating great stores of new things from new countries, and the things that we do collect are usually intended as gifts to bring to the new destination. Sometimes I indulge in some window shopping, but what is the fun of trying on strappy wedge sandals that you cannot justify purchasing? The Kashmir rugs, the kimonos, the paintings, the silk sarees, the hanging glass lanterns, and the baby burro remained far from the grasp of my eager hands.
However, one thing that we can shop for and purchase, is food!
At the beginning of this journey, while reveling in the successes of toasting Panini Sandwiches with an iron at our hotel in Washington, D.C., we made a bold declaration: during the course of our nine month trip, we would cook home-made food no less than three times each week.
Our intentions quickly fell by the wayside, for many different reasons.
Firstly, we had grown accustomed to the availability of guest kitchens and cooking facilities during our time in South America; this is not the case worldwide. We have cooked a total of about ten meals in our five months of traveling, excluding our newfound joy in preparing Indian-style Chai for guests and hosts. In addition to a deficit of kitchens, a lack of refrigeration options means that our cooking repertoire is limited to foods that we will prepare right away, and ingredients that will not spoil within our cooking time-frame, be it four hours or three days.
On our last day in Mumbai, Nathan purchased one of those coil-heaters to accompany the two kilograms of Chai tea that we managed to squeeze into my backpack. How lovely it would be to pop that little unit into the Nalgene bottle and make ourselves delicious tea! How exceptional to reduce our plastic consumption with the ability to boil our own water! Upon our arrival in Addis the next day, the heater exploded in my hands on the first attempted use. Nuts.
In many of the countries through which we have traveled, prepared food is much cheaper than un-prepared. It is cheaper to order chana masala and chapati, or a noodle bowl, or injera from the street or in a small restaurant than it ever would be to cook the same item ourselves, even if we did have a kitchen at our disposal.
Although our intentions of home-cooking sounded very relevant from the location of the Gaylord Hotel, I feel that we would miss so much had we stuck to this plan. If we were cooking for ourselves, we would be preparing foods that we know to enjoy, that we are familiar with, that we understand how to cook. If we had been cooking at home, we would be restricting ourselves from enjoying some rich and new culinary delights. I may not have ever realized that I like mushrooms! We would not know the wonders of ground-nut stew. And that creamy goodness of shiro. Sweet pasta with ice and coconut milk? How much we would have missed.
But the truth is, although we are far from our original and uneducated goal of home-cooking, we have been good eaters. But not just in our healthy appetites or ranges in variety, but also because we choose to eat normal food. We very rarely find ourselves at a chain restaurant, and NEVER at a western-based chain restaurant (unless we need to use the bathroom). We try to stick to the culinary style of the region and try new things. We usually do not eat in fancy restaurants, but choose instead to buy our meals from a local neighborhood restaurant. We try to patronize real individuals making real food…and we take our food purchases rather seriously. As travelers on a limited spending budget, with interest in adding to the local economy and supporting small business owners, buying meals from local restaurants makes everyone feel good.
Especially me and my stomach.
However, one thing that we can shop for and purchase, is food!
At the beginning of this journey, while reveling in the successes of toasting Panini Sandwiches with an iron at our hotel in Washington, D.C., we made a bold declaration: during the course of our nine month trip, we would cook home-made food no less than three times each week.
Our intentions quickly fell by the wayside, for many different reasons.
Firstly, we had grown accustomed to the availability of guest kitchens and cooking facilities during our time in South America; this is not the case worldwide. We have cooked a total of about ten meals in our five months of traveling, excluding our newfound joy in preparing Indian-style Chai for guests and hosts. In addition to a deficit of kitchens, a lack of refrigeration options means that our cooking repertoire is limited to foods that we will prepare right away, and ingredients that will not spoil within our cooking time-frame, be it four hours or three days.
On our last day in Mumbai, Nathan purchased one of those coil-heaters to accompany the two kilograms of Chai tea that we managed to squeeze into my backpack. How lovely it would be to pop that little unit into the Nalgene bottle and make ourselves delicious tea! How exceptional to reduce our plastic consumption with the ability to boil our own water! Upon our arrival in Addis the next day, the heater exploded in my hands on the first attempted use. Nuts.
In many of the countries through which we have traveled, prepared food is much cheaper than un-prepared. It is cheaper to order chana masala and chapati, or a noodle bowl, or injera from the street or in a small restaurant than it ever would be to cook the same item ourselves, even if we did have a kitchen at our disposal.
Although our intentions of home-cooking sounded very relevant from the location of the Gaylord Hotel, I feel that we would miss so much had we stuck to this plan. If we were cooking for ourselves, we would be preparing foods that we know to enjoy, that we are familiar with, that we understand how to cook. If we had been cooking at home, we would be restricting ourselves from enjoying some rich and new culinary delights. I may not have ever realized that I like mushrooms! We would not know the wonders of ground-nut stew. And that creamy goodness of shiro. Sweet pasta with ice and coconut milk? How much we would have missed.
But the truth is, although we are far from our original and uneducated goal of home-cooking, we have been good eaters. But not just in our healthy appetites or ranges in variety, but also because we choose to eat normal food. We very rarely find ourselves at a chain restaurant, and NEVER at a western-based chain restaurant (unless we need to use the bathroom). We try to stick to the culinary style of the region and try new things. We usually do not eat in fancy restaurants, but choose instead to buy our meals from a local neighborhood restaurant. We try to patronize real individuals making real food…and we take our food purchases rather seriously. As travelers on a limited spending budget, with interest in adding to the local economy and supporting small business owners, buying meals from local restaurants makes everyone feel good.
Especially me and my stomach.
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