hey t-punks,

So your backpacking, trying to save money and staying at a hostel with a kitchen. Hmmm what are your dinner plans? What kind of food do you cook in hostels. I need some ideas. WHenever I cook in hostels i usually do the pasta thing, but pasta get's bland if you have it everynight! So I need some cheap and easy hostel cooking ideas. Help meeeee! I don't want to end up eating spaghetti everynight when i go on my trip!

Merci -_-

rice is a godsend!! i sometimes have rice with some meat in it, like steak or tuna. rice is great in the morning once in a while. just sprinkle a little sugar on it and your golden. but being in south america i have the privalage of not having to cook for myself too often. excellent!!

black beans and rice is definately tasty...

sandwiches are good....(probably one with few condiments...)...maybe humus, peanut butter, or turkey.....

granola and yogurt is a great breakfast....

Another idea, one that I am going to do is take a few packets of meal replacement powder when I go and whenever I want just stir it into a glass of milk with some ice or something........not always too tasty but it does its job......

I have to say I've never in my life had rice and sugar. Interesting combination!

Im probably to simple, but I stick to sandwhiches, I know I know, boring right? Hey its quick and cheap, leaving more time and money for sites, journeys and booze :)

I lived on white rice with butter and bread for 5 days...and beer (tehe)...It was better than you would think -_-

If there is an oven or microwave, you can get those Stoffers style ready to eat meals, pop them in an in 3 minutes..instant 3 course meal!

I stuck to the sandwhichs and can tuna and chicken, and stuff like that, I don't know why, but I don't like to cook in hostels??? weird huh? and I have no good reson for it? I like to eat out and sit in a park or on a curb somwhere an sip a Cup-A-Soup that I made with hot tap water...goofy I know, but hey, who cares... :cheers:

Hey Dio ...

i lived off of: eggs, rice, pasta, bread, cheese and veggies/fruits. just gotta get inventive with it all.

eggs you can do so much with -- omelette, boiled, scrambled, fried, etc. also throw some cooked rice into a pan and crack an egg into it, stir it up with whatever else you want and you have fried rice --

sounds funny, but my favorite meal was slices of good crusty bread with cheese, a crisp apple and banana

flour tortillas are also great -- hand toast one over a stove top til it's lightly crispy and spread some (crunchy) peanut butter on it, promise it is super yummy snack. i also like to make quick wraps with tortillas by throwing in some deli meat, lettuce, tomato, mayo and rolling it up... breakfast wraps too, scramble some eggs and tomato or ketchup/salsa and roll it up in a warm tortilla... you can throw in some cheese with the tortilla and melt it for a quesadilla, etc.... i made a pizza quesadilla once... heh.

with pasta, i just tried to change up the sauces -- marinara, pesto -- and throw in some different things to vary it -- mushrooms/zucchini/spinach/bell peppers -- all pretty inexpensive produce.

guess some of my ideas might sound funky, but theyre all fairly quick and easy to make.

bon appetit! :chef:

I'm taking Katdawg on my next trip as my personal chef! Uh, Kat, that would be today. I arrive in LAX at 8 pm, have your bags packed for the 11:55 pm departure to Taipei, then on to Bali... :D

worldwidemike

DONT I WISH, MIKE!!!! Good luck with your travels! Loved your website!!! Keep us posted!

-_- :afro: :D

thx for the tips. man i shouldn't be reading this right at dinner time now i';m hungry!!! (thx kat :D )

Yes, it made me hungry too!!!! :eat:

Damn Kate....you must have like raided my refrigerator.....those are all like normal meals for me........Hah.......

Seriously though, everything goes good inside a tortilla!!!! And Fried Rice with egg and some chicken is GREAT!!! mmmm.......eggs.........I think i'll go make an omlette right now.......... :stoked:

i wish my boyfriend could cook.

I wish I had a boyfriend to cook with (and wash the dishes...heheh!) ;)

What kind of equipment do they usually have in hostel kitchens?? Knives??(I've been considering bringing a small one of mine) Gas?? Pans??

I have limited knowledge on this mumbles, but the hostels I've seen are equipped with stoves, microwaves, toasters, hot water dispenser and some cutlery and pots and pans. but i always get grossed out by the sponges and dishwashing rags....

one thing i didn't see were ovens. which would have been nice but i guess that would mean a slow-cooking meal and what backpacker would slave away for two hours baking a casserole or cake or something???

:chef: ;)

You can invent a million uses for Ramen, speaking from experience. Here is a list of some of the Ramen dishes I created:

(read like that guy from Forrest Gump)

Ramen with veggies (snagged from the free-food bin. i also carried around a shaker of curry powder)
Ramen with yogurt (plain yogurt seasoned with whatever stuff I found in the free-food bin)
Ramen with chicken hearts (1 kilo purchased for 1 euro at a butcher shop in dublin)
Ramen with baked beans (baked beans- a backpacker staple, I'd say)
Ramen with fresh mussels (purchased for £1.80 from a dock in Oban, Scotland)
Ramen with Norwegian brown cheese (purchased for 40kr in Oslo)
Ramen with tofu
etc...

Ramen was my staple for a while. Here is a list of other good staples:

Plain Yogurt- with fruit. seasoned to make salad dressing. seasoned to make pasta sauce (excellent on pasta). also great with rice. refrigeration can sometimes be an issue, however.

Baked Beans- on toast, with rice, plain, with eggs, with sausage, etc.

The ol' loaf of Bread- what better excuse to try vegemite?

Rice- I never liked waiting for it to cook but it is very versatile.

I MUST ALSO MENTION that in hostel kitchens it saves time and energy to boil water in an electric kettle before putting it in the cooking pot.

And MAKE USE of the free-food bin if there is one. But don't hog it! Only take what you will use right away. :boxing:

I am particularly fond of seafood and found that it was very inexpensive in some of the coastal areas. I cooked a lot of shrimp, salmon, clams, etc. and once I got to Ireland, god I had fun playing with all kinds of weird fish.

At a hostel in Edinburgh, Scotland I met a really sweet French guy who would whip up some pretty extravagant dishes (by backpacker standards) and ALWAYS have loads extra to share. Make friends with someone like this. I often got free lasagne (he made it from scratch!!), free chocolate cake (from scratch, following a recipe his granny gave him written on a piece of notebook paper), and all sorts of great pasta dishes. A dream come true! :wub: