Hostel cooking...

SmarterNotHarder

Hi! I was hoping you wonderful people could help. I'm off travelling soon, for the most part staying in backpacker hostels.

This means shared kitchens, very limited equipment, even more limited fridge space (and potential for pilfering) and I'm unlikely to be staying in the sameplace for more than a week at a time.

Which presents some cooking challenges, and I can't eat out all the time. If at all possible, could you help?

I am taking chilli powder, tumeris and dried herbsin one of those seasoning shaker things. There will likely be oil and salt/pepper available

Other than that, I need recipes with few ingredients, short cooking times and can be done on the hob.

So far I have pasta/onion/tomatoes and meat and a variety of egg on toast type meals in mind

I know this perhaps should be on the travel board, but I thought you guys would be better at it, and I heard somewhere you like a challenge!

Thank you so much in advance!

JennyP

Tinned sardines, spaghetti, chilli flakes, small bottle lemon juice. Then you can quickly rustle up one of my favourite meals:

http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/sardine-chilli-and-lemon-spaghetti/

ariarnia

I don't know what country/countries you're in and what you're budget is like but a good option is to buy a carton of UHT milk (keep for about 3 days open unrefrigerated) and have porridge or cereal for breakfast. Either buy a cheap lunch at a 'locals' caf or make sarnies or use the local supermarket deli counter/salad bar. Then focus on having a hot and healthy meal for dinner using the hob to fry/ grill/ bake/ boil as needed.

Tinned fish, apples, bananas, peanut butter, dried fruit, bread, cereal, crackers, instant oatmeal and soup mixes don't require refrigeration, are light enough to pack from place to place so you've something to eat on arrival, and can be used to make simple meals.

Lived in a hostel for a while when I was younger and had a very limited budget (plus atrocious people skills). Eating three meals a day with a hot plate, microwave and kettle, some things that worked for me were:

Pizza (use flat bread or a pitta and put a plate on top to make a 'fake oven'. You end up with a crispy base and melted top)

French toast/eggy bread/'grilled' cheese toasties (butter the outside of the bread and fry. When the outsides are crispy the insides are hot and melty)

Soup (packet or tinned)

Black beans and rice (fry onions and garlic with a pepper if you have one. Add the rice and fry till clear. Add water or stock at a ratio of rice 1:2 water and simmer covered without stirring for 15 minutes. Add a tin of beans, spices and any cooked meat/veggies you want to add)

Shakshuka (fry onion, garlic and any spices. Add tomatoes and any veg like peppers, mushrooms, aubergines. Cook down until thickened then make wells in the sauce. Crack eggs directly into the wells and cover for 5/10 minutes until eggs poached. Eat with or without bread)

Chilli or spag bol (cook the rice or pasta first then drain and put on your plate while you cook the sauce. stir the pasta through the hot sauce to reheat)

corn beef hash (dice and fry potatoes with oil/butter, add onion and fry till translucent, sprinkle with stock cube/paprika if you've got one, add diced corn beef and tinned peas/corn)

Hope that's been helpful

SmarterNotHarder

Thank you to you both and Ariarnia, that's absolutely brilliant! I'm travelling around South America and then NZ/Australia. I hadn't considered UHT milk, as I hate it in hot drnks, but it should be fine in porridge

JennyP

You're so lucky. Been a couple of times to south america - amazing - and once to Australia which was great too. Would love to go to NZ but I hate long haul flights these days. Hope you have a wonderful time!

SmarterNotHarder

Thank you! I'm very excited! (would be more excited if I wasn't seeing flights cancelled left, right and centre at the moment). I've been to Australia before and loved it, didn't get to NZ though.

PipneyJane

SmarterNotHarder wrote: »

Thank you to you both and Ariarnia, that's absolutely brilliant! I'm travelling around South America and then NZ/Australia. I hadn't considered UHT milk, as I hate it in hot drnks, but it should be fine in porridge

Buy skimmed not semi-skimmed/full cream UHT milk. The horrid taste is down to the cream. Or just buy small cartons of fresh milk. Either way, I'd store it in the fridge or a flask. Nothing is worse than "off" milk and, even in winter, the radient heat from the sun is considerably warmer than here. (I'm an Aussie. The hardest thing to learn when I came to Britain was that, just because the sun shining, doesn't mean that the sunshine is warm.)


You can easily get the sachets of instant, microwaveable porridge in Australia and New Zealand.


A good metal flask will come in handy on your travels, both for keeping milk cold and for keeping things warm - hot drinks, etc. And don't forget that you will need some warm clothing/a warm sleeping bag. You're heading into the Southern Hemispherian winter. Contrary to popular (British) opinion, parts of Australia get really cold in June, July and August and their buildings are designed to stay cold in summer not warm in winter, so you will need extra layers. A typical Melbournian winter's day is between 10C to 15C during the day and 0C to 2C at night, but it will feel colder because Melbourne is less humid than here. Even in the desert near Ayres Rock, temperatures can get down to nearly 0C at night in winter, if there is no cloud cover, rebounding to 25-30C when the sun comes up.


HTH. Enjoy your trip.


- Pip

PipneyJane

ariarnia wrote: »

I don't know what country/countries you're in and what you're budget is like but a good option is to buy a carton of UHT milk (keep for about 3 days open unrefrigerated) and have porridge or cereal for breakfast. Either buy a cheap lunch at a 'locals' caf or make sarnies or use the local supermarket deli counter/salad bar. Then focus on having a hot and healthy meal for dinner using the hob to fry/ grill/ bake/ boil as needed.

Tinned fish, apples, bananas, peanut butter, dried fruit, bread, cereal, crackers, instant oatmeal and soup mixes don't require refrigeration, are light enough to pack from place to place so you've something to eat on arrival, and can be used to make simple meals.

Lived in a hostel for a while when I was younger and had a very limited budget (plus atrocious people skills). Eating three meals a day with a hot plate, microwave and kettle, some things that worked for me were:

Pizza (use flat bread or a pitta and put a plate on top to make a 'fake oven'. You end up with a crispy base and melted top)

French toast/eggy bread/'grilled' cheese toasties (butter the outside of the bread and fry. When the outsides are crispy the insides are hot and melty)

Soup (packet or tinned)

Black beans and rice (fry onions and garlic with a pepper if you have one. Add the rice and fry till clear. Add water or stock at a ratio of rice 1:2 water and simmer covered without stirring for 15 minutes. Add a tin of beans, spices and any cooked meat/veggies you want to add)

Shakshuka (fry onion, garlic and any spices. Add tomatoes and any veg like peppers, mushrooms, aubergines. Cook down until thickened then make wells in the sauce. Crack eggs directly into the wells and cover for 5/10 minutes until eggs poached. Eat with or without bread)

Chilli or spag bol (cook the rice or pasta first then drain and put on your plate while you cook the sauce. stir the pasta through the hot sauce to reheat)

corn beef hash (dice and fry potatoes with oil/butter, add onion and fry till translucent, sprinkle with stock cube/paprika if you've got one, add diced corn beef and tinned peas/corn)

Hope that's been helpful

Excellent ideas, Arianna. I'd like to add beans on toast, fried egg sandwiches and - if there is a microwave handy - baked potatoes to your list.


Other thoughts: if you are a meat eater, Australia can be paradise. The majority of Aussies still buy their meat from a butcher, not the supermarket, so it is easy to buy just one steak or one chop for your dinner tonight. Melbourne and Sydney still have markets, where you will find several butcher shops, green grocers and delicatessens side by side, each competing on price. In Melbourne check out the Queen Victoria Market, Prahran Market, South Melbourne Market and Dandenong Market. (There are others.)


HTH


Pip

buildersdaughter

We used to take our kids hostelling. We cooked large basic meals (chilli was a great favourite and i totally agree about your choice of spices) enough to feed hungry looking youngsters who would hang around. So look for a large family so that:
the kids like to talk to cool looking young adults because their parents are boring
the dad never quite sure how many kids they're feeding (or maybe how many they've brought along anyway)
the mum is kindly so often feeds extras anyway

Once our own kids were grown they were able to get fed at many campsites and hostels using this trick - works even better if you can do a magic trick or tell a good story.

[Deleted User]

I've stayed at over 200 different hostels, and self catered at virtually all of them. I'll leave others to suggest recipes, as I usually do a tin of curry or chilli with some rice, but here are a few recommendations if you don't want to come unstuck.

Wash stuff before use if in doubt, don't assume anything is clean (including the tea towel).

Most have fridges, but don't rely on finding space, some are so full that the contents all fall out on the floor when you open the door.

Don't cook anything that requires worktop space, it can be nigh on impossible to find any in a busy kitchen, and even harder to keep it clean long enough to use it.

Don't buy anything that requires more than 1 or 2 pans, that can be a tall order in some hostels. Sometimes you will have to queue to use the only pans.

The same applies to hotplates, you might find yourself sharing a hob with another person (or two).

Don't cook anything that takes a long time, it's selfish if the kitchen is busy.

Wash AND dry your pots after use, don't leave them on the drainer.

And finally, if you're going in a group, it only takes one of you to cook. It doesn't require another half a dozen spectators getting under everyone's feet!