“When we are young, we don’t take anything too seriously. But slowly, this set of daily rituals becomes solidified, and takes us over. We like to complain, but we are reassured by the fact that each day is more or less like every other.”
Spaghetti: Spaghetti and cheese. Spaghetti and homemade tomato sauce. Spaghetti with aubergines, spaghetti and pesto when we feel like spending the extra few bucks… and just plain noodles when we are low on supplies and have nothing else to eat with them. It’s a good thing I love noodles because they really are a cheap and fast meal while cycling, plus they are easy to find in most of the countries we have been through.
Here is the sauce that we tend to make: one kilo of tomatoes, an onions, and a whole lot of garlic along with whatever we happen to find at a shop that day (green onions, peppers, aubergines…).
Popcorn, as we have recently discovered, is one of the best post-dinner cycling snacks out there. It’s cheap and light to carry, it’s quick to make, and it’s easy to share with a large group of people. We have taken to carrying a supply whenever we can find it and often make it every night for weeks at a time.
I love potatoes; they are delicious (even plain), cheap in evey country, and always easy to find, but unfortunately they tend to take a lot of time, and therefore use a lot of fuel, to cook. Since here in Georgia it’s been so easy to make campfires whenever we please, we have taken to throwing some potatoes into the fire which have turned out to be delicious.
We have also tried to cook a few other things, such as meet and vegetables, over the fire and will continue to experiment with this fun new cooking method in the future.
Oatmeal: Though oatmeal is a staple in our diet, I actually can’t stand it. I really wish I did like it through cause it’s nutritious, easy, and cheap and therefore the perfect cycling breakfast for anyone who can manage to gulp it down. Recently we have been experimenting with making our own muesli (by frying it in butter, not as good as baking it but not bad considering our lack of cooking materials) and are trying to move towards more nuts and raisins for breakfast as well so that we no longer have to cook in the morning.
Rice: Rice is also cheap and easy to find, though I think Kevin and I were a bit burned out after a year of rice for every meal in Asia. That being said, we still do sometimes eat it it, occasionally with lentils, but more often than not plain (or cooked with a bouillon cube).
My favorite cycling food of all is fruit. What we get and how often we eat it really depends on where we are (and what’s in season) but any kind of natural sugar is wonderful fuel to keep us going, especially on hot days when a heavy meal doesn’t sound too appealing. Ice cream, of course, is always a good option as well (especially since in Georgia they have twenty-five cent ones).
The Wandering Nomads 
If you can find couscous, it’s great for bicycle touring. It’s light in weight, goes with almost anything, and takes very little fuel to prepare.
It is great and I love it, but haven’t found it yet! When I do it will make it into my list.
Try to spice your oatmeal up with a pack of YumYum with spices or crack in some eggs and cinnamon, then maybe you will like it. Happy traveling. Claus.
Awesome I’ll have to try that out.
Hey! I noticed you have the same kind of stove as we do. We are headed to South America and anticipate using unleaded fuel quite frequently with the stove. Have you had a problem with it making your whole pannier smell like gasoline? We’re not sure what we’re doing wrong and lookin for feedback! Also, does cooking rice on the stove take a ton of fuel? Love your blog. Happy pedaling!
Rice isn’t too bad, but takes more than noodles. We sometimes cook it most of the way than turn the stove off and let it sit. Well we have our stove in a bag in a bag in our pannier (plus Kevin has the stove so I actually don’t know if it still smells). It definitely gets dirty that’s for sure!
Hi there,
We are currently touring in South America, and have also recently discovered what´s called “bencina blanca” here. A petroleum based solvent, sold in “ferreterías” that is much cleaner than gasoline. For more than 8 months we´ve been using unleaded gasoline without a problem though, generally quite clean in Colombia, Ecuador and in Perú…but indeed, whatever you keep your stove in will stink of gasoline. The solution: either you keep it in a separate pannier with other stuff that doesn´t matter if it stinks, or, like we are doing now, you keep it in a separate bag attached to your rack…a lot easier perhaps? And cooking rice, even at altitude (we´ve cooked it at 4600 m without major problems), isn´t a big deal with a good stove – 15 min is all you need, plus resting time with the fire off 🙂
We´ve now transitioned into eating oats with powder milk (or real milk, if you had access to it!?) plus fresh fruits like plums or apples. It definitely tastes a lot better. Here in Perú, they sell oats with quinua or kiwicha, which adds a nice touch to it :). I reckon oats plus some other seeds can be a lot better, while still cheap and quick to cook.
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Bonjour les amis,
I’m little late to get on this blog but if you have a chance to get this stove, you will love it: http://www.biolitestove.com/products/campstove/
No fuel, no odors, give energy power to reload your USB devices, compact, green!
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