Personal opinion here, not to step on anyones toes, but esbits have two bad habits. They smell like buring metal (which they probably are, they give me headaches) and put a horrible grime on your pots. It sounds like a quality butane stove might suit your needs (cheap ones use the large greeen steel propane canisters, avoid these). You can even buy them with self lighters so no matches or lighter for normal use. (you always need to bring a backup but you can get candle lighters with long flame nozels). Stoves with larger burning surfaces cook better but are slightly larger and more bulky (small detail). Camping Gaz use a unique bottle so you might want to try Coleman, MSR, Primus, etc. Something not mentioned yet is they simmer the best of any kind. I would use them but I'm an alchoholic
Good Luck,
scott