While I greatly prefer cooking off the road, if you insist, make sure the traffic is light and keep a sharp lookout for oncoming vehicles.

Spices. Oh, and of course a little knowledge of how to use them to advantage.

They can turn the bland gleanings from a rural 7-11 into an appealing, tasty meal. They pack very small and very light. They aren't fussy about travel or storage conditions. They're a reason the Dutch risk life and fortune to sail around the African Cape in tiny wooden ships 400 years ago. It's the reason Paul Muad'Dib went to Arrakis.



Hmm. What else? Label anything you repackage.

Alan, well get off the busy roads! I usually just put up some flares and those road barricades. The barricades make great windblocks and you can lean against them. However, I suggest you make quick meals as the police typically come along in less than 20 minutes asking me to move along for some reason. The problem is lugging those barricades around is a pain as they are heavy and bulky. Definitely use the plastic ones, no the concrete ones.

TCS,

I love spices. I used to carry them in 35mm film canisters but now I just use the midget spice containers if I only need a little but of it, i.e. saffron, but a bigger container if needing more, i.e. salt and pepper.

When I read that I have not laughed that hard for weeks.


Your comment reminded me of sitting in a outside eating area at a McDonalds, someone else that was outside got up to go somewhere for a few seconds (perhaps get napkins or something?) and as soon as they left, a crow or raven landed and ate half of the sandwich. And left a mess in the process.

***

Yup.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f0221f38e9.jpg

Same here. I did once do a poor hang in the NY Adirondacks, and we got cleaned out completely and had to hike out. Mrs Kaos was not pleased with me. A ranger later told us that there was a sow black bear in that exact area (nicknamed "Thelma") which he described as a "genius", to which she contrasted her husband.

The little critters are probably more of an issue. This guy was quite brazen and as you can see no place to do a hang. He ran off with a ziplock but dropped it when we gave chase. He never gave up and we had to stay vigilant until we moved on.


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e63a16e99.jpeg
Marvin the marmot



https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...92e681085.jpeg
He LOOKS guilty

Many a visitor to the S. Jersey shore has learned the hard way about the dangers of gulls. They attack from behind, grabbing hot dogs and pizza slices out of hands. Kids are usually traumatized. A couple of years ago one town hired a bird handler to walk the boardwalk with a live owl on his arm. It apparently was effective.

Santa Fe refried beans, are tasty, uber lightweight, make many meals, cook with instant rice, chili spice, tortillas.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...4b47e361a8.jpg

Wow, you are my kinda people. Carrying saffron on tour is awesome, so fancy for touring but quite excellent to use. Typically I do a homemade spice blend but usually don't go all out. Though I did make homemade chili powder one year and really need to make it again.

I read this and decided that I am eating southwest fare tonite.

Uber lightweight? 7.25 Oz. is more that some people’s tents. :D

I am not inclined to carry much if any food from home on most bike trips for weight reasons. My strong preference is to buy daily or even as close to meal time as possible. That said I do make an exception sometimes for a couple of my very favorite dried staples. They are freeze dried peas and dried refried beans both Honeyville Farms and then repackaged from the original huge (#10) can they come in. I sometimes repackage them into heat sealed Mylar bags. I used a lot of their other products for backpacking and even at home.

I am not sure how similar they are to the beans that Baltimore Charlie suggested, but they are my favorite even at home. They are super easy to prepare, just add boiling water. I never figured out what to buy on the road that was equivalent. I doubt anything on the road is anywhere near as cheap and easy as the Honeyville beans given that they work out to a few cents per serving (The shipping is kind of expensive if you only order one thing, but it is a flat rate per order and they have a ton of really nice products).

I also tend to have some tortillas since they come in a large enough pack that I have left overs so in a pinch, if out of everything else, a couple tortillas, some beans, and maybe a packet of hot sauce would suffice as a meal.

Fresh eggs, farm fresh eggs that have not been washed, do not need to be refrigerated, nor coated with anything like oil.

I don't like to cook on the road unless I'm with someone (rarely) and the trip is about communing rather than riding. Mostly... I hate washing dishes in the wild. This is my basic set up. I pre pack water based dry foods in sandwich bags and just add water, along with stuff I buy from the store. Breakfast is oatmeal and black instant coffee.

Tonight, we are having garlic mashed potatoes and Couscous.


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...2e909364_c.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/4694/3...c8a9c658_c.jpg

If socializing I will pack a larger mess kit. This was my brother and son on a Gulf Island tour.

https://live.staticflickr.com/4703/3...ccb8000e_c.jpg

In New Zealand in the mountains, I had a lot of problems with Kea parrots. Bastards had no fear to the extent that one morning I woke up to find one in my (tent) vestibule trying to get at my stuff. When it discovered I woke, it hopped and ducked under the lower edge of my outer tent and away it went.
They are fascinating birds. A nuisance at times, but at least they're not dangerous.

In my salad days, when I was green in judgment, I would take an entire cook kit. I empirically worked out what is succinctly explained in Don Jacobson's 'One-Pan Gourmet': take only one principle cooking vessel (a skillet or a pot), master the techniques of effectively using that vessel and base your recipes and ingredient shopping around cooking in that one vessel.

Which gets us to another tip: practice cycletour cooking [MENTION=229805]hom[/MENTION]e! Take that appealing recipe card down to the grocery store and find out if you can really buy those ingredients in small quantities. Figure out which dried bulk items and spices could/should be brought along on tour from home. Fire up that little stove in the backyard, apartment balcony or local park and give meal preparation a try.

Many years ago I hiked into the Upper Peninsula Porcupine Mountains. Stopped for lunch at a campsite. Started get out my lunch items then thought I should take a quick dip in the pond before eating. Cam back wearing nothing besides wet shorts, footwear and my glasses. Found my lunch being guarded by a good sized porcupine. Of course, the entire perimeter or the campsite had been cleaned of every twig big enough to be burned and everything I had that was weapon-like was behind that porc. What to do? So I tried the massive bluff. I charged it like I was going to wring its neck with my bare hands. He fell for it, ran under the nearby cabin and stayed there while I foraged for a stick bigger than his quills. Found one, sharpened a point on it and ate my lunch. The whole time, he glared at me, pissed at what he was missing out on.

Pete, have you tried their fruits? I have yet to find a decent freeze dried stawberry or blueberry that did not have a weird taste or texture. Tailwinds, John

Most of their stuff is very good. I have tried some of their fruits. The peaches, apples, apricots, and mangos were good. The banana chips are yummy, great to snack on. I have not had the blueberries. I think my daughter served me some of the strawberries and they were good, but my memory is hazy on that so I could be mistaken.

Definitely my favorite situation. But not always possible. Last year in MT I had to stop about 8 miles from my first night’s campground and pick up supplies for a light breakfast the next morning and dinner for that night and the next night. The one town I passed through on day 2 didn’t have a true grocery store, but I was able to get stuff to have for lunch and a light breakfast on day 3 before I tackled a 15 mile unpaved pass on day 2.

Sure. There are times when you need to carry food for longer stretches. I think that happens on most long tours. The worst is when you don't have water resupply for longish distances. I really try to minimize that. I ran into it on the Southern tier where I had to carry water for a 24 hour period once and all day a few other times. I probably did other places that I am not thinking of right now as well. Even on the TA I think I needed to go 80 miles with no water resupply at least once. I think we needed to carry water for the whole day, but not 24 hours a few times on the portion of the Sierra Cascades that we did as well, not sure.

Me too. I made bean and rice burritos last night, also added salsa, avocados.

Trader Joes has great unsweetened Mangoes, delicious. I also take medjool dates

edit: TJ also has some great turkey jerky, small packs of olives, small chili packs and other ideal packing foods.

One potential advantage of stealth camping is the plunder bunnies haven't gotten used to there being food at that spot.

Plunder bunnies? I assume you are referring to the various camp raiding critters. If so that is not just true for stealth camping, but dispersed and improvised camping in general. I may be splitting hairs in my definition here, but I seldom use stealth, but unusually camp for free most often in plain sight. Your stated advantage tends to be true for those improvised sites like small town picnic areas, roadside rest stops, church yards, and so on. I have seldom seen or heard of critter issues in those sites. I think some care is still prudent, but the risk is way lower than in the typical campground.

FWIW, I have found that looking at the trash receptacles is a pretty good indicator of how serious the bear and raccoon problems are likely to be. If they take great pains with bear proof receptacles you can figure there is probably a reason. The next step is to ask the camp host (if there is one) or ranger. I recall one place where there were signs everywhere warning about bears getting into your food and saying to put it away in the trunk of your car or in your RV. There were no bear boxes. The restrooms didn't have doors. The trees were far from ideal for a hang. We asked the camp host about bear and other critter issues. He said no one had seen a bear in camp or had food gotten into in 5 years. We did the best hang we could with the very marginal trees we had available and didn't worry despite the fact that an experienced bear could have easily defeated the hang.