Food
 

I apologize if this has been covered many times before, but I can't seem to find what I am looking for VIA search.

For a week long trip, in a non remote area, how do you plan your food? How much do you take? How much do you just eat out? How much buy on the way? What kind of foods do you bring?


Very sorry for the major noobish questions lol, but thank you very much for your time.

Micah

I don't usually take a stove since I mostly tour by myself and can live just eating sandwiches, fruit, salad, etc. that I can grab at almost any grocery store in the area I tour. I usually carry a bag of oats and that's for breakfast or even a quick snack (I eat it raw with milk/juice like museli). Things like cereal bars are also good snacks as they are around 200 calories each and that's about what I couple of hours depending on the speed and terrain and they don't mind getting squished in a pannier. I don't cook a lot at home in the summer either so it's not unusual for me to eat museli for supper as well. A bag of GORP type trail mix can also add to the museli as well as roadside fruit and the like if you're in an agricultural area. I also eat out at any restaurants that look like they serve food I like too... a tour is a holiday for me so I don't mind the expense of eating out. If anything I've often got too much food with me considering how close I usually am to towns and stores.

Like clasher above, I'm stoveless traveler. My staple is muesli I make out of rolled oats, walnuts, and raisins. I dip a cup in the bag, add water, eat, repeat. It's simple to carry many days worth and to resupply at any grocery. Tortillas and cheese and/or peanut butter is likewise easy to carry, and resupply nearly anywhere. I add nuts and dried fruit, fig newtons and crackers, and anything else on the shelf or farm stand that appeals. I carry about two pounds of food per day, or about 4000 calories per day. For strenuous touring, that's not quite enough and I have to eat extra in town when I get there.

Advanced search, keyword "food". A thread containing links to lots of food threads:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...e-Touring-Food


Nevertheless ...

1 week. Non-remote area. I carry snacks, like I would for any other day ride.


And then a day on tour might look like this ...
And repeat.

If there's a chance it could be hard to find food around lunchtime, I might try to get it earlier, or buy extra the day before.


As for eating out ... we'll do that whenever we feel like it, or sometimes when grocery stores aren't available.

As for what we eat ... whatever's available, that appeals to us. It varies widely.


What do you normally buy at your grocery store and make for breakfast, lunch and dinner?

I feel silly, never saw the advanced search feature lol..

Lots of people miss it.


But ... back to your questions, what do you normally eat for meals? Touring, and especially touring in populated areas, isn't that different from everyday life.

This can be eaten like trail mix, avoiding clean up. I have my own version of 'super oatmeal.' Dry, it sorta melts in your mouth. Other staples include pepper jack cheese, peanut butter, trail mix, and Snicker bars. Restaurants when available and in the mood. Rarely cook anymore, other than to boil water for coffee in the AM. An esbit stove works for that. When touring, eating is a necessity, not a goal.

A lot of fresh fruit, meat, pasta. I typically have very light breakfasts though, and don't think it would provide the caloric intake I need.

Well you can continue to eat what you normally eat.

As for breakfast, you don't need to go heavier if you don't want to ... just make sure you've got fruit and other snacks with you to nibble on during the day.

Here are 30 links to information about bike touring food.

Not all of them will be of interest to you, but several will be.

For food, it all depends on where I'm touring. I adjust to local conditions. In SE Asia, delicious and very inexpensive prepared food & drink is available all over, and any perishable items very quickly rot, so I buy all of my meals from street vendors, restaurants, or in "night markets". It's cheaper than preparing meals yourself. Don't even try to stick to a western diet. The local food there is one of the joys of touring in SE Asia, especially in a country like Thailand.

In a place like Mexico, the markets in larger towns have stalls that prepare food and have places to sit. They're great for breakfast & lunch. There is also good street food in many places. Fast, delicious, and inexpensive. Much of Latin America is similar, but the food is tastier and more interesting in Mexico!

In the USA, Canada, and most of the English-speaking world, I'm more likely to eat things I pick up in a grocery store or, if I'm lucky, a bakery. For dinner, it will either be a restaurant or a picnic dinner I put together from a grocery store, as I did for lunch. I gave away my stove years ago. I love to cook but don't enjoy doing it on a camping stove.

In Europe, I'll get something in a bakery for breakfast, grocery shop for a picnic lunch, and usually eat dinner in a restaurant. Spain is an exception because the restaurant hours and bakery hours there generally aren't conducive to bike touring. I devised a different routine for Spain.

Thank you all! I really enjoy how helpul and friendly everyone is here. :)

I carry a stove for one reason and one reason only... to heat water for coffee. I ain't moving NO WHERE in the morning without my coffee. Some trips I cook more than others. Food in the US is pretty easy to come by. Just about every town has a diner or a store with something in it. Around here the Dollar General stores carry a pretty decent supply of canned and boxed stuff.

I have done expedition style trips where I carry all my food with me start to finish. For those I fall back on my backpacking experience. A couple of books that are great resources are: The Well-Fed Backbacker__June Fleming and The One Pan Gourmet__Don Jacobson. I actually enjoy cooking most of the time and camp cooking especially. I am not a huge fan of most restaurants because they seldom season foods to my tastes. Typically way too much salt.

Aaron :)

:eek: And here I was thinkin' that a bicycle trip was mostly about good food and an excuse to find and eat as many different things as possible!!! :lol:

I agree ... one of the things I like about touring is eating.

The pastries in France, the ice cream in Germany, the chocolate in Belgium, millionaire bars in Scotland, little shortbread and fruit bars in Hong Kong ... Mmmmmmm. :)


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8319/7...5e923e637f.jpg

Ahh, the old "Eat to ride/Ride to eat" question! I'm definitely in the former category. I even analyze different choices of ice cream on the freezer shelf to get the most calories per dollar. (The cheapest is not always the best value, I've discovered. Fat content varies and fat adds calories.)

Road kill it's free....Variety is good as well.

I carry a stove for the same reason wahoonc does--coffee. We also make brekfast #1 as we are breaking camp.

We pretty much follow the the regime Machka outlined in her fisrst post:

In more remote areas I will carry a freeze dried dinner as a backup in case I miscalculate, have to wild camp or do not pass a place to buy groceries. On our last tour we used 2 freeze dried dinners. The first one because the campground was about 6 miles from the store. We replaced the one we used when we rode through a bigger town, and ended up using it too. We were too tired/lazy to ride into a town a few miles from the campground, and it was getting toward the end of the trip so there was no need to carry it anymore.

Regardless of what you use, it is good to have something as backup in case of an "emergency". A couple packages of ramen noodles are light, cheap and fill the void in a pinch.

Yes, and they can be eaten without boiling in water. They're pre-fried, and dried. I see them as a cheap 250 calorie cracker. Some people spread PB or Nutella on them.