Baking (And Cooking) on the Road
While I’m not a foodie in the traditional sense, I could probably be considered some sort of foodie because I really enjoy cooking and I love baking. Although trying local foods at restaurants is not really what pushes us to travel, one of my favorite parts of travel is the grocery shopping- I love exploring the shelves and finding interesting ingredients. I think you can learn a lot about the local culture at the grocery store.
Just a potato in a Cape Town grocery store…
I'm more likely to take a local cooking class or invite new friends over for dinner than eat out at a restaurant. This hasn’t always been the case, but as I tried to eat healthier and healthier, I found eating out to be a struggle. There are just too many delicious items made with deliciously fattening ingredients. I care more about my waist line than I do eating out!
So, traveling and feeding my passion for cooking/baking can be hard. Oftentimes, it takes some brain power and a little bit of creativity to make it work. For example, although we always book an Airbnb with a kitchen, each Airbnb owner has a different idea of what a “fully-stocked” kitchen is. Some figure two pans and a pot are a full kitchen somehow. And measuring cups/spoons? Or a mixing bowl? Who would have thought those were luxury items? I'm not about to take up valuable space in my suitcase by packing baking pans, nor am I going to buy pans in every city we live in. So what is left to do but to get creative and make the pan you need? Like the brownie “pan” below.
Homemade brownie pan
A little bit of aluminum foil and voila: a makeshift brownie pan anywhere in the world! Now, to solve my problem of not having enough people to share the brownies with!
When baking in an unfamiliar kitchen and using ingredients I don’t usually use, I have to accept there may be disastrous results. Like the time I accidentally added only half the sugar called for in this brownie recipe. (This is my absolute favorite brownie recipe BTW.)
My favorite brownie recipe—dusted with a bit of powdered sugar.
OK, maybe that wasn’t an instance of not having the right ingredients, but you can imagine trying to find soy sauce, peanut butter, chocolate chips, or other one off-types of ingredients to use in your tried and true comfort foods. Who would have thought chocolate chips would be so hard to find in an everyday grocery store in countries around the world? Fortunately, we have found that M & M’s or a similar generic is available most places in place of chocolate chips. Of course, a chopped up chocolate bar works too.
An attempt at Mickey Mouse cookies in Barcelona.
One thing we struggle with is the limited selection or types of products available. For example, in the US, if you want to buy peanut butter you will have no less than at least 3 brands to pick from, as well as each brand having multiple types (smooth, crunchy, no sugar added, “natural”, etc, etc!). While in Barcelona, I found peanut butter… but there was one option for the brand, and it was equal parts sugar and peanuts. When that happens, I will often forgo the comfort of the familiar and look for alternatives to try.
We mostly eat fresh foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner—not a lot of processed stuff—and this has been one of my favorite things about traveling: being introduced to fruits, vegetables, and meats that aren’t common in the US. Like gem squash in South Africa. I wish they were easier to find in in other parts of the world. I have fallen in love with them and could eat them multiple times a week. And bakeries in Budapest and Vienna with their fresh soft pretzels… I’m drooling just thinking of it. Those pretzels actually inspired a lot of my baking in Barcelona since I couldn’t find a decent soft pretzel anywhere there. Heck, even a bag of ordinary, packaged pretzels is often impossible to find!
Basically, I do the best I can and I'm ready to improvise. I’ve learned so much over the last few years about cooking and most of all through our travels. I’m inspired to try new recipes, flavors, and foods in whatever Airbnb kitchen I happen to be in. If that Airbnb kitchen happens to have a real “fully-stocked” kitchen, it makes it easier, but where is the adventure in that- and isn’t that the point of all our travels?
