Most people who are reading this know that I´m a bit of a food geek. One of the big questions and fears I had about coming on this trip was about food. What were we going to eat? Having never been on a multi-month bike tour before, I just had no idea. Also, at the time I was dealing with some food issues-I wasn´t eating gluten or sugar, or a bunch of other food (milk products, nuts, etc.).

Luckily, a brilliant naturopath in Portland set me straight, and I had my first medialuna (a sort of sourdough croissant) our second day in Buenos Aires, Since then I´ve been eating just like a regular person. It´s great!

So, what do we eat when we´re on the road? Mind you-we are limited by what´s available, how long between resupply towns, how much space is in the panniers, and how hot it is (and thus how fast things will spoil). When we are in town, or close to a town, we add meat.

A typical menu goes something like this:
Breakfast-lentils with potatoes, carrots, onion, garlic, zucchini, spices, and cheese; tea
Lunch-tuna salad sandwiches, carrot sticks, and this aspartame filled grapefruit drink that I adore
Dinner-pasta with some kind of sauce from an envelope, zucchini,onion, garlic, and salami (fried); mint tea, wine or beer
Breakfast-cereal with dried milk, tea
Lunch-scary meat-in-a-can, crackers, apples and carrot sticks
Dinner-lentil stew with curry, ginger, garlic, onions, zucchini, carrots, cabbage; mint tea and wine or beer
Breakfast-rice with a fry of whatever vegetables we can find, cheese, soy sauce, and tuna; tea
Lunch-hard boiled egg salad sandwiches, carrot sticks
Dinner- instant polenta with some sort of red sauce, salami, zucchini, onions, garlic

Our pantry consists of:
powdered cumin
curry powder
whole cumin
mustard seeds
garlic
ginger
salt
rock salt (found it abandoned in a hostel kitchen…had to rescue it!)
black pepper
dried chilies
powdered milk (of incredible quality-what a discovery!!!)
mint tea, mate in a bag (mate cocido), black tea
an entire bottle of olive oil
bottle of soy sauce
rice
lentils
a can of tuna fish
emergency packages of instant soup

And to cook with:
One burner
one small fry pan
one small pot
one big pot (2.5 liters-huge)
one plate
small folding knife
small cutting board
spoon, fork, spork, and useless folding spatula
can opener and two bottle openers/corkscrews

I am so proud to be the kind of bike tourist who carries a bottle of soy sauce, a bottle of olive oil, and currently, TWO jars of peanut butter.