Tom and SJ

Grub!

We have continued to enjoy lots of pasta dinners!  It has been awesome to throw in dried chiles from time to time.  Steep hill sides and wide fields will have thousands of them drying in the sun.

Hot chiles

We often find food in the most random places.  I have been known to pick fruit from the trees we pass – apples, oranges, pomogranets.  Sometimes when we are seeking a snack we are directed to little markets like this one.  It doesn´t look like much from the outside, but boy did they have the best apples – and Tom and I drank a 2 litre bottle of Coke here too.

Store Front

Lunch time spread

Typical market offerings

We have been doing a lot of cooking, and eat out less.  It is cheaper and offers a few less surprises.  On a recent jaunt across the board of Chile we had to scarf down all our fresh food.  That night we cooked up white rice, a dehydrated cheese sause, and sundried tomatos.  It was surprisingly delicious!  Tom likes to take control of the stove.  He is sporting a sweet shirt he picked up for a dollar.  It was originally intended for cleaning the bikes, but he obviously thought it was too cool to cut up and wipe greasy chains with.  Notice the spoon Tom carved while waiting for me on the road.

I Have Issues

Eat, sleep, eat, bike… repeat!

We learned our lesson when we cycled into El Chaleten – more food is better than not enough.  Since then we have done well with bugeting how much we need.

Food has become an ever constant issue for us:  what will we eat, how much will it cost, how much do we need, and where can we get more!  The food choices have certainly been different that what we have at home and it has taken some creative planning and cooking on our part to get the calories and nutrition we need to keep pedalling.  When we get into larger towns we have stocked up on all the novelties like fruits and veggies and spices.  We have enjoyed some great meat, that´s for sure.  And we are impressed with how many things come in bags instead of jars.  It really saves on weight in our panniers.

South American Staples: Jam in a Bag, Dulce del Leche, Hot Sauce (for everything from pastas to sandwiches), Nescafe Instant Coffee, Milk Powder, Bloat-Meal (Tom´s favorite), Tomato Sauce in a Bag with Pasta and Onion.  One creative dessert item for us has been cake mix whipped up with water and eggs and grilled up like pancakes on the lid of our camping pot on a fire… served with some Dulce or Jam it makes for a great treat.

Cake Pancake with Dulce

Things we miss the most:Peanut butter, Nutella, Curry in a Bag, Whole Wheat Bread, Artigiano Coffee.