There are still 5️⃣ days until we leave! To fuel a little anticipation until then, here's a warm soupçon of information about our travel plans. Today:
Food
Thinking about food on our travel is like a pancake that looks really cool on one side, but when you turn it over, it's clearly burnt. It will be an absolute dream to buy fruit and vegetables directly from the places where they are grown. Bananas in Colombia, mangoes in India, locally roasted coffee and so on. Besides, we probably won't even recognise the food we think of as "Indian" or "Asian". I don't think I need to embellish the side of the pancake any further.
On the bitter side, Leah's calculations show how much money we have available per month. If you add the flight tickets, some emergency overnight stays and other expenses such as entrance fees, I'd be lucky if there's still a buck left for a starving young aspirant. Okay alright, restaurant surfing is taboo for the time being, especially in expensive countries like Canada and later Australia.
We decided not to take a gas cooker with us. Sönke's experience with it has been rather poor so far (okay, cooking 1kg of potatoes in a 1-litre pot was no wonder that a full gas cartridge wasn't enough). Instead, we each have two large lunch boxes. At best, we buy groceries in supermarkets, then cook in advance in the evening or in the morning, which should then get us through the day alongside nuts and dried goods.
In addition, Sönke and Leah have already trained their intermittent fasting skills in case there are any difficulties.
But it probably won't be as spartan as it sounds. After all, our aim is to socialise with people. We will certainly share a meal or two, whether in the hostel, with hosts or maybe even meet a star chef.
We have no plans to do "containering". Nevertheless, there are many other ways to get food that is somewhat discounted, such as the TooGoodToGo app, in which restaurants and cafés offer surplus food in surprise bags, or you can eat the buffet empty. Other apps with similar aims are called FoodHero, Olio, Karma, etc.
Ultimately, however, we will also be travelling through countries where you can get a meal for just a few cents. We are simply looking forward to them and hope to find a cheap yet healthy and balanced diet by then.
📖 Book recommendation: "The diet compass" by Bas Kast. A book that everyone should really have read at least once in his/her life! An overall view of everything edible, across all ideologies and eating habits.