Do people actually cook in their van?

[Keith Smith]

What do you do when you go on a hotel holiday? What a pointless reply!

That's a bit harsh.

But to answer your question, I haven't stayed in a hotel for over 30 years, my better half has spent months at a time in hotels through work though, and started having health problems which the doc put down to excess salt from her eating out too much. True enough once she started to work from home she completely recovered.

 

[Velma's Dad]

Sorry to hear that @keith but glad she's better now. That reason for eating 'at (Cali) home' is obviously a very important one if you're among the many people out there with food intolerances for whom cooking and eating in the van is more relaxing than taking their chances with pub/restaurant/cafe/hotel food. There was a dreadful (although I think thankfully rare) case in the news last week about a customer of a restaurant who died because the restaurant owner put peanuts in a dish.

Just switching sub-topics a little but staying on 'home cooking': what kind of barbecue gear to people take in their Cali? I've bought a couple of disposables (arrgh! ) for our first trips out but I've seen a couple of people on the forum referring to using bucket BBQs. I must say though the idea of re-stowing a gungy BBQ in the van the next morning is a bit off putting.

 

[Cali1]

I use the van approx four months a year working/camping , I'm one of the sad individuals who likes cooking in the van or outside.
With the hobs and the Cobb have not found much I cannot cook.
I find it adds to the clients day on the hill also, come back sit with a cup of tea, reflect on the day as the foods getting cooked.
For me it's all part of the fun, I rarely stay on campsites or near pubs,
I read the camping cook books then give it go, always have pot noodle in the cupboard just in case!

 

[sapto]

Again another post showing how we are different in the way we use our campers.

... and thats great! Each to their own!

To be honest, we got our Cali for a year now and we never cocked inside. Well, tea, coffee and pasta isn't counting so we cooked most of our meals on our cadac (bbq or some kind of noodles-vegetable-1pan-dish). However I like cooking and we like to buy local food and we like to go out to celebrate our holidays. To have this bit of freedom means holidays for us.

Happy weekend!

 

[Adamvanman]

Again another post showing how we are different in the way we use our campers.

Exactly! Some people on here get very upset if you don't share the same views as them,

 

[WelshGas]

Exactly! Some people on here get very upset if you don't share the same views as them,

Too True.

 

[GrannyJen]

Sorry to hear that @keith but glad she's better now. That reason for eating 'at (Cali) home' is obviously a very important one if you're among the many people out there with food intolerances for whom cooking and eating in the van is more relaxing than taking their chances with pub/restaurant/cafe/hotel food. There was a dreadful (although I think thankfully rare) case in the news last week about a customer of a restaurant who died because the restaurant owner put peanuts in a dish.

Just switching sub-topics a little but staying on 'home cooking': what kind of barbecue gear to people take in their Cali? I've bought a couple of disposables (arrgh! ) for our first trips out but I've seen a couple of people on the forum referring to using bucket BBQs. I must say though the idea of re-stowing a gungy BBQ in the van the next morning is a bit off putting.

I have a small camping gaz that just screws into the sam sized bottle as in the van.

Salmon cooked on that whilst parked up by the loch that the salmon came out of is to die for!

 

[X28art]

Too True.

Totally agree, I think the lynch-mob mentality of those individuals must put some people of posting on this forum as if you say the wrong thing they jump down your throat.

Adam likes to go to the pub for a meal, this does not make him a bad person? I also like to go to the pub rather than cook .. shoot me now!

 

[soulstyledevon]

Agree with Adam. It's one of the reasons why we went for the Beach. I've had vans with the kitchen in and we barely used it.
We now have a Cobb oven and on the odd occasion that we do cook, we prefer to cook outside enjoying the weather and local environment. Why be couped up inside a van

 

[WelshGas]

Totally agree, I think the lynch-mob mentality of those individuals must put some people of posting on this forum as if you say the wrong thing they jump down your throat.

Adam likes to go to the pub for a meal, this does not make him a bad person? I also like to go to the pub rather than cook .. shoot me now!

Confession. On my trip to Nordkapp I used Boil in the Bag Expedition meals for my evening meals. Still have a supply in the Van as they last for 3 years. Useful stop gap. When on holiday then I'm on holiday and do different things. Eat out, eat in, boil in the bag, cook from ingredients, take-aways whatever.

 

[GrannyJen]

I always carry cup soups with me. As long as I have bread and soup I can survive..... I am a hardy adventurist..... can live on the leanest of provisions in the van....... stuff that would drive Shackleton to despair

Of course, parked in a Britstop gastro-pub carpark at 3 in the afternoon I am prepared to risk malnutrition until they open

 

[Zebedee]

Many of you will know that the Zebedee household is more than a little bonkers. We do tend to cook in and out if the Cali due to a) fussy teenager who finds pubs boring, b) I can cook up lots of scrummy food - we love going to local markets and even foreign supermarkets yield all sorts of wonderful stuff, c) doggy can be with us, d) I'd rather spend money on more time away in the Cali.

A case in point we had a birthday meal in a well-known brand of pub eaterie chain in Devon two nights ago, 1 burger, 1 spaghetti Bol (child sized) chicken salad, no puds, 1 coffee, 2 diet cokes and 1 g&t for the Great Aunt = £56. OK we got the flexibility for us to all have something different but the 14 yr old stated...it's not a patch on the meal in the Cali.

We have been known to just go out specifically so we can cook lunch in the Cali. In fact we will probably do just that tomorrow! Enjoy your Cali any way you like it's your choice!

 

[CaliforniaBen]

We also tend to look for a campsite with an eatery nearby as we normally go away last minute at weekends and the last thing we want to do is cook! It is nice to arrive on site, walk to the pub for a meal and glass of beer and then back to the van for a few games and then off to bed.

Also in regards to Britstops, we were speaking to Landlord of a pub in Cumbria last week as he has removed his venue from the book as some people were using his car park as a stop over and coming in for a glass or lime and soda, I hope not too many people abuse the Britstops or we could end up losing more,

 

[WelshGas]

Also in regards to Britstops, we were speaking to Landlord of a pub in Cumbria last week as he has removed his venue from the book as some people were using his car park as a stop over and coming in for a glass or lime and soda, I hope not too many people abuse the Britstops or we could end up losing more,

Maybe they should make a charge refunded via an over the counter sale.

 

[GrannyJen]

Maybe they should make a charge refunded via an over the counter sale.

A lot of pubs, not in Britstops, do just that.

Or,

At a pub in the west country with "phone ahead designated"...... "Yes, we can possibly accommodate, what time would you want to book dinner for?"

 

[Hotel California]

I still use all the facilities in the van, I just dont want to spend my holiday cooking and I certainly dont expect my wife to as she cooks all week for the family!!

Don't feel offended everyone does it his way , i usually use a small outside coocker for backing the meet ( smell and grease splatters)
You are totaly fine eating out , getting a pizza , buying stuff ready to eat ...
As you say it's vacation but eating in pub or resto is not cheap , some travel with kids , pets you can't leave in the Cali the whole time.
Some people just like coocking others don't
All personal preference.
We take homemade stuff in tupperware frozen in the homefreezer put it in the Cali fridge before take off .
Usually for the first few days , and we go shopping from then on ....
Always got tins with fast-dinner in the drawer (ravioli,hot dogs,...)

 

[Andy]

Totally agree, I think the lynch-mob mentality of those individuals must put some people of posting on this forum as if you say the wrong thing they jump down your throat.

Adam likes to go to the pub for a meal, this does not make him a bad person? I also like to go to the pub rather than cook .. shoot me now!

Not just this forum, happens on them all when they gey big & popular!
You can please some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[Alan]

I like to get maxim return from my Cali and enjoy doing it
Just had steamed fish boiled potatoes and peas etc.
Listening to my music playlist while the rain beats down on lake Annecy
And you can't smell a thing except pongo my terrier

Alan

 

[BikerGran]

I shall cook in my Cali, one of the things I particularly liked when I first saw it was that it had two decent sized gas rings, not tiny ones like some vans. Simple meals, pasta with sauce (probably home made that I can put in the fridge while frozen), hot potatoes to go with salad, some stuff from tins and packets but not too many of those because, as above, of the salt problem.

One of my great pleasures when camping in my tent was sitting outside on a beautiful morning, frying up some bacon and eggs - only ever outside because of the fat spitting - and then sitting in the sun to eat it. I've packed my mini stove so I can still do that because I definitely won't be frying in the van for the same reason; on rainy days I'll have boiled eggs!

 

[BikerGran]

easily cooked in my quest portable oven

Looked that up as I hadn't heard of them - 800 watt, is that ok on hook-up? All this luxury of having electricity is new to me!

 

[WelshGas]

Looked that up as I hadn't heard of them - 800 watt, is that ok on hook-up? All this luxury of having electricity is new to me!

Maybe.
Depends on the site power supply. Over 6 amps should be OK. 6 amps or less problematic as you have to take into consideration the built in Charger requirements if using the California's mains socket.

 

[GrannyJen]

Looked that up as I hadn't heard of them - 800 watt, is that ok on hook-up? All this luxury of having electricity is new to me!

I have never had a problem and doubt that I ever will.

It takes 4 amps max and even low ampage continental sites are generally 6A, often 10A, and in the UK you will often get 16A.

 

[GrannyJen]

And another thing...

I'm liking the idea of the biodegradable disposable plates and cutlery - not for every situation necessarily, but as a standby. The degree to whether they are 'sustainable' depends on many factors, in particular how they are actually disposed of. Even doing a sophisticated cradle-to-grave 'life cycle analysis' on things like the ceramic v. paper plates question can give very different answers depending on how you do the sums and what assumptions you make about (eg) how the water to wash the ceramic plates would actually be heated, etc etc.

If you end up chucking your biodegradable plates in a general waste bin then yes they will end up in landfill (or municipal incineration) although in landfill they will degrade quickly, unlike plastics. Still, they will end up giving off greenhouse gasses (esp. methane) in the end but then so does everything organic that we dispose of.

And anyway, before we drag Granny Jen or anyone else in front of the Court of Cool let's have a quick think about how many paper/plastic coffee cups etc we probably use and chuck every day - unless we actually carry our own cup around every Costa which I hear lots of people talking about but have yet to see everyone actually doing in the real world (must admit I don't but maybe now I will even if only to justify my sanctimony in this post). And anyway the decisions we casually and unthinkingly make about whether to make that extra little trip out in our Cali on a sunny afternoon (like tomorrow, yeeeah!) have hugely more environmental impact, through fuel use, than whether we wash the plates or bin them. If we were really bothered about being Green we wouldn't be buying and driving around in two ton lumps of German steel and plastic and even if we did we would be wrapping ourselves in newspapers rather than putting the aux heater on.

See, you got me started...

To defend my new-found status as an environmental vandal, I would add that finding eco-friendly disposable tableware is very easy, and, generally the product is far superior to paper and aesthetically far more pleasing than plastic. Staples sell very cheap sugar-cane based products from "sustainable earth" , there are a lot of bamboo products around, an excellent range of clear, biodegradable and compostable drinking glasses from drinkware,

Bamboo is about twice the price of good quality strong paper but hey! I'm driving a £50,000 vehicle so whether my disposable plate costs 25p or 50p should really not be an issue.

Bamboo also is hugely sustainable and increasing use of pulped bamboo is creating opportunities in poor, deprived rural areas of the world where it can be harvested as a cash crop.

Carrying is also rattle free, whereas before I was messing around with all sorts of non-slip and rattle preventing interliners and wrappers I now no longer have that fuss. My disposable, vegetable-based, coffee cups I carry wide-end up, in stacks of 5*6, and in doing so they make perfect, rattle free and protective containers for my glass wine-glasses.

A warning here: most biodegradable or compostable cups have low heat insulation properties so do remember to take clutch sleeves. However, even the very cheap paper ripple cups with very high heat insulation, such as the Kraft ripple cup, are certified as "recyclable" and can therefore be disposed of in a recycle bin.


Disposing is also easy. Virtually every campsite and CL have recycle bins these days or, failing that, public disposal points are easy to find, often in supermarket car parks.

All this "disposable" rubbish needs storing of course. I use all-bio rolls in different sizes. These are excellent, take up little space, strong, and as a bonus the 25l size is a perfect fit for a bog-in-a-bag.

So, the biodegradable rubbish goes into a biodegradable bag and ends up in a recycle bin.

 

[jts46]

GJ
Glad to hear you drink wine from glass?

John

 

[Teejay]

Also in regards to Britstops, we were speaking to Landlord of a pub in Cumbria last week as he has removed his venue from the book as some people were using his car park as a stop over and coming in for a glass or lime and soda, I hope not too many people abuse the Britstops or we could end up losing more,

Yet according to the Britstop website:

"Won't we be pressured to buy from our hosts?

No. Part of the aims of Brit Stops (see our "Aims" page), which everyone signs up to, is simply to spread understanding of local and sustainable produce, and to put motorhome tourists in touch with local producers. If you want to buy anything, great - but hosts will understand that not everyone will want to. Even the customers who turn up every day may not buy something. In our experience though, with some extra cash available due to not having to pay camp site fees, we are always tempted by the fresh farm produce, the menu or the odd bottle or two of wine.."

The comment made by the landlord seem to be at odds with the Britstop ethos. From your post there is in fact pressure to pay it back?