Do people actually cook in their van?

[Adamvanman]

As the title says!

I will make the odd fry up, do a BBQ or bit of pasta but do people really do stupid big meals in their van? I really don't see the point, all the hassle of smells in the van and then the washing up, it all seems a bit pointless to me, am I alone in always making sure the campsite we are staying at is near a pub or restaurant?

At the end of the day you are on holiday, why would you want to get involved in full blown kitchen duties is beyond me.

Reason I ask is the family next to us on a campsite tonight spent about an hour prepping veg, then cooking in their van ( and using an outside stove as well) for another hour, they then had a mountain of washing up and then went to bed!

Wife and me went to pub and had a blinding meal and bottle of wine for just over £30

 

[jts46]

lucky you, but was your food freshly prepared. Washing up is also a way of meeting other campers

 

[Adamvanman]

lucky you, but was your food freshly prepared. Washing up is also a way of meeting other campers

Yes it was, all with local ingredients! We actually met a nice couple in the pub as well who were staying at our campsite, I would rather chat to people over a glass of wine than some dirty dishes!

Each to their own though

 

[Teejay]

As the title says!

I will make the odd fry up, do a BBQ or bit of pasta but do people really do stupid big meals in their van? I really don't see the point, all the hassle of smells in the van and then the washing up, it all seems a bit pointless to me, am I alone in always making sure the campsite we are staying at is near a pub or restaurant?

At the end of the day you are on holiday, why would you want to get involved in full blown kitchen duties is beyond me.

Reason I ask is the family next to us on a campsite tonight spent about an hour prepping veg, then cooking in their van ( and using an outside stove as well) for another hour, they then had a mountain of washing up and then went to bed!

Wife and me went to pub and had a blinding meal and bottle of wine for just over £30

Some people to enjoy the cooking. I think we may well be taking the @GrannyJen approach and have disposable plates etc

 

[Billy]

I have to agree, you are on holiday so let someone else cook for you!

We normally have a BBQ if cooking at the van otherwise we will hunt out a good local pub, it is nice to know the hob is there for emergencies but we leave cooking for when we get back home.

 

[Hotel California]

Using the search function may pop-up some earlyer treads on this....
https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/cooking-in-a-cali.11758/

https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/cooking-food.10204/

 

[sidepod]

As the title says!

I will make the odd fry up, do a BBQ or bit of pasta but do people really do stupid big meals in their van? I really don't see the point, all the hassle of smells in the van and then the washing up, it all seems a bit pointless to me, am I alone in always making sure the campsite we are staying at is near a pub or restaurant?

At the end of the day you are on holiday, why would you want to get involved in full blown kitchen duties is beyond me.

Reason I ask is the family next to us on a campsite tonight spent about an hour prepping veg, then cooking in their van ( and using an outside stove as well) for another hour, they then had a mountain of washing up and then went to bed!

Wife and me went to pub and had a blinding meal and bottle of wine for just over £30

#whybuyacaliinthefirstplace

 

[jts46]

Sidepod,
Entirely agree

 

[Meoncoast]

If I did not want to use the cooker in the Cali would have a Beach.
Can not afford or want to eat all meal in the local pub.
Enjoy buying local produce as part of our tours.

 

[Keith Smith]

Eating out normally involves eating loads of salt, OK for the odd couple of days but not great of you are away often or for long periods.

 

[vmaxkiddy]

Wife and me went to pub and had a blinding meal and bottle of wine for just over £30

Maybe they don't have £30 to spare. When my parents were serious caravanners they could be away for 2 or 3 months at a time, eating out every night was not an option.

 

[GrannyJen]

I "eat in" most times.

However I don't spend an awful lot of time fussing with it. Fresh salads, I just love MnS baby leaf, no preparation needed. If on hook-up, something pre-prepared to pop in the oven, pre-made sauces from home, frozen or chilled. Pre-prepared casseroles that can be popped on to the hob if not on hook-up.

All food containers throw away, no washing up. All utensils, dishes, plates, throw away. All cups, throw-away.

It's been a bad washing-up day when I end up with a couple of cooking pots that need washing in the small sink and a couple of litres of water that needs heating, definitely need to think that one through again

It's lovely to have the choice. The "Aire" at Appledore is 100 yards from a hotel with decent restaurant or 120 yards away from "Sylvesters" fish and chips.

Britstops, great for late arrival, pull up, have a nice cup of tea, make bed, pop out for dinner. However I am often on my own and do not want to particularly advertise "single woman stopping in the car park" so need to choose carefully.

However!

Granny warning tip .... Marks and Spencers "Rosti" are lovely, easily cooked in my quest portable oven, need's no stirring, great for being left for 20 minutes whilst doing something else, then served with Granny's home-made salsa.

4 weeks later the smell from the onion in the rosti is still lingering

 

[hirsty]

I'm with you Adam - proximity to a pub is a priority factor for us in site selection (and not just for the food) but to each their own. We do lots of short trips of 1, 2 or 3 nights though.

I personally find it all a dreadful chaff, but am just about happy to fry sausages and bacon outside under the awning, last week I even reheated bolognaise & pasta (two pans!).

The grass is always greener of course, but the best thing I can think of would be to be able to clear off in the van for weeks/months on end across Europe & in that scenario I'd expect to have to pull my finger out and get cookin'.

 

[TimR]

All food containers throw away, no washing up. All utensils, dishes, plates, throw away. All cups, throw-away.

Not cool. Straight to landfill.

Cold water rinse and wipe will clean most stuff.

 

[Neilgbj]

What's the point of having a Cali if you don't use it fully? ...short trips yes we use pubs but on longer trips not always possible or affordable....recent trip to West of Scotland we cooked every night (nearest pubs miles away), occasional bbq but otherwise nothing too complicated.......that flexibility is what Cali's are for isn't it?

 

[GrannyJen]

Not cool. Straight to landfill.

Cold water rinse and wipe will clean most stuff.

Why is cooking with stuff labelled "compostable, degrades within 70 days" not cool?

Just because it is labelled disposable does not mean that it also has to be anti social. There are plenty of green "eco friendly" alternatives out there these days.

 

[Adamvanman]

Eating out normally involves eating loads of salt, OK for the odd couple of days but not great of you are away often or for long periods.

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

 

[Adamvanman]

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!!

 

[Neilgbj]

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!!

I don't think anyone is suggesting you or your wife spend your holidays cooking, you do what suits you but on a long trip eating out all the time isn't an option for all of us (and often not possible)..... Good luck

 

[Eileen]

I use Britstops most of the time and I will always support the pub by having a meal either at lunch time or supper. I find it disgraceful when some people use the Britstops and cook their own food in the van which I have seen a few times over the years.

 

[Adamvanman]

I think people read what they want to read in a post!! I did not say I never cook in the van, we do have breakfast, BBQ's and some simple dishes however I find it more enjoyable to eat out when on holiday, sorry if I am weird!

 

[marshian70]

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

Never been on a 'hotel' holiday myself. Depending on the weather and what takes our fancy, we either BBQ, eat out, get a takeaway or cook in the van. Eating out is the least regular option for us though.

 

[Meoncoast]

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

 

[Velma's Dad]

Ha, I knew 'why not get a Beach?' (note I put that in single quotes as I don't want to be accused of misquoting anyone) would pop up in this thread

I'm with @Neilgbj (and others) in the view that flexibility is a hallmark of Caliliving and certainly it is for us. Last weekend we rocked up at a lovely campsite on the South Downs, a 15 min walk through stunning parkland to a stonking pub (the Ram at Firle). We'd tried phoning ahead to book a table but walked over from the campsite anyway - lovely pint but learned that food was 'off' as they'd had a staff let-down. So the Cali kitchen suddenly came into its own.

(Actually I have to admit I'm bending here cos actually Mrs VD pleaded/haggled/ (probably threatened, she can be properly scary) with them to do us a takeaway and they relented on condition we didn't tell any of the other punters. But let's not let the facts get in the way of the absolutely excellent and relevant point that I'm making about the way the Cali gives you 'options' and I'd have been very happy with something on the gas hob).

Another case for in-van cooking is of course when wild camping. I did see elsewhere on the forum that some folks swear by the little slow cookers that you plug into the 12v (anyone here got one?) and that does sound a really good option for those times when you want to heat up something in a foil tray while parked somewhere up a Ben. Each to their own, but personally I think some of the supermarket ready meals nowadays are actually pretty bloody good, eg last night had a Charlie Bigham fish pie from Waitrose and it was excellent.

 

[Velma's Dad]

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...