Our Kitchen for cycle touring adventures.

In this two part series I will share our experiences on food and our kitchen. The first part will be about our kitchen, cooking equipment and utensils. The second will be about food we carry and food security.

I have seen and read about several cycle tourists who only eat cold food when on tour, not even carrying a small stove and mug for a morning brew. These tourists give the impression that they rely on café, shops and restaurants for their food security which could leave them hungry if suddenly they are all closed.

This happen to us once when we visited Italy when we went in search of a pizza, only to find everything closed because the pope had died. 

For us after a day's adventures, part of our routine we enjoy cooking our evening meal, or the occasional treat of a take away pizza.

One of the heaviest sections in your pannier will be the kitchen. We have collected an assortment of equipment over the last few years, much of it from camping holidays with the children including a large gas bottle and camping stove with grill which Jenni declined to put in her pannier.

So we needed some heat, after a few hours of research I purchased a Jetboil Zip (see review) and a small stove, both fuelled by gas. The Jetboil Zip is mainly used for heating water for drinks and with the stove attachment we cook the pasta or rice. On the small stove we cook the main part of the meal as the flame control is better.

We already had some pans with handles, cutlery and chopping board. We added large and small sporks, a cheese grater, a wind shield and mugs which also serve as bowls. Missing from the picture are the cloths and scrubbers for washing up. After our short tours, we think a strainer, better wooden spoon and a butter knife would be good additions. 

One of our most useful items is the small cool bag.  Many delicious yogurts, cream desserts and cheese find their way into this bag from shop fridges and are kept cool for several hours even longer if we take a ice block.

We are mainly planning to tour around Europe so did not see the need for fuel cookers. We do carry a gas cannister converter from Kovea (see review) so can use the 3 types of cannister available in Europe.

If we did travel into the quieter areas of Europe perhaps we would take a small wood fire pit to complement our gas cookers. but see no need to buy one at this time.

I will add this blog to the main website later this week which will include a PDF file with a list of our kitchen. I hope you have found this useful ? Please share if you have a top tip about a useful bit of kit.

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