Going to take a job that's 30% travel. Mostly to remote industrial cowtowns in the USA, but occasionally abroad.
Don't want to eat out all the time, too pricey and probably unhealthy. Having a hard time coming up with things due to not knowing if the hotels I'll be staying at will have cooking elements or refrigerators.
Was thinking overnight oats, cold cuts for sandwiches, and the kind of stuff I bring backpacking for snacks (Salami, carrots, apples, crackers, ect).
What's some good ways to cook on the road from your experience?
I used to travel Monday - Thursday most weeks. I just started booking myself into extended stay hotels. Monday afternoon, I would visit the grocery store and pick out what I wanted to eat the next couple of days. Since I would have limited kitchens (can't exactly travel around with a full Hispanice rack), it would typically be frozen / pre-prepared / easy to cook stuff, but it beat eating out every night.
Damn, just get a normal job and eat normal meals, there's something quite bizarre and depressing about a grown man eating packed lunches for dinner alone in a hotel room
More depressing than a grown man eating shitty fried food alone in a hotel room?
I do this OP here's a trick
>book hotel with breakfast buffet or good looking breakfast
>load up on that shit each am
>save your daily allowance/perdiem for a good meal you ask about or found out
>go splurdge on dinner
>What's some good ways to cook on the road from your experience?
By learning it's a useless waste of time, if work is moving you around(outside a specific radius) generally US companies are required to pay for employee's daily needs to some extent or reimburse X per day.
1. Do whatever you can to stay at places that at least have a minifridge, it just makes everything much easier
2. Getting enough protein will be the main challenge, since most meat needs to be cooked and/or refrigerated. If you have a fridge you can buy ham or other deli meat that doesn't need to be cooked. Outside the US you can find unrefrigerated eggs that you can keep at room temp and slonk raw if you have too, but I think almost all eggs sold in the US are refrigerated and have to be kept that way.
3. If you're traveling by car there's no reason you can't take an induction cooker and skillet, or instapot with you which really expands your cooking options.
>2. Getting enough protein will be the main challenge, since most meat needs to be cooked and/or refrigerated. If you have a fridge you can buy ham or other deli meat that doesn't need to be cooked. Outside the US you can find unrefrigerated eggs that you can keep at room temp and slonk raw if you have too, but I think almost all eggs sold in the US are refrigerated and have to be kept that way.
Protein powder isn't a terrible idea here either. Obviously look for shit that doesn't have a bunch of mystery additives or added sugar, but if you don't have a problem with egg whites/chicken breast/skim milk you shouldn't have a problem with unflavored whey protein isolate.
>3. If you're traveling by car there's no reason you can't take an induction cooker and skillet, or instapot with you which really expands your cooking options.
and a cooler, if it comes to that. seconding instant pot. tupperware management does become an issue in my experience--maybe it would have made more sense for me to get a smaller instant pot and cook more frequently, idk.
>Outside the US you can find unrefrigerated eggs that you can keep at room temp
...
There are eggs that have to be kept in the fridge?
Yes, American eggs are washed and then refrigerated. Washing them removes their protective coating that allows them to last at room temp.
Mostly this.
I personally found the planning part insanely hard. What saved me were eg. sweet potatoes, bananas, that type of stuff. Even when I was unprepared, cause it was a last minute trip, I just bought a sweet potato per day, or some carrots, tossed them in the microwave until they became soft. I don't care what excuses people say to defend fast food and most of the restaurant food, they mostly just make me feel worn down. But just give me a nice sweet potato, and that keeps me running for half a day. (It can be garnished almost like bread, too, if someone gets bored of it.)
Good, home-cooked style restaurants and delis and streetfood stalls exist, so if you have the time and energy, do seek them out. But they are extremely rare.
What else... I sometimes make an insane amount of veggie cream soup and bone broth. I freeze most of it in small batches. It's not practical on the road at all, but like every time I get home I inevitably am just too tired to do much in the kitchen. But like tossing a block of frozen soup in a bowl and microwaving it... That's doable, and extremely yummy.
It's alright to get into a pattern of just eating out when you are tired or had no time to plan. But get back to cooked meals when you can.
Also gym or just a 10 min walk daily... Remember to not just stare at Netflix right after work, create some work-to-personal-time translation routine for the hotel days.
Hey anon, I work 3-6mo of the year fixing refineries. Most of the lads I work with eat like complete dog shit and magically end up with problems down the road.
If you like to cook and you're driving around with the extra space, buy dry goods and take them on the road with you and get groceries as needed.
I'm in another state right now and I brought out my pots and pans, jars, glass containers, and dry shit. The heat plate the rental provided was dog shit so it took a couple days to do a full meal prep but I'm now good for food until my next day off.
They spend at minimum 20-40/day on their store bought, fast food, gas station meals. I might reach 10/day and it's way better. Good luck out there, drive safe, eat clean.
Before the pandemic I used to stay 6-8 months a year in a normal Holiday Inn hotel room. They even allowed me to have a small portable electric stove but I almost never use it.
What’s important is the fridge.
For dinner, I either ate outside or do some takeaway. Sometimes, very rarely, when I am dead tired, I cook pasta on my shitty stove, with pre-packed sauce. It’s a bit shite though, so I mostly do takeaway.
>They even allowed me to have a small portable electric stove
I'm assuming that's not normally allowed then?
Was considering a hot plate or burner like
said but if hotels ban them and enforce it, I'll have to re-prioritize.
I'm in hotels maybe 250 nights a year for work. I unfortunately often don't have a kitchen and am often doing one night stays the whole week moving around.
I think minimizing eating out is wise, but the other side of the equation is finding things that are healthy. I eat a lot of Chipotle. Heavy in sodium but otherwise I would say it's a fresh and healthy meal. Mediterranean food too is good. Non processed stuff is pretty hip these days so it's not too hard to find even in cow towns. Sandwiches are good too. You could make those in the hotel or find a deli. Subway maybe isn't the best but still decent I would say.
Good luck with life on the road.
assuming your flying and then in a rental car...
It would be worth bringing a nice cast iron or whatever pan and a propane burner, obiously buy a new fuel can when you land cause i dont think its allowed on the plane.
Then chef up steaks and potatoes for the hooker you buy, we all know you are a coomer