Road Food

Business has forced us to live on the road a good deal, in fact one year we spent 172 nights in hotels. Living on the road is less than desirable to say the least, but we always tried to make the best of it. We soon discovered that restaurant food is really pretty bad for you and we longed to cook our own food. Often times the only dining option was a McDonald's or a delivered pizza, so we gave up traveling lightly and bought a little electric hot-plate and a pot. I managed quite well on that set-up, in fact, my risotto was perfected during this period. Risotto is the ultimate one-pot luxury meal. I also have cooked a wide range of stews and chilis and even curries in our hotel rooms and had a blast doing it.

Our in-room cooking adventures were merely in their infancy stages in the States. When we arrived in France, we experienced true gourmet road food. In France I don't need to cook in our room. The local stores provide take away food of such a high standard that all we have to do is bring a picnic basket along. There is foie gras and patés of every kind, fantastic pain de campagne, beautiful spit-roasted free-range chickens, mountains of cous-cous salad and raw milk cheeses. We also discovered that if you buy one of those miniature quiches or meat-pies and place it on top of your bedside light it is just the perfect temperature by the time you have finished your cocktails and paté course. We have learned to be pretty resourceful and we eat much better food than one customarily finds on the road and save a fortune on restaurant tabs! Try it sometime, especially in France!