I need some kind of a cooking system when I’m out and about, it needs to be stealth when I need it to be, and also can just be used outside on a portable table as well. The stealth part is going to be either inside with the windows open and maybe nets on the window or slightly less stealth off of the tailgate with the tailgate open.
Now as I am trying to be stealth, I’m thinking of just having a single burner stove, now it is still going to look a bit strange seeing a guy cooking next to his vehicle, but you might see workmen doing this around lunch time if they are gourmet chefs I supose.
So onto the actual gas hob that I want to use in this set up. I think its going to be one of those small ones which have a gas canister inside it rather than an additional separate propane bottle hanging off the side. The reason for choosing this one is that its much more compact than having an additional propane and I have experience of using one before. Myself and my ex-girlfriend used to use one when she wanted to cook food as if she was in Japan. These little gas stoves were all the rage in Japan she told me, and we also had to sit on these floor seats as well to complete the experience. Anyway, surffise to say, I was impressed with the actual stove itself, but not really with sitting on the floor trying to cook Japanese food.
So the ideal one would be one with a kind of wind cover which would help with cooking outside and also it would double up as a kind of splash back if I was cooking inside the vehicle. So I head over to Amazon and I check out what’s on offer. There are multitudes of these stoves, the one I want is basically too big for wild camping, its just about the right size for car camping where you bring your own tent and cooking gear. However these days with more and more people deciding to live in a van or some other kind of vehicle, then it fits the job for car camping as well.
Now the things I’m worried about are the fumes it will omit, these fumes really could kill you if all your windows are up and you fall asleep when its cooking. So you can either stand up to cook on the outside of your vehicle or quickly cook inside if its raining or you just want to quickly make a coffee.
I think one addition I might buy is a CO2 detector with an alarm, it should not really be necessary in my set up because I’ll already decided that I don’t really want to cook inside the vehicle that often, only when completely necessary. But on the occasional rainy day, I’m going to have to invest in one of these carbon monoxide detectors.
Meals next, what the hell am I going to cook in a car with a single burner stove? I need a carb source and those do take a lot longer to cook than veg or protein. I know they are pretty gross to a lot of people, but a tin of potatoes will be a great carb source and they are already cooked and can just be warmed up. I do love potatoes, so I’m thinking that these will be a great staple because you can easily store several tins of these in your car. The other thing I’m thinking of using is the Too Good To Go app, I’ll be positing here some of the deals I’ll get with them to see if they are viable to cook in your car. I’m expecting that a lot of the 2G2G meals will be ready made unless from Aldi and will just be eaten cold or quickly heated up.