Camping Trip!

I went on a camping trip with my friends this weekend, and as I usually am, I was mainly concerned with what we were going to eat. I was the only one that hadn't been camping before, so I had no experience storing food and cooking it out in the "wilderness". I am in love with the idea of open-firing cooking and have been accumulating various cooking implements to assist me in doing so, and I was excited to use them on the trip. Due to logistical concerns we were only staying for one night, so there were only 3 meals to deal with (dinner, second dinner, and breakfast).

For dinner on the first night we had an assortment of sausages to cook and some vegetables. I originally wanted to cook everything over the fire, but we had difficulties getting the fire really going because our wood was somewhat wet. Although I was fighting against it because I so wanted to cook on the fire, it ended up being very fortunate that my friend pushed to bring a butane burner. We fried up some onions in a pan and set them to the side. We also boiled some corn, oiled it, and roasted it over the fire in one of my grill grates. We also oiled and roasted a bunch of green onions over the fire, and accidently dropped them in the fire. We were able to retrieve them though and the char was fantastic. Due to concerns with the fire, we didn't roast the sausages using my grill grates, and instead cooked it in a pan. We ate the sausage taco style with martin's potato bread and topping with onions and green onions. The corn was good, but as my friend noted, it was better raw. I also got these pork ribs from the butcher, which are basically like off cuts of pork chops. While my friend was preparing second dinner, I entertained myself by cutting the meat off of these bones, slicing it into thin pieces, and grilling it over the fire with my grill grates. It was good. I could get a really nice crust on the pork over the fire which is hard to do with other means, but I couldn't stop thinking about how vastly it would be improved by a sugary, savory marinade which would allow it to crisp up so nicely.

For second dinner we had Jin ramen done up fancily by my friend. He seared the aforementioned pork bones with some shallots, fryed the soup base, and then poured the juice from the sausages we cooked and let that boil for a while. He then started cooking 2 packs of ramen of the four he brought, but through my insistence I eventually convinced him to put the other two in. We put a tin of spam in too. We topped off this abomination with no less than 7 slices of american cheese, and some green onions for health. The four of us finished this with ease, reaffirming my push for 4 ramen packets.

After fooling around the fire for a while longer and whittling sticks, our appetites crept back up on us and we went for a "late night demon spam". My friend says the spam is better when it gets super crispy, but I think it gets too leathery.

Waking up the next morning, my stomach was in a state: the second tin of spam proved to be rash but also maybe the 7 slices of american cheese. My friend Chris insists he was the voice of reason trying to convince us not to eat it as we needed it for breakfast the next morning, but I only seem to remember him begging us to cook it. Before breakfast, we went on a nice hike which did wonders for my stomach and stirred my appetite. I was craving watermelon or some other sort of fruit as a purge from the transgressions of the previous night, but there were no stores nearby. We were able to forage some sort of grape on our hike, but they were awfully sour. Arriving back at camp, we got right to work making breakfast with the eggs we had and another can of spam we picked up from the camp store (phew). Cubed up the spam, seared it, removed it, scrambled the eggs nicely using the butane burner that gets super hot, and added a few more slices of american cheese to make them luscious. I think I once again went overboard though, they were a little too luscious and since our only vehicle to get them into our mouths were the 4 leftover slices of bread, the creaminess and lack of structural integrity made it somewhat hard to eat.

Keeping on the foraging theme, my friend was able to pick out a huge maitake mushroom from the campsite, and we harvested it and fried it up on the butane burner. It was tasty and made tastier by the fact that we foraged it, but in the same note as the pork, we couldn't stop thinking how vastly it would be improved with some garlic and some parsley tossed in at the last minute to lend it some flavor and freshness. Also some lemon to squeeze on top.

All in all, cooking at the campsite is super fun. I love cooking for friends, and the primal campfire vibe added to it. Things would have gotten very gross very quickly though if we did not have a nearby water source to clean with. For next time, I am definetly bringing some garlic, lemon, salt, pepper, and soy sauce as you may not anticipate when they will be needed but when they are they will be able to greatly improve dishes. Also to note: when dealing with swimmers, always overestimate the amount of food needed.