A Creative Mind Abroad

This page is devoted to what I like to call “The Art of Roughing It… Artfully.” Whether you’re studying abroad in a foreign country or traveling on a college student’s budget, chances are you won’t want to be eating out every night. For those of you who want to opt out of the nightly “pub experience”, the cooking arrangements of dorms and hostels are generally minimal, which brings me to the title of this page. In my usage of the phrase, “roughing it” generally means making the best out of limited supplies/cash through the use of smart shopping and improvisation. Based on the cooking arrangements of my London dorm’s kitchen, I’ve had to apply this practice almost every night. So, with my infinite wisdom on the subject, here follows a series of simple tips, tricks, and recipe suggestions involving a few simple ingredients and materials that can outdo, to a certain extent, that overpriced fish and chips you were planning for later. (Then again, since I’m no expert on British meals and have never attempted true fish and chips, maybe you’d best leave that to the professionals.)

———————————————————————-

Vital Bits and Bobs

Depending on the situation of your particular dorm/hostel kitchen, you may need to buy a couple of these utensils, but trust me, they are vital. Improvisation only works so far, and the 99 pence/cents you spend on retrieving the missing tools from a dollar store will make your kitchen experience much less hassling. We’ll start out with what should be provided for you in a basic dorm/hostel setup, then move on to the utensils you might not have but definitely need.

Bits and Bobs (Hopefully) Already Available To You:
-A burner. If you don’t have one of these, then this page probably isn’t the place for you, and the kitchen you’re in is severely lacking in its accoutrements.
-A cold storage device (be it a mini-fridge, full-sized refrigerator, or odd implement I’ve never heard of). If you don’t have one of these, refer to the top bullet.
-A sink. Considering the top two bullets, do I really need to say it?
-Plates. If your dorm/hostel kitchen is really this lacking, go buy a huge stack of flimsy paper plates, double them up when eating, and be at least moderately thankful you’re not stuck doing so many dishes. These also serve as good pot covers if your pot is lonesome for a top, and a doubled-up set works decently enough as a disposable cutting board.
-(As alluded to above,) a pot. Don’t undervalue this humble food receptacle. Whether you’re lacking a skillet/frying pan, bowls, microwave, oven, etc., this little guy can be transformed into pretty much anything you need during your cooking experience.
-Eating utensils. It’s pretty apparent, but you’d be surprised at the lack of eating utensils between four college girls in a dorm setup. Try having literally one spoon between you and three other people, and then tell me how apparent the need is.
-Soap/Sponge. Another apparent thing that may or may not be neglected by your dorm/hostel managers. Seriously, you’re going to need it if you don’t want to be giving a twenty to the barman for food every night.

Bits And Bobs You Need (But Might Not Have):
-A knife. Even if it’s duller than an Engineering class, a kitchen knife is one of the most useful items in your improvised kitchen, which you can likely buy at the 99 pence/cents store in town. One is sufficient in a pinch, just realize you’ll be washing it a lot.
-A spatula. My dorm didn’t come with one and you cannot flip an egg, or a pancake, or an omelette, or anything else of a fragile and floppy nature without one. Trust me, I tried with the use of a fork, a cooking spoon, two pots, and a couple tablespoons of oil, which still left me with a yolky mess. Bite the bullet and buy one. (I lucked out in the 99 pence store by finding a four-piece utensil set which came with a ladle, which I have since made use of.)
-Zip-loc baggies (or their 99 pence equivalent). More than likely, you’re going to be having leftovers when you’re done cooking, and you don’t want to get stuck putting your beans in an uncovered casserole dish for storage. Not the most sound food storage solution, just saying…
-Salt and Pepper. Buy it. You can make due without any other herbs and spices for the month or so that you’re gone, but a little S&P can make most things palatable.
-Oil. Like the salt and pepper, you can’t cook without oil. If you’d rather get Pam, realize that you’re going to have some awkward moments of eternally holding down the button in order to get the right amount. You can do it, just make sure you get the flavorless kind, or everything you cook is going to taste like butter, and that just doesn’t work on an orange and lemon chicken and chick pea salad (which is coming soon to the site)!
-Food! Okay, I really didn’t have to include this one on the list, but spare me your condescension; it’s a nice lead-in to the rest of this page.

These, as I hope I’ve made perfectly clear, are really the essential and most basic things you need for cooking/cleaning/food storage in your little kitchen away from home. Feel free to add anything else you like, or, if you’re lucky, utilize anything else you have available. The name of the game is improvisation, my friend, and with a little creativity, you can make some decent meals with a less than decent kitchen situation.

———————————————————————-

ARA Tip #1: Improvise!

If you noticed, I continually brought up the idea of improvisation in the “Vital Bits and Bobs” section above, and for good reason. The most important thing to successfully cooking in an environment you’re unfamiliar with and under-equipped in is making use of what you have in as many ways as possible. Make an oven-like environment using a pot and its top or an extra plate. Use another plate for your cutting board. Eat soup out of your pot when there are no bowls, or use a cooking spoon to eat with (if the one spoon in your dorm kitchen has disappeared under mysterious circumstances). The possibilities are limitless, so don’t be afraid to experiment. A lot of people, especially those less comfortable with cooking, are anxious to follow every word of a recipe exactly to the letter, but unless you’re actually performing a chemical reaction between multiple ingredients (i.e. baking), it’s not an exact science. That timidity will force you to spend more money and more time on things that you’ll almost certainly leave behind, and I find that to be rather counterintuitive to the idea of studying abroad/traveling as a student. Get creative with your cooking and the ratios of ingredients inside of them. Trust in your ability to successfully execute an improvised cooking experience, and it will not only be more fun for you, but more delicious as well. If, on the other hand, you aren’t comfortable with too much improvisation of cooking methods, change your meal plan a little. Most of the things I’ll be showing on this page will have less than ten ingredients in their production, and they’re generally prepared in a straightforward way. You don’t need a million complex ingredients and cooking procedures to have a filling, satisfying meal. In short, there’s more than one way to skin (or cook) a cat, and you needn’t be afraid of abandoning the obscure utensils Paula Deen and Alton Brown use in their world-renowned recipes. Most people don’t have potato mashers, or meat grinders, or quiche dishes readily available, and this is especially true of a dorm/hostel kitchen. Put down the recipe, trust in yourself, and, in the most theatrical and delicious way you can, improvise!

———————————————————————-

ARA Tip #2: Help, My Can Opener Is Broken!

Don’t panic! It may be of the annoyances of having appliances provided for you, but it’s not the end of the world! (Having the one spoon meant for four girls go missing is a little closer to that.) I can help you open your can of soup/peas/beans/mini sausages even if the handle doesn’t turn. Shall we find out how?

1. Put the can opener on the rim like normal, pressing down until you make a hole in the lid.
2. Remove the can opener, move it over about the same length as the hole, then repeat.
3. Continue doing this along half of the can’s lid until you have something resembling a dashed line.
(3.5. If you’re opening a can of beans or something else that needs to be drained, punch two or three holes on the opposite side of the lid, then drain the can through the dashed line of holes. Trust me, it’s a lot easier than waiting for the can to be opened, especially if you don’t have a colander.)
4. Take the can opener and place it between two of the holes in the dashed line. Apply pressure until you hear the can pop. Repeat along the edge until it’s completely freed.
5. Take a fork or butter knife and put it inside the newly made gap. Carefully, and I mean carefully pry the lid back until it’s rolled back toward the opposite edge.
6. Pour out your goodies!

When I say this is the easiest way to open a can with a broken can opener, trust me on that. If you were to make a continual line instead of a dashed line, the can opener would have almost no grip and you’d probably end up cutting yourself. The “pop” method makes things a lot faster, safer, and easier on your delicate hands. I will mention that I have no idea how to open a can without a can opener, but I’m sure there’s some MacGyver way to get out of that pickle or, rather, into that can of beans.

———————————————————————-