During travel, what can I prepare beforehand as meal, which can be eaten without access to fire or microwave?

I’m going from Hong Kong to Iceland next month. I’ve read that everything there, including food, are quite expensive. So my wife and I have been researching on how to prepare meal or snack that we can eat during the day instead of going to restaurant.

However, given we will travel by day tours, I don’t think fire or microwave will be readily available during the tours. We can only prepare the meal the day before or in the morning and bring with us in the tours.

We’ve read that peanut butter/honey with bread, dried fruit and nuts are some good options. Overnight oatmeal may be great but I’m not sure we can keep them cool enough throughout the day and if not, whether this will cause food spoilage.

Are there any other recommendations to have more variety? Thank you!

sturlabragason,

Hey, you’re correct it’s pretty expensive to buy food here.

If you want to try and get a feel for some of the prices you can try your luck here with Google translate -> kronan.is/snjallverslun (this store is much nicer and just as cheap as the self proclaimed discount supermarket Bónus)

Expensive stuff includes but is not limited to; fresh meat and fish, most non basic fruit, fresh pastries, non factory bread, meat toppings, cheese, good yoghurt, most cereal, and more. Basically anything good and healthy. It’s gotten much worse in the past two years compared to the other Nordics because the icelandic aristocracy has taken a real liking to greedflation. All the fast food and restaurants are crazy expensive. Anywhere a tourist might go is also crazy expensive.

The less expensive foods might include: basic fruit like banana and some type of apples, factory made bread, cheaper types of biscuits, cheaper types of pasta and canned goods, cheaper types of yogurt. Some dried fruit and nuts. You should be ok with making sandwiches as someone else suggested.

Good luck, try not to get stuck here for too long 😅

nigelinux,

Thanks for the detailed reply! Great list of examples help us a lot.

redballooon,

Sushi

kia,

Will you be able to poop during the duration of the trip?

Imactuallyanandroid,

I understood the reference

kerr,
kerr avatar

Not sure if it’s in your list, but the hot dog places were immensely popular and quite cheap when we were there a few years ago. Bæjarins Beztu was very tasty. Ate hot dogs with crispy onions and remoulade A LOT when we got home to recreate them. Even if you can’t take them with you during the day tours I’d recommend trying it out anyway.

nigelinux,

Yes hot dog! We’ve bookmarked it already but your firsthand experience has made me more eager to try!

strangerloop,

One of my favorite snacks to eat on daytrips are hardboiled eggs. You could bring chili/spice mix packets with you to add flavor on the road (I like buying some labeled as “hot pot mate” from my local chinese market). Not much of a meal by themselves of course, but can be a very filling supplement to something like a sandwich or a salad. Good as in between snacks too.

nigelinux,

My wife likes hardboiled eggs more than I do, I think she would love to have some. Thanks!

Kecessa,

>travels halfway around the world

>worries about food being expensive

kia,

Flying to Iceland is actually relatively cheap. Things are insanely expensive once you’re there though.

derf82,

For 2 people it’s at least around $2,000 (or the local equivalent) from Hong Kong round trip. Kind of cheap, but not that cheap.

Still, given the carbon emissions of flying, it is far too cheap to fly in general.

JackGreenEarth,

We should switch back to dirigibles.

kia,

Oh wow, that’s way more expensive than I thought.

nigelinux,

I understand it may sound strange. But given we’ve spent a lot on tickets, tours and accommodations, we’d like to spend less on food, which is the least important thing to us. My wife sometimes even jokes if there’s a pill that can provide all nutrition a person need, she would take that every day and forgo the ability/choice to eat any other thing.

bionicjoey,

Just buy groceries and cook them in your hotel while you’re there instead of eating at restaurants. My cousin did a trip to Iceland a few years ago and that was his strategy.

nigelinux,

We do plan to cook at the hotel we’ve booked, but not sure what type of food are more suitable to be brought as lunch without microwave. In HK, we often cook rice and such and use microwave to reheat for lunch.

dinosara,

In this case, whey protein and some Carbo snacks?

boatswain,

I was just in Iceland for a week or so. Restaurants were a bit on the expensive side coming from the US, but not terrible. Cheap sandwiches abound there, though: at most gas stations or the supermarkets I could get a premade sandwich for $4 US or so. I largely did day tours as well, and all the ones I went on stopped at a couple of gas stations through the day for pit stops and food, and the sandwich selection was adequate. Personally,I wouldn’t stress too much.

railsdev,

How about vegan options? Haha. Curious because I’d love to travel there and am currently spoiled here in Southern California.

boatswain,

Good question; I’m afraid I didn’t really keep track of those. I know I saw signs for vegan food several times, though.

Dinodicchellathicc,

$4 for a gas station sandwich is wild. I live in CA and the most i ever see is $3 for a BigAz burger.

nigelinux,

Good to know, at least there are more affordable choices should we prefer not to cook or prepare anything.

TheyHaveNoName,

My go to travel meals are:

Bread with cheese (and almost whatever else you might put in there). Wrap it in foil and it will be ready to eat whenever.

Cold pasta with cheese - or even normal pasta with tomato sauce cold is great. My Italian friends eat this for lunch regularly.

Cold pizza slices are great - I normally make simple pizza using baguettes and tomato sauce (passata) with cheese. One baguette is enough to make pizza for my family of 4.

Pasta salad - pasta cooked and cooked and then salad of your choice - even cold cuts of meat to well in here and it’s economical to make a huge amount and put it in the fridge

Actually thinking about it, I eat a lot of lunches made from cold leftovers and I think they taste brilliant without having to heat them up. Obviously things like soup, or ramen noodles and other hot liquid meals don’t taste good at all cold.

nigelinux,

I’ve never eaten cold pasta or pizza slice but they sound cool. Thanks!

DessertStorms,
DessertStorms avatar

Obviously things like soup, or ramen noodles and other hot liquid meals don’t taste good at all cold.

You don't have to have them cold - just get a flask!
There are many good affordable flasks on the market today, OP might even have one already, but they might need more than one.
In the flask you can not only put things like soup or even pasta with sauce, but also just boiled water which you can later pour in to a pot noodle and have a fresh one of those! Or a hot cup of something (tea, coffee, cocoa), made with the water in the flask, or in their own flask! The options are endless.
If they have access to a microwave/hob in the morning they could even pre cook some hot dogs or other protein (meat or plant based) that would fit in, dump it in along with a preheated tin of sweetcorn or peas and maybe even tinned potatoes, some seasoning (a tab of butter/margarine like hotels serve would do wonders), then keep it warm in there for the rest of the day.

Another alternative if they really want hot food would be one of those thermal bags, but in my experience they don't do as good a job at keeping things hot (warm maybe, but nothing more).

kortwotze,

OP: Do this. Having a supply of hot (or at least warm food) in a thermal insulated container is just awesome.

You can take pasta/soup/stews with you, that you prepared in the morning. It will not be hot, but at least not cold when you eat it :)

cambionn,
@cambionn@feddit.nl avatar

Tfw you’re an Dutchy and simple home-prepaired sandwitches (read two slices of bread with some butter and cheese between them, nothing fancy), are the countries national breackfast and lunch. Warm food is for dinner traditionally 🤣.

Either way, sandwitches (no need to limit to peanut butter, a lot can be put on bread!), salads (pasta or normal), fruit, veggie, cheese, and certain type of meat (like smoked or dried sausage, or beef). They all make great parts for cold meals you can keep in your bag till lunch (speaking from experience). Some cheese & meat are even packed per small packages for easy take along as snack usage.

I would suggest you do go to restaurants a few times, just to try the local cuisine (or their variation of other cuisines). But it probably will be expensive for you indeed. Whenever I’m in Asia, I feel rich (and I’m really not). Even Japan, who is often said to be expensive, is cheaper than my country. Especially when it comes to food.

nigelinux,

Great list of examples! Yes we’ll try out the restaurants a few times I guess.

starlinguk,
starlinguk avatar

A caponata sandwich with a shed load of cheese should keep you going for a while. Or if you don't want to make caponata, grill some veg instead.

nigelinux,

Caponata is new to me, and cheese would be great!

InfiniteFlow,

Not sure about Iceland, but several countries place some constraints on which foodstuffs you can enter the country with (not asking about importing, etc, even for personal consumption). I’d check this beforehand.

nigelinux,

Thanks for the reminder, I believe anything but meat or diary product is fine, but will check again.

Tigerking, (edited )

Pasta salad is one of my go-to lunches on the go. Fusili pasta mixed with any and all vegetables you prefer. For protein I’ll add boiled eggs, beans and/or fried chicken strips. Easy to make, nutritious and good to eat cold/room temperature.

Iceland is amazing, hope you have a greta trip!

nigelinux,

Pasta salad is not common in Asia, but do seems like a good choice. Thanks!

soyagi,

Go to the supermarket and get ready-made meals. It’s way cheaper than restaurants and you’ll get to try local delicacies :)

nigelinux,

We do want some taste of local cuisine, so ready-made meals in supermarket would be awesome.

livus,
livus avatar

Couscous. It can be "cooked" in cold water if necessary. It also goes well with most things so if you find something you can afford, perhaps you can add it.

Ask the locals though, what is affordable there.

nigelinux,

Never heard of couscous! Will do some research on this, thanks!

livus,
livus avatar

I hope that you have a wonderful trip!

Viking_Hippie,

fire or microwave

Quite disparate levels of technology you’ve got there! When defending yourself against an attacker, are your options flint spear or laser pistol?

Because if so, you might enjoy Fallout 2 😉

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