With the recession biting, many more of us are likely to be considering a self-catering holiday. If finances are particularly tight you may be considering a camping holiday or a caravan holiday, either aboard or in the UK. If your budget is a bit larger you may be considering renting a self-catering cottage or apartment, again either aboard or in the UK. When packing for a self-catering holiday you have to decide which items of food you want to take with you and what you will be able to buy when you arrive at your destination. This of course will depend on what type of holiday you are taking, where your destination is and what time you will be arriving. Even if you are staying in the UK, if you are a little bit off the beaten track and you arrive after the local shops have closed you will need to have some essential food items with you. These may include tea bags for making tea, ingredients for making a quick evening meal and cereals and bread for breakfast.

Yum.

If you are travelling to somewhere aboard you may want to take some items with you that you will be unable to purchase in the country that you are travelling to. Marmite may not be everyone’s idea of a wonderful food, but some people love the taste and it certainly isn’t available everywhere. On the whole, however, it should be possible to purchase most of your food locally and in some cases local restaurants may be reasonably cheap so you can eat out on a regular basis, using the facilities at your holiday home only occasionally.

What sort of food items should you not take with you? This again depends on the type of holiday that you are taking. People who will be spending much of their time hiking and camping, especially in remote areas, will need to think more carefully about the food items they intend to take with them. Tinned or bottled foods for example might seem like a good idea as they will keep for a very long time. However, if you are hiking you will have to carry your food supplies with you and tinned or bottled food can be very heavy. It is also very bulky and will take up a lot of room in a rucksack.  For those who love outdoor holidays the type of food to take is food that is light, but of good nutritional value. Dried foodstuffs are particularly useful and these days you can get a range of main meals and desserts, all in handy packets that will take up little room in a rucksack and will be light to carry. As people who are walking long distances burn up more calories you can also take food items that are high in calories. Cheese, muesli bars, nuts and nut butters are all very useful because they provide a concentrated source of calories, along with other useful nutrients. Taking herbs and spices with you can also be a good idea as these will help to add flavour to the food, which otherwise might be a little bland.

If you are renting a self-catering cottage or apartment the choice of food items you can take or buy is wider as you don’t have to worry about carrying your food around with you. However, even here you need to consider the sort of food items that you are going to purchase. Many self-catering apartments or cottages have only basic equipment and this limits the types of dishes that you can create. Trying to create dishes such as lobster thermidor with little more than a couple of small casserole dishes, a blunt kitchen knife and a broken corkscrew is not the easiest task. Unless you are prepared to buy extra equipment always check the cupboards before you go to the shops. For some of course, being on holiday is when they want to escape from spending long hours in the kitchen so for them simple foods such as pasta and rice that can be used to whip up a quick meal are a better choice than something that would take longer to cook such as a side of beef or lamb. If you are holidaying somewhere aboard then you will not want to take much food with you as this will increase the weight of your luggage, resulting in an excess charge at the airport. With companies such as Ryanair this can be important as there is no point in getting a bargain-price ticket if you have to pay a lot of additional charges for your luggage. In addition you need to be aware that importing items such as meat, dairy products and fruits is not permitted in many countries due to the risk of bringing in pests and diseases.

Shopping at your destination can be a fun experience. If you are on a budget, local supermarkets can be good places to get cheap basic food such as bread, milk and preserves or other spreads. In many places the local markets have a good range of fresh fruit and vegetables and of course shopping in the market can also help to improve your language skills. Try out some of the fruit and vegetables that you don’t commonly see in the UK. However, if you are visiting countries such as Thailand, Malaysia or Sri Lanka and you are thinking of sampling a durian you might want to think again. The fruit is said to be delicious, but it is also renowned for its very pungent odour which has been variously described as ’stinky socks’ or ’smelly drains’. Many find its odour particularly offensive, so much so that the fruit has been banned from public transport and many hotels in the countries where it is sold. So if you don’t want to be unpopular with your neighbours this might be a fruit to try at the market rather than in your accommodation.

Would you eat this? Thought not.

Visitors to Thailand should certainly avoid Puffer fish. The meat of the Puffer fish is sometimes eaten in Thailand by mistake as although the fish is banned unscrupulous vendors will try to disguise its flesh as something else, even dyeing it to look like salmon. The fish is the second most poisonous vertebrate in the world and its flesh needs to be expertly prepared if the diner is to avoid hospitalisation and possibly death. Ackee is the national fruit of Jamaica and is sold fresh at local markets. Tourists who wish to try the famous Jamaican dish of salt fish and ackee should go to a local restaurant or buy canned ackees. To be suitable for eating the fruit must be neither too unripe nor too ripe and it requires careful preparation to remove the poisonous pink flesh and seeds.

If you are intending to go on a picnic, choose items that can be easily transported and will last well. You don’t necessarily have to stick with sandwiches, with the right containers salads, pies, terrines, frittatas and tarts can all be transported. Dips and salad dressings can also be easily transported in screw top bottles. Even elaborate dishes can be taken on picnics, depending on how you will be transporting the food to the picnic site. Layered dishes such as trifles may look very nice, but if you are carrying your food in a bag for several hours it may be a shadow of its former self by lunchtime and unless you have a cool bag, ice-cream is best avoided.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 7th, 2010 at 10:00 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.