Travel, cont'd.

Question for my flist: what can you cook using no heat sources other than an electric kettle? (I should specify: an electric kettle that belongs to the hotel and thus shouldn't be gummed up with dubious food substances.) Because while I've found a couple of decent lunch places near work, my dinner options consist entirely of restaurants for business travellers, which are expensive and also give you way too much food. Expense isn't really a problem since our meals & incidentals stipend is more than generous enough to cover it, but I do get to pocket whatever's left over afterwards, and I'd rather stick it in savings than blow it on the overpriced hotel buffet and end up feeling like an overfed leech every evening.

So! What can you make with an electric kettle, when you cannot heat anything but water in the kettle? I would be open to acquiring one or two pots/pans/bowls and some silverware for the cause, which all told would probably set me back less than one restaurant dinner. Couscous is the obvious choice: add boiling water and let sit. Hard-boiled eggs are an option. There is a French chain supermarket within walking distance, which in typically French fashion stocks a wide variety of excellent canned goods; I could experiment with reheating via chucking the can itself in boiling water, but have never done that before, so tips and tricks would be appreciated.

Aside from the food quandary, Côte d'Ivoire is going all right! It turns out that Abidjan is home to a moderately large population of migratory fruit bats--which, okay, when I say moderately large I mean there are about a million of them in the city, and when you walk down the boulevard there will be hundreds or thousands of them roosting in any one tree, sleeping or chattering or flitting about. Dusk is incredible--you see what looks like one of those flocks of tens of thousands of swallows that swoop around power lines in the US, only these are all bats, flitting around the skyscrapers and minarets. SO COOL.

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Travel, cont'd.

Question for my flist: what can you cook using no heat sources other than an electric kettle? (I should specify: an electric kettle that belongs to the hotel and thus shouldn't be gummed up with dubious food substances.) Because while I've found a couple of decent lunch places near work, my dinner options consist entirely of restaurants for business travellers, which are expensive and also give you way too much food. Expense isn't really a problem since our meals & incidentals stipend is more than generous enough to cover it, but I do get to pocket whatever's left over afterwards, and I'd rather stick it in savings than blow it on the overpriced hotel buffet and end up feeling like an overfed leech every evening.

So! What can you make with an electric kettle, when you cannot heat anything but water in the kettle? I would be open to acquiring one or two pots/pans/bowls and some silverware for the cause, which all told would probably set me back less than one restaurant dinner. Couscous is the obvious choice: add boiling water and let sit. Hard-boiled eggs are an option. There is a French chain supermarket within walking distance, which in typically French fashion stocks a wide variety of excellent canned goods; I could experiment with reheating via chucking the can itself in boiling water, but have never done that before, so tips and tricks would be appreciated.

Aside from the food quandary, Côte d'Ivoire is going all right! It turns out that Abidjan is home to a moderately large population of migratory fruit bats--which, okay, when I say moderately large I mean there are about a million of them in the city, and when you walk down the boulevard there will be hundreds or thousands of them roosting in any one tree, sleeping or chattering or flitting about. Dusk is incredible--you see what looks like one of those flocks of tens of thousands of swallows that swoop around power lines in the US, only these are all bats, flitting around the skyscrapers and minarets. SO COOL.

( More )