So what was your favourite concoction you cooked up when you were far away from home (and civilisation) ?
I used to take some tins of Fray Bentos stewed steak,tins of peas,beans and new potatoes and cook it all up together.
Then Olly Dickens,who I worked with at Fred Archer,introduced me to the delights of Wall’s tinned sausages.
I always tried to buy fresh fruit and vegetables along the road to supplement the tinned stuff,and tried to eat in restaurants as much as possible,though there weren’t that many good restaurants then in the commie bloc,like The Windmill in Hungary or the Hotel National in Belgrade (Beer George?)
Nowadays when I eat in the cab it’s microwaved meals from the supermarket,which are so much better,and a good variety too.
This would have been in the 80`s before “5 portions of fruit a day” and all that…Meatballs, tinned tomatos, baked beans and pasta, all in the one saucepan of course and washed down with copious amounts of wine (Italy and Spain) or beer!! Best cooked over a camping gas stove OUTSIDE the truck in all weathers, usually swatting mozzies and laughing at the locals staring at you as if you have two heads!!!
i went with me dad on a trip to france lost our water bottles it was bastile day i think so we had smash made with a tin of tomato soup red mash it werent bad really
Take one tin of new potato`s, drain and chuck in the pot with mashed up corn beef, add a tin of oxtail soup, warm it up, stir it up and serve with a one or two day old baguette to soak it up…accompanied by a few cold beers or bottles of wine…DONE!!!
Im sure I have told this tale before. A couple of blokes I know who worked for the swiss tanker company Bertschi.
Simmo is from Balderton, Ginger is from Skelmersdale.
Everybody who Keith Simmo meets and talks to is known as Blue.
So Ginger and Keith are going into Swiss, they do the clearance and head off to their depot. On the way Ginger pulls up at a supermarket and tells Keith he is just going to grab a chicken for supper.
So Ginger nips off and Keith decides to get something too, Keith runs in, gets a case of beer and his food and follows Ginger to the depot
15 minutes later they are parked up and talking through the window, Keith passes his mate a beer as Ginger is chewing on a cooked chicken leg. Keith than grabs his shopping bag, pulls out a fresh chicken and said
was parked there couple weeks ago whilst waiting to clear customs the security was telling me he started work there the place was packed with brit trucks now he couldnt even tell me the last time he seen a brit there
I used to live out of my trailer box and one Christmas when I was weekended at Khafji border with Bob Hedley, Bob Poggiani and Gary Glass, I cooked us all christmas dinner. Roast turkey with all the trimmings, including cranberry sauce and bread sauce.
This is it…not bad for trailerbox cooking.
GS OVERLAND:
I used to live out of my trailer box and one Christmas when I was weekended at Khafji border with Bob Hedley, Bob Poggiani and Gary Glass, I cooked us all christmas dinner. Roast turkey with all the trimmings, including cranberry sauce and bread sauce.
This is it…not bad for trailerbox cooking.
Ah but Christmas isn’t Christmas without Christmas pudding and custard!
Luckily small microwave portions are available now,along with pots of custard,and I am quite partial to it now and then.
Even in the summer!
Bloody marvellous the equipment you can get now for your truck,like microwave,coffee maker etc.
In the old days you had to make do with what ever came to hand.
I always liked to have civilised meals when I was on M/E,and the longer one did the job,the more organised I tried to be.
When I eventually got myself a Volvo fridge,I could indulge myself with my favourite,sherry trifle.
I remember being on a Baghdad trip in the summer,and pulled into Mosul on a Friday morning,so couldn’t clear there before the next day.I knocked up a sherry trifle and popped it in the fridge,then settled sown for a hot sticky day.
Late afternoon and two lads on their first trip pulled up beside me,asking the usual questions,“are we at the right place?”,and,“is it always as hot as this?”.
When I said I just fancied a sherry trifle,these lads said,“yeah,dream on”,but when i asked them if they REALLY fancied sherry trifle,they asked where would I possibly get one from,so I took this one out of the fridge and offered it,they were ALMOST speechless.They thought the job was not so bad after that treat,and on future trips I heard of two lads who told tales of some organised dude who could produce a sherry trifle in the most unlikely places.
