Cooking in a Hotel Room & Other Austere Environments

Diet and Nutrition
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Hey Folks,

Wanted to share my recent experience with cooking in a hotel room and poll the audience to share their own stories about “making it work” in less than ideal environments. I’m sure @Brant_Drake has some stories.

Allow me to set the scene.

I specifically booked a hotel room that was advertised as having “a kitchen”, because I like to do my own cooking when I travel. This way, I save money AND I don’t feel gross the entire time I’m traveling, because I’m eating food that I made and, in turn, I know what’s in it compared to restaurant grub.

When I arrived in my room, I saw a full sized fridge, a dishwasher, a full set of cutlery, plates, a sink with a garbage disposal…and a microwave. Yes, they deemed a microwave as “a kitchen.”

I said “This will not do”, went out to Walmart, and go to yes.

Pictured is 3.5 dozen eggs, a little over 3lbs of beef flanken ribs, about 1.5lbs of lamb shoulder chop, a 1.35lb t-bone, and a $20 electric griddle. I packed a jar of beef tallow with me, because of course I did.

And from there, I unpacked and got to work

And needless to say, the outcome was glorious

I arrived on a Monday, and was to depart on Friday morning, so I bought enough food to be able to make my 2 meals a day (I eat a breakfast and a dinner, no lunch), and enjoyed many meals of lamb for breakfast and flanken ribs for dinner, with 6 eggs per meal

BUUUUT, because of some impending weather, I actually had to depart my location Thursday afternoon, meaning I had to have 9 eggs per meal on my last 2 meals (woe is me), which forced me to REALLY push that griddle to it’s limits

Which, consequently, WAS the one meal that finally set off the smoke alarm in my room, but it only ran for a minute or 2 before shutting off, which gave my food time to cool

Now, COULD I have just lived out of that microwave? For sure: I’ve microwaved eggs before, and I know you can microwave meat or just eat sardines out of a can or something. But I got to take back what was mine from this “bait and switch” kitchen promise, because food that was cooked out of spite and pettiness tastes the best.

Who else has similar stories of skirting the hotel laws in order to meet their nutritional demands? I know as a dorm kid we also cooked ramen in coffee makers, had illegal hot plates, I ran a slow cooker in an extended stay hotel alongside a foreman grill, etc.

What’s your story?

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Depending on the duration of my stay and availability of a kitchen I’ll usually grab some microwave rice and precooked chicken from the grocery.

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That seems far too reasonable!

Although I did do something similar on a trip 2 years ago. Grabbed a rotisserie chicken from Costco upon landing and butchered it by hand in the room, storing it in ziplock bags.

I ended up getting RSV the next day, and ate the entire chicken in one sitting, because my kiddo picked up RSV the week before and I saw how much it wrecked their appetite and, in turn, their recovery, so I basically force fed myself as much food as possible while I was able to stay conscious.

I don’t know if it helped, but it was definitely a FUN way to try to heal. It’s like chicken noodle soup, just straight from the source.

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I have to know: Did you fly there and, if so, did you pack the griddle for the trip back?

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I drove. I DID have room to check the griddle into a checked bag if I so decided, but since it was only $20, I would have just given it to a thrift shop before departing.

If I was a super DUPER scumbag, I could have cleaned it, repackaged it, and returned it to Walmart. But, again, at only $20, I factored the cost into my meals and STILL came out ahead compared to if I had eaten out for every meal.

I actually still have the receipt. All that food, plus the griddle, set me back $106.85. I got 6 meals out of that, so about $17.80 per meal.

Here is what Denny’s had to offer me at

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And that steak is only 13oz, with only 2 eggs.

Plus: it’s Denny’s, haha.

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If you ever find yourself eating a steak at Denny’s, choices were made. :grinning_face:

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For me simple is best. Way easier to stick to what I want to do. If it becomes a chore I’m eating out!!:joy:

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Some hotel rooms with “kitchens” are like some hotels with “gyms” – a broken-down treadmill and three pairs of dumbbells that go to 20 pounds. Although I did go to a Four Seasons once with a complete gym attached that locals had memberships to. The staff walking around and handing people rolled hot towels and lemon-water in actual glasses was weird though. I’m not that fancy.

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Used to boil chicken tenders in my barracks room and had a Wok

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That’s not scummy that’s frugal ! I’ve done worse

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One of my favorite quotes is “No one goes to Denny’s: they end up there”

@s.gentz As a forever introvert, for me eating out IS the chore, haha. I was all too delighted to be able to stay in my room and not deal with people after a day of dealing with people.

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While I have never gone to these lengths, I do eat well and healthy when traveling (as well as staying active and training to some extent). Others will say “You’re on vacation - you should splurge on your food and take a break from working out”.

The problem with this is that I feel better and prefer to eat real and healthy foods, and enjoy getting in some movement each day. I may have the extra dessert, chips and salsa, and margarita while on the beach, but for the most part I’d rather eat eggs, meats, fruits and veggies, and my typical diet. And I may not do choose to do hardest Crossfit WODs while vacationing in Cabo, but I still get up and put in some work. I just feel better doing this, and it actually makes the vacation more enjoyable.

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That’s absolutely it. People say “Enjoy yourself: you’re on vacation”, and that’s the thing: I’m NOT going to enjoy the vacation if my guts are a wreck and I’m fluctuating between being constipated and having dysentery.

But also, I’m not going to lie: I DID enjoy myself. Flanken ribs cooked in beef tallow are absolutely delicious. Eating that 3 days in a row was my kind of vacation.

In a similar “austere environment” story, I was raised by my parents, before I went to college, where I had a meal plan, and I got married right out of school to a wonderful woman who was an amazing cook and baker. Suffice it to say: I never learned how to cook. One day, she went to her cousin’s wedding and stayed with family for a few days while she was there, and I had to stay home and work. It was at that moment, I realized that the only thing I knew how to make were ground beef tacos.

…so that’s what I ate for 4 days in a row.

…and it was wonderful.

After the second day, my dog stopped begging for food, because HE was sick of tacos.

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I’m with you on that point but sometimes convenience wins.

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We have differing ideas of convenience, haha. Although I suppose Uber eats would be the middleground. Ordering food in vs going out for it.

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You need to get that dog checked out by a vet ASAP. It’s unnatural for any living creature to get sick of tacos. :grin:

One thing I noticed a couple years ago while vacationing with a group - some of them would stumble out of their rooms in the morning a bit bloated and hung over from the night before. I would have already done some calisthenics and gone for a nice walk. I’d be sitting by the pool and enjoying a coffee, ready to tackle the day. Who’s really enjoying their vacation more?

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In a similar but different story, once, while traveling to Arizona with some work buddies, I, once again stayed inside and ate in my room. My friend, who went out to eat, was held up at knifepoint by a local vagrant.

You run into significantly reduced opportunities to be held up by knife point when you stay inside and eat healthy! Definitely enjoying the vacation more there, haha.

EDIT: I even shared some photos of my hotel room goodies I had made and offered to cook for him in my room to save him from more vagrancy.

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It all depends to what you have access to. I traveled the world with low budget in my 20s.

Living of a backpack during some mountaineering trip, the equipment are limited to small pot and little burner and you need light and shelf stable food so it is really hard to eat “healthy”. I would eat jerky, hard cheese, nuts, rice and pasta, canned food (but not too much because of weight), dried fruits, bars, protein powder, naan or pita bread, tortillas, butter and nut butter.

Living of a car was way better! I would buy a cheap cooler and cheap gas burner so I could add veggies, meat and fruits to the menu. Traveled from coast to coast in Canada and did north to south in eastern US + part of western US (California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Wyoming) that way. Camping when I could and sleeping in the car when I could not. Omelet, canned fish, raw veggies and a ton of nuts fueled those travels.

Staying at a hostel is better for cooking than staying in a hotel. It just sucks when you feel antisocial. They always have a full kitchen and people leave all sorts of seasoning, oil, butter and other basics. There is also always a market or a grocery store not too far that you can walk to. One guy I met in Morroco at my hostel (another tourist) bought a whole chicken at a local market for like 2$ and it was alive when he chose it. You pay, they butcher it and you leave with it. It doesn’t even go in a refrigerator before you start cooking it. The guy from the hostel showed us how to cook a tajine with it. It was a little firm…

Meat was so expensive in Iceland I lived mostly on the peanut butter and the Metabolic Drive I brought in my suitcase + lots of skyr and eggs I bought there.

During that time of my life, I would never lose weight for a vacation because I always lost it during the vacation!

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This sounds very much like what Dean Karnazes ate during his run of the Spartathalon. His focus was on having the foods that would have been available during that era, so it was cured meats, hard cheese, figs, nuts, etc. Interesting the lessons we can learn from that. I’ve also heard, as far as survival foods go, to avoid foods high in protein as they are a poor energy source and require more energy to digest compared to fats or carbs.

I’ve done the Metabolic Drive/Velocity Diet while traveling as well. That IS stupidly simple.

And I hear you on losing weight while on vacation. For me, this was a work trip, rather than a vacation, but it’s a bit of the same: I tend to get locked in more, as I’m more inclined to just eat the same thing every day.

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In high school, there were two stints that we lived in a hotel for 3 and 5 months. Both due to a pipe bursting under our house. First time was cold related, 2nd was bad construction when they repaired it. My family of six was in one of this Marriots that are like apartments. The kitchen had tiny oven and 2 burners. My parents cooked a full Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner (turkey and Prime Rib). Since we had an oven, it really wasn’t all that bad. Aside from breakfasts, which were in their dining area and part of stay, lunch and dinner were cooked in the kitchen.

The nine years I spent traveling 3-5 days a week, I did as @s.gentz said and

Rice packs, deli meat, pre-packaged and cooked meat from Trader Joes was also great in a microwave. I tried an electric cooktop once, but it was a pain to lug around and took a long time to heat, then cleaning pans was a nightmare.

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