I read about a woman who returned to Australia and was quarantined in a five star hotel but without a microwave oven.
An Iron As Hotplate
She made herself apple crumble and other foods heated up on an upturned iron, which acted as a hotplate, secured between two heavy books.
She chopped up an apple with a penknife. (Any hotel can send you a knife. A five star hotel has 24 hour room service.)
Her cooking utensil was an aluminium tray you get with takeway food. I presume the crumble was a ready mix. But you can mix flour and water with fat such as butter to make crumble. the advantage is crumble is it is just flour rolled up into balls, no need for a rolling pin to roll it out into pastry. A hotel usually has sugar sachets.If you have flown overseas or on a long flight within a country, you might have meal service inclding a sachet of salt.
Most fast food places have condiments which seem unnecessary at the time but can be just the ticket later. For example, most take away piza comes with extra sachets of cheese and pepper or spicy sprinkles.
You can also buy packets of individual portions of cheese. If you save bread from your brakfast, ideally with a butter or margarine sachet, you can add a cheese portion, or the cheese sachet and sprinkles left over from the pizza, and you have a mid-morning snack.
I was wondering whether she could have demanded a microwave, or bought herself one (if she was getting free food for a fortnight, she could afford a cheap microwave.
Some hotels don't like you cooking in the room. Why? consdier their point of view. It uses their electricity. It is a fire risk. You are making crumbs which attract rats and cockroaches and flies. You are deprivin them of sales of over-priced food from their kitchen.
On the other hand, they might be short-staffed and keen to keep you happy or just flexible.
Do a health and safety assessment first. What could go wrong? How can you prevent it going wrong?
Can you leave the room as you found it?
Simple solution - Suites
A simpler solution was one we adoped as a family of three in the USA. If you are staying longer than a week, go to an all suites hotel. There you have a larger living room, often a bigger dining table where you can eat or work, and a microwave.
You need to buy in food to bring with, or have it delivered.
UK flag
Eggs
Years ago we were in a UK hotel room which had nothing but a kettle and we needed breakfast. I said, What I would like is an egg.
The corner shop across the road had eggs.
No chance of making scrambled eggs. But what about boiled eggs? We had hot , boiled water, from the kettle. Just pour the water over the egg in a cup.
We did consider putting the egg inside the kettle. If the egg breaks, you get an awful mess.
Coddled Egg
You could bring your own kettle from home, a small one, ideally one with a flat base inside and not an exposed element, so it is easier to clean and empty.
My husband used to do this as a student at Aberdeen university in Scotland. He had an egg pricker to make a hole in the egg so it would not burst. He added vinegar to the water to coagulate whites if the egg splits or leaks through the hole.
Coffee Pods
One year we were on holiday in Wales and my husband was not happy with the quality of the coffee. he drove to the nearest city and bought the cheapest coffee pod machine which came with a set of coffee pods. We were on holiday for a long weekend. He had his breakfast coffee and mid monring coffee and lnch time coffee and mid afternoon coffee and after dinner coffee for 2 days. Some for me too.
He drinks black coffee. A pint of milk was available from the nearby Tesco supermarket and stayed cold on the windowsill. He reckoned the price was not much more than the cost of bying all those coffees in the restaurant or bar.
With planning and ingenuity, or asking what is available, you can often find a solution.
Interesting Websites
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8356091/Woman-makes-apple-crumble-homemade-TimTam-IRON-hotel-quarantine.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ico=taboola_feed
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and phtographer, author and speaker.
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