Friday 24 February 2012

Bateau Bay, Australia - Food, glorious food

Food! It consumes half my daily budget and even when I’m not eating it, I’m usually thinking about it. Whenever I roll into a new town in whatever country or whatever continent I’m cycling in, my first thought is to hunt out groceries.

My favourite grocery experience was probably in South America where I enjoyed shopping for fresh produce at the fruit and veg stalls, and buying a nice piece of meat to fry from the “carniceria” hoping to boost my iron intake for the thin air of the Bolivian Altiplano. But I also enjoyed the huge variety of foods available in the States and pulling off the road to make little picnics in the town parks along the way. One thing I’ve enjoyed in abundance is avocados. I started eating them by the barrow-load in Argentina where they were cheap and delicious then loved adding them to my salads and tortillas in the States. Mind you, nobody would want to be cycling behind me after I’d had a few ripe avocados! And for the gluten-free traveller, New Zealand came up trumps with wide availability, even in little towns, of delicious gluten-free breads, cakes and other goodies.

Of course, one benefit of this bicycle trip, apart from all the nice scenery and stuff, is that I can eat what I want with impunity. My sister will vouch for the fact that I was eating three breakfasts per day when I arrived at her house in Portugal and in the States I frequently enjoyed the MacDonalds’ 1200-calorie afternoon snack of large fries with a chocolate milkshake! There’s always plenty of fruit, veggies and salad in my diet but unfortunately the calorie count is usually bumped up by chocolate, biscuits and ice-cream. So when my bicycle trip is over and I’m not riding over mountains every day, somebody PLEASE remind me that I can’t eat as much as I am now.

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