Welcome to YQtravelling’s FoodFriday–the day of the week when I show off some of the lovely eats I had while travelling.
Today’s post is a special feature where I teach you how to cook instant noodles in a hostel. Let’s get cooking.
Last month, I showed you how to cook a steak in a hostel. Today, I want to show you how to cook instant noodles in a hostel.
OK, I caved in and ate instant noodles in my hostel in Arequipa, Peru. The result wasn’t that good but if you need to eat, you need to eat.
For this recipe, you will need
One instant noodle
One egg
Some vegetable
Pot with cover
Water
Step 1: Boil some water in the pot
Get the water to a boil to cook the noodles.
Step 2: Cook the noodles
Cook the noodles.
I don’t time my cooking and wait for the noodles to disintegrate from brick of noodles.
Take out the separated noodles and put them into a bowl.
Step 3: Make the soup with new pot of water
Pour out the noodle water and wash the pot.
Boil another pot of water but don’t use too much because you don’t want thin soup. While you wait for the water to boil, put the seasoning into the water.
I usually use part of the seasoning, pinching one corner of the packet so those seasoning do not fall into the soup. This results in disgustingly underseasoned noodles but that’s how I roll.
Step 4: Cook the vegetable and egg
If you have more vegetable than water, cook your veggies in batch. Blanch your veggies until they turn a darker shade. Take the veggies out into the bowl.
When you have your last batch of veggies, you can crack the egg into the soup. Break up the egg if you want floating pieces of eggs or leave it untouched.
Step 5: Serve
When the egg is cooked to your preference, pour the soup into your bowl of noodles.
Do you have any secret recipe for yummy instant noodles? Share them in the comments.
For me, while sitting on the bus for 23 hours is torturous, it is not as torturous as forking out a large chunk of the remaining of my savings. That was how I found myself on seat 20 on a semi-cama bus.
I broke down the journey into two: Santiago to La Serena and La Serena to Arica. Somehow, 23 hours of journey felt better than 30 hours straight on the bus.
I decided not to do a post similar to 31 hours of travelling because I get motion sickness when I try to read or write on a vehicle with wheels. I wish I didn’t have this problem since I would be able to read a lot more books when travelling.
I was seated next to a Chilean guy with large arms. I still had the aisle to put the rest of my arm and my feet so it wasn’t that bad.
On the bus, I managed to watch A Good Day to Die Hard and Hitchcock in Spanish. The first film didn’t require much listening skills since it’s all about blowing things up. Thankfully I’ve watched Hitchcock on the plane before.
Tur-Bus has a built in warning system that rings whenever the bus goes more than 100km/hour. There is a beeeeeep and the bus would slow down a little.
The bus was had air conditioning, which was great since I believe we passed through many places where the temperature was really cold. At one point, we were driving among the fog/clouds on a windy mountain road.
Condensation on the windowRoad to the NorthOne way road
When we stopped at terminals to pick up people, I would go off the bus to breathe some of the cold fresh air. Ventilation on the bus wasn’t fantastic.
Some shiny townSome small town
Food on a 23-hour bus ride
Some snacks and breakfast was included in my bus ride. However, the food provided was not enough to satisfy even a sedentary adult.
Breakfast on Tur-Bus: SpaghettiSnack box on Tur-BusChilena biscuit with dulce de leche filling
I had 6 green apples from Santiago and munched on them when I felt a bit of motion sickness. The sweet juicy apples helped keep things from coming up my throat.
Arriving in Arica
I figured out we were in Arica when everybody got off the bus. I only had 10,000 notes and 60 cents with me so I broke my note by topping up 1,000 peso on my phone.
Armed with a few 1,000 pesos, I followed the directions from the hostel and went to the opposite side of the road. Bus #8 came, I got on, asking in terrible Spanish if the bus went to the road I was going to. It did.
Using Google Maps [Tip! Save a spot on your app and the map for the area will still be there when you need it.], I found my hostel. I checked in, took a shower, tried to blog, napped and woke up for dinner. I had to walk to the main street for some local fast food but my belly thanked me for putting something–anything!–in it.
I’m now finishing up this post in my 12-bed (beds, not bunk beds, thankfully) in Arica Surfhouse. There’s no heating here but the temperature feels like a nice 17 degrees.
I woke up at 8:05am and began packing all my things. Back on Day 1, I only had a backpack and my slingbag. Now, besides my sling bag, I have a backpack that is bursting at its seams, a huge Carrefour cloth shopping bag for my laptop and other important things and another smaller Carrefour shopping bag for water and food.
My luggage has gone out of hand. I even had to wear my two jackets simultaneously because there wasn’t space to put them in. By the time I was ready to leave, I looked like a hobo with my three bags and multi-layered jackets.
Thank goodness for the jackets because it was 8 degrees C when I got out. Instead of shivering, I was warm and snug, although a bit tired from my bags.
I initially thought I would reach the bus terminal in half an hour but it took a bit more time than that as there was a bit of traffic jam. Thankfully I left one hour earlier.
The Tur-Bus terminal is pretty good. In fact, the whole place is much better than bus terminals in Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru. There weren’t any strange smell of piss or drunk/ drugged people hanging around.
Tur-Bus terminal in Santiago, Chile
My bus didn’t come until 10:34am. As soon as I got on the bus, the bus started pulling out of the parking space and off we went. That was fast.
The bus I booked was a “semi-cama” (semi bed) and the seats were quite comfortable. I could lean back about 150 degrees if I wanted to.
Inside Tur-Bus semi cama bus
Through out the 6-hour journey, we were treated to three movies and no snack break. Luckily there was a toilet on the bus.
There was a very quirky Wes Anderson movie “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou“, the sleep inducing “Another Day to Die Hard” and the funny “Parental Guidance”. The latter two movies were dubbed in Spanish.
The view along the way was gorgeous. We passed by mountains and even the sea where the waves were gigantic.
Along the Chilean highwayI didn’t know cacti grow on fertile land too.
I snoozed a lot along the way, mainly during Bruce Willis’s movie.
We reached La Serena on time and most of the people got off the bus. Using a print-screened version of the hostel map, I slowly walked to the place I would spend the night at.
During the walk uphill, the straps of my bag dug into my shoulder. My hands felt like they would rather fall off than carry all the crap. So I decided there and then that I would get a suitcase with wheels.
Where do you find a suitcase in small town La Serena? After putting my luggage in the 4-bed hostel room, I walked back to the bus terminal where I saw what looked like a mall.
La Serena Mall
Indeed, it was the local mall. The inside looked exactly like one of the malls in San Jose. I was excited. I haven’t been in a “real mall” since coming to South America!
I walked around, admiring consumerism. My dinner was from a fast food place–a quarter chicken with rice and french fries at the price of S$8.
I managed to find a suitcase I like. At the cashier, I was given a discount for using a foreign credit card. My lovely black suitcase (actually, the only color they had) cost about S$100. I’ll show it to you one day.
The sun had set by the time I left the mall. I felt safe walking back the dimly lit roads because I figured that there would be less crime in a small town.
Now I’m back in my hostel room, in my warm bed. I’ll need plenty of rest for my 20-hour bus ride tomorrow. See you then!
While I was planning my round-the-world trip, I had thought seriously about shaving my head before going on the trip. I reasoned that it would cost me less shampoo (but more sun block) and would repulse any potential harasser (along with suitors, I suppose but that is alright).
I googled a few questions to figure out how women can take care of a shaved head. Nothing much appeared as most posts were dedicated to male head shaving and praising the bravery of women who shear their hair for charity.
Alas, I did not shave my head. My mother advised that a bald head will be terribly cold in winter. I also thought that it might attract bad sort of attention, seeing a female person with no hair.
I did not shave my head but went for a really short hair cut. This was for many reasons:
Less drying time
Less grooming time (I don’t even use a comb that much)
Less shampoo
According to a hoax that is repeatedly circulated on my Facebook wall by others, rapists rarely not target women with short hair. (Pretty bullshit but what the heck.)
One of the very few photogenic photos of me.
Even though I thought the hair style would keep for 4 months, by the end of the second month, my hair was growing past acceptable lengths for short hair.
I looked like I was wearing a ball of iron wool with my tough black hair.
Fringe too long.
CIY: Cut-it-yourself
Instead of heading to a hairdresser’s, I decided to do it myself.
YQ trims her bangs while mom takes photos.
As you can see, I was using a regular ole scissors which did its job of sniping away the ends. My bangs are still thick now but at least they do not cover my eyes.
Trim it with a razor
One day, I realized that the hair at the back of my neck had crept out and turned into a mini mullet.
Mini mullet
The hair was too short to tie up so I decided to snip it off. However, when I was in the hostel bathroom, I realized that I did not bring my scissors. The only sharp thing I had was a razor so I used that instead.
It’s rather difficult using a razor on the back of my head. Many times, I had to look back into the mirror to double check my hair length. But the best way to determine if my hair was cut in a straight line was to feel it.
After felling my neck, I chopped off more hair and now I have a bob again.
Welcome to YQtravelling’s FoodFriday–the day of the week when I show off some of the lovely eats I had while travelling.
Today’s post is a special feature where I give you tips on how to cook yummy steak in a hostel. Let’s eat!
When travelling, eating out at restaurants is a good treat. But if you need to save a few pesos/dollars, cooking will save you more money.
Since I’ve been in Argentina, I’ve cooked steak in my hostel kitchen for about 5 times. My hostel-cooked steak usually costs around 25 peso (S$6) while eating out costs a minimum of 45 pesos (S$11) to more than 100 pesos (S$25).
For this recipe, you will need…
Salt and oil, the only other things you need besides the meatMeet the type of Argentine meat I like.
Steak: Preferably Argentine steak. I choose mine base on how pretty it looks.
Coarse salt: Larger grains of salt make it easier to see
Oil
Frying pan/ Grill
Watch
Plates to dirty and plates to serve
Step 1: Season the meat
Rinse the meat and pat dry with kitchen towel (the paper kind, not the cloth).
Pour some oil into the plate and lay the meat on it. Pour more oil on the meat. Sprinkle the oiled meat liberally with salt so that it looks like it’s Edward Cullen under the sun.
Salt the meat
If the meat was refrigerated, this is a good time to allow it to be less cold and more room temperature.
I’m not very sure how long the salt should be on but I give it at least 10 minutes.
Step 2: Heat up the pan
If you are using an iron grill, make sure it heats up nicely before you start. I like frying pans too and these don’t take long to heat so I wait about 30 seconds before I cook to heat it up.
Step 3: Cook one side of the meat
Cook that meat
Lay the meat in the middle where the fire is. Afterwards DO NOT TOUCH the meat or it will turn out burnt in strange places.
I usually wait about 6 minutes for my one side to be done. The meat usually turns out well done if I do 6 minutes on one side and 4 minutes on the other.
Step 4: Check if your meat bleeds
Let it bleed a little
If your meat starts to ooze blood from the part that is exposed to the air, you are doing a good job.
Step 5: Flip the meat and cook more
Now to cook the other side
When the 6 minutes is up, flip the meat to the other side. The cooked part of the steak should be easily separated from the grill/pan.
Wait another 4 minutes for this side to be done. Then take out the steak.
Step 6: Leave the steak
Let the meat rest before your devour it
This is the most difficult part of this meal. After cooking, leave the steak for about 4 to 6 minutes. I read that this allows the juices in the meat to redistribute evenly so the steak is tastier.
I usually distract myself by cooking the other piece of steak because it’s hard not to swallow the hot steak whole when it comes out of the pan.
Step 7: Eat, drink and be merry
Fruit of your labor
After the waiting period is over, it’s time to dig into your meal.
Red wines supposedly go well with steak but it’s your meal so drink whatever your want.
Is someone judging your rose? Tell them to buy their own drink.
Do you have other hostel recipes to share? Share them in the comments.
I was listening to one of the podcasts from Rick Steves. One of the callers to the radio program asked if they could take the Orient Express while in Istanbul.
The answer was that any train that went to the east was considered the Orient Express.
For me, my oriental journey is at its end and I’m heading to South America. I actually do not know what to expect, except the cold winters.
This morning, I had the breakfast provided by my hotel. It’s the usual Turkish fare: bread, olives, cheese, fruits, tomato, hard boiled eggs and drinks such as tea, coffee and artificial lime juice.
Turkish breakfast
There is something about hard boiled eggs in Turkey. They are too tasty for their and my own good. I limit myself to only 2 eggs each day but feel like eating another 2 after I finish them.
After breakfast, I still had to pack my backpack. Since it will be winter in South America, I had to make sure that things such as swimsuit are at the bottom of the pack.
Packing seemed a lot easier these days. I managed to tidy up everything before check out time.
Getting scrubbed at a Turkish bath
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I still had Turkish bath on my list of To-do. On Foursquare, I found a hamam near my hotel so I walked to the place after checking out.
I saw the ladies’ entrance to the hammam. The real entrance inside was hidden behind a screen. After I stepped in, I was too embarrassed to step out even though the pricing was higher than what I wanted.
1,000 Places to see before you die
In the end, I reasoned that I was going to take a bath in one of the 1,000 Places to Visit Before You Die. So I paid my 108 lira and steeled myself for an exfoliation session with an attendant who looked very much like Rebel Wilson.
I’ll talk more about the bath in a future post so stay tuned!
Aimless walking, training around
Istanbul post office
I didn’t actually cross “Eat Turkish delight” off my list since I didn’t have much cash left in my wallet after the bath. Instead, I took the tram from the west to the east and back to the stop nearest to my hotel.
The train took about 1 hour to reach the west to the east. I didn’t really look out the window all the times since I fell asleep.
Passing the neighborhoods, I felt sad that I was leaving the city where I’ve spent 4 days. Yes, just 4 days but the store signs were already familiar to me.
Of course, my time in Istanbul had to end. I boarded the airport shuttle (6 euro) off to the airport for the third time.
When I first bought my ticket from Istanbul to Buenos Aires, I didn’t know how long it would take. Judging from the times in the different time zones, I guessed it would only take about 12 hours.
I didn’t realize that flying on Day 1’s 7pm and reaching on Day 2’s 7pm probably doesn’t mean 12 hours.
So at the airport at Istanbul, I tried counting how much time I would be travelling. To my horror, the total time, including transit, would take 31 hours.
In this post, I recount what happened at different time milestones.
Hour 0 [Istanbul 17:00]
Reach airport. Airport shuttle bus takes less time than taking the public transport.
Tickets for my 31-hour journey
Hour 1 [Istanbul 19:20]
Emirates plane
Board plane. Sit next to two ajuma (Korean middle aged ladies). Ajuma II said “Annyeong hasseyo” to me.
Find loads of goodies to watch. There’s even Mad Men season 5, all add into favorites list.
Seafood meal is nice. Ajuma does not eat but kept talking and talking.
Mad Men binge on Emirates
Hour 5 [UAE 00:12]
Watch Mad Men S5E5. Ajuma stole my seat belt and couldn’t figure out how to wear it. She seems to be annoyed at me even though she’s the one who took my seat belt.
Stickers you stick on your seat so the cabin attendant knows to wake you up for food or leave you hungry.I am in heaven!
[UAE 00:32] Plane lands. Frank SInatra song “It’s Nice to Go Travelling” blasts from speakers.
Finally reach Dubai! But I have 7 hours to go before I board my plane to Buenos Aires.
Dubai airport for transit
Hour 6 [UAE 01:00] Walk around airport, trying to find bench to sleep. No luck. The facilities here are not as good as Changi Airport.
Hour 7 [UAE 02:12]
Retrieve laptop to type things. Laptop difficult to balance on knees so I keep the laptop again.
Hour 8 [UAE 03:05]
Sit at Costa Coffee with a hot chocolate. Try to connect to Dubai Airport Wi-Fi but fail miserably.
Hot chocolate at Dubai airport
[UAE 03:55] Play a bit of Candy Crush. Still cannot pass that stage I’ve been stuck at for 2 months.
Hour 9 [UAE 04:40]
Use the free shower in the airport. Since I have no towel, I use my pashmina instead. Realize I look like a hobo with my luggage in the trolley.
Hobo in the airport
Hour 10 [UAE 5:30]
Take train to correct terminal. Find a bench near boarding gate which I can lay down horizontally. Set alarm and start snoozing with airplane blanket.
Dubai airport train
Hour 11 [UAE 06:30]
Finally able to board the plane. Hurray! Breakfast is served really soon. Sadly, it’s only omelette with unknown seafood.
Emirates omelette
Hour 14 [Buenos Aires 02:44]
Finished “Far Away Places” from Mad Men season 5.
Hour 15 [BA 03:32]
Finished “Lady Lazarus” from Mad Men.
Alternate between napping, Mad Men, tiny food.
Starry night on Emirates flight
Hour 21 [BA 09:17]
Watch Hitchcock after season 5 of Mad Men.
Hour 25 [BA 13:28]
Watch Parks & Recreation.
Hour 26 [BA 14:50]
Land in Rio airport. Play a bit of Bejewelled before leaving plane.
Bejewelled on Emirates
Hour 27 [BA 15:00++]
Weather outside of airport looks very warm. Registers onto free Wi-Fi in Rio airport and desperately use my iPhone.
Rio airport
Hour 28 [BA 16:26]
Back on the plane. A socked foot appears at one arm rest away from mine. Korean ajuma behind has her foot stretched.
Spot the thing that is not supposed to be there. Cinderella looking for her slipper.
Hour 29 [BA 17:00++]
After “lunch”, I find a snug corner and put on my eyemask to sleep.
Hour 30 [BA 18:00++]
ZZZZzzzzz.
Hour 31 [BA 19:30]
Wake up when plane lands with a jolt. Plane finally in Buenos Aires. A lot of people are too eager to go out of the plane even though the door isn’t open.
Immigration officer only gives me 30 days in Argentina. Oh well…
Manuel Tienda Leon shuttle service
Hour 32 [BA 20:15]
Bought A$90 shuttle bus ticket to the hostel. Weather isn’t as cold as I thought.
After thoughts…
Even though it took me a long time to get to my destination, I don’t feel that the time is wasted. The biggest reason is that I had the chance to watch season 5 of Mad Men, that alone is priceless.
When I was planning my journey from Greece to Turkey, I didn’t think of doing a bus trip. I wanted to take the train or even a ferry to reach Istanbul from Athens.
But I found out that there is no direct train from Greece to Turkey. I will need to take two ferries to reach Turkey and take another bus ride to Istanbul.
In the end, I chose to buy a bus ticket from Athens to Istanbul.
In the end, I found out how to get tickets from Athens when I stumbled upon this page. Silver Star Agency’s location was easy to find with Google Maps.
How to get to Al Travel Metro
The directions to the bus terminal was a little confusing since Google Maps couldn’t interpret the full address that was given to me.
The right address to search on Google Maps is Leoforos Athinon 222.
From Larissa station and Metaxougnio, there are buses A15 and B15 which stop at ΠΑΛΙΑΤΖΙΔΙΚΑ. Walk with the direction of the traffic and you will reach Al Travel Metro.
Being the scatterbrain that I am, I was too excited about the bus ticket spot check that I did not stop at the right stop.
Instead, I got off at one stop after. I had to walk on a overhead bridge that was parallel to the huge highway. The journey felt a lot longer than it was as the sun was hot and my bag was heavy.
I reached at 4:00pm. My bus was to leave at 5:00pm. I hung out at the stuffy lobby until the departure time.
At Al Travel Metro, there is a toilet behind the lobby. It’s in a warehouse and looks dark and creepy–you never know what you’ll step into.
The 14 hour bus ride
Long way from Athens to Istanbul
According to Google Maps, my journey was about 1,000km.
Thank goodness the seats were comfortable and I didn’t have anyone sitting beside me.
Throughout the night, I experimented with different sleeping positions. I was a pretzel, The Thinker with knees to my chin, a cushion with my head on the seat.
I never figured out what was the best position for sleeping. The position I want to experiment was hanging my legs out the aisle having my whole upper body on the two seats.
Bad backseat mates
Turkish shows on the bus
I am blessed with a magical ability to attract the worst behind-seat mates. Last trip from KL to Singapore, I had a lady who crossed her legs through out the journey and whined loudly when my seat even reclined that just little bit.
This time, it was a pair of Brazillian buddies. They could not stop talking from across the aisle!
The only time I realized that there was no sound coming from them was at 11:00pm. I peeked at them and found that they were trying to sleep.
Rest stops along the way
Greek rest stop
The rest stops in Greece looked more like nice coffee shops that are generous with their toilet.
In Turkey, however, it cost 1 euro to use the toilet. Just as bad as it was in Italy.
Land border crossing and the smuggler
I’ve only entered another country through the borders in two places: Malaysia-Singapore and Malaysia-Thailand.
I was curious how the border crossing was for Greece and Turkey.
Leaving Greece, everyone had to get off the bus, pass their passport to the customer officer who was at the bus lane. The officer asked a few questions to suspicious people (like someone with a Malaysian passport). Those who have suspicious baggage had to take things out and unwrap them.
The passports were later passed back when we all got back on the bus.
For Turkey, the inspection was a bit worse. My luggage inspection was fast since I only had a backpack. The officer still put his hand into my bag and felt around.
There was a man who brought two tall boxes wrapped with newspaper and taped with brown tape, inside which was cognac, at least according to him.
The Turkish customs folks tore open the wrapping. In one of the boxes was a tall alcohol bottle that was about the height of my knee.
The man was detained and our bus left without him. It’s pretty scary to be him.
I drifted in and out of sleep on the bus. Most of the time I had my feet on the other seat and rested my head on the my seat. (Later I took a 2 hour nap when I got to Istanbul).
The bus was surprisingly on time and we all made it to Istanbul at 8:00am.
After the teaser post last week, I’m ready to show you some of the things I ate on my 15-night cruise.
It’s very dangerous to put a Glutton on a cruise, especially a 15-night cruise. I think all the imagined fat that I’ve burnt off getting lost cycling in Sri Lanka were replaced by the food I had been eating everyday on the cruise.
First off, I want to share that I’m quite disappointed that food on board is not free-flowing for 24 hours.You still have room service throughout the night (free food but please tip the delivery person) but that doesn’t really count, does it? Of course, no midnight buffet is actually a good thing as it avoids food wastage and overeating.
By the way, food on board is not fantastic. It’s a bit like plane food (but you know that I love plane food)
On board the Legend of the Seas, there are three main eating places I go to: Windjammer Cafe, Romeo and Juliet Restaurant and Park Cafe.
Windjammer Cafe has buffets for three meals while Romeo and Juliet has sit-down meals for the same three meals. Park Cafe serves snacks and opens when Windjammer is closed but only until around 1:00am.
Windjammer Cafe food
I prefer Windjammer over the dining room of Romeo and Juliet because you get to pick and choose only what you want to try.
At breakfast, you can order omelettes with fillings of your choice. My favorite types are ham, bacon, mushroom and cheese.
For lunch and dinner, I usually eat like a carnivore with loads of meat on my plate.
Generally speaking, the ship doesn’t do Asian food well. All the Chinese-inspired soups were filled with MSG.
Romeo and Juliet restaurant
For the dining room, there’s fixed seating at dinner and free seating at lunch and breakfast. For free seating, you’re usually guided to a shared table and everyone makes small talk.
I met a lot of new people at the free seating which is really good since I don’t go out and mingle about too much.
The dining room offered a menu with food that appeared more than once each week. The main dishes were alright but the desserts were usually rather good for cruise food.
During dinner, everyone has fixed waiters for the table. My two waiters were Jenny and Valent who keep the conversation going when I sit alone. There were two Indian couples who now live in the US at my dinner table too.
On the last night, the staff stage a singing show to bid us farewell. It made me a little sad to leave the ship.
Self-squeezed orange juice
I found out about self-squeezed orange juice from a blogger who was on a transalantic cruise. She made her own orange juice because freshly squeezed orange juice was too expensive on the ship.
On Legend of the Seas, freshly squeezed orange juice is US$4. There is also juice made from concentrate–which I love–but it’s different from drinking orange juice just freshly squeezed.
I make mine by cutting the orange with cutlery snagged from the buffet table. The inside can be crushed easily using a spoon. It’s a rather messy business by the end is worth all the effort.
Today is the last day at sea. I will miss this floating life very much.
In the morning, I joined another session of card-making. Today’s card was different from the last, although I still do not know if I should post them out or leave them to yellow.
Around noon, the ship passed Sicily. It’s rather a surprise that Sicily is the first Italian town I would see when I thought that it was going to be Civitavecchia [pronounced: Chi-vita-veh-kia (I didn’t know that and said it as it is spelled.]
The island had a long long coast and it seemed like we sailed forever before we stopped seeing its dotted shores.
In the evening, the restaurant staff performed a lip-synced song of farewell. I felt teary, more sad about the thought of needing to pay for food for the next few months.
[Anna Karenina is on three different channels as I write. Yikes!]
. Walk with the direction of the traffic and you will reach Al Travel Metro.
YQtravelling 