Immersion Water Heaters Are Not Just for Tea and Coffee

This is an Immersion Water Heater

Here's what it looks like:

If you've never seen one before, either you weren't raised by an army dad, like I was, or I'm showing my age. Oh dear! You don't see them much anymore, but can still buy them from Amazon here.I'm hoping with this post, they're come back in style because when it comes to travel, they are handy little gadgets!

Why do I like them so much? Well, they're fast, first of all. If you need a cup of hot water in a jiffy, they do the job faster than a kettle. While I've seen some adorable little travel kettles and most hotel rooms have a coffee maker in them, sometimes you don't want to even touch the coffee maker in the room without gloves and bleach. This thing is compact and easy to travel with, so why bother with anything else?

Also, believe it or not, but you can boil an egg or pasta using an electric immersion water heater (you'll also need to a ceramic mug or bowl to do the job - don't use a styrofoam cup!) Think of anything that can be boiled - tea, coffee, hot dogs, stew, soups, porridge - there are tons of cheap and easy meals that can be made in the comfort of your hotel/hostel room while travelling. This will save you tons of money.

If you need more cooking tips or just want a laugh, check out my first on-screen performance as The Real Iron Chef:

Charity for Uganda

My hubby got the idea to help out a secular school in Uganda and wants to fund the building of some chicken coops which will be used by the primary school students for education and to feed them. A lot of them show up to school not having eaten and it's hard to teach hungry kids. If you have a few bucks to help out, we all would appreciate it. If not, please at least share this post with everyone you know!

Use the bottom below to donate!



And here's my hubby's blog.

Ethical Travel Eating

I recently got into a debate with a vegan friend of mine over travel hospitality and dietary restrictions.

His stance was that a host should know about your dietary restrictions ahead of time and plan accordingly to accommodate you and your needs. He also believes it is easy to find foods suitable to eat everywhere and continue to stick to whatever restrictions you normally keep at home.

My stance is that as a guest, you should eat whatever you are offered unless you are allergic/intolerant to it and it would kill you or make you ill. In other words, however you eat at home is a privilege and you should not impose your privilege on your host.

For the record, I'm not talking about visiting your aunt in the States - where you come from a similar culture and socio-economic status. I'm talking about visiting developing/impoverished nations.

Now his stance might be tainted by the fact he has not visited any developing/impoverished nations (as far as I know, I could be wrong, maybe he can correct me?) while I have. I have visited places where foods of all sorts were limited in general, so it was essentially impossible to be picky. I also believe that you can't always call ahead and tell people what you want to eat. For example, I would have missed out on a rich cultural experience in Morocco had I refused to eat the lunch I was spontaneously offered by a family. I think it would have been insulting to them to refuse to eat with them. When people do not have much to offer, and go out of their way to share with you, well I just can't see myself saying, "sorry, I don't eat ______, gotta run!"

Barring that, maybe never visit a country where it's hard to find the foods you want to eat? Sounds ridiculous. It also sounds like a great way to never immerse yourself in a culture!

What do you do when you travel? How do you handle travel with dangerous food allergies or religious/ethical dietary restrictions?

(Note, I'm not interested in debating why people eat or don't eat what they do, just how they deal with it on the road.)