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This is the Travel Blog of Andy of HoboTraveler.com
Daily Travel Tip
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Thanks to Mom, Dad, Family and Friends and Boy Genius From India
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| Solar Something That Works Works |
| Thursday, June 28, 2007 |
Solar Something That Works Works
Atakpame, Togo West Africa
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
This type of solar cooker cost between 75 and 500 US Dollars to purchase, someone probably hauled it all the way from Germany to this Hotel in Lome, Togo called Alices Camping or something in Baguida. This solar cooker looks to be lonely and forgotten like a Christmas toy that has lost it joy.
People do not discard cooking pans, they use them, however there is a reason nobody is using this solar cooker.
I am in favor of Solar Cooking and Solar this and that, however I think we need to do some thinking and realize we cannot talk our way to a solar planet, we need to develop ideas that people want to use, not ideas we want them to use.
Something that works, works.
Solar Something That Works WorksLabels: Cooking, Solar, Togo |
posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 2:47 AM   |
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| Goodbye to Electric Hotplate |
| Saturday, April 28, 2007 |
Goodbye to Electric Hotplate
Atakpame, Togo West Africa
Saturday, April 28, 2007
I am saying goodbye to my save money product, I am saying goodbye to my electric hotplate and going to use the alcohol cooker.
I am using just the base that holds the alcohol of the Alcohol Cooker. Yikes, I just learned this gift I received cost about 15 to 40 times more than my can of Tuna cooker.
I guess they call this the Trangia Burner.
http://www.clikstand.com/
http://www.clikstand.com/order.htm
I think it cost 15.95 for just the base, I do not think the average person need the rest unless they go jungle for months, and I stay in rooms. A windscreen can be made out of trees. A nice gadget, however I think I would use the tuna can, my friend Chris sent it to me.
Alcohol is very heavy!
I have been using an electric hotplate for years, and it is cheaper to use than the alcohol cooker. The problem is I cannot use 100 percent of the time, however when have no alcohol, I cannot use that cooker…
Note: Arabic countries make alcohol almost impossible to buy, because people would drink it and they are Islamic.
I think I need to try gas, normal gas, I can always buy it. I am not going to carry gas in my bag. But I could buy quick and easy.
There are many problems with a hot plate.
- It will burn up the wires in your room, and you will have no electricity in a badly wired room.
- Blows a fuse about 10 percent of time
- Blogs a breaker about 10 percent of time
- Burns up wires about 1 percent of time.
- Breaks about 1 in 50 uses, so I have to rewire it.
Cheap to buy, an electric hot plate in the world is normally under 5 US dollars, and you can buy them most places. Africa is difficult, because they use wood about 99 percent for cooking fuel, and electricity is considered very expensive. I do not know, about 100 Fran per kilowatt.
I have tried to make a few of these; I just cannot find the asbestos material to make a small 220 electric cooker that works also in 110 but cooler. This one I purchase in India broke about 20 uses, it is too big and has many sharp edges, and the sharp edges it not normal. I can fix this, but I do not have the will.
I like the alcohol cooker, not because it works better.
Because I do not have to hide it, owners of hotels get Hotel Hostile when the see an electric cooker. About 60 percent do not care because they steal the electricity and do not pay. However, I do not show them my electric hot plate.
Africa has a problem with electricity here and I am opting for the alcohol stove. It is smaller and easier to carry, maybe this is not true, and the carrying of alcohol is a serious problem. I have found a special bottle.
I would not be changing, if I had not found that Togo sells this special bottle, and I think I can continue to buy it, so if I lose the bottle, I can buy or replace. Replacing the container is more difficult than the stove; a can of tuna will replace the stove.
Alcohol here cost about 4 US dollars per liter, this is not cheap, but it says, 95 percent alcohol.
My alcohol cooker unit is on the left, I have the other half of what I think they call a Dutch Oven or something, you can buy on
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com
I cannot find it, but I purchased three there, maybe discontinued, there is a top and a bottom, the pair together and make the safest place in my pack for delicate items to be stored. To kill the alcohol, I sit the pan of vegetable on top and kill the oxygen.
They have a funky; I would never buy Hobo Knife and Fork.
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/20720-16501-634.html
Oh, rectangular items are easier to pack than round or oval, and a ball is ridiculous. I like this cooker because it optimized the space in bag.
One of the worlds most difficult to buy bottles. I have two shampoo bottles I have been protecting with my life for years. This could work for shampoo but is one liter in size, very big, but it rectangular and not round.
I found this in the market, here in Atakpame, they sell used bottle of all type in West Africa, and this one is special.
That little insert in the top, has a hole, it meets the inside of the lid, what happens this extra stopper helps to minimize leaks. This type of bottle takes a lot more beating than you water bottle ever imagined. This is why a Coca Cola bottle is so good. The world abuses the soap, coke, and other drinks. This extra stopper almost guarantees the bottle will not leak. Then if there is enough length of threads, I am good to go. I will trust this bottle farther, the problem, any bottle in a motorcycle accident can take a good squeeze, but this bottle. I should be able to fill it with alcohol and throw it from the top of the door height and not break, I will test later for fun.
This would make a great drinking bottle if I could wash the soap taste away, a liter in size, and would not leak. Hard to fill because you have to pry the top out. Water is an item you refill a lot.
I may need to buy a Hotplate again for a room heater.
Gear, West Africa Gear, Cooking, Stoves, Alcohol, Electricity, Food, West Africa Food, Hotplate
Goodbye to Electric HotplateLabels: Cooking, Electricity, Food, Gear, Heating or Cooling, Hotplate, Stoves, West Africa Food, West Africa Gear |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 8:37 AM |
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| Togo Peanuts |
| Sunday, April 08, 2007 |
Togo Peanuts
Kpalime, Togo West Africa
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Cooking peanuts or dry cooking the peanuts over a fire with some sand or soil intermixed with the peanuts.
This is
- Arrishide -
or
Peanuts in some language, does not seem to be French, but then again, I do not trust dictionaries. The word in my French dictionary says the word for peanuts is a Female and Cacahuète, almost the same as the Mexican word, and I think Argentina, while most or Central and South America say Mani.
Walking along, talking with Michael, and trying to locate the weavers in the city of Kpalime, when he stops to chat up one some girl. I wonder over to check out the peanuts being cooked.
How, I am not sure, they are not fried, this is not baked
They pop popcorn the same way in Nepal, very dry and not the best popcorn, fortunately they use oil here for the popcorn and the taste is better. The peanut come out good, and cooked ones are better than the boiled or raw.
The girls is wearing this very wear around the house, typical wrap around dress. The actually will wear it anywhere, but they tend to be closer to home. It is held up the same way, you would overlap a towel as you get leave the shower.
This tends to make them need to balloon it out and readjust, not the type of clothing that allows for rapid movement. Not a big worry about getting in a hurry or straining yourself here in West Africa.
There is often the Midwest shyness thing, and I often feel like I am walking in as a girl is just coming out of the shower. They do not mind, so I my best.
I took a few photos and the girl pretends to ignore me.
Togo Peanuts Labels: Cooking, Peanuts, Togo Food, West Africa Food |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 2:39 PM |
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| Organically Grown Palm Oil |
| Thursday, March 29, 2007 |
Organically Grown Palm Oil
Kpalime, Togo West Africa
Thursday, March 29, 2007
I am being sarcastic, and a smart A…
The Palm Oil is not pure and clean looking it is real, real life, real oil and made in a natural and organic way.
This is a photo I took in the market of Kpalime; the woman is selling palm tree oil, squeezed from this small little nut like thing. It is not the coconut, it is something that hangs down, not clear myself and there is nobody here in the organic natural and authentic world that cares to explain in English. I think I could get a very good Mina language explanation.
They do need and want to use the oil though, they are practical and use what they need, not making all the political correct decisions.
I see yams or cassava mostly being cooked in oil, there is also the Gateau I eat in the morning. They deep-fry them over a wood flame while I wait.
I like the Gateau or the round, what I think is corn, with some sugar inside dough thing, deep fried, and sold like a round donut hole, but is not a donut hole. Hmmm.. I have a photo.
Yes, the cheap food, I eat in the morning, one of these costs 25 Franc and one dollar is 500 Francs. I like them, and I have a small chat Chantelle, not Chantilly Lace, but Chantelle is my new friend, I think her mother makes them. Chantelle is married, has a baby by the name of Rose, and is nice, speak no English, small French, however we do communicate.
I am doing this mostly to EAT in the world now, IF I can see them cooking it, I will eat it, if they are not cooking it in front of me, I do not eat it, my solution to eating healthy.
I see many a chicken here looking like it is being cooked, and I want to see how long it has been on the burner, or is it from yesterday. I truly believe restaurants of the planet, take foods that did not sell yesterday, or the day before and just keep putting them out to sell. Not so bad when you know they have a fridge, sense of what is safe, and has the basic idea understood. NOT!
I trust my mom for this, and after that, I do not trust anyone, the world is about making a buck and the world will sell me anything they can get away from and I do not care if a 5 star hotel or the street vender. I am getting vigilant, cook it in front of me, and I will eat it.
Organically grown, a great marketing plan, a semi-good idea that goes astray, turns into a way to sell food at very high prices and who can say, was it really organically grown. The foods I see grown naturally grown are very ugly, I eat them daily, and the bananas are difficult to buy.
Is the world really ready for the ugly truth, would they eat meat, if they had to kill the chicken. The normal world will kill the chicken, we are sanitized and three levels away from life, the real world is a little too real for most people anymore to understand and appreciate.
I would wretch the necks a couple of chickens, if I thought they had some meat on them bones. They got some of the skinniest chickens and range fed chickens, marathon-running chickens on the planet here. The meat is like eating leather, a great place to make a large chicken farm.
Organically Grown Palm OilLabels: Coconut, Cooking, Food, Palm Tree, Togo, West Africa Food |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 4:12 AM |
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| Water Pasteurization |
| Tuesday, February 06, 2007 |
Water Pasteurization
Pokjara, Nepal Asia
February 6, 2007
I learned a term form the FOST Solar guy in Kathmandu, Nepa, the term is Water Pasteurization, and the idea is to boil water until it safe.
I knew this, just did not know the term of the day, however with this device and my 12 Volt cooky thingy, I could also so this, in addition to cooking peas, corn, or hot water for coffee and tea.
12-Volt Beverage Heater Immersible
I am very excited, I am stopping at home to visit, I can buy many toys! The USA is just a convenient place.
Water PasteurizationLabels: Cooking, Food, Nepal, Water |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 8:21 AM |
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| 12 Volt Travel Cooking |
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12 Volt Travel Cooking
Pokjara, Nepal Asia
February 6, 2007
I am going to try to augment my list of ways to cook.
1. Alcohol
2. Candles
3. Normal 220 or 110
Now, I am going to add 12 Volt, I HOPE.
I have purchased a 10 pack for AA Batteries, or more correctly three of them. I only need one, but I may like them, so need more. I am hoping, with my calculations and understanding this will generate between 14 and 10 volts according to the charge level.
A person can buy anything from a small forced air heater, to a microwave. The reason is because of the RV or Recreational Vehicle market and the Marine or Boat industry.
I have to carry about 14 AA Batteries to run my cameras, GPS and other toys, I will only buy an electronic toy if it uses the AA Batteries. I have charger and you can buy all these batteries and apparatuses in most tourist zones.
The 12 Volt Appliances can be purchased at any truck stop, however if you search for 12 Volt Appliances in Google.com, there is an amazing amounts of pages of them.
Examples:
Roadtrucker.com
12 Volt Fry Pan
Nonetheless, I can use a little spoon type cooker to heat bean, hot water for instant coffee, corn, or many other appliances. They also sell the room heater, for the cabs of Semi-Trucks, that could heat my room.
I figure, I can buy a 220 to 12 Volt Transformer and somehow rig it up to work.
Another idea is for me to hook up a bicycle to a car generator, and pedal my way to electricity.
12 Volt Travel CookingLabels: Coffee, Cooking, Food |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 7:35 AM |
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