Road food is one thing; but how do you eat if the "road" is a river?

Nothing beats cooking - and eating - in the outdoors.

The name of my blog pretty much gives away the fact I'm passionate about parrots and about paddling (if not, I've really goofed!).

But if not truly passionate, I'm certainly very close to being passionate about food, as well.

So...if you take a foodie who's also a canoehead, it can sometimes be a bit of a challenge to create an acceptable menu when I'm on a multi-day paddling trip.

I will say I've had some marvellous eating experiences while travelling by canoe and kayak. There've been a few disappointments, too.

While every trip has its highlights, and I've never really had a bad paddling trip, how and what you eat can often influence your impressions and memories of the trip.

Obviously, while you're on a canoe or kayak trip, you are "on the road". However, unlike driving on a highway, there's no place to pull over and order a burger and fries (although those always seem to be my first go-to meal after finishing any paddling trip.)

That means you have to plan and cook it yourself, if you're on a self-guided trip; if you're booked with an outfitter, they look after the meal planning and most of the prep for you.

I've done plenty of both; and in both instances, I've experienced the good, the bad, and the ugly (even when there's no spaghetti involved.)

I have created some incredible meals myself, as well as been a party to some bad ones (usually in the form of freeze-dried foods.)

Although it may not qualify as gourmet fare, I remember the very first dish I ate, cooked over a campfire in the outdoors.

A nice heaping plate of Richildaca Stew.

I was eight years old, and I was a camper at Richildaca Day Camp, near Kettleby, Ontario, in the rural area just west of the Newmarket-Aurora area in southern Ontario, about 40 km north of Toronto. It was "cookout day." I was excited when I saw them open the ground beef. Then I saw cans of mushroom and vegetable soup. I HATED mushrooms and anything to do with them! And I wasn't keen about veggie soup, either, back then. But, it was eat that or starve. So I ate. And I ate it. And I ate it.

Yeah, I loved it.

So much that I've always tried to feature it on all my camping menus. Of course, it has changed over the years, as I've tweaked it a bit. And it wasn't called "Richildaca Stew" back then. But it's still easy, hearty, and every bite still brings back memories.

If you want to see a real-life demonstration on how to make Richildaca Stew, you can watch the entire process on one of my YouTube videos.

Then there are the bacon and eggs and hashbrowns that always taste so good cooked outdoors over a camp stove or an open fire. They always taste better than the ones cooked at home.

Breakfast is a sizzlin'...

Of course, not all my paddling recipes turn out well. Although I once impressed a young lady with my "canned goods shiskabob" (canned potatoes and spam, cooked on a stick over a fire - another Richildaca innovation), there have been some unpleasant memories involved with camp food. The most unpleasant involved two people sleeping in a small dome tent after gorging on freeze-dried bean-tortilla dinner.

It was w-a-y worse than normal beans. Even the porcupines that hung around that campsite in numbers just up and disappeared.

Some go-to books for planning paddling meals.

Scratch that one off the list.

If you want to plan your own trips and meals, there are several good books to help you. Two of my favourites are The Wanapitei Canoe Trippers Cookbook and The Paddling Chef. 

Outfitters have prepared some amazing meals on trips over the years. My first sea kayaking excursion in Belize, our guides prepared an amazing and simple rum punch, a delicious conch stew, and wonderful fresh-caught fish. Mind you, I wasn't crazy about the vegetarian chilli and vegetarian spaghetti sauce foisted upon us later in that EcoSummer trip by an overzealous "naturist" guide. But you take the good with the bad.

The best chow I've had on a paddling trip?

Two come to mind immediately: an Adventure-Life five-day kayak trip I took in the jungles of Ecuador and some great grub enjoyed with Okefenokee Adventures on a three-day canoe trip in the Georgia swamp.

In the Amazon, we had three-course meals, with everything prepared by the guides. Each meal featured soup, salad, entree, dessert and wine. All eaten at a table, sitting on chairs underneath a forest canopy filled with parrots, toucans, and the occasional harpy eagle.

In the Okefenokee, I remember eating some incredible jambalaya and equally good spaghetti with meat sauce.

Of course, everyone who knows me, knows how I love my coffee, in or out of camp. And without a good mug of brew (or two), you really cannot start the day properly - especially on a paddling trip.

Paddler and singer-songwriter Jerry Vandiver knows this better than anyone - which is why he wrote a great song about camp coffee. I'll leave it here, with you. Maybe it'll inspire you to plan your next paddling trip - or even a trip menu. Or if nothing else, to go get another cup of coffee to sip while you enjoy it.



Want to see more of Jerry's videos? Check out his YouTube page.

There is magic in kids' camps

This time of year - the mid-way point of the two-month summer school break - I almost always find myself reminiscing about summers past, and in particular, going to camp as a kid.

You may be wondering, well, fine - but what does that have to do with travel?

In my case, plenty. 

In fact, it would not be too big a stretch to say going to camp as a kid is one of the key factors that propelled me into a career of travel writing.

Bear in mind, much of the travel I write about involves getting out-of-doors, into nature, seeking adventure - and often doing so by canoe or kayak or occasionally, whitewater raft. There is also often a conservation angle or aspect to it. There is good reason for that...

It really all does go back to that first summer at Camp Richildaca in southern Ontario, where I learned to paddle a canoe on a small pond on the day camp's property.

Richildaca Canoe Pond (Photo by Alexandra Heilbron)

Of such things, careers are made...

I also learned the sport of archery, rode my first horse, went on my first nature hike, cooked my first meal over an open fire and slept in a tent for the first time at Richildaca.

Oh, yeah - I learned to swim there, too - kind of an important skill to develop if you plan on spending a lot of time paddling on lakes, rivers and oceans around the world.

Yes, it would be not to big a stretch to say the two-week periods I spent there over three successive summers made a big impact on who and what I became as an adult. Ditto, the successive two camp periods I spent at the Haliburton Scout Reserve.

Without the love of the outdoors, that desire to hike and paddle and seek adventure in the wilderness, I just might be another old sports writer (I did it for 15 years before turning to travel writing), or, worse still - (shudder!) a history teacher.

Chow time! at Haliburton Scout Reserve

Nothing wrong with history teachers, by the way - I'd probably make a good one - but my interest in elementary school North American colonial history (and its associated adventure) combined with my love of the outdoors really did send me down a path that involved a fairly l-o-n-g detour into the University of New Brunswick's Bachelor of Science Forestry program, the eventual earning of a business degree - and a career in radio and print sports journalism for 15 years. 

My move into journalism really is the result of some encouragement from a first-year friend at UNB, Dan Arsenault, someone I'm still friends with today. He coaxed me into joining CHSR, the campus radio station. I did; eventually I also began writing for the Brunswickan, UNB's student newspaper.

Even going to UNB, the launching pad for my journalism career, was actually another case of Richildaca synchronicity: when I worked as a junior forest ranger in Gogama, Ontario during the summer of 1973, the head foreman recommended UNB as a good place to go for forestry if I didn't want to stay in Ontario.

Paddling on Azure Lake, as a junior forest ranger

The entire time I worked as a sports journalist, I still loved camping, canoeing, getting out-of-doors. Eventually, my sense of adventure took me paddling in Belize (where I encountered my first wild parrots!), and it was not long after that I started down the path of becoming a travel writer.

I don't know that any of that would have gone quite that way if I hadn't gone to Camp Richildaca when I was eight years old, and picked up a canoe paddle for the very first time.

I had no clue then that I was essentially beginning to paddle down a path that would make me one of those fortunate souls who gets to "work" by wandering the world in search of stories to write and photos to take. My inclinations and career have taken me to Africa, South America, the Caribbean, Malaysia, Thailand, Hawaii, the Canary Islands...

Zipping down Thailand's River Kwai in a canoe

Richildaca is gone now, the original owners passed away. New ownership and management have developed a new camp on the same site, the Kettleby Valley Camp, and it continues to offer outdoor experiences for children and young teens, helping them develop new skills and interests, helping them make new memories.

So if you're thinking about sending your kids to camp, and you're not quite sure whether to do it or not, why not just let the kids decide? Let them try it, at least for one summer. If they don't like it, they won't want a repeat.

Even if it does not lead to a career, chances are, they'll build some pretty good memories.

And, really there's no telling where that experience may lead them in life...

'Tis The Season To Be Cooking (and taking culinary journeys)...

After reading an article all about cookbook gift ideas well written by Mia Stansby in the Vancouver Sun (Wednesday, Dec. 21 edition), I thought, they're nice books, but I don't think any of them would be books I'd want in my collection.

I do have quite a collection - an entire bookshelf of cookbooks, in fact.

However ...

They're NOT your grandmother's cookbooks, though...(in fact, they're probably not even your mother's cookbooks - unless she happened to be a headhunter, Moroccan refugee or operator of a bordello).

I collect some of the most eclectic cookbooks you would ever want to read.

Okay, I know you're probably thinking, "What does this have to do with travel?" (Or for that matter, paddling or parrots?)

The fact is, culinary travel - adventures with food, journeys revolving around experiencing the food eaten by other cultures, cooking tours, or whatever term you want to use - is a huge segment of the travel market, these days.

At some point in the future, I'll probably write a blog post about the weirdest foods I've eaten while travelling. But for now, here are a few of my favorite cookbooks that also involve travel - if not real travel, then at least travel of your taste buds to new and distant foods.

To the best of my knowledge, all of these books are available online at Amazon.whatever - if not new, then certainly used.

DINING WITH HEADHUNTERS: Jungle Feasts and Other Culinary Adventures by  Richard Sterling

This is much more than just a cookbook; it's a collection of stories about the author's adventures around southeast Asia, many experienced while he served in the U.S. Navy during the conflict in Vietnam, during the late 1960's and early '70's. Some stories are just plain funny, some poignant, some bawdy (hey, he was a sailor, after all!) and some a combination of all of the above.

Each story is followed by at least one, usually more than one, recipe. The recipes are all based on food or drink he actually experienced in the story with which they're linked.

A few of my fav's: Satay Malaya from "The Feasts of Fatima," a story about falling halfway in love with a lady of the evening; Mojo (a drink) from "Mojo Rising," a story about a retired madam (hmmm...mmm..., am I detecting a pattern here...?); and Madalay Mail Chicken, from "Train Fare" (nope, no working girls in that one!)

THE CASABLANCA COOKBOOK: Wining and Dining at Rick's by Sarah Key, Jennifer Newman Brazil and Vicki Wells

Being a huge fan of this movie, and the owner of several other books about Bogey (and a few Moroccan cookbooks, as well), I had to add this one to my collection several years ago. In addition to some excellent recipes for drinks (champagne cocktail, Senor Ferrari's iced almond coffee) and food (coriander shrimp kebabs, ground lamb kebabs) this little volume contains photos from the movie, games and quotes from the movie. A "must-have" if you're a fan of the movie, a fan of Moroccan food, or just a collector of eclectic cookbooks like Yours Truly.

I really do love Moroccan food, so I guess one of these days, I may even have to travel there...

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ASIAN COOKING Edited by Jeni Wright

This book has been in our household, well, ever since we've had a household. I used it regularly for preparing foods from India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Burma and Thailand, to name but a few. It's not really eclectic, I guess, but it certainly is useful. It even offers suggestions for recipe substitutions if you can't find an ingredient needed for a particular dish (which can sometimes be a bit of a problem if you live in a community without much selection or variety of Asian ingredients.) It also provides measurements in both metric and imperial formats.

Cooking Thai Cashew Chicken, a recipe from Extending the Table

THE LAST DINNER ON THE TITANIC: Menus and Recipes from the Great Liner by Rick Archbold and Dana McCauley

This is an amazing book, if you're into history, culinary or otherwise. It gives you a glimpse of what it was like to travel on what was, in its day, the largest ocean liner in the world. It details how the ship was organized in terms of class structure (based on whether you were sailing first-class, second-class or third-class. The passengers were restricted, by class, where they could dine, or even have a drink - quite a difference from today's cruise ship industry.

It includes some old photos as well as artists' renderings and conversion charts (after all, these recipes were from Edwardian England, so some recipes do need adjusting).

It's a wonderful book, taking you back to the last days of the "Golden Age of Travel."

EXTENDING THE TABLE: Recipes and stories from Argentina to Zimbabwe by Joetta Handrich Schlabach

This collection of world recipes is another cooking tome that's well-thumbed in our household. It features recipes galore as well as stories from around the world. One of the features I really enjoy is the way the book includes proverbs and quotes about food, sprinkling them throughout the book like a good cook sprinkles herbs and spices throughout a culinary creation to create a tasty meal. Example: Egyptian proverb: "An onion offered by a true friend is like a whole lamb."

A wonderful book for anyone wanting to explore the cuisine of other cultures within the confines of their own kitchen.

WANAPITEI CANOE TRIPPERS' COOKBOOK by Carol Hodgins

You had to know, given the title of this blog, that at least one book would involve a cooking-paddling combination, right?

This book - which is designed in a way that you could take it canoeing with you - talks about nutrition in the wilderness - an entire section is devoted to it. There's also a section on water and environmental issues.

Then there are the recipes ... breakfasts, bannock and bread, meals, soups, salads, desserts - this book covers them all, and more. Say good-bye to those freeze-dried packs you buy at outdoor stores and say hello to some real cooking ...