In western countries, breakfast has become the excuse for desserts first thing in the morning. Don’t get me wrong, I’m ALL about desserts —especially breakfast desserts. I thoroughly enjoy the early morning western staples of pancakes, waffles, french toast, yogurt, açai bowls, and, of course, the sugariest of sugared breakfast cereals like everyone else. But, if I can choose to enjoy these desserts during non-breakfast times, that’s makes enjoying those sweet delights even better…

Phở is the spaghetti of the Vietnam. It’s the country’s most known dish, the most talked about, and somehow translated extremely well to non-Vietnamese people when made the leap over the pond to western countries. And, like spaghetti, mom always makes it best. The next best thing while you’re traveling on the road? Make phở yourself and have a full on chill day at camp.

It’s a well known fact that camping and coffee go hand-in-hand. The fact that we make the choice all leave our day-to-day grind to slow down and appreciate what’s around us for a few days, a week, a month, or indefinitely. That very cup filled with that black soul nourishing liquid is the exact catalyst for many of us to take a step back, breathe in a little deeper, and turn down the go-go-go clock.

Plant-based or vegetarian are phrases that could make some scrunch their nose. I am very guilty of this. Vegetarian, or healthy meals, are, from my experience, bland affairs with very little depth. The dishes that try to have some kind of identity are usually barely passable versions of extremely gentrified curries hailing from southeast asian countries….

The most American I ever felt as an immigrant kid growing up in America was when I was 18 and I ordered my first French dip at Applebee’s. Nothing felt as far removed from home-cooked Vietnamese food than, to me, a decadent meat filled sandwich where you dip the whole contraption into its own juices. In those few moments of enjoying the sandwich, the feeling of being included and accepted as just another American kid, and not an immigrant kid with strange cultural traditions and stinky food, was incredibly powerful.

This is a meal for those lazy days at camp when you roll in late but need something that would hit the inner core of your being. Or, it’s for those colder nights when a sandwich just won’t do. It’s quick to put together, and quick to cook up.

There’s power in food. One bite of something and it can transport you straight back into a single moment in time. It could be the smell, or the faint taste of something very familiar during the after taste. Whatever that trigger is, Karissa and I usually find ourselves holding onto it for a fleeting moments.

I’m down for eating healthy. I’d be lying if I said I don’t need to. My roundness would be my Pinocchio nose if I was. I would eat a wonderful salad, or a hipster-tastic ancient grain bowl filled with all the millennial healthy buzz words and the latest of alternative ingredients, only to dig for snacks no more than half an hour later…

I have a simple philosophy for our on-the-road cooking: keep it under two cooking pots, have no more than ten ingredients, and a max of two exotic/harder to get ingredients. I tend to follow this self-made line of reasoning with very few variations. On the day-to-day, we have fairly simple meals….

There’s never a right or wrong way. Especially with food. We’re all so fixated on this notion of authenticity that it almost blinds us from actually enjoying meals. If the food is delicious, and if it has all the right hints and notes of the culture it derived from, it’s authentic because the cook made it that way…

One of the many misconceptions about Indian curries is the idea that they’re stews which take a very long time to simmer away. But in reality, they’re quite the opposite! From start to finish, you can be done and eating in 20 minutes. A little bit of extra-ness goes a long way when you’re on the road…w

A little bit of effort goes a long way. Camp Mexican-style beef birria on a warm-in-the-sun-but-chilly-in-the-shade sort of day hits the spot like very little else. Marinade the night before, toss it into a dutch oven in the morning, and you have incredible soul touchingly good tacos and soup by lunch…