Doing your own food

[Joolz]

I've been doing festivals for a few years and I have been consistently appaled by the quality and cost of festival food and snacks. (there are a few exceptions! Falafel in a pitta with all the trimmings, roasted sweet nuts and fudge!) As a rule we will not eat a bought meat meal at a festival (that includes bacon butties!).

As a Chef, I've honed a selection of menus, to be eaten over the Glasto 5 day extravaganza!

Bless those lovely, thin, (naieve) youngsters who carry in burger buns, securly strapped under their bungies, atop their beer! Take pitta breads!they come vacuum packed (i.e. last longer) and don't end up any more squashed than your bridge roll/burger bun!

Fahitas (Wraps) are also top on the list, they pack flat!

You can roll up anything in them bacon and egg (with Baked Beans), stirfried chicken and you don't need a plate, apart from initial assembly. Perfect (washed hands) finger food!

BBQ's (this could be a chapter on it's own!) Burger, hmm, original, sausages, they are round (doh!) and will be guaranteed to roll of that disposable bbq you bought! Wooden skewers are another piece of kit that won't break the bank and pack easy! (You either, put a 'fence' of them around the bbq or you skewer 2/3 together using 2 ACROSS the banger. It makes turning them over easier, too! Skewers come in easy for making veg kebabs, courgette, onion, pepper, mushrooms,

cherry tomatoes abrush of oil (a small sprig of rosemary dipped in oil) salt and pepper! Also, corn on the cob, done on a bbq, magic!

Never underestimate the power of a premade FROZEN curry, and a bag of precooked rice......It keeps your beer cold and the plesant aroma, as it's heating up, make many 'friends'!

I keep all the food I take frozen and I use it as it defrosts, over the 5 days. Think ahead, if you are taking chicken, slice/dice it before you freeze! Then it's just ready to hit the pan. Bacon, it comes vacuum packed, as long as you don't try and stew it in it's pack in the sun, it will keep for 5 days, no problem. I get polystyrine boxes with lids. Fill the space with newspaper to keep items cool. Always wrap your box of food in your bedding, when not needed. It insulates and keeps things cooler for much longer. I drank a cider on saturday night (last year, a scorcher!) that still had ice crystals in it. (Whilst listening to Munford and Sons...)

The things that make the difference, fresh veg, avocados ( a bit of a bugger, but if you can carry eggs,Avos won't be a problem.) One meal we enjoy is an avocado, tomato and mozarella salad, a drop of oil, maybe some olives and a bit of pitta bread.

I always take a LARGE frying pan. This will cook bacon, eggs and heat up your fahitas.

Aerosol cream, UHT,fantastic for making Irish/French Coffees. Though, I have been known to take fresh double cream and use it, when it's gone sour in Mexican Fahitas. A can of mixed beans is a wonderful hangover buster, can produce wind, though! Produced as a salad, dressed!

The first meal of the festival is ALWAYS mackrel, boned, taken in marinade (soy sauce, ginger and sugar some lemon juice) ready for the BBQ with veg kebebs. This is not frozen.

I'd love to hear if others have found gems and would they share it with us?

[rubenz]

I am afraid the only food I have eaten that I have taken with me is some crisps ..No way I could be doing with taking all that food with me when there are so many great food places to try out.

If however you are cooking all that stuff I dont mind coming round to try a few things

[gizmoman]

Great post, some very good tips in there, we always take food for a big breakfast each day, though once we're out and about will usually buy something, taking everything frozen is a top tip and was definitely needed this year!

[LusciousLucy]

Due to being on a mega budget, paying out on festy food was a treat this summer and so for the first time since I was festivalling in the 90s I took the cooker with me.

My best camp cooked meal that could feed 2 people was to make up one of the packet pasta meals and once cooked, then add a tin of ratatouille to go with a tomato pasta packet, white wine and chicken in a tin with the creamy pasta packs or a tin of mushrooms. Adding a tin of veg or creamy chicken really helps bulk the pasta up.

Or to make the pasta cooking even quicker, tortiloni(?) - those filled pasta shapes that don't need to be kept in a fridge. If you have a way of keeping butter cool, just throw in a blob or two et voila, super speedy and filling meal. Do remember to bring a small bottle of oil with you (flavoured is better eg. garlic, to lift the flavour of your pasta).

A trick I learnt from the Germans in my hostel in Oz was tinned potatoes (fry them), then add bacon to fry and then add eggs (and herbs/seasoning) to make a big old fritatta of sorts.

Easy brekkie: tortilla wrap, a large blob of peanut butter spread thickly then add a banana and roll up. Quick, easy, filling and energy food for your morning.

I found those Heinz soups that you are supposed to microwave also work well if you add noodles/packet rice/pasta. The Guinness Beef and Ale was particularly yum.

I took one of those big pack curry meals to Bearded Theory (bought reduced whilst at Toscos on the way there) and me and Mikey B ate like kings on the first day!

And the filthiest yet in fact, tastiest 'meal' I had was made from 2 slices of cheap white bread, a squirt of that new mayo with lemon and garlic with a squirt of sweet chili sauce. Under the time pressures we were under whilst working at T, this was seriously quick and also very lush indeed.

Having flavoured mayo is a godsend

Edited November 16, 2010 by LusciousLucy

[Okky]

POT NOODLE!

Never eating one of those f**kers again. EUGH.

Pita is a brilliant idea though that I'd not thought of before. I think next year I might try taking pita, humous, refried beans and some veg

Should last me through

[LusciousLucy]

Would you believe it...but I actually discovered a Pot Noodle that is actually (almost) delicious???

Pot Pasta, the Spaghetti Bolognese flavour. Actually tastes really tomatoey, the pasta cooks up well it can actually pass as a decent bolognese in a pot.

I couldnt believe it, but got others to taste it too and all agreed it was half decent. I havent managed to find it in a supermarket though despite looking since the one I tried was given to me over the summer.

[Joolz]

I did mean to add, take some cooked new potatoes, good for salad with onion and mayo and possibly a tin of tuna. Good fried up for brekkie, too!

[grumpyhack]

We've always enjoyed the quality of food on offer at Glasto and try to eat our way round the world, Indian, Caribbean, Moroccan, Goan, French etc. However we also enjoy cooking for ourselves, especially since the arrival of our trailer tent with a decent two burner stove and grill.

Martin, our Group Catering Manager, prides himself on fresh pasta dishes.

For those who don't have much by way of cooking facilities I strongly recommend investing four quid in a Gelert toaster. It sits on top of a single gas burner and produces excellent toast very quickly. You can toast up to five slices of bread simultaneously - four propped up round the sides and one laid across the top.

It weighs next to nothing and folds flat to the size of a plate.

Link: http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?hl=en&q=gelert+toaster&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=3005096221262108323&ei=XhDjTNOTKo2IhQeCkNClDg&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDEQ8wIwAw

Even when we were tenting we had a toast factory going every morning starting with smoked mackerel pate on toast and then moving through toast and marmalade and toast and marmite etc. Proved very popular.

[theampersanddevil]

Although I love festival food, when I'm skint, packet noodles and cous cous are great. As is soup.

There is also home made cous cous, great cold. Curry like you mention.

But the winner for me is the white russians. Everything seams better after that luxury in the morning.

[JC-Mo'Fucka]

Must be murder carrying all that in!

[Joolz]

Must be murder carrying all that in!

[NeilVJ]

I bet you bring all your own cider in as well and then take an mp3 player as well. Would hate for you to get involved with the festival spirit. The food at Glastonbury is amazing

[Digi]

It all sounds delicious but i'm afraid it would mean me spending far too much time back at the tent! My culinary skills this year amounted to a tin of chicken curry and a packet of precooked rice. I think i'd rather tighten the purse strings from now until June, save a bit of extra cash and eat my way around the site

*Edited to add* I WILL take breakfast stuff with me though! We were up pretty early due to the heat and would hang around our camp for a couple of hours before setting off for the day so next year i'll take stuff for breakfasts as cooking then won't really eat into my time

Edited November 17, 2010 by Digi

[zeppelin]

I bet you bring all your own cider in as well and then take an mp3 player as well. Would hate for you to get involved with the festival spirit. The food at Glastonbury is amazing

[shiveringsky]

Cous-cous with random veg is a staple with us. Just throw in some ginger, soy and honey and you're good to go. Carrots, tinned sweetcorn, some raisins etc... It's quick, easy, tasty and very cheap. It'll cook in the time it takes to change socks and skin up.

[cejx]

I'll be honest, the less time I spend at the tent the better. Whilst I appreciate that folk are skint - and likely to be even more so next year (me included), I'll continue to chuck those 2 quid coins in a jar - me and hubby made just short of 600 quid between us last year. The food at Glastonbury is so varied and the most part so delicious, I'd feel that I'd missed out on a massive part of the festival if I lugged my own food and booze in.

[ingear]

Due to being on a mega budget, paying out on festy food was a treat this summer and so for the first time since I was festivalling in the 90s I took the cooker with me.

My best camp cooked meal that could feed 2 people was to make up one of the packet pasta meals and once cooked, then add a tin of ratatouille to go with a tomato pasta packet, white wine and chicken in a tin with the creamy pasta packs or a tin of mushrooms. Adding a tin of veg or creamy chicken really helps bulk the pasta up.

Or to make the pasta cooking even quicker, tortiloni(?) - those filled pasta shapes that don't need to be kept in a fridge. If you have a way of keeping butter cool, just throw in a blob or two et voila, super speedy and filling meal. Do remember to bring a small bottle of oil with you (flavoured is better eg. garlic, to lift the flavour of your pasta).

A trick I learnt from the Germans in my hostel in Oz was tinned potatoes (fry them), then add bacon to fry and then add eggs (and herbs/seasoning) to make a big old fritatta of sorts.

Easy brekkie: tortilla wrap, a large blob of peanut butter spread thickly then add a banana and roll up. Quick, easy, filling and energy food for your morning.

I found those Heinz soups that you are supposed to microwave also work well if you add noodles/packet rice/pasta. The Guinness Beef and Ale was particularly yum.

I took one of those big pack curry meals to Bearded Theory (bought reduced whilst at Toscos on the way there) and me and Mikey B ate like kings on the first day!

And the filthiest yet in fact, tastiest 'meal' I had was made from 2 slices of cheap white bread, a squirt of that new mayo with lemon and garlic with a squirt of sweet chili sauce. Under the time pressures we were under whilst working at T, this was seriously quick and also very lush indeed.

Having flavoured mayo is a godsend

[BlackHole2006]

Would you believe it...but I actually discovered a Pot Noodle that is actually (almost) delicious???

[jameshunt]

I bet you bring all your own cider in as well and then take an mp3 player as well. Would hate for you to get involved with the festival spirit. The food at Glastonbury is amazing

[Boris]

...erm Joolz... can I pop by for a bite next year please? Yes I'm serious!

[Craigston]

I'll be honest, the less time I spend at the tent the better. Whilst I appreciate that folk are skint - and likely to be even more so next year (me included), I'll continue to chuck those 2 quid coins in a jar - me and hubby made just short of 600 quid between us last year. The food at Glastonbury is so varied and the most part so delicious, I'd feel that I'd missed out on a massive part of the festival if I lugged my own food and booze in.

Edited November 17, 2010 by Craigston

[Joolz]

Now, yes, cooking 'back at the tent' is possibly time consumming and some peeps might look at it as being 'away' from the festival. We have always been lucky and never been more than 60 to 80 mts. (no, I've not measured the distance, this is an approximation.) away from a live music venue, The John Peel Tent has not disappointed us in the last 3 years. (Gaslight Anthems and Bruce, Florence etc. you could not make it up!) Just because you can't see the band playing, you still know when a bum note is being played.

We time/plan our meals around who is playing at the time. Everyone is a winner. Our plan, next year, is to be closer to a micro brewery bar! (And, of course, a live music venue.)lol

[StoneCircle]

This year we bought very little on site and we do not have to carry stuff to camp as we are in the campervan fields. I had made a chilli for the Tuesday night, I also had brought sausages, bacon, eggs and long life part cooked bread to bake as we have an oven and a variety of other tinned or vacuum packed food I have found to be good.

Highly recommend for quick meals are M&S tinned steak and kidney, Waitrose vacuum packed sliced potatoes with bacon at only £1.15 are a great treat with breakfast! Sainsburys tinned chicken tikka massala, Sainsburys chana dal, Sharwoods poppadoms and longlife naan breads and remember microwavable rice takes less time to cook in a pan than dried! There is a range of vacuum packed food called 'Look What We've Found' available in Sainsburys and Waitrose that are handy too!

Wraps are great too. Lettuce keeps well if placed in a shallow bowl/bucket/trug of water. Dried peppers, onions and mushrooms (Whitworths bought from Morrisons) are great to add to most savory dishes and weigh very little.

The homemade chilli was still being consumed by Saturday as I had made loads in case my friends hadn't catered for the Tuesday. Luckily we have a (albeit small) fridge/freezer! Due to the hot weather this year we did go back to the caravan in the afternoon to refresh (shower) and pick up chilled lager, cider and wine from the Igloo. (Large passive coolbox that lasts 5 days +)

I certainly enjoyed this more than the flat pre-poured Tuborg on offer in the beer tents. The cider bus and Brothers bar are the only bars we visited and as a result we spent less than £50 on food and drink inside the festival between us. Easier to do if you are in the campervan/caravan fields than in a tent! The previous year we spent close to £500, there are just the two of us.

Edited March 22, 2011 by StoneCircle

[precious_lillywhite]

I'll be honest, the less time I spend at the tent the better. Whilst I appreciate that folk are skint - and likely to be even more so next year (me included), I'll continue to chuck those 2 quid coins in a jar - me and hubby made just short of 600 quid between us last year. The food at Glastonbury is so varied and the most part so delicious, I'd feel that I'd missed out on a massive part of the festival if I lugged my own food and booze in.

[amfy]

I bet you bring all your own cider in as well and then take an mp3 player as well. Would hate for you to get involved with the festival spirit. The food at Glastonbury is amazing