When it comes to traveling, in my opinion, a big part of the experience is the culinary exploration. And expanding your horizons through the local food and national dishes of the country you’re visiting. But, that shouldn’t mean just eating out. While I’m not a big fan of the term digital nomad, if that’s what you identify yourself with then maybe consider cooking while working remotely from a different country. And start enjoying the local cuisine on the cheap.
I want to present you a blueprint and a set of guidelines that is guaranteed to better prepare you for living and working from an airbnb or a short to medium-term stay. This can be from a different city, country or maybe even planet.
The plan here is to keep costs down and get you to connect to the local culture through the power of cooking. Especially since working remotely has skyrocketed due to the pandemic. So when working remotely from abroad, being able to cook is a big plus!
Once the lockdowns were lifted I jumped for the opportunity to work for a few weeks from a different country. In this case, I went to Lisbon, Portugal. The city famous for it’s yellow trams, castle peacocks and delicious Pastéis de Nata
And, If you clicked on this link then you’re probably thinking about doing the same.
If you’re more of a visual learner then I invite you to watch the video I made on this topic on my channel:
I like to have the freedom of winging it when it comes to cooking, and to rely on the interesting ingredients that I find wherever I’m traveling. That means that I need to set a solid foundation of kitchen essentials to make that happen. I do that by breaking the process down in four parts:
- Assessing the kitchen
- The pantry essentials
- How and where to buy local ingredients
- Putting it all in practice
1. Assessing the kitchen – available appliances, tools and pantry
Always start by assessing the kitchen of your short-term accommodation. Based on these you’ll know what are you cooking possibilities.
A kitchen assessment sounds very official but it’s just about taking a good look at the kitchen and it’s cabinets. Once you know what tools you have, you’ll know what dishes you can cook. This will then influence your pantry and ingredient shopping list.
To do that I break it down into four categories, starting with:
1.1 Appliances
This one is simple, see if you have:
- an oven
- blender
- food processor
- a cook top
The basics that you’ll need are a cook top and maybe a microwave to make your life easier when reheating food. But an oven is a big plus to have. For example, at my airbnb there was no blender or food processor. So I knew that I wasn’t going to make any dish that would require them. But I do have an oven. Which is probably the best ally for easy cooking. Most oven dishes take little prep time and don’t need to be looked after once they’re in the oven. Especially if you’re cooking for a larger group of people.
1.2 Cookware & Bakeware
Next , I check the available cookware, the basics needed are:
- a 10 inch / 25cm frying pan
non-stick would probably be the most common that you’ll find as it’s the most versatile: good for frying eggs, fish or even steak, although the sear won’t be as great as with a stainless steel pan. - a 2 quart / 2 liter saucepan
this will come in handy when you need make a sauce for pasta, boil liquids, heating soup, blanching veggies or boiling eggs. - a 8 quart / 7.5 liter stockpot
while they’re great for making soups or boiling larger quantities of water, they can also work decently for braising meats if you don’t have any other alternative.
With these three you’ll be ok cooking most things. Some other nice to haves are
Nice-to-haves:
- A sauté pan
for cooking larger quantities of food – this is a workhorse in most kitchens but I won’t expect most airbnb kitchens to have it. - a stainless steel or a cast iron pan
it would give you so much more cooking options but again, not something I’d expect to see in this case.
For bakeware, if you have no oven or you’re not a fan of baking you can just skip. But if an oven exists then you will already have the bare minimum of two full-sized trays that usually come with it: A regular sheet pan and one with taller walls. These work well for weeknight pizza and meat or vegetable roasting. Which can be cooked in bulk and used in other dishes like pasta and some lunch-time omelets
1.3 Measurement tools
This is a category that I hold of high importance in my home kitchen but it’s one that is most often missing completely from an airbnb kitchen.
The Basics:
- A liquid measuring cup
- Spoons
- Teaspoons
A digital scale would be ideal but there’s no way any airbnb will have one. If you’re serious about cooking and also plan being away for long enough, then consider bringing your own as it will make your life so much easier
1.4 Utensils
Lastly, you should review the cooking utensils, this means knives, spatulas, tongs, peelers and so on. For Knives all you need is:
- a chef’s knife
- a bread knife
- maybe a steak knife
A pairing knife would make your prep work easier but, again, slim chance in finding one in a short-term rental kitchen. Then a spatula and tongs will make it easy for you to manipulate food that you’ll be making. A grater is another often overlooked kitchen staple but if you have it it can be used for grating cheese and vegetables.
With the utensils checked it’s time to review the pantry.
2. The pantry essentials
These will depend on what you like to cook, how often and how long is your stay. But having a basic pantry list of ingredients will reduce the time spent figuring out what to buy when you first arrive. And ensuring that you have the basic necessities like salt, oil and so on.
I made a pantry list of essentials to use just for this situation that you can find here:
Link to the traveler’s pantry
This is actually a pretty typical situation since during short to medium term stay you’ll most often not need the full sized pack you usually find in groceries. That’s why I have also added a column to the pantry list with recommendations of where it’s best to buy from.
For example, here in Lisbon I found this amazing stall at a market that was specialized in selling spices by weight, so you can go to one of these and buy just the right amount of all the spices you think you’ll need during your stay and not have to throw them out when you check out.
3. How and where to buy local ingredients
With the list made, it’s time to split it based on where you need to shop at. I start by looking at the map, and based on where my Airbnb is located I can plan a course of action.
Try to do a bit of research beforehand on the city you’re going to be in – most times you’ll have big-brand grocery stores in close proximity and then a bit further away some local grocery stores followed by markets that might be just a few of them in the city.
You can usually get away with just one visit to the market once every two weeks to buy non perishable ingredients and some fresh ones. Then to local grocery stores every week since these tend to sell in-season fresh produce and it’s a good place to find locally-made products like hot sauces, preserved goods and sweets. Then once every few days you might go at the grocery store to buy things you’ll immediately need like meat, veggies, milk and…uhh other stuff.
One thing to keep in mind is the operating hours of markets and local grocery stores – the last thing you want is to pull up to the market and find out it just closed or it wasn’t even open that day.
If you’re lucky to be close to a market then you can flip that around and visit them more often. There you’ll find the freshest veggies, meat and most importantly fish. Going to the marked is also an underrated way to get to know the locals. You can spark a conversation from a question about the freshness of the vegetables and next thing you know you’re noting down a secret family recipe. Food has the power to bring people together like that.
4. Putting it all in practice
Now with this solid foundation and your pantry stocked it will be a lot easier to cook. All you’ll need is to buy some protein, fresh vegetables and any special one-off ingredients.
A good intro to cooking with local flavors is to make a sandwich.
It may sound too basic but it’s actually perfect because it can combine protein, cheese, bread, veggies and even some flavor boosters like hot sauces. And for each of these, each country and region you’ll visit will have some local staples that you can experiment with.
I started with these buns that are usually used for the Bifana sandwich in Lisbon. For the protein I used a piece of roasted whole pig, which I got from one of the more local traditional markets here in Lisbon. There I had some really fun interactions by getting recommended locally-made cheese and some nice looking lettuce even though I don’t know a bit of Portuguese.
The pork meat came with a packet of sauce or marinade that I diluted a bit more with water and I added the meat cut into small pieces. Which I then cooked down, this not only heated the meat but it also infused it with additional flavor and gave it some much needed moistness.
For cheese I used some Tres Igrejas cheese that is made just outside of Lisbon. It contains hot peppers and has a very similar texture to Cheddar cheese, but a lot more flavor. Topped it with pickled red onions that I whipped up one morning, using an old pasta jar while I was waiting for my turn in the shower. I have a separate recipe for it, I’ll leave the link in the description below.
To balance this I made a simple salad using red leaf lettuce, cherry tomatoes and a dressing sauce. Consisting of mayo, piri-piri sauce, a tablespoon of the onion pickle juice plus a squeeze of fresh lemon that I added to the salad after tasting it.
I also got some fried chips to add to the sandwich that I remembered a bit later to add. These are very common here in Portugal, they’re more mostly used in recipes rather than eaten plain. They’re one of the key ingredient for the famous Lisbon dish called Bacalhau à Brás (which is super delicious btw)
And there you have it, a warm yet simple meal to kickstart your cooking experience while working remotely. This works very well as a lunch to prep quickly and enjoy in that 1 hour break during your work day.
I hope all these tips will help you if you’re planning to live for a few weeks or months in a different city. If you liked this then please consider sharing this article or the video and subscribe to my channel for more. Thank you!