Of Raclette and Goulash

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One day I prepared Raclette and whtin a few days I prepared Goulash. I find the contrast between the two recipes amusing. One takes 15-20 minutes to prepare because of the need to cook potatoes for that long, and the other takes half an hour to prepare and then another hour or two to cook. One is just cheese, pepper and bread, the other is bread, pepper, tomatoes, potatoes, meat, paprika and more.

I googled Goulash on Wikipedia. It’s interesting that originally goulash was made from meat that was dried in the sun before being stored in animal stomachs. When it was time for that food to be eaten it was rehydrated. The practice of dehydrating food, before travelling by horse, foot or other means is an old habit of humans. Thru-hikers are not the first to do this. Neither are the various militaries.

Its origin traces back to the 9th century to stews eaten by Hungarian shepherds.[6] At that time, the cooked and flavored meat was dried with the help of the sun and packed into bags produced from sheep’s stomachs, needing only water to make it into a meal

Goulash: Wikipedia

I walked one of my older routes today. It’s a nice walk but the problem with dangerous car driving persists. Instead of driving at a speed that would be polite and respectful when crossing a pedestrian they drive at the speed limit. This makes me feel unsafe. Society likes to say that we shouldn’t walk along roads, but if you want to get from village to village there are not that many options, especially during a pandemic where couples and groups walk side by side.

I stopped walking those routes because I was tired of feeling endangered during every walk. It is also for this reason that I cycle less. Breaking an arm also helped, and being in the middle of a pandemic. These are conducive to keeping some habits rather than others.

Weekly Most Used Water Bottles

This week I used the Sig Shield One and Camelbak eddy+ a lot. I took the Sigg Original with me on daily walks. The 600ml eddy+ is the most practical bottle out of the three. You can drink from it while doing something else. It takes little to no focus. The Shield one is a close second. The Sigg Original requires more concentration because the top needs to be unscrewed and screwed back on for every drink. Another problem is that half a litre of water is not like half a litre of coke. You can drink half a litre of water in a few seconds, but you sip coke.

I like going for daily walks with the 600ml Eddy+ or the Sigg Original 500ml. Every village has a fountain, so if you run low on water you can easily refill. My favourite is the 600ml Eddy+ for now. It is the easiest to use clean, and carry. I didn’t “need” to buy the other two bottles but pandemic curiousity, when you see things online, rather than in person, got the better of me.

All of the containers I bought are now easier to clean. One is made of steel so cleaning is easy, a second just goes in the dishwasher so I don’t even think about it, and the third has a wide mouth opening that makes cleaning and inspecting it easy.

I still think I need two 1L water bottles for summer hikes, when we’re out of pandemic, and reverting to normal life again.