On Rails

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I like my food and travel slow. Well, relatively – this baby I am riding as I write this goes 240 km per hour (150 mph) straight. All well, if it wouldn’t be for the food.

Traveling by train is a good way to get places. The scenery moves alongside, while you sit and read – or write. But there is one problem I still am struggling to solve: Being ‘on rails’ makes me very hungry. Yet the food available on the ride or in between is … .

Well, let’s be fair. It is getting better and there are some laudable exceptions. But even those still mostly haven’t figured out yet there is more to bread and cake than wheat flour. So I am bored with that (plus it gives me stomach problems). But if I get the chance to find one of the chosen few available on a station in between, I usually get ‘gluten-free’ stuff or salad.

For drinks I usually stick to the good old tab water, reboiled. Which is not really necessary, because our water around here has ‘food quality’ (it really does, strictly controlled). What a luxury. Thanks to everyone involved for that.

Eating on the train in the restaurant is also complicated. The food is usually well seasoned (a little too salty maybe) but somehow stays taste-neutral. I am waiting for improvement, which I am sure will come. They generally serve a respectable variety of vegetarian and even vegan dishes on board by now.

If I am getting beverages on the train, tea is always a good idea for me. Usually herbs or fruits. I try to keep a low profile of exhilarating substances in the liquids because being on tour is enough excitement for me. And for my sensitive stomach.

So all in one I guess I could say, with the matter of food and beverages on my travels, I still am ‘in between stations’.

Our water around here has ‘food quality’. What a luxury. Thanks to everyone involved for that.

Side Notes:

  • We ourselves have made a habit of bottling up the water left over in the kettle from making tea water. Tastes even better then straight from the tab. Of course there is an exception to that, too. If I am visiting home with my father or friends, I gladly take the water from the tab, because it is super fresh and practically not calcified. Well I guess it has something to do with being in the middle of miles of meadows in a nature reserve (moor).
  • The best travel food to date just so happens to be my standard breakfast dish, which is: [‘Hoppidge’].