Kit thats come and gone ...

Bishop

Full Member
Jan 25, 2014
1,720
696
Pencader
Hanging on but only just is my Cobmaster pack (left) its been missing the internal frame since I bought it second-hand years ago and the buckles are a pain to undo with cold fingers. On the plus side it's got proper big side pockets that don't squash flat and unuseable when the pack is stuffed and the main compartments also have a rubberised lining.

cobmaster-rucksack.jpg
 

BlueTrain

Nomad
Jul 13, 2005
482
0
78
Near Washington, D.C.
I was just reading over this interesting thread again to pick up things I missed the last time around. Anything about food is always interesting, even if the food itself isn't particularly appealing. Americans, for example, don't seem to eat kidneys or blood pudding. But some eat ketchup on everything. Some regions here have lots of immigrants and that has meant that supermarkets now carry totally unrecognizable vegetables of the root variety (taro, anyone?).

I grew up eating relatively bland and usually overcooked, vaguely English-style food tempered with the addition of vaguely German-style food (like kraut). Even macaroni was foreign at our house. My tastes have broadened over the years, along with other things, but nothing really remarkable. But apparently European habits have changed, too, or perhaps they were never what I thought they were. A classic British dish is sausages and mash, which I managed to have once when we were in the UK a few years ago and I discovered that it is available, sort of, in France, too. Pizza seems to be available everywhere. At least it is in Germany, France and presumably Italy. I will admit to liking meat loaf and I was pleased to find it on the menu at a restaurant in Trier, Germany. It was described as prepared "Jaeger style." I also like the canned "Spam," the flavor of which is greatly improved (well, some) by frying. I also discovered they do eat French fries in France but I don't know about French toast.
 

Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
14,956
18
Scotland
Eating habits have changed drastically here Blue Train, they reckon that Chicken Tikka Masala is pretty much the national dish in the UK now, though there has been a resurgence of traditional "British" food in recent years. We didn't have too much cash growing up and set days were pretty much set menus. Every Sunday I'd peel a mass of potatoes as a kid, these being kept in a tupperware container with water and used through the week, There was always a pot of Scotch broth on the go and that would feed us at least once a day and was a great healthy filler. Didn't eat as much meat, though things like stovies, or mince/tatties and peas would be a way of padding cheaper meat out. Foods like those and others like macaroni cheese or haggis neeps and chappit tatties though considered poor folks food were great favourites and now appear in pride of place on most pubs and restaurants menus these days. A surprising number of folks these days seem to struggle to prepare a meal from scratch as ready meals have eroded the skills that once allowed them to fend for themselves. Personally I love to cook and eat as well camping as I do in the house. Some folks when they're away with a mate and I say that they eat better camping than they do in their own homes.
We have the perception over here that in the US you eat out as much as you eat at home, I don't know if that's true but it's certainly re-enforced by the TV we see over here. (Not that I see much of that.)
Some folk and the media say that many are too poor here to eat well and gorge out on frozen food. Personally I think we can eat cheaper and healthier if we prepare from scratch, things like the food I grew up with was nutritious and cheap, but you had to know how to prepare them.
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,120
68
Florida
......We have the perception over here that in the US you eat out as much as you eat at home, I don't know if that's true but it's certainly re-enforced by the TV we see over here. (Not that I see much of that.)......

Pretty much true.
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,120
68
Florida
..... Every Sunday I'd peel a mass of potatoes as a kid, these being kept in a tupperware container with water and used through the week.....

We never peeled them in advance but we too ate potatoes pretty much every day when I was a kid. Something relatively new here (the last 30 years or so) is the trend to not peel them at all; just cut them up and cook them in whatever fashion: French fries (chips) boiled, mashed, or whatever with the peels still on.
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,120
68
Florida
...... Americans, for example, don't seem to eat kidneys or blood pudding. But some eat ketchup on everything.......

I was surprised to learn that the Swiss eat more catsup per capita than we Americans do! I suspect it's cooked into their recipes though, rather than as a condiment.
 

BlueTrain

Nomad
Jul 13, 2005
482
0
78
Near Washington, D.C.
I hesitate to say what "most people" do here or elsewhere. We ate out some when I was little, in the 1950s, though only at a couple of different places. One was a drive-in with "curb service," a form of food service that has disappeared over here. The other was a family-style restaurant that served only "American-style" food, the old "Blue Plate special" kind of place. That sort of place, at least independently owned, has also mostly disappeared. Large chains dominate the restaurant business, even to include some international names, like Pret A Manger. We tend to eat out on birthdays and when we visit my mother-in-law who lives in an assisted living care facility. She's 92.

If anything is made from scratch at home, I'm the one who does it, not that I do that much. Usually we eat the same thing all week, Sunday through Thursday. Friday and Saturday it's catch-as-catch-can cacciatore. The following week it's a new adventure. We have no garden, so that eliminates a lot of from-scratch things. My wife eats a lot of frozen things but the only frozen thing I eat is ice cream. Twice a week, Sunday and Wednesday. It's easy to go overboard on food. I've also been doing more experimenting with food, though not so much from an outings perspective, but just to try new things. But fixing everything from scratch does take time and sometimes it doesn't seem worth it. Other times it does.

Now I'm starting to get hungry (again).
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,120
68
Florida
I hesitate to say what "most people" do here or elsewhere. ....

My stats are a few years old (actually 1990s era) It was part of a report from the restaurant industry (agreed, that's probably biased) that found that more meals are eaten out than prepared at home. It does certainly seem logical. Consider that most of us aren't likely to eat a real cooked breakfast during the week anymore (I do, but most people I know don't) They might skip breakfast altogether or gran something from the donut shop or an office vending machine(that's eating out) Then lunch is likely to be from a work or school cafeteria or a fast food place (again, eating out) That's already 10 out of 21 meals a week before we consider how many times they order take-out or delivery for supper.
 

Rabid

Nomad
Dec 15, 2014
419
69
Sleaford Lincolnshire
Knives with thick blades were all the rage at one time such as BK2 Wilkinson sword survival knife MOD survival knive and many more all seem to be out of favour for knives with much thinner blades.
 
Don't want to seem wayward here, but what do you mean unreliable?!

maybe it's just me but sometimes i got a fire, then next time- using same tinder and same technique - NOTHING ..... . ++it oxidizes in wet conditions (high humidity/rain) imagine being out bush (OZ/ NZ) , NEEDING a fire and ""ooopps""...
i get a fire faster and more reliable with my trusty magnifying glass (over 20years old) or my "raku raku"" striker

++ IMHO ""light my fire"" has stolen the name ""firesteel"" for their product- #1 not made of steel and #2 "fire steel"" has been used for the traditional ""flint and steel"" striker long before ferro rods were invented/discovered....



everyone to their own liking- i just cannot get on with them....!
 

nettles150390

Forager
Nov 7, 2013
161
0
High Melton, Doncaster
maybe it's just me but sometimes i got a fire, then next time- using same tinder and same technique - NOTHING ..... . ++it oxidizes in wet conditions (high humidity/rain) imagine being out bush (OZ/ NZ) , NEEDING a fire and ""ooopps""...
i get a fire faster and more reliable with my trusty magnifying glass (over 20years old) or my "raku raku"" striker

++ IMHO ""light my fire"" has stolen the name ""firesteel"" for their product- #1 not made of steel and #2 "fire steel"" has been used for the traditional ""flint and steel"" striker long before ferro rods were invented/discovered....



everyone to their own liking- i just cannot get on with them....!

Fair enough. I was gunna say always count mine as the most reliable piece of equipment. Were as flint and steel not soo much lol. They get my vote for goin.
 

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