Food for Po' Folk Foodies [General]

2008 Mar 3
Title can also be read as "Food for Poor Foodies"


While reading through the "Hang your foodie head in shame... " topic (ottawafoodies.com/forum/834), I got to thinking ..... A number of the foods discussed reminded me of the things I would eat when money was scarce.

Yes, money was tight ( and I mean, "Tighter than the snap on a Scotsman's sporran") for me, a couple of times while on this planet. Of course my diet was adjusted accordingly and can remember lots of:

-spaghetti,
-ramen (with a raw egg stirred in),
-hot dogs,
-slow fried baloney,
-peanut butter and anything,
-more of the usuall stuff


BUT.... Hanging out with other money-challanged foodie students, led me to a unique foodie experience.

After spending a weekend in the bush (near Thunder Bay), a few of my money-challanged friends invited me to a dorm room for a 'meal'.

All the food that was served was gathered (or caught) in the bush. Squirrels were served along side the various plants (which I can't remember) and some mushrooms, . Of course, the squirrels were skinned and gutted, and roasted in a toaster oven before hitting the table. Very tastey meal indeed !!

so...

What have other Po' Foodies eaten ?









2008 Mar 3
Hope those mushrooms & plants were identified!!!

2008 Mar 3
Being from rural Nova Scotia I have eaten a lot of wild food. This is only as expensive as the hunting license and the ammunition. So, rabbit, duck (various species, avoid sea and black ducks, they are gross) lots of wild mushrooms, lobsters right off the bottom of the ocean (this may be considered "poaching", not sure and it was a long time ago) fresh clams and muscles. No squirrels rats, mice etc. That is a bit nasty, not to mention time consuming skinning squirrels...

Then there is the stuff my girlfriend’s mother bottles and sends to us, so that is free. That is bottled seal, moose, lobster, and anything else that moves on the Granite Planet.

I have also drunk more cheap homemade beer, wine and moonshine than I would like to admit. Most awful, some amazing. My grandmother made the best moonshine in Nova Scotia, so I hear...

Typical meal,

Rabbit stew, whole pot $2
12 home made beer, $1.50
Homemade loaf of bread, $1.
5 hours of hunting cooking FREE

2008 Mar 3
Hey Ian,

If your grandmother had the best 'shine in Nova Scotia, then she must have been from the Glace Bay area, .... Home of Cape Breton's (and thus, Nova Scotia's) finest 'shine and also Cock Fights.

'Shine and Cock Fights go soooo good together ... better Dinner Theatre !!



2008 Mar 3
I'm happy to say that I've never been poor enough to worry about food. The closest I came was living in the Soviet Union on a 200 ruble a month stipend - at least until we figured out how to exchange US dollars on the black market :-) But even for the couple of months before we figured that out I don't recall anything about dramatically lowering my food standards (probably because 200 rubles a month was more than a heart surgeon made at the time, as my girlfriend of the time told me - her mom was one and made 185). (Good) bread was always cheap and readily available, as were milk products and some basic meats. Now, I do recall waiting in line for some things. Yeast I only saw once the year I was there, and I waited in line about 15 minutes for it. Cooking oil was rare and the only time I recall getting it (corn oil with a nasty sediment in it) required about a 3 hour wait in line. The once we found vinegar required a good hour wait.

And speaking of 'outputs' rather than 'inputs', I also waited in line about 2 hours for toilet paper. During which this elderly Ukrainian fellow waived some rubles at me and exclaimed "we wait in line to buy toilet paper with toilet paper".

And once I waited in line about 3 hours to buy cookware - a big honkin' pot and a matching frying pan. I have photos of that stuff as well as some typical Soviet food around here somewhere - will have to scan them in and post them. I think it would classify as the "B movie" version of "food porn" :-)

2008 Mar 3
Like Ian, when times got tough, we resorted to hunting & gathering & community food bartering. We'd commonly eat moose, rabbit, deer, partridge, duck, a neverending list of freshwater fish & panfish, wild rice, mushrooms, etc. We'd trade meat for perogies, cabbage rolls, etc. with Ukrainian neighbours. Trade meat for services, services for meat, etc. It was a good system! Now I buy everything, unless I see my family up north where they might slip me a moose roast or cryovac'd fish fillets.

2008 Mar 3
As a grad student, times are almost always tough. (unless, of course, one has a job cooking, in which case you never really starve.) Even thought money is tight, however, I very rarely eat poorly. In the long run, it is much less expensive to buy raw/dried ingredients at once than to buy a few boxes of kd/ramen/whathaveyou every so often.

For instance, low-quality pork is dirt-cheap at Loeb. Hamburger is fairly inexpensive as well. Add cheap starch and veg like pots, carrots, onions, turnip, canned toms, peas, etc. A huge shoulder cut of pork is only like the cost of 2 packs of hotdogs, and baloney is ridiculously expensive for what it is.

Every university should have an intro course on braising and roasting.

2008 Mar 4
My goodness, a thread after my own heart. I am sooooo 'po right now it's not even funny. I did my budget the other night and discovered that my boyfriend and I are making $88 LESS than we need to just to break even after just basic expenses. It sucks royally. Anyhoo, I am living on a grocery budget of no more than $80 a paycheck ($160 a month for 2 people, this also includes other "grocery store" purchases such as cleaning products, toilet paper etc.). Obviously we are not living strictly on Jell-o and KD, but we certainly can't afford to splurge very often and have switched to the no name brands. Sigh. I do try to buy fresh ingredients as much as I can and cook with cheap cuts of meat/on sale veggies, but there are certain things that we do have on hand to stretch the budget a little farther.

Eggs (throw some eggs on toast with some baked beans and voila!)
KD (well, we don't LIVE on it or anything, but we do have it now and then
Perogies (there's a Ukranian co-op near my place with good prices, and all you need is an onion to fry em up)
Curly noodle dinner (2 packs ramen, 1 cup frozen corn, 1 can tomatoes, ground beef (if you have it) throw in a pot for 10 mins - dinner!)
Dried pasta
Cabbage (for cabbage rolls, or added to stir frys, soups etc.)
A big bag of potatoes (usually turned into oven-roasted french fries)
Rice and barley
Tofu (cheaper than meat)
Bacon (usually used to make spaghetti carbonara, or in bacon egg sandwiches)
Wonderbread - unfortunetly it's shelf life is much much longer than "good" bread.




2008 Mar 4
I'm lucky, I guess, in that when I was a grad student I didn't ever have to really have to compromise. I just made a lot of stews and chilis and baked beans and things, didn't eat out more than once or twice a month, and tried to not buy in a can stuff that I could make myself (tomato sauce, aforementioned beans, etc.).

When we were young, though, we did end up having some pretty ghetto meals when times were tight. Take, for instance, sombreros: a slice of bologna/baloney, with a scoop of leftover mashed potatoes placed in the middle, sprinkled with shredded cheese, and microwaved.

The edges of the meat'd curl up so that it would look like a hat!

Hilarious! And also pretty vile-tasting.




2008 Mar 4
A few years ago I lived in a van traveling around the US to Mexico with an ex-boyfriend where we lived there for a few months, our kitchen was basically a camp stove. While traveling we would get hot water from truck stops and make oatmeal and soups. In Mexico we lived off Taquerías (cheap great tacos), Spam sandwiches or a favorite was avocado and mayo sandwiches, great with a Corona. It was cheaper to drink beer than eat!!

2008 Mar 4
I have also done the van "voyage" traveling light with just the bare essentials. I was always in the "patch" while traveling so scramby eggs with Chanterelles was a staple, as well as many many curries of lentils, split peas and whatever looked good at the market. Also plates of fresh porcini sautee'd in olive oil, onions and garlic was great and cheap!! Just had to buy some nice baugette from town. I would also pick wild parsley and various berries to eat not to mention our own "kinnikkinnick" to enjoy.... Box wine was mandentory for these trips and in northern cali was quite cheap as well. I would recommend northern california for anyone who enjoys wild mushroom and wine culture...:)

2008 Mar 4
Ah yes, camping meals. When I was 14 I camped across BC for 2 months (without my parents!). The communal fave was Avgolemono Soup - all you need is a pot of water, some cheap chicken parts, rice, a lemon and an egg. Another fave was to buy a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store (at the time, they were only about $6 or $7 compared to the $15 today) and a big hunk of bread - everyone rips off what they want and voila! make-your-own chicken sandwiches. We easily fed 4 for lunch on less than $10 total that way.

2008 Mar 10
I buy a large package of ground beef and make a big pot of spaghetti sauce and one of chili. Freezes well and makes for about 8 meals for hubby and for very little money.