I will start it off with some handy things I use/eat.
the humble orange juicer -comes in an exciting range of colours, is extremely light, enables you to make your own juice (at least in the vicinity of oranges and about 1/3 water a bit of sugar), can easily be adapted to juice other fruits like lemons and can double as a handy tool to unlock the cassette to change a broken spoke (ok one of those statements is a lie) - combined with a pinch of black salt (see below) it helps give you back what the great dividing range takes away from cyclists.
soya wada - a must for vegetarians, commonly available from indian groceries (you might even find other "wadas" made from other legumes like "moong" if you are lucky) - admittedly has a bit of a strange texture but if you throw it in with a tasty sauce (coconut milk powder or something vaguely in the direction of tomatoey bolognesey ) and a few vegies its ok (sometimes I even make it when I am not away in the sticks so it can't be that bad ....). Simply soak them in cold water for about 10-20 minutes and then throw it whatever wet thing you have cooking.
Black salt (again another common article in indian grocery stores - sometimes goes by the name of "beet lebbon")- not to be confused with Himalayan salt (which also has a pink colour, but unlike black salt it just tastes like normal salt ... ). Black salt has a distinct sulfurous taste (which can also be a bit of an acquired thing ... so use sparingly if in doubt). The benefit (which contributes to it being a major ingredient in many ayurvedic medicines) is that it aids digestion ... particularly for raw vegetables and fruits .... so you use it as a poor mans (or womans) salad dressing (moderately wealthy persons can also add olive oil). I use them on cucumbers and its also good on sour type fruits like pineapples or apples (I even use it on pears sometimes although I wouldn't use it on a banana. I also put a pinch in my road trail freshly squeezed orange juice (see above).
Buy it in the fine powdered form unless you carry a mallet with you while touring
(plain) yoghurt - travel friendly dairy that can handle a bit of fridgeless onroad time (unlike milk) and has a range of uses (unlike milk). You can throw it in whatever dish you are cooking (throw it in at the very end - you don't want to over boil it ... doesn't combine well with tomato sauced sort of dishes though - it takes a bit of the bang out of over spiced/salted food so it can add an extra culinary dimension to your no doubt already delightful soup of the day or wotnot ). Taking it straight is good for you in hot weather (eat it in winter and increase your chances of developing an abundance of mucus however ...). You can even water it down to make a "lassi" (yoghurt drink ... not a benevolent dog to help you when you are lost ....) flavoured with whatever you like (not citrus fruits ... the traditional indian version has a pinch of black salt, crushed dry roasted cumin seeds(dry roasting cumin seeds makes them brittle so you can coarsely crush them up by hand) and just a little bit of sugar. Most people prefer the non-salty non-cumin seed sugar-only version
well I don't want to hog this thread
anyone else?
