Caravan Chef 2: Around Australia with 30 Ingredients by Eva Stovern.

Caravan Chef 2: Around Australia with 30 Ingredients by Eva Stovern. Hardcover book spiral bound with pictorial boards (no dust jacket) published by Explore Australia 2009, 127 pages with colour photographs.

“Caravan Chef 2 takes you travelling around Australia with just 30 ingredients! Whether you’re travelling in a caravan or campervan, camping in a tent or holidaying in a cabin, Caravan Chef 2 makes cooking on the road a breeze. All you need is seasoned traveller Eva Stovern’s 30 essential ingredients, some basic equipment and utensils, and you’re off!” 

30 ingredients, that's it. I've been in a camping type situation where food access was a little limited. There were 5 of us and we had supplies... maybe not as many as we would have liked... and I don't seem to remember there being 30 different bits, but I do remember that some fresh veggies and a bit of fruit was something that would not have gone astray in the wilds of Central Australia.

There was a sardine incident on the edge of Lake Eyre. Unfortunately the lake was a lake at the time (it's normally salt... and void of sardines) and from where we could see it, there was a lot of mud between us and the water. The tin of sardines was opened with considerable difficulty as the opening mechanism had broken and we didn't have one of those important ingredients that every camper should have... a can opener. But we did manage to get it open... with a lot of mess... oily fishy mess. The sort of mess that you want a plentiful amount of water and soap to wash your hands with. As I mentioned, there was water on the other side of the mud.  It was unreachable and salty... possibly a great 31st ingredient. So close, but so far. Yes, we did have water with us, which didn't really seem to be enough to get rid of the oily fishyness which then moved with us from the fly infested oily fishy outdoors into the close confines of our very full oily fishy station wagon. The joys of roughing it in the wilds of central Australia, have never been as good as this!!!!

This book if for people who are a little more prepared than us city slickers ever will be. 30 ingredients and you can eat like a Masterchef judge covered in flies. Looking at the list of the 30 ingredients and picturing from memory the grocery shelves at the Oodnadatta roadhouse, I don't seem to remember fresh tomatoes, lettuce, capsicum, zucchini or cauliflower being readily available. I do remember the Oodna Burger though, a speciality of the Oodnadata roadhouse... it was a little disappointing. Maybe things have changed.