Gourmet extraordinaire and desert camping in Nevada

Desert camping isn't for everyone. Conditions can be harsh, especially for peak heat times in the middle of summer. Without natural sources of water and shade, dehydration and sun poisoning could easily happen. Extreme self-reliance is the best way to survive and lack of preparation could have devastating consequences.

A very fancy desert (Dubai)

Good thing we're not everyone and we love extremes! For our first week back in the United States of America, we decided to go desert camping for a week, in the middle of the northern Nevada desert. We had actually planned on going there before we left on our 6-month sabbatical and paid $380 each to secure our spot for our tent. Usually, camping is never that expensive. However, this type of camping is as unique as it gets so we had to commit eight months in advance to it.

We're talking, of course, about Burning Man: absolutely, 100%, one of the most epic events we have ever attended in our lives. Burning Man is very hard to explain so it is best to just go see for yourself. The reason it's so hard is because the event becomes what you want it to be. Many people bring their children for a family experience, many people come to do ultramarathons and others, like us, come as foodies, not knowing what to expect but excited about everything.

Our two good friends spent all summer planning for Burning Man. One of them, in particular, planned everything in insane detail and we had everything from 1,000 baby wipes to superglued seals on every single car window to keep the majority of the playa dust out.

All four of us are total foodies so we went on very fun food shopping sprees and prepared meals in advance. We packed the 'obvious' camping food such as canned beans, corn, rice and curries in pouches, but we also packed exciting foodie treats. We were thrilled to find bacon jerky and purchased the Costco size bags of that amazing treasure. We brought two huge logs of goat cheese, a large wedge of Manchego cheese, an entire wooden box stuffed with smoked salmon from Seattle, garlic and jalapeño stuffed olives, a case of V-8 fruit and veggie juices and our home mix of hemp and almond granola with raisins.

Preparing the lasagna sauce

Eliot made a gallon of home-made cold brew coffee and Drea made cinnamon tea soda syrup. We also made two pans of home made lasagna with beef and de-cased Italian sausages (Drea did this by hand), an entire head of garlic and a dash of nutmeg to give it a Bologna twist. Our friends made an amazing summer gazpacho with tons of parsley, lemon, Tunisian olive oil and refreshing cucumbers plus at least two dozen juicy home-made meatballs in an amazing home-made tomato sauce (peeled AND seeded tomatoes!). Oh and let's not forget their tasty garbanzo, parsley, parmesan cheese salad.

We showed up at Burning Man and were in awe for at least 144 hours. The dry heat suppressed our appetites a bit but we still found time to indulge in decadent meals. Thanks to our extremely detail-oriented friend who planned 99% of our journey to the desert, we were able to keep our pre-made meals frozen solid with the 50 pounds of dry ice we stuffed in three coolers.

The Man

De-frosting was super easy: we took out the containers in the morning and by dinner time, they had naturally thawed. We ate the gazpacho and garbanzo salad cold and then heated up the lasagna and the meatballs on the propane camp stove. Our other campmates brought a healthy kale and broccoli salad and we destroyed it our first night. We also indulged in the best home-made grilled cheese sandwiches we've ever had! Part of the secret was toasting the bread on both sides and using three layers of cheese (we're getting hungry just writing this!).

Fire cyclones as the Man burns on Saturday

Burning Man thrives on a gift economy and we were lucky to have delicious treats along the way. At Burning Man, you give. The gifts we received were absolutely fabulous. As far as food goes, we had Montreal-style smoked meat sandwiches (think gourmet smoked/corned beef and spicy mustard) served by our Canadian neighbors, fresh ground coffee used to make legit Vietnamese iced coffee (ice is a highly coveted item at Burning Man), emperor's tea from China prepared in front of us at a formal tea ceremony (the tea had to be smuggled into the US because it is worth more than gold by weight!) and cheese fondue straight from a fondue pot!

We will try to make this a yearly event for us and we look forward to the foodie events we missed: bacon bloodys, morning hash browns, home-made pickles, massive barbecues and whatever else we are bound to walk or bike into.

Co-posted on www.eliotpeper.com

Robot Heart Party

Awesome Playa Sunset

Biking around, checking out art exhibitions everywhere

Garlic breath, Garlic sweat

Hey garlic lovers! How much garlic can you eat in a week?

I love garlic! My answer would be: there is no limit! Right? After eating it every day for an entire week and reeking of garlic 24/7, maybe there is a limit.

One of my favorite things about cooking is sauteeing garlic in olive oil just so that wonderful smell can fill in every square inch of the kitchen. One of my favorite things to eat is food with plenty of garlic plus you get the added health benefits such as cancer prevention, lowering risk of hearth disease and removal of toxins in the blood, especially for women. I was happy to find that most dishes we ate in Nepal had generous amounts of garlic: the stuffing in the momos had minced garlic, spinach was often stir fried with garlic, many curries had crushed garlic and many of the Dal Bhat side dishes also had garlic. I was very excited when we found out that one of the natural methods for altitude sickness prevention was eating lots of garlic.

Altitude and Garlic
All the guides we spoke with preferred eating garlic soup or drinking garlic water over taking medicine to try to prevent altitude sickness. On top of all the health benefits, this was a great added bonus! Since we were about to go up to more than 5,400 meters and I just so happened to love garlic, I immediately signed up for the ultimate garlic diet.

On the way up to 5,416+ meters to cross Thurong La Pass

All of the guesthouses and restaurants along the trek offered garlic soup and I started ordering it a week before we were due to cross the world's widest pass, Thurong La. This soup is serious business: it is loaded with garlic and definitely leaves you with a great dragon breath that lingers on for a while. Sometimes they would serve it creamy style and sometimes it would be just salt, boiling water and garlic. 

A nice carbo-heavy lunch (yak cheese sandwich and rosemary potatoes) with a healthy dose of garlic soup

The sacrifice: smelling a little bad...
After a few days of having garlic soup, I definitely noticed that the smell was just not going away and I am convinced that even my sweat smelled like garlic. About four days before the big day on the pass, I got really sick and had an awful cold with an intense sore throat. On top of garlic soup, I now carried hot water in my bottle with about a half head of crushed garlic. I definitely reeked now but it made me feel a little better and I tried to stay positive by reminding myself that I wouldn't get altitude sickness if I just kept up my garlic consumption. I'm not sure how Eliot and I managed to still stay close to each other 24/7 during that week but I think it's a good sign for our relationship!

Crushed garlic inside our Nalgene - it took about a whole month to get rid of the taste

A true cure for altitude sickness? 

The true test to this supposed miracle medicine began 48 hours before the crucial ascent. We had a ridiculously steep 300 meter climb from Low camp to High camp, at almost 5,000 meters altitude and Eliot started feeling some of the effects of the altitude. It took us almost two hours to go a very short distance and once we got to High Camp, Eliot felt awful. I was tired but felt fine and had some garlic noodle soup while Eliot opted for a tomato soup for dinner. Aside from shortness of breath, I was surprised at how 'well' I was feeling.
The big day arrived and we started the climb to the pass at around 5:30 am. I was freezing but I kept a steady slow breath and kept my garlic water with me. In spite of taking Diamox (legit, chemical medicine used to prevent altitude sickness at least a few days prior to being up in high altitude) in addition to the garlic diet, Eliot had an awful time and became a victim of the altitude, losing his vision and all. It was very scary as we were on a very snowy and narrow part of the trail (a foot and a half wide at most) but we managed to climb down a few meters and rest a bit so he could recover.

The amazing Thurong La Pass (finally!)

50/50 success
We crossed the pass successfully in spite of the altitude sickness and were very happy once we started the slow descent. Although Eliot felt the wrath of the high Himalayas, I still never felt even the slightest headache.

Would I rather smell a little (okay, okay a LOT) bad or a little better? In the end, I choose smelling bad over better: consuming all that garlic definitely made it worth it for me, even though it felt like garlic was oozing out of my pores. The miracle drug -- garlic, that is -- worked wonderfully for me (even just as a placebo!) but was way less effective for Eliot. Although I was spared, I really hope I don't ever have to eat that much garlic again.

I still love garlic but I definitely prefer moderation over extremes with this potent veggie!