The Kitchen Disaster

One of the best things about staying in hostels for me is the fact that they all have kitchens. This makes it easy for me to stick to my diet and eat foods that I’m happy eating. Unfortunately however the kitchen facilities in 90% of the hostels I’ve stayed in are a far cry from decent, more then half of them border on the line of simply being unusable. But for the most part I’ve just sucked it up and dealt with it because really what other choice do I have?

However I experienced something dreadful at a hostel in a town called Wanaka, just outside of Queenstown.

I entered the kitchen with the intention of making an easy dinner. At the time there were only two other people in the kitchen (cooking an incredibly healthy meal of grease soaked, unidentifiable meat and white rice I might add). Finally I was able to spot where the pots and pans were kept. I headed over there determined to find a decent one that I would be able to cook my broccoli and lentils in. As I walked towards them one of the women that had been cooking also approached with her grease-coated pan. After taking a brief look at the overflowing sink she proceeded to put the dirty pan back amongst the clean ones! I couldn’t believe my eyes! Not only is that disgusting but it’s also just rude and inconsiderate.

After getting over my shock I found a somewhat decent pot and began washing it vigorously, still traumatized by what I had just witnessed.

Next came the dreaded stovetop... To light the burner you had to hold the gas in with one hand while holding a lit match to the holes of the burner with the other. Now this would have been fine except for the fact that

1) I’ve never done this before

2) The matches had the shortest handle ever and

3) Once I finally got it lit the flame flared up and nearly burnt my arm!

After narrowly avoiding the flame I thought I was in the clear. After my brief moment of relief I came to the realization that the flame couldn’t be turned down. So there I was cooking broccoli and lentils over this massive flame that kept snaking up the sides of the pot. I thought I’d be fine using a cloth to protect myself while taking this handle-less pot off the burner however I was sorely mistaken. The flame was so big that it burnt the sleeve of my ONLY sweatshirt leaving three holes and many burn marks on it.

With my sweater destroyed, not to mention completely traumatized by the experience (after all if I hadn’t have had a sweater on who knows what would have happened to my arm!)  I have been eating nothing but raw meals since. Eventually I’ll brave the awful hostel kitchens again but for now I have no more clothes to spare!

The result