All Hungry Vanagon Owners,

I have a much better suggestion. I have a book titled, "Manifold Destiny"
(ISBN 0-679-72337-4, copyright date 1989). As you might imagine from the
title, it is dedicated to cooking on your engine. It is written a bit
tongue-in-cheek, but it is legit. Of course they have many safety
disclaimers and suggestions. However, there are a lot of really good,
workable recipes for meals on the road.

Shortly after my wife and I were married, we drove from Austin, Texas to
Albuquerque. We left in the evening, before dinner. Of course I had planned
in advance, so I had my handy cookbook with me. I was well prepared. I
decided to give give capered lamb a shot.

Using some heavy duty, disposable, pre-formed aluminum foil type baking
pans, heavy duty aluminum foil, and some bailing wire we were all set.
Fortunately for the cooking (unfortunately for the trip) we were driving a
late 80's Chrysler LeBaron Turbo. Horrible car, but the turbo was fairly
easy to access. I prepared the food per the recipe, strapped it down to the
turbo, and off we went. We made one stop so that I could use some bar-b-que
tools to turn the meat. An hour or so later (I don't remember exactly how
long it took, but it was a bit longer than the book suggested), we came upon
a nice rest area.

The hood was opened and the bar-b-que tools were once again put into action.
I pulled the pan from the top of the turbo. No spilling. No mess. No
clean-up (who wants to clean up a hot turbo anyhow?). We had a marvelous hot
dinner of capered lamb and whatever else it was that my wife had prepared
ahead of time.

Now, we did get a lot of strange looks from other folks at the rest area,
but hey, they were probably relegated to peanut butter and jelly. My
brother-in-law thought that this was a pretty dubious endeavor. He declined
the lamb. Too bad for him. That was one of the most memorable meals that I
have ever had (this could be part of the reason my sister and brother-in-law
are getting divorced). A WHOLE lot better than typical road food.

Given the configuration of the engines on our Vanagons, whether WBX,
air-cooled, Subbie, in-line 4, diesel, or, like mine, Porsche 6-cylinder, I
wonder what dishes would be best cooked on each engine type, and where the
optimum placement for the food would be for best heating. I think that the
obvious answer for all Vanagons of any engine configuration would be a rump
roast! Now that would make any trip memorable.

Cheers & Happy Eating!
Bruce
motorbruce
motorbruce@hotmail.com

P.S. This is ALL a true story. I instigated it and was the lead participant.
This is not an urban legend!

>From: Craig Oda <craigoda@GMAIL.COM>
>Reply-To: Craig Oda <craigoda@GMAIL.COM>
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Subject: Re: Vanagon eBay - Funny
>Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 08:52:18 -0700
>
>Is this dude really running a Sharp Microwave in his Westy off of a
>full-cycle battery with no electrical 120VAC hookup?
>
>I looked at the viability of running a Microwave off of a battery and
>from the information I found, it would appear that the microwave would
>drain the battery too quickly and cause heat problems.
>
>However, if the guy is actually doing this, it must work some degree.
>
>You think he's on the level about heating stuff with the microwave
>coming off the battery?
>
>Regards,
>Craig
>
>On Thu, 29 Jul 2004 16:54:34 -0700, Jeff at Vanagonparts
><jeff@vanagonparts.com> wrote:
> > I thought this was pretty funny, but his feedback is pretty good.
> >
> > Here's the link:
> >
> >
>http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=791339910
> > 7&category=33578
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Jeff
> >