I’m about to embark on a multi-day camping trip that’s certainly softer than what a lot of my friends regularly do. Yes, it’s car camping€”you park about 200 metres from your camp site and use a wheelbarrow to haul in your gear€”but there’s no form of plumbing (showers, toilets) so I’m basically roughing it for almost four days. No photos, please. 

But showering and questionable outhouses aside, my biggest paralysis around said trip is what the cook for those days. I haven’t camped in over 10 years, and my tastes have evolved since the last trip with an ex-boyfriend who’d promised to plan the meals, didn’t, and we ate peanut butter on white bread for the entire weekend.

So all the thank yous go to Chambar Restaurant, which has been (most importantly) doing great things in social support issues during the pandemic (see their incredible Food Coalition, providing over 20,000 meals to vulnerable folks), and has now also made it possible for fans of their restaurant (me) to bring their food into the great outdoors.

Frozen packages of main dishes like lamb tagine, Moroccan meatballs, braised short ribs and miso and parsnip risotto also double as a freezer pack in in your cooler, and can be eaten as-is or supplemented with other ingredients like prawns. (I’ll be relying on a camp-mate to fish me up some of those.) I’m already fantasizing about the glamorously gourmet deluxe fireside meals I’ll be dining on, so much so that you can expect a (suck-it, peanut-butter-eating ex-boyfriend) photo or two on my Instagram. 

They’re available at the restaurant, as well as local grocery delivery services like Legends Haul, Spud; and grocery stores Stong’s and soon, Choices. 

From $12, chambar.com