yes!
You asked for it:
Poverty food
Like oriental food? Like Italian? Mexican or Tex-mex? Cajun? Scandinavian food? What do all these foods have in common? They are poverty foods. The ones that everyone eats everyday.
Take Oriental food... It’s cheap stuff. Local. Cooked simple. And good. Some of it takes time to prepare.
Same with all the rest.
The traditional food of the people is the cheap stuff that is available prepared with care and whatever time it takes.
What does that mean for preparedness? You may not be able to get stuff you eat normally. But you can eat well with local stuff, or people wouldn’t be living where you live. And don’t give me that excuse about living in the city. Pigeon is edible. And good, done well. Baby pigeons can fetch $28 a plate done well enough in the right restaurant.
And those weeds you walk by every day? Your great-grandparents waited for them to show up in spring.
All this pre-supposes that you have the knowledge to use the available resources and the training to turn those resources into mouthwatering meals. And that means you have to study.
Techniques.
What makes food good, instead of just something to eat to keep from dying? Flavor, texture, smell, familiarity and perceived value.
Start with good, fresh, local ingredients. Learn to identify them, and how to cook them, and when they are in season. I can’t help you with details since I don’t live where you do.
Take a little time now to add some traditional spices to your landscaping. I can get cilantro, cumin, basil, rosemary, thyme, garlic (volunteer and cultivated), onions (native and cultivated), and several types of local herbs and peppers within a two minute walk from my back door. Those spices and herbs can go a long way to making your food taste better and seem more familiar. Squirrel pot pie tastes a lot like chicken pot pie if you have the same spices in it.
Learn how to cook. Learn the basics of frying, sauteing, braising, roasting and baking. Some of that requires a mentor to teach you. Find one. Commercial cooks like to show off and talk about food and techniques.
One thing I see a lot with home cooks is a fear of ‘burning’ something that is just getting some color and flavor. Black doesn’t mean burned. Scorched flavor means burned.
When I make a stock for soup, I sweat the onions, carrots, and garlic for flavor. If I want a ‘blanc’ stock, I don’t let them get much color, but for things like game, and a ‘brun’ stock, I saute them pretty hard, well past what most home cooks are comfortable with. It’s ok if they have some black spots on them, if they don’t tasted scorched or burned. And the depth of flavor they add can make a dish work.
And it’s ok to screw up when you practice. Burn it? Toss it and try again. Failure is part of the learning process.
None of this requires expensive equipment. I’ve cooked over an open wood fire on 50 year old pans for 300 GIs. And they liked the rations that they got, with some additions from local sources. Even GI spaghetti in a can is palatable if you can enhance it a little with techniques and a few local additions.
Menu Fatigue.
Menu fatigue is a real thing. The military has recognized that and gone to 14 day menus.
If you try to feed someone the same thing, day after day, morale suffers and efficiency falls off. Rice and beans, or beans and rice is not much of a choice. Especially for children.
That doesn’t mean you have to load up with a bunch of different foods to get different meals. One thing you can consider when purchasing something is how many recipes it can be used in. The more versatile, the better. I rarely buy single menu use items.
Personally, I have some basics that are always around. Mirepoix (2:1:1) of onion, celery and carrot are the basics for most stocks, soups, and many meals.
Since I live alone, fresh celery will go bad before I use it all, so I dehydrate the left-over celery right before it starts to turn. Same with carrots. Onions keep if you store them correctly. I actually prefer to use re-hydrated carrots and celery for stocks. I think the flavor is better and richer.
The basic spices I always have on hand are garlic powder (not garlic salt), pepper, thyme, oregano, basil, cinnamon, dill, sage, cumin, and chili powder. You can do a lot with those, and most, can be grown around the house.
Main meals should include meat, starches, and vegetables.
Meats can be a problem. Beef is expensive. Pork is expensive. Chicken is expensive. Hunters or those that have family that hunt can get by for less.
Starches are generally inexpensive. For starches like pasta and rice, 2oz of dried product per serving is the minimum for meal planning.
Veggies can often be found on sale, with fresh vegetables in season being cheaper than vegetables out of season. Vegetables can be grown at home, with a little effort. I generally only use fresh tomatoes when they are in season, and use canned tomatoes when they are out of season.
A reasonable amount of versatile ingredients can help to keep morale up, and overcome menu fatigue.