11 Travel Kitchen Things + One Thing We Just Love

I can't believe we fit all of this into our luggage.

After almost two years on the road, we've gotten pretty good at traveling light.

We each have one large suitcase, one carry-on and one backpack. That's it. Everything we own for this life has to fit into those bags, and somehow that includes a surprisingly well-equipped little kitchen.

The funny thing is that we don't actually carry much in the way of possessions, but when it comes to cooking, I have a few things I really don't want to be without.

Wherever we are, we want to be able to cook, and because I'm often testing recipes for Secret Kiwi Kitchen, I need to have some basic tools that I know will work.

Some of what we carry is completely practical. Some of it is probably a little excessive. And one particular item has absolutely nothing to do with cooking equipment at all.

Here's what comes with us and why.

1. Our Mexican ex-voto (One kitchen essential we just love)

The most important thing we travel with isn't a kitchen tool at all. It's a little Mexican ex-voto, or retablo, painted on tin. I bought it for Noah in San Miguel de Allende as an anniversary present, and it has traveled with us ever since.

It depicts San Pascual Bailón, the patron saint of cooks and kitchens, and has a wonderful little story painted across the bottom about a man who was saved from being burned while working in the kitchen of Don Porfirio Díaz in Mexico City in 1902.

I love these old Mexican devotional paintings because they tell very specific stories of accidents, illness, gratitude and miracles. Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera were also great collectors of retablos and ex-votos. What I love most is that they aren't about asking for something you want. They are about being grateful for something you have already been given, often the simple fact of having survived something difficult.

Ours has become part of our own story. Whenever we arrive somewhere new, I find a little place for San Pascual in the kitchen. He has traveled with us from kitchen to kitchen, and I like having the patron saint of cooks watching over us.

2. Tea and a tea strainer

Tea always comes with me. I carry my favorite green tea and a little tea strainer wherever we go. It takes up almost no room, and there is something comforting about making a proper cup of tea each morning.

It is one of those little rituals that makes a temporary home feel more like our own.

3. A good kitchen knife

Rental kitchens are unpredictable. You can walk into a beautiful apartment with lovely dishes and wine glasses and discover that the only knife available is barely capable of cutting a tomato.

One trick we use when a knife has gone a little dull is to sharpen it on the unglazed rim of a ceramic mug. Turn the mug upside down and look for the rough, unglazed ring around the bottom. Hold the knife at roughly a 15–20° angle against that rough edge and gently draw the blade across it, from heel to tip, keeping the angle consistent. Do the same number of strokes on each side of the blade, then rinse and wipe the knife clean.

It isn't going to replace a proper knife sharpener, but when you're traveling and your knife suddenly needs a little help, it works surprisingly well. Just make sure the mug is stable and you're using the unglazed ceramic, not the glazed surface.

4. A hand blender

This may seem slightly excessive, but we use it all the time for soups, sauces, dressings and purées.

5. A Microplane

A Microplane takes up almost no space and is one of those little tools we use constantly. Lemon and lime zest, ginger, garlic, nutmeg, Parmesan. It is a small thing, but it makes a rental kitchen much more functional.

6. A digital scale

This one is non-negotiable. Because I'm constantly testing recipes, I need to be able to weigh ingredients accurately.

7. Ridiculously tiny measuring spoons

I have measuring spoons that measure down to 1/64 of a teaspoon.

Yes, I know how silly this sounds.

They are actually incredibly useful when I'm working on a recipe and I'm adding ingredients that are too light to be weighed. Sometimes the difference between almost right and exactly right is such a tiny amount that you really do need the tiniest of measuring spoons.

8. A good fine strainer

Another seemingly ordinary thing that becomes very important when you don't have one. I use a good strainer for sauces, stocks, custards, tea and all sorts of little kitchen jobs.

Rental kitchens always seem to have a strainer that is either enormous, too coarse or slightly bent, so we bring our own.

9. A whisk

And yes, we carry a whisk too. Apparently, a hand blender, Microplane, digital scale, tiny measuring spoons and a good knife aren't enough. Sometimes you just need a whisk.

10. The wooden spoons

These were given to us by our friends Liz and David when they joined us in Sayulita for Thanksgiving. I keep telling Noah we don't have room for them and that we really don't need to be traveling around with wooden spoons.

He insists that we do.

So the wooden spoons come with us.

They are beautiful and useful, and after traveling from kitchen to kitchen, they have become one of those little pieces of home that somehow belong with us.

11. Microdyne — or another produce wash

A tiny bottle of Microdyne is great to use to disinfect fruit and vegetables, particularly when we're buying produce from local markets or staying somewhere where I'm not completely confident about the water or how the produce has been handled.

It takes up virtually no room, and it's one less thing I have to wonder about when I'm eating on the road.

12. Spices

And then there are the spices.

I usually have a little box of spices tucked into our luggage. Some are basics I use all the time, some are things I'm working with for recipes, and some are Secret Kiwi Kitchen spices and blends.

You can buy most things wherever you are, but I like having a few familiar flavors with me. A particular spice blend can make a rented kitchen feel much more like your own.

It may not be the most minimalist collection of kitchen equipment, but after almost two years of slow travel, we've learned what we actually use.

These are the things that make it possible for me to cook, test recipes and settle into a new place without needing much more than what we already have.

And when we unpack that little Mexican ex-voto and find a place for San Pascual in the kitchen, somehow the new place starts to feel like home.