The Buslife Kitchen

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Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from The Buslife Kitchen, Food & Beverage, 18 Charlotte Street, Port Ellen.

Our goal here is to open the minds and kitchens of vanlifers, buslifers, RV-dwellers, tiny homesteaders, campers, and everybody else that wants to cook gourmet food in their tiny kitchen.

⏬Kickstarter at the link below⏬
linktr.ee/ajforget

21/10/2026

There are not many times in my life that I have been more disappointed than I was the first time I set foot in Yosemite. Growing up on the East Coast, it was a symbol in my mind of everything wild and beautiful in the West. When I actually arrived, though, the valley overflowing with cars, tourists, and gift shops felt more like an amusement park than a wilderness.

Hiking a few miles up a trail that day, I did find some stillness and solitude where I was able to enjoy the grandeur of the valley, but only for a few minutes before I had to pile into the car and take off again. Since then, I have wanted to go back and explore a bit further.

It was 15 years or so between visits, but this time was much better. Four days of camping far enough into the backcountry that I saw more wild creatures than humans for most of the time — plus a trip to the top of Half Dome. Rather than scratching an itch, however, the trip only deepened my desire to disappear into those mountains. Hopefully this time it doesn't take so long for me to return.

07/10/2026

Alright, if you liked that Caesar slaw recipe a couple weeks ago, here's the follow up and perhaps the best way to serve it: peppered chuck roast braised with onions and garlic until it's fall-apart tender, piled high on a toasted bun and topped with creamy slaw. It's like a nice fatty steak and a Caesar salad in a simple handheld — and by that I mean that it's fu***ng magnificent.

24/09/2026

I took this photo right after I finished the first draft of my last book. It’s hard to imagine a more perfect place to do it, a beautiful beach in Baja with bioluminescence and excellent spearfishing — one of my favorite places on earth. Looking back, there’s a touch of regret to this photo. It was a huge accomplishment, but spending that perfect beach day working on my book meant not spending it in the water with my friends, drinking beers in the sun or hunting down triggerfish to turn into ceviche. Writing this now, I’d give just about anything to take back that day on the beach.

It has been about 16 months now since The Buslife Kitchen Vol. 2 came out, and I think it’s time to begin the next chapter. I am starting it in a very different place, both emotionally and physically, and it will be a very different book — no recipes this time around. October will mark 6 years since starting the nomadic life, and the past year in particular has been an intensely reflective one. We’ll see where that takes us.

It is a crazy endeavour to set out to write a book. I am committing myself to what may be years of work trying to distill my experiences into something beautiful and valuable, all while, as Vonnegut put it, feeling “like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth.” Then, in the end, the better odds are that it will never make it off my hard drive. What a ridiculous thing to do with one's time. But, so it goes.

23/09/2026

Last October I decided that it was time for a break from recipe development, and I think that I went about a month and a half without so much as turning on the stove. It was great. Eventually, though, the recipe ideas started to crop up again, and some of them seemed too good to ignore, like caesar slaw.

Caesar salad is the best salad, there's no argument. In the bus, though, it is kind of a pain, because salad doesn't keep very long and takes up a ton of room in the tiny fridge. Cabbage, though, is fine to sit on the counter for a long time before being used. And, as it turns out, if you tweak the dressing just a bit, it makes a killer Caesar slaw. Whether you're a vanlifer looking to get more veg in your diet or just a cook trying to amp up your coleslaw, this is a recipe you'll want to add to the repertoire. (You know where to find it.)

17/09/2026

Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge is located just a few miles from downtown Denver, tucked right between the skyscrapers and the airport. The 15,000 acre refuge features amenities like a visitor center with interpretive displays, plenty of trails for hiking and running, lakes for catch-and-release fishing, an archery range, and even its own herd of bison.
Interestingly, the “arsenal” part of the name is not without meaning. The refuge sits on what was once a major production facility for chemical weapons like mustard gas, na**lm, and sarin. The land was seized from its owners after the attack on Pearl Harbor and used to manufacture mu*****ns through the Cold War. These days, however, the land has been cleaned up and turned over to the Fish and Wildlife Service, which has returned it to the wildlife.
Entrance is free, with visitors able to visit the Wildlife Drive and get up close and personal with the more than 200 bison that call the refuge home. The animals are free to wander their section of the refuge, but if you are lucky like I was, these bison may be relaxing right on the side of the road. Visitors must remain in their vehicles in this part of the refuge, but when a full-grown bison is less than 20 yards away, that’s always a good decision. Next time you’re in Denver, this is a lesser-known attraction that shouldn’t be missed.

21/07/2026

The past year has been a strange one, and a difficult one for me to find a lot of energy to create. On the plus side, I ended up spending pretty close to half of the year in Spain, bouncing around to a number of places in the south and east of the country, and eating all sorts of delicious foods along the way.

During my months in Spain I visited plenty of restaurants, but being the relatively broke person that I am — who also isn't so bad at cooking — I prepared a lot of meals for myself as well. I'm still not an expert in Spanish cuisine by any means, but I did learn my way around the supermercado pretty well. And, so, I put together a list of 10 of my favorite foods at the grocery store in Spain.

This is not a list of the best foods in Spain, nor is it a list of things that you absolutely need to try — at least not all of it. It is, rather, mostly a list of things that I loved. But hey, I do have pretty good taste. And, in addition to being really tasty, the stories behind many of these foods are also pretty interesting.

You can see all of the pictures here, but for the rest of it you'll have to pop over to the Buslife Kitchen website.

06/05/2026

If you haven't seen it in my stories, I am back in Spain for a while, this time around with a much more relaxed itinerary. Instead of exploring someplace new each week, I've been stationary on the Costa Blanca for (apparently) over a month now. Between writing and laying by the sea, I've been exploring everything within walking distance, which thankfully includes this incredible landscape. Turns out, if you're willing to walk really far, there are some pretty cool things to see out there.

03/05/2026

Happy Sunday, y'all. If you're looking for a little brunch-spiration today, here's a collection of some of my more interesting breakfast recipes from across the internet. You've got:

-Carrot Cake Scones
-Sausage Gravy Breakfast Pizza
-Red Velvet Crepes
-Spicy Gochujang Kale and Eggs Skillet
-Mediterranean Egg Bites, and
-Elotes-Style Breakfast Scramble

All you get here are the photos, but if you pop over to my website, you'll find the rest of what you need to start this — and every — Sunday with a proper special breakfast.

24/04/2026

Alright, y'all, I've got another literary cocktail recipe for you, and this one is especially timely. It's called the Astrophage, and it's based on Project Hail Mary.

If you haven't seen it yet, buy a ticket, it's a great film. And if you haven't read it, do that too, it's a better book.

I had a lot of fun tying this Boulevardier riff in with the story, but I'm not going to explain the details here — I already wrote it all once today. In short, it's got bourbon, it's got port, and it's got some fun aromatic and garnish elements. You'll have to go to the thebuslifekitchen.com for the full explanation.

Address

18 Charlotte Street
Port Ellen
PA42 7DF

Website

https://www.thebuslifekitchen.com/

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