Two years, twelve countries, and approximately four hundred meals. The Coleman stove has outlasted three cutting boards and one frying pan.

Good van cooking is one of the underrated pleasures of the life. You have time, you have motivation because eating out every day gets expensive, and you have access to extraordinary local ingredients from markets and farm stalls. What you need is a stove that works reliably on propane, handles wind, produces enough heat to actually boil water in reasonable time, and does not take up the entire kitchen worktop.

We use ours inside the van with the window cracked — never fully sealed. The ignition works reliably from a cold start. The hinged side panels fold up to create reasonable wind protection when cooking outside. The grates are large enough for any pan we own. It has required one new igniter in two years, which took five minutes to replace and cost four pounds from a camping supplier in Lisbon.