There is no more need for restaurants. I don't remember the last time I ate at a restaurant. There is nothing stopping a low-budget traveler sans stove from getting all food groups from a delicious array of open fires, soup kitchens and raw food assembled on hotel tables in minutes.

In Granada I frequented comedores - or soup kitchens - with a small gang of cave-dwellers and our dogs. The city wrapped its cobbled streets fast around me for five days and even I started believing tales of radiation control emanating from cell phone stations, I was enamored with the city and its alternative life-style. Soup kitchens are not all bad when you are lacking in funds, but they don't give you the control over the foods you consume like your own kitchen can. I then landed in Tarifa and was feeding off scraps of things a Moroccan and a Pole scavenged and threw on a grill behind a shoddy stone house. Then two days later I hit the beach loaded up with store-bought products just in time to surprise my father for his birthday and thus began our open-fired feasts on the beach. We started our own little kitchen right on the shore over a screen and a pine-cone fueled-fire. We created feasts of Indian curries, Thai fried rice and spicy crepes.

My father had spent the past six months living in a tent on the cliff in a state forest that was filled up half the year with hippie families, ex-drug addicts and young curious travelers. On a stretch of some of the wildest coast-line in Spain it reaches out towards Morocco and is the favorite hidden spot where illegal immigrants direct their vessels to European soil. It looks out over Africa, but most never venture across that way. My father and I decided to despite our limited funds. But, we made a few stops along the way. First stop: a devious bunker next to the beach where its inhabitant, an amiable Slovenian lurked at the end of a dark passageway with enchanting end of the world conversation and some excellent spicy tomato soup. The next day we bused it to Gibraltar and there enjoyed a hot soup kitchen meal of paella and bread served with English humor. We spent the next day on the boat surviving on crusty bread and tuna into Ceuta, the Spanish strong-hold in Morocco. We crossed the border by foot and walked most of the day down the Mediterranean coastline along the mysterious land of Morocco.

The very first evening we were welcomed into the home of a Moroccan family with two lovely little children. The wife prepared some traditional lentil soup followed by mint tea and desserts. I taught the kids a little yoga and made a list of important spices to buy. We said goodbye the next morning and walked further down the coast stopping in another small town that all taxis skip. We rested for three days in a pension with a balcony over-looking the busy center and there I decided to start practicing the art of raw food.

Every morning we started the day with the so-called Kollath breakfast which is just a simple western twist of an Indian yogic diet. It is so simple it seems silly to even explain it and almost baffling that I didn't discover it sooner. It consists of whole wheat flour soaked in cold water overnight in one small container and dried fruit such as raisins, dates, figs, etc. soaked in another container. The next morning you drain the wheat and add the fruit and their liquid along with cut-up pieces of fresh fruit, the lemon juice from one lemon and a sprinkling of nuts such as almonds or walnuts. Delicious, fulfilling and quite possibly the healthiest breakfast one can devour.

The next stop was the big city of Tetouan with its old winding labyrinth market full of every ingredient on the planet. I purchased the fresh ground ginger, coriander and cumin from large wooden bowls of market vendors. We started making Couscous for dinner. The soaking time of this essential Arabic delicacy is spell-binding. Within a minute it can be soft and smooth ready for the addition of salt and spices and some raw tomatoes and onions providing a Tabouli in the blink of an eye. Pasta can be prepared in a similar manner, allowing for about an hour or more for the soaking time, depending on the type. For ten days we never even considered stepping foot in a restaurant nor investing in a camping type gas burner. One-hundred percent gas-free, self-sufficient with no need for any restaurants, take-aways or begging, we were healthy and strong. Better not tell this secret though - imagine if everyone realized that the key to health lay in their own hands with just some water a bowl and a knife and some of the most accessible items known to man- its just too much divinely inspired simplicity.

Vesna Bouarab is co-founder of The Granapple, a web-based travel site helping to customize trips and providing many other travel-related services. Her site is http://www.thegranapple.com.