Business ideas? - Just for fun!

[Camino Chrissy]

Mexican food is everywhere in London ( and I am sure other major cities) from restaurants to supermarkets.

Yes, they even have Greek gyros...a favorite of mine.

 

[DoughnutANZ]

Sorry to go on but - they sell them at roadside stands too? I was wondering as they can be handheld ... I can see them all the way down the Camino!! So Spain doesn't have anything similar? They would be an exotic import?
p.s. I'm hungry now!!
oh, I get it - fast food restaurants - what we call takeaways? You can sit in but also buy and go? eat them on a bench, etc - right, no more questions, I have them now - thanks.

I am surprised that you don't seem to know roti. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roti

Another flat bread, unleavened and from the Indian subcontinent

Or more generally, flatbread. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatbread

Although some flatbreads that you may have come across when you head down for your kebab and lager, such as Pita are leavened.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

I had an Indian friend years ago who grew up in India. She taught me to make their flatbread, but she called it chapata.

 

[Bradypus]

I had an Indian friend years ago who grew up in India. She taught me to make their flatbread, but she called it chapata.

I make a slightly modified version using a little mashed potato to replace some of the flour. Very similar to the Scottish potato scone but thinner. It stops the flatbread from becoming dry and brittle quite so quickly. Last year in Norway I discovered lompe which are very similar but with a higher ratio of potato to flour. Delicious! It quickly became a staple for my picnic meals in a country where food can be very expensive.

 

[DoughnutANZ]

..

 

[alexwalker]

Yes, they even have Greek gyros...a favorite of mine.

I love gyros in Crete. So maybe a Mexican Burrito stand 7 kms from Carrion, and a Greek Gyros stand after another 7 kms? With "free" raki (Greek moonshine) and mescal (Mexican moonshine, you know, with an ugly insect at the bottom for added flavour) at the respective places? Will add 2 € per serving to increase my profit...

Will rise my profit to more than +1 mill more € per year.

Boy, the future's so bright, I have to wear shades...

 

[Bradypus]

With "free" raki (Greek moonshine) and mescal (Mexican moonshine, you know, with an ugly insect at the bottom for added flavour) at the respective places?

Once I have my orujo distillery set up maybe we can make a deal. Possibly even produce a special Camino-themed spirit using Cimex instead of Comadia in the bottle?...

 

[alexwalker]

Once I have my orujo distillery set up maybe we can make a deal. Possibly even produce a special Camino-themed spirit using Cimex instead of Comadia in the bottle?...

I'll accept your moonshine production & delivery to my franchise for a solid 10 cents/centilitre (giving me a 45% profit). We can add permethrin to the booze and thus solve the bedbug problem: No bedbug will ever dare to approach our customers (pilgrims). It will be a win-win blockbuster, bringing a new era to the Caminos: A bedbug-free Camino. Pour in some Cimex for good measure. Also consider to add amphetamin, so people can walk longer days and have worse blisters, Will be good for my Compeed vending machines.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

@Bradypus and @alexwalker, you guys are going way past any knowledge I have of spirits, but when I hear Orujo mentioned, @Tincatinker always pops into my mind. If you make it...he will come.

Delicious! It quickly became a staple for my picnic meals in a country where food can be very expensive.

I love it when a man enjoys cooking or baking.

 

[Bradypus]

I love it when a man enjoys cooking or baking.

I love to cook. Especially baking. And after spending a few months in India way back in a previous century I especially love to cook Indian-style food. Things like samosas, idli, chapatti, naan and daal. But I also love to bake bread, pizzas and bagels. My wife has no interest in cooking so I have pretty much free rein in the kitchen. Suits me!

 

[alexwalker]

@Bradypus and @alexwalker, you guys are going way past any knowledge I have of spirits, but when I hear Orujo mentioned, @Tincatinker always pops into my mind. If you make it...he will come.

II think @Tincatinker will be a regular customer/repeat offender. He will be like at Hotel California: You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave,,,

 

[TravellingMan22]

Yes, they even have Greek gyros...a favorite of mine.

Yep pretty much every type of food you could ever imagine in London, probably along with New York and maybe LA, the world leaders. With colleagues we used to go out for dinner each month and go to a restaurant of a different nationality each time working through the alphabet. So A = Armenian B Brasilan, etc!

 

[jmaher]

Yes , officially you do have to use an official credencial if you want to get a compostela. This has not been a make-or-break for me and so I have been happy to take the risk. That said, I have received/bought a compostela each time I have used a homemade credencial! There must be some naughty volunteers in the office - don't count on it if it matters to you though.
Here's my pretty-battered-but-much-loved credencial from 2018 (photo on the cover is from my 2014 camino)



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An astute observer may even notice I pulled it out at Immigration on my return to NZ and after a chat about my camino, they happily gave me one last stamp!
A note for anyone else doing something similar...make sure you use paper that readily accepts stamps. This was watercolour paper that had too much tooth and some of the scraps I sewed on were too shiny.

As for my next one....I'm taking a bigger risk in that I will be stamping each day in a wee journal. I'll also be adding an elevation profile, weather details, albergue details and food I eat, distance covered....and there's room for a sketch or two. I can tell I'm going to love it! (The "Vaya con Dios" photo is from our very first camino - it's on a wall just after Monte de Gozo and any time we enter Santiago from that direction we make our own little pilgrimage to the spot....particularly as we were standing right there one year when we heard someone very special to us had just died. It's curious how a place can hold a memory)

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Those are fantastic credencials, well done. Almost like the quilts different generations make and pass on to the next. But exactly this point is what I had in mind, see how creative people make their credencials if allowed to.

 

[dick bird]

With "free" raki (Greek moonshine)

What!? Are you trying to start another war? Ouzo is Greek, Raki (rhymes with barker) is Turkish. I defy anyone to tell the difference.

 

[Friend from Barquinha]

Gelateria in Caldas de Reis or Redondela on the Portugues. On a very warm August camino in 2022, we couldn't help notice these are the only towns on our Coastal/Central walk that lacked this critical service. Both are pleasant towns too.

For anyone seriously interested, Bico de Xeado, a Galician dairy coop, is franchising:

Próximamente – Bico de Xeado – Helados cremosos de elaboración artesanal

Página web en construción Estaremos disponibles próximamente

bicodexeado.eosaweb.com

Or maybe, since it's the Portugues, these guys...they're franchising too!

Página Inicial - Gelados de Portugal

geladosdeportugal.pt

 

[alexwalker]

What!? Are you trying to start another war? Ouzo is Greek, Raki (rhymes with barker) is Turkish. I defy anyone to tell the difference.

At least in Crete, you will almost everywhere be served a shot or 2 of raki at the end of a restaurant meal. Ouzo is more expensive to give away...

 

[Pafayac]

An umbrella rental company: in each albergue you can either rent an umbrella before walking under rain, or giving it back after arriving to the albergue.
No need to carry an umbrella, you just have it when you need it.
"Umbrella-on-demand" could be the name of the company.
(Note: My idea is not free of royalties, it costs a ración of pimientos de Padrón plus a caña)

 

[Wippe]

Hi - if you were going to start a niche business on Camino what would you do? Not copies of what is already there but something, well, from home I guess.

- this is for fun, no need to go into property rents or licences or Schengen time limits - just fun fantasy.

1. For certain I would place an ice-cream van or stand at the top of that climb out of Castrojeriz, where that small building is .... can you imagine finally getting to the top to see an ice cream van in front of you?? Who could walk past that??

2. I would open a traditional English café, well down the Camino for when pilgrims have finally had enough of badly made weak tepid tea and bread that cuts your gums and slices of tasteless cold lumpy potato omelettes, etc ...
So! - with only English bread - sausages, bacon, beans, eggs, toast and marmalade and so on for breakfasts (with veggie option), maybe porridge, and simple lunches such as home-made Cornish pasties and baked beans and chips ... and in the afternoon? English cream teas!! .. scones, thick cream, strawberry jam, proper tea in teapots with cups and saucers, not mugs!! - and napkins, not thin paper serviettes!

Open at 6 am and close at 5pm, every evening free .... What's not to like??

So - looking back at your Caminos .. was there something you thought would be "just right" there?

Do tell

Oh yes ! Timber built nice toilets 1e with paper and warm water to wash your hands

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

An umbrella rental company

They could be rented out for protection against the sun too but then you would be considered to be running a shady business.

 

[trecile]

I also have an idea for umbrellas, but it would be a stand selling sun protective hands free umbrellas at the start of the Meseta in the warm season.

 

[David Tallan]

@David Tallan Do you think it could be adapted to run on methane? Perpetual motion at last....

I know that some of us pilgrims can produce a prodigious amount of gas, but enough to send this through the sky.... ?

 

[David Tallan]

Once I have my orujo distillery set up maybe we can make a deal. Possibly even produce a special Camino-themed spirit using Cimex instead of Comadia in the bottle?...

I believe someone is already making a Camino-themed spirit (a gin) using plants found along the Camino. I think I heard about it on one of the Camino-themed podcasts a while ago.

 

[Bradypus]

I believe someone is already making a Camino-themed spirit (a gin) using plants found along the Camino. I think I heard about it on one of the Camino-themed podcasts a while ago.

This one?

Story - Camino Gin

caminogin.com

 

[David Tallan]

This one?

Story - Camino Gin

caminogin.com

Looks like the same one.