Cara Gallardo Weil has quarantined five times in three different countries since last year, and she knows that delivery food is only appealing for so long.
"It's depressing eating restaurant food," Weil told Insider over a phone call.
Weil, the creative director for Mount Mayon Premium Pili Nuts, spoke to us from a hotel room in Hong Kong, where she was most of the way through a mandatory three-week quarantine period.
"We can get my favorite restaurant to come and deliver here, but to have to eat it every day for two to three weeks? I don't like eating out of boxes all the time," she added.
For 21 days straight, Weil and her husband lived entirely out of a studio hotel room with CM+ Hotels and Serviced Apartments.
There, quarantine guests cannot leave their room or even open their windows to get fresh air.
While quarantine food has often been compared to "struggle meals," with students at New York University sharing videos of their makeshift meals on TikTok, Weil has garnered attention for her delectable quarantine cooking.
She's made everything from prawn and oyster mushroom pappardelle with roasted peppers and broccoli to a crab and artichoke pasta.
In an interview with Insider, Weil explained how she managed to feed herself and her husband so well in just 400 usable square feet of living space, using only a microwave and a two-burner induction cooktop.