I like to look through the international foods line-up at my favorite grocery store, from time to time, as you can often find great ideas for trail food. I thought it might be nice to explore what is currently available for the benefit of the participants in my upcoming wilderness cooking workshop. Generally don’t leave empty handed and this particular time was no exception. I found three interesting items.
The first was a single serving Soba kit. Soba are Japenese style noodles. This is a little heavier at 200 grams but it’s quite tasty, easy and quick. The kit contains two sauce packets, one dry and one liquid, that you combine and add a small amount of cool water to. The sauce contains the flavors from anchovy powder and wasabi. There is also a recipe on the back for a Chicken Salad with Soba. It calls for a spicy dressing, bok choy, green and red peppers and chicken of course. You could easily dry the bok choy and peppers, include some freeze-dried chicken and take the dressing along for a trail lunch or you could just enjoy the noodle kit on its own. These Soba kits have no additives or preservatives and are made by a company called Orient. The cost was $2.49 (Canadian).
The second find was a 50 gram pouch of Spice Paste for Rice by a company called Asian Home Gourmet. The variety I purchased was Thai Spicy Basil Rice. Like the Soba noodle product this is additive and preservative free and does not contain artificial colours. The paste is mixed with chicken and/or vegetables, cooked rice and a little vegetable oil, then stir fried for 2 to 3 minutes. You could use freeze-dried for this or dry your own. It is spicy because it contains chillies, onion and garlic but it is really delicious and super easy. This packet makes 3 to 4 servings. The cost was $1.99 (Canadian).
The third product an Aloo Mutter (Diced Potatoes and Pea Curry) is a little heavy at 300 grams and the most expensive at $4.49 (Canadian), but it requires no work at all unless you decide to have rice with it. This product is in a pouch that you place in boiling water for 3 to 5 minutes. Just open and serve with chapati, naan, pappadums or rice. The product is made by Kitchens of India and the recipe was created by the Master Chefs of ITC Hotels. It contains 2 average sized servings and the taste was good.
All three products have an expiry date of just over a year and are shelf-stable. Sometimes it is nice to have some alternatives from the grocery store especially if an impromptu trip arises and I don’t have time to make or dry my own foods.
