Eating out

We are always looking for new things to eat on the trail, especially at dinner. We're pretty happy with our usual breakfast of instant oatmeal (with added nuts!) hot chocolate (with VIA coffee for M) and some dried fruit. And lunches are some version of crackers, salami, hard cheese, energy bars, and dried fruit.

But dinners are something else. We like to start with instant Miso soup--but recently have added Hot and Sour Soup, and chicken broth as options. Soup not only tastes good, but help us stay hydrated. And we eat the soup while we are waiting for the rest of our meal to fully hydrate.

We have our favorite freeze-dried dinners, but we have also experimented with ramen noodles as a main course, and our own dehydrated meals as well. And when P decides that there are enough fish in the river or lake for him to keep a few, we sometimes cook them up with some instant rice or instant mashed potatoes as the entrée.

P once took a trip about 45 years ago into SEKI in which he pretty much lived on instant rice and trout for dinner for a week. He took along a collection of Knorr instant sauces and soups as seasoning, and ate everything from trout amandine to trout goulash. And lived to tell the tale. Had a great time, too. Caught a LOT of the fish.

These days, as grocery stores and delis add more exotic items, we tend to collect a few to try on our next trip. Sometimes they are great, Sometimes they are not anything that we would take along again. But even then, the upside is a delightful sense of variety in the food we pack.

It's supposed to be fun, remember?