Schalk CronjéAdventure Food: Chocolate Mousse
Pros: Contains real pieces of chocolate!
Cons: Needs a lot of stirring to prevent clumps.
Verdict: After 4 days on trail, I am not sure this is exciting enough to cheer one up.
Adventure Food: Vanilla Dessert
Pros: A simple dessert.
Cons: Finding the measuring line is hard - there are only two markers; not a solid line. Packet needs to be flattened out at the bottom before stirring. Difficult to avoid clumps even with a lot of stirring.
Verdict: No for me. OH says yes. Try at home first, before taking on trail.
Lyo Food: Chilli Sin Carne
Pro: Tasty. The best in the series of food tested in Feb & Mar '26. Using polenta makes a big difference.
Cons: None
Verdict: Currently the first choice to take on trail.
Lyo Food: Crema Catalana
Pros: Tasty, even better than some of the real crema catalana that I have eaten in restaurants. Real bits of orange peel make the difference.
Cons: None. (It is not going to look like a real crema catalana tartlet, but you are on trail).
Verdict: If I want to take a dessert on trail, absolutely yes. I would even take two ginger biscuits to round it off.
https://lyofood.com/collections/desserts/products/crema-catalana
Adventure Food: Chicken Curry
Pros: Creamy and tasty. A full portion (and too much for me with a smaller appetite).
Cons: Only 6% meat - can nearly pass as a vegetarian meal. Curry is not strong. Could not taste the pineapple.
Verdict: Not first choice, but can take as a variation.
Tent Meals: Thai Green Curry
Pros: Smaller portion suited to 1 person who does not have a large appetite. Peas are quite tasty, and I do not generally like peas. Walnuts are great. Packs very small.
Cons: Needs more than the stated 10mins to fully rehydrate, otherwise the rice is gritty. Not convinced that is tastes like Thai green curry - definitely did not taste the coconut.
Verdict: Not as first choice, but could take on trail as a food variation.
Adventure Food: Bobotie
Pros: Very tasty. Really like the bits of apple in it. High quality raisins. I don't normally like raisins in food, but these were tasty.
Cons: Could not find anything that tasted like meat in it. Still found some grit, but maybe leaving for 5min more would solve that. Does not taste like traditional bobotie.
Verdict: Will take on trail. Even with the negatives, I still like the taste.
Sometimes it is difficult to place pot inside a pot cozy. I realised that for MSR Titan kettle it will definitely not be an easy task, so I made a variation.
There are three parts to it.
(a) A bottom part which is measured to the pot's diameter + 4cm. The edges are cut so thst they can be folded upwards and then taped together.
(b) A rectangular strip that is measured by rolling the pot in the metal foil and adding about 3cm so thst it sagely overlaps. Velcro is added into the overlapping section so that it can close.
(c) A round lid measured on the diameter of the pot.
The metal foil used is the same as for pipe insulation. It comes under various names of which one is called Reflectix.
To use it, place the hot pot with its contents on the bottom part. Wrap the rectangular part around the por ensuring that it covers the edges of the bottom part. Press diwn the velcro edge Now carefully push in the lid on the top.
This should be good enough to cook anything for 10-30min. This includes rehydrating fast cycle freeze-dried foods.
The open it, undo the velcro, take the foil lid off and open tthe handles of the pot.
Got some interesting food to try out. I have not been impressed with a number brands in the past, but these are some other brands from Europe, with the ex eption of Space Food, which is from the USA.
I once tried a bit of freeze dried ice icream, so quite excited to have been able to get some from an EU shop. It reckon if I can take one pack on 5-day trail, it could do as interesting snack in the late afternoon for one or two days.
There are a number of other deserts in here, because on a multi-day trip, I like to treat myself to one dessert. The Creme Catalana is definitely a novel item.
As to food, the three brands are Adventure Foods (NL), Tent Meals (UK) and Lyo (PL).
I am definitely interested to see if the bobotie will taste anything like the traditional food I know.
The two meals from Tent Meals are interesting, as they are the eat-in-a-packet kind. It makes for smaller packages, but means rehydration needs to happen in a pot. It makes me wonder if I should make up some pot cozy for my MSR Titan kettle.
#trailfood #whatsinyourpack #freezedried #adventurefoods #spacefood #lyo #tentmeals
A question to anyone that own the 900ml (30.x fl.oz) MSR Titanium Kettle:
Does a fuel canister fit into the groove on the lid?
BTW It fits perfectly on previous generation kettle,
#whatsinyourpack #msrgear #cooking #trailfood #hiking #bikepacking #backpacking
P.S. No local shops have the new model, so I have to mail order, and I want to be sure what I buy.