Backpacking Meals Taste Test | Good To-Go

we got good to go full lineup herbs mushroom risotto Pad Thai Indian vegetable korma Thai curry kale and white bean stew Mexican quinoa Bowl chicken gumbo classic marinara with pasta smoked three bean chili New England clam chowder and bib in bap welcome to backpacking TV I'm Eric Hanson and I am excited about this video we have a full lineup of amazing food and we're doing a taste test putting them all head-to-head I'm about to eat 126 thousand calories straight no stopping so that I can give you the best damn food advice ever I'm super excited to bring this video to you mostly because I get to eat amazing food so when it comes to backcountry meals there's some hit-or-miss options out there and good to go has been a longtime one of my absolute favorites they were kind enough to send me their full spread basically the whole menu that they make for dinner meals and I'm gonna try every single one out and tell you which ones I like the best these meals are absolutely ideal for backpacking so this is about as easy as it gets all you need to do is boil water pour it in the bag and wait a little bit of time and you've got an amazing delicious meal it doesn't get any simpler so these are the go-to meals for getting started with backcountry meals let's check them out you have a lot of options when it comes to what you eat in the backcountry as a longtime backpacker I definitely have done the full spectrum if you're a beginning backpacker I absolutely recommend you start with these it doesn't get any easier and they're actually some really good options out there however there are a few not-so-good options out there one time I was backpacking in 17 a tional Park and I ate Katmandu curry and I won't name who made this one but it almost ended my friendship with two of my best friends at the time we were stuck in a tent at night it was rainy nowhere to go had to close up the tent and I my insides were totally destroyed and I couldn't stop and I basically was the stinky kid nobody wants to be the stinky kid and I don't recommend it so there are if you find Katmandu curry out there I don't recommend gifting getting that one but there's a lot of other really good options out here I have come across good to go foods they're a little bit smaller than some of the main players in the game that you see however I think that the quality is unparalleled with these so we reached out to them to see if they would send us their full spectrum and I'm excited to be taste testing all of these today to find out what my favorites are we got some water boiling up all we have to do is put the right amount of water this is important because one way to rec these types of meals is to add too much water make them a big ol soup so we're going to add the right amount of water we got to wait about 20 minutes approximately some of these will vary a little bit and then I get to enjoy so it doesn't get any simpler than that and these are going to be good so I'm going to let you know what's my favorite make sure you find these take them out you don't wanna be eating that I'm gonna go down here I'm less likely to make an error it's gonna look soupy at first but obviously everything's dehydrated so it's gonna soak all of that up with the pad thai make sure you take out the peanut pack that is a sweet little topping to put on top the table is set we've got a fine spread all of the boiling water has been poured all we have to do now is wait the way a heating is the hardest part Tom Petty said a best team knew man he knew one of the reasons why I really like good to go foods and am happy to recommend them is the quality of the ingredients that goes into this one of the co-owners behind good to go is Jennifer schism and she has worked for Michelin rated restaurants she's been an award-winning chef and basically she puts a lot of care and love into her food and you can totally tell also the food is awesome if you are a vegetarian or a vegan or a pescetarian in most backcountry meal options in this category if you fit that category there's really not much you can do it's kind of tough luck there's not a lot of good quality meals for you however most of good to goes food is really conscious of that so there's some really good options the Thai curry is great if you are gluten free and pescetarian as I believe it is a white fish that is actually the meat the protein here let's see Indian vegetable korma gluten free vegetarian meal that's awesome again gluten-free and pescetarian on the Pad Thai vegan on the Korean bibimbap and yep vegan on the herbed rush mushroom risotto again so most of these if you're gluten-free vegan or vegetarian these are awesome options for you the time is ticking away I think the ones that we started with are just about ready there's probably about five or ten minutes that we need to wait on these ones here on the end so I think it's time to get it started first stop is the herbed mushroom risotto or as Gordon Ramsay would say the I don't know if that's actually what you would say but I'm excited to try this one out mmm that's damn good this one might be at an advantage because it's the first one I'm eating but that is satisfying the risotto has a nice texture it's nice and creamy and the mushrooms are delicious and yeah that one's just got a really nice flavor mmm okay I can't do more than two bites I've got too much to eat you oh that was good next up the Korean bibimbap this one's colorful certainly looks beautiful let's see how it tastes hmm can tell right off the bat one's got a good kick that one's got some spice to it I really like the texture in the carrots looks like there's mushrooms in there all those veggies have a really nice structure to them this one's a great option if you like vegetables okay onto pad thai this one I think I'm the most excited about so it may have an unfair advantage in some of the rankings because I just love pad thai so let's add these peanuts and see how she goes nice texture on the noodles [Applause] arrow this one's gonna be hard to beat that's fantastic hmm so I got to be honest I've had this one before I ate this one when I was winter camping in Ontario just too recently and I devoured this one with revelry so I already knew that I loved this one and cooking it again confirms it this one's a winner all right Indian vegetable korma another one I'm excited about anything from this part of the world it's got an unfair advantage in my book because I am a huge fan of Indian food Thai food those are pretty much my two favorites so let's see how they did managing to recreate this one this looks like some nice chickpeas in there hell yeah that is fantastic how can they all be good I don't know but so far they are carrots parsnips green beans dried chickpeas onion peas tried tomato flakes canned tomato paste find ripen tomatoes shredded coconut tried though fat yogurt skim milk grape seed oil ginger walnuts garlic salt mmm coriander fennel seed I can't be giving away their secret sauce see the recipe up next we got Thai curry again sticking with this part of the world again something that I'm excited about trying let's see see how she does how am I gonna decide this is fantastic - I think this one moves to the front of the list backcountry meals backpacking meals always have the advantage of you being downright starving when you eat them so pretty much when you're backpacking anything tastes good however I have not been backpacking so this is up against the fact that I have access to other food if I wanted to eat it so the fact that this tastes truly amazing that really bumps it up a notch to mean that when you're in the backcountry you can only imagine how good it would actually taste yeah that's phenomenal got to keep the train rolling up next Mexican quinoa Bowl let's see how this one does looks like there's a lot of good black beans in there peppers I like this one however I'm going to rank it a little bit lower mostly because the other flavors seem so rich and sweet maybe it's the sweetness that's getting to me that that I really enjoyed about the Thai and Indian ones and now moving to a spicier spectrum it is very good I don't want to suggest that it's not good cuz it truly is good but I think I'm gonna rank this one a little lower switching continents again classic marinara with pasta this kind of has always been one of the go-to classics of backpacking meals just in general with other brands that I've eaten for a long time so let's see how good two goes take adds up looks good the noodles actually have real noodley texture and look as opposed to sometimes definitely eating these before this style like a noodle dish where the noodles are just completely fall apart and you're just eating mush and that's no good tastes like Mama's spaghetti that's good among the marinara pasta style dishes that's probably one of the best ones that I've read chicken gumbo getting fancy this one looks cool I think that must be okra in there Ted okra mmm okra is a great great texture I mean it's crazy then we could be talking about backpacking meals and be complimenting the texture that never happens mm-hmm I've got some kick oh my god that's a good one moving too fast gotta cleanse the palate take a break just a minute okay ready smoke three bean chili I love that there's so many options there is a wide spectrum of tastes here to go with yeah that's a nice chili mmm there's some good elements in there chili is always good to eat especially when backpacking is an excellent chili option starting to get full but I got more to go I'm enduring for you I think this is the one that I was most curious about when we opened up the packages of all the food options New England clam chowder I like the actual chowder it's clever I like it and this one seems a little riskier just on a surface level let's see how they pull this one off they are from Maine so I bet they got it nailed mmm whoa I don't think I've ever had a backpacking meal quite like this one that smells amazing all right this one definitely wins an award for at least most creative and it's truly good so spot on on being creative and tasty thanks to the New England clam chowder corn chowder last but not least maybe the healthiest option on the table kale and white bean stew let's see how she do good to go that kale really comes through nicely if kale is your thing that one's good this one tastes extremely healthy and delicious this is difficult it didn't have any ginger in between to cleanse my palate but I think hard to rank the top three and I'm also getting some feedback from the guy behind the camera here he's weighed in on his favorites as well to me the winner is the Thai curry tastes the best just pure taste it's got a sweetness and a creaminess that is unbelievable the whole flavor everything stands up the noodles that's all it's also good second mm let's go with the risotto oh yeah this one was surprising I was not actually expecting very good things out of this one just purely based on it sounded kind of boring to me I guess sorry to say it but this one truly knocked it out of the park I really really enjoyed it I'm gonna be coming back and eating this one again and again I think to round out the top three oh is that too much Thai I don't know I still got to go with it the pad thai it's so good and I know that the Thai curry and the pad thai they're very similar but they are unique in their flavors so they don't taste just like a and B they're they're they're unique and independent and they hold up so there you go those are my top three all of them deserve awards they are super good you could go with any single thing on here for your next backpacking trip and I'm sure that you will be satisfied and loving it and probably you'll find your new favorite backpacking meal I'm Eric Hanson thanks so much for watching if you like this video please like and subscribe to our videos and I'm gonna dive in and to finish off some more of these see you later

Channel: BackpackingTV

Views: 19,945

Rating: 4.5629139 out of 5

Keywords: BackpackingTV, backpacking, food, freeze, dried, camping, hiking, amazing, meals, camp, review, one, pot, meal, Good, To-Go, best, for, prep, taste, test, Epic, Trails, Heliconia, dehydrated, hike

Id: EfRzmt2vh2s

Length: 18min 19sec (1099 seconds)

Published: Tue May 21 2019