Back to Back Issues Page
Trail Bytes, Aug 2024: Chinese Takeout for the Trail
August 25, 2024
Hello,

Greetings from Pfäffikon. We’re back from a hiking trip to Klosters, a mountain paradise just an hour-and-a-half drive from us. It bustles with skiers in winter. Most of our hiking was above treeline with the musical, bell-clanking cows, and the occasional marmot. Next time we’ll explore some trails under the trees.

Before we left, I worked out the particulars of dehydrating a popular comfort food—Fried Rice. Chinese takeout is hard to come by in the Swiss mountains, so why not bring your own?

For this edition of Trail Bytes, I also conducted a thorough review of the GSI Minimalist Backpacking Pot.

There are a couple of firsts for me this month:

1. Rehydrating a meal in a freezer bag. I’ve always been a cook-in-the-pot kind of camper. Still am, but I see where cook-in-the-bag has its appeal, especially when carrying a minimalist pot.

2. Scrambling eggs in a backpacking pot. Easier than I expected.

Fried Rice is an assembled meal consisting of separately dehydrated rice and vegetables. All the Chinese-restaurant flavors are built into the rice before drying it. No need to carry packets of soy sauce on the trail.

Fried Rice tastes great without scrambled eggs, but where there is a will, there is a way. The new page shows that scrambling eggs in a backpacking pot is possible.

Fried Rice also works well as a cold-soak meal. It’s just like pulling last night’s Chinese takeout from the fridge. Dominique gave it two chop sticks up.

Here’s the new recipe: Backpacking Fried Rice.

GSI Minimalist Pot Review

Photo: The GSI Minimalist kit includes a .6 liter hard anodized pot, pot lid, pot gripper, neoprene cozy, and a folding spoon.

The Minimalist lacks one of the features I admire most about GSI Outdoors pots—a sturdy handle. Instead of a handle, it comes with a silicone pot gripper.

I initially thought that having no handle might make the pot hard to handle, but…

With no handle to get in the way, the pot slides easily into the thin, neoprene pot cozy when you take the pot off the stove.

The insulating cozy allows you to “handle” the pot with one hand, whether you’re sipping a hot drink, pouring boiled water into a freezer-bag-meal, or eating a meal right out of the pot.

Photo: Fried Rice (sans eggs) cooked “freezer-bag” style.

After boiling water in the pot, pour it into the bag of dried food. Put the bag back into the insulated pot, so the meal stays hot while it finishes rehydrating.

Open the bag and stretch it over the edges of the pot. Easy to eat, no pot to clean.

In my review of the GSI Minimalist Pot, I evaluated the pot’s pros and cons, and demonstrated how I cooked meals with it… in the pot, in a freezer bag, and using the cold-soak method.

Read the full review:

GSI Minimalist Pot. Just big enough may be just right for the solo backpacker.

After you read the review, I’d be happy to hear your comments or questions.

See you next month with another recipe and pot review.

Freundliche Grüsse,

Chef Glenn & Dominique

Reply to this email with any questions or comments, or use this contact form.

Visit my Backpacking Chef Facebook page for the lastest posts. Be sure to "follow" the page to continue seeing posts.

If you received this newsletter from a friend and would like to subscribe (it's free), subscribe here.


Back to Back Issues Page