Tramping Food: Nissin Top Ramen short cuts

Tramping Food: Nissan Top Ramen Noodles

I am constantly looking for convenient food to take on my tramping trips, weight, taste and ease of preparation are important. I have been making my own version of "freeze dried" meals that just need water added or minimal cooking to prepare.

I recently found these noodles which combined with other ingredients make a fine meal for a hungry outdoors man.



Top ramen noodles

Americans will recognise these Nissin Top Ramen noodles, they are a well known pre seasoned noodle for use in Chow Mien type meals. I have found a supplier of Nissin products in Christchurch; The Mad Butcher store on Ferry/Aldwin's road sell packets of these noodles for $5.00.

Various flavours available

They currently have the beef, chicken and roast chicken flavour. Here is a advertising blurb about them!

View inside the packet

As you can see the noodles are about 2cm long, and have a flavour powder on them. You follow the instructions on the pack, add to a pot of hot water and simmer for three minutes. They are then ready for eating. With the addition of meat and or vegetables they make a calorie packed meal.

Here is a recipe I have worked out using the noodles and dehydrated mince:

Jon's Top Ramen Beef Chow Mein

1 Cup Top Ramen noodles (or use any 2 minute or Rice noodles)
1 Cup dehydrated beef mince (or your own choice: salami/biltong/jerky/canned meat)
1/2 Cup dehydrated beans/mixed vegetables (I prefer Surprise dried beans if you can find them)
3 Cups water
clove of garlic, cut fine
1/4 t five spice
1/2 t dried shallots/onions + salt-pepper/soy sauce to taste

Bring water to the boil, add the Top Ramen noodles, vegetables, garlic and five spice simmer for 2 minutes. Add beef mince, simmer for 1-2 minute till tender. The meal is then cooked, sprinkle over the onions/shallots and add salt/ pepper/soy to taste. Enjoy.

I usually have the noodles, spices and beans in one zip lock bag. The mince is in a second smaller zip lock bag. I always carry a small bag of dried shallots with me to "pep" up my meals. Total cost per serving: about $5.00!

This is one of my favourites, it is tasty, slightly soupy and really easy to clean up afterwords.

Here are some other recipes using these noodles:

Update 2019: I have not seen these in New Zealand for about 3-4 years now. If you come across them where you leave then I highly recomend them to you. 

Tramping Food: Eating like an ANZAC

A tramping meal idea: ANZAC Trench Stew

When I first joined the Army back in the late 1980's we were still supplied with food very similar to that used by ANZAC soldiers in the First World War. Among other items we had cans of "wet" food such as meat and vegetable stew, spaghetti and meat balls, corned beef, and beans and franks.

Palm Corned Beef...closest thing to Kiwi rations in the 1980's

I came across a recipe recently that was an exact copy of one of the meals we commonly used to make for ourselves while out in the "field". This recipe dates from 1915, and was in a book I am reading about the Great War.

Troops about to tuck into Rations, Field, Chicken x 1....

 It had obviously been passed down through generations of soldiers from the Great War up to the 1980's. Sadly gone now, Kiwi troopers now eat from Meals Rarely Eaten (MRE) style retort pouches....

Anyway, here it is:

The Trench stew as cooked...yummy!

Finest Trench stew

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Number of servings: 3 - 4
Serving suggestions: For authenticity, allow to cool and serve with a cup of ice cold stewed tea while 5.9" 'Wizz Bangs' explode around you.....(mud, stench and fly swarms optional)

Modern version of canned Corned Beef

WW1 period Beef and Vegetable stew can

Ingredients:

• 1 turnip (or parsnip/potato, whatever you can find on a local farm)
• 2 carrots
• Small tin corned beef (Palm brand is the best)
• ¼ stock cube (beef/chicken/vegetable)
• one or two biscuits (optional: WW1 Army biscuits were so hard you had to break them up with a stone or the butt of your rifle. They were a cross between a digestive biscuit and a cracker)
• 1 pint of water (that's about 300 mls)
• Dried onions, Tobasco sauce, tomato sauce and salt and pepper to taste (all modern additives)

Typical Great War field rations, those white things are hard tack biscuits...

Cooking Method

1. Put the water on to boil
2. Slice up the turnip and carrot
3. Add to the boiling water
4. Add the stock and stir then leave for 10 minutes
5. Mash up corned beef and add to the mixture
6. Add the biscuits and stir (optional)

Give it a try, it is actually very tasty!

Tramping Food: Freezer bag cooking, trail food made simple by Sarah Svien

Freezer Bag Cookery: a book by Sarah Svien

I am always looking for ways to increase the variety and taste of the food I eat while tramping. My general pattern is too take fresh food for the first day or two (steak... yum, yum!) and then rely on dried or freeze dried meals for the remainder of the trip. 

 

Freezer bag cookery by Sarah Svien

Freezer bag cooking : trail food made simple, by Sarah Svien is the title of a book I am currently reading, The book is a collection of quick cook hiking food recipes which are made by adding water to various ingredients. There are recipes for all three meals plus snack and dessert ideas.

The author suggests Asian food markets as a source of ingredients, a recent visit found the following items;

• dried fish (shrimp/white fish/prawns)
• dried rice/noodles
• udon meals
• dried mushrooms/vegetables/onion/shallots
• pasta, cous cous, instant mashed potato
• freeze dried meat (pork/beef)
• soups, miso, pickles etc

.

With these and other items like fresh vegetables, tinned fish/chicken, bouillon cubes, spices and herbs many tasty meals can be made.

A simple cous cous meal...

A tramping food recipe from the book to try

Here is an example of one of the recipes, this is;

Herbed Tomato Rice

Ingredients

1	c	instant rice
1⁄4	c	freeze-dried corn
1⁄4	c	sun-dried tomatoes
1	T	diced dried onion
1 1⁄2	t	lower sodium beef or chicken bouillon
1	t	granulated garlic
1⁄4	t	dried oregano
1	T	olive oil
200gm		cheddar cheese

Notes

Find in the cheese sticks in the dairy aisle near the string cheese. Sun-dried tomatoes can be found in the produce department of most grocery stores, dried onion in the spice aisle.

Instructions

At home:
Pack the rice through oregano into a quart freezer bag. Tuck the oil and cheese in with the bag.

In camp:
Freezer Bag Cookery (FBC) method:

Add 1 1/2 cups near boiling water and the oil to the dry ingredients in a quart freezer bag. Seal tightly and tuck in a freezer bag cozy to insulate for 15 minutes.

One pot method:
Bring 1 1/2 cups water and the oil to a boil, add in the dry ingredients. Take off the heat and cover tightly. Let sit for 15 minutes (in cooler temperatures or at altitude use a pot cozy to retain heat).
Dice up the cheese and fold in.



Tramping Food: Great tramping beverages

You are what you drink, or a tale of many beverages!

Does your beverage of choice say anything about you? Trampers have a diverse range of preferences, some people like tea, others coffee, or some other variety of hot or cold drink. I have seen people drinking soup for breakfast, liquid jelly for dessert and you often see tramping parties having a quiet tipple as well. Tea seems to be the leader with coffee, fresh or instant, a close second.  

Cheers...Jon enjoying a hot brew in East Hawdon Bivvy

Hot drinks for tramping...

My preference runs towards Early Grey tea, black with sugar and in large quantities. I don't care if it is bagged or loose just so long as it is hot and sweet. My brand of choice is Dilmah but even the roughest gumboot tea will suffice in an emergency. I also like Cha Nui tea which is a New Zealand brand.

My choice of tea, Dilmah Earl Grey

I sometimes take packets of instant hot chocolate or cappuccino mixes with me as they make a nice change from tea at every meal. If I can find them, I like the Nestle Hot Chocolate with marshmallows the best.

Nestle brand hot chocolate

I usually carry either Nescafe or Jarrah coffee and cappuccino sachets, both are freely available here in New Zealand. The individual sachets weigh 5 gm's and make a perfectly acceptable version of a coffee.

Nescafe Cappucino sachets- 20 per pack

What about a nice hot mug of soup, when I am out tramping I start every evening meal with soup. I use both quick cook packets and the classic Continental Cup-O-Soup.

One of the Continental Cup-O-Soup range

If you are going to have a soup look for ones that just requires hot water or ones that need only a short period of simmering. Personally I like the creamy or noodle filled flavours for added taste and nutrition.

Massive mug of Dutch Curry and Rice Soup, Totaranui Campground 2018

I'm also partial to a mug of hot Raro or Vitafresh fruit powder drink with dinner. I know this sounds strange but its really good. Lemonade is the flavour of choice if you want to drink it hot...it is beautiful!

Classic Raro Sweet Navel Orange

Water, iced tea and a hot coffee, Lake Isabel Hut, Victoria Forest Park2014

Sweeteners and condensed milk...

I used to carry sugar for my hot drinks but now I use Splenda sugar substitute. One tablet is equal to 1 teaspoon of sugar, the packet below holds 100 tablets or enough for 50 cups of tea/coffee. The packet is the size of a matchbox and weighs only 22gms, by comparison 100 teaspoons of sugar weighs 640gms.

Splenda sugar substitute

If I have an instant coffee it would be sweetened with Nestle condensed milk. This is a drink I picked up in the Army, it dates back to before WW1, the only way to drink coffee in the outdoors IMHO. It is also excellent added to a brew of tea as well.

Update: Since I posted this in 2012 I have struck several people who also carry condensed milk for their coffee. It really is delicious- no need for sugar or milk with this product. In fact I have seen Ray Mears the survival expert using it on his TV programs.

Forget stupid syrups, classic old timer coffee additive...condensed milk!!!

Condensed milk is still a part of both New Zealand and Australian Army field rations to this day.

 

Having a coffee at the Davies Bay campground, QCT in 2016

Cold tramping drinks...

.....(actually cool as you have no refrigeration to chill your drinks)

 

There is nothing better than water for quenching your thirst, but sometimes you want something different.
 
Powdered fruit drink packets are very popular, there are a wide range of flavours and several brands. My preferred type is Vitafresh especially their Peach Iced Tea, Orange Mango, Blackcurrant and old fashioned Lemonade.

Orange Mango Vitafresh

Raro is the other well known range available here in New Zealand. 

A Raro drink powder three pack

I also use isotonic drink powders, these are basically fruit flavoured mineral replacement drinks. Vitasport is one of the more common brands available here. 

Vitasport isotonic drink powder

I will generally carry one packet of Vitasport/Raro/Vitafresh (12 gms) per day and have it with my evening meal.

Red Vitasport with my meal, Carrington Hut, Arthurs Pass National Park

Beer,  spirits, wine anyone?

A quick snort of something is as old as tramping itself, and is a Kiwi tradition. I would imagine even the sainted John Muir carried a flask of something to make the evenings more convivial.

The outdoor 'Saint'- John Muir, father of the US National Park movement!

Personally I am of two minds about alcohol and outdoor activities, I like a drink as much as the next person but in the right place and at the right time. A glass of a nice red with your freeze dried meal is good, a litre of Vodka with lunch not so much....

I'm partial to a river cooled can of beer and have taken several with me in the past. Nothing like finishing the day with an ice cold brew in your hand! Oh yeaahhhh!

Using nature's beer chiller....some tasty beverages cooling in a river.

I also enjoy a snort of whiskey or rum, normally in a coffee. Leave the hip flask at home and carry it in a tightly sealed plastic bottle- hey, its not going to compromise the quality any worse than humping it around in a pack for a couple of days.

The Bundaberg Rum range...great in your evening coffee...

Just a final word; carry out your empties! Nothing worse than arriving at a hut to see a pile of empty bear cans or wine bottles cluttering up the bench. If you carry it in, carry it out.

Cheers!