OK...I've come back from a trip in which dehydrated meals from MEC played a fairly prominent role. My conclusion: I'm not buying any of those ever again.
The first night I had pasta, with Knorr's soup mix (creamy mushroom) and a bit of powdered milk for the sauce. Delicious, easy, and dirt cheap. It all went downhill from there.
Quote:
quote:Not bad: Harvest Foodworks Beef Stroganoff
I know I said this. I take it back. This is what I had the second night. It was gross. Just way too salty. I liked it for the first few mouthfuls, but only because I was starving. About halfway through I decided it was barely edible.
Meanwhile, Q was eating Natural High Honey Lime Chicken. She kept saying how awful it was, and finally I had a taste just to see what she was talking about. It tasted like a blend of ammonia and Pine Sol. The others in the group thought I was brave to taste it, because they were disgusted by the smell. We wondered how this could possibly have gotten past a panel of tasters at the company that makes it.
The third night I had Kung Pao Shrimp (again, Natural High brand). Again, I was starving and I devoured the first few mouthfuls. The spicy aroma was pretty good. However, about halfway through I started to realize that the spices seemed to be an attempt to cover up an underlying gross taste. It was edible, but why eat something that is only edible? Also, my stomach felt like it had a lump of lead in it afterwards.
The last night, I had AlpineAire Sierra Chicken. This wasn't bad at all. I would probably buy that one again, just to have around as an extra emergency dinner, although I think this is an unnecessarily expensive way to eat. I liked it but didn't LOVE it. And although it said "serves two" and I ate the whole thing myself, I was still hungry when I'd finished. I'd just finished hiking for 6 hours with an overnight pack, and I could have easily eaten another one.
Q was eating the AlpineAire chili; I had a taste and it was all right. So far that is the brand that gets my vote, if one MUST buy one of those meals.