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Mother Natures Son
08-03-2019, 16:58
Just back from a new chic restaurant in town. They served ramen plain, and not much else. I laughed to myself and said, "I had better stuff on the trail than this." What was the worst type of food, pizza or otherwise, that you had on the trail?

fastfoxengineering
08-03-2019, 17:14
Just back from a new chic restaurant in town. They served ramen plain, and not much else. I laughed to myself and said, "I had better stuff on the trail than this." What was the worst type of food, pizza or otherwise, that you had on the trail?The frozen pizza from Mountain Crossings is horrible.

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flemdawg1
08-05-2019, 11:27
There was a BBQ place in Erwin called River Bend I think. We went on a Thursday night before a section hike and it was awful, the meat was at least 4 days old and reheated. Sides tasted prepackaged.

JG13
08-05-2019, 13:29
There was a BBQ place in Erwin called River Bend I think. We went on a Thursday night before a section hike and it was awful, the meat was at least 4 days old and reheated. Sides tasted prepackaged.

Dari Ace in Erwin has terrific burgers and steak fries. A bit off topic but FYI. :)

peakbagger
08-05-2019, 14:21
Back when I was in high school in the tail end of the seventies, dehydrated backpacking meals were just coming out. We would take a different variety to try out on weekend backpacks. They tended to be way over seasoned and the consistency of cold oatmeal. I remember one or two trips where we were ravenous from a days hiking but could barely choke down the meal we brought. I think one of the infamous meals was turkey tetrazzini. I think the theory was if they put enough MSG in the meal it would be palatable.

Slo-go'en
08-05-2019, 16:35
The worst meal actually on the trail was a Backpacker Pantry meal which I'm apprenty allergic to something in it. Could have killed me.

The worst resturant meal while hiking along the trail was the Chinese buffet in Pearisburg. Although, I did show up in the middle of the afternoon, so the selection was just what was left over from lunch and they were not willing to make freash food just for me.

flemdawg1
08-05-2019, 17:20
Worst on trail food is a toss up between Teriyaki Knorr side, and Spanish flavored Quinoa Blend from Aldi. Buried most of each.

Mother Natures Son
08-05-2019, 19:09
Don't feel bad. My Dad (In the late 60s.) bought several cases of WW 2 "Sea Ration." Boy were they bad!! Had to be-the worse thing I ever ate on the trail, hands down

garlic08
08-06-2019, 08:00
Don't feel bad. My Dad (In the late 60s.) bought several cases of WW 2 "Sea Ration." Boy were they bad!! Had to be-the worse thing I ever ate on the trail, hands down

Those were "C Rations (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-ration)," or "C rats," the predecessor to MREs. They were the standard in WWII, of which my father was a veteran. I heard a lot about C rats when I was growing up, nothing good.

My worst meal on the AT was a chicken sandwich at an ice cream place in Damascus that was still frozen.

Dogwood
08-06-2019, 13:31
A restaurant in VA served egg noodles and ketchup when spaghetti and marinara sauce was ordered ala Henry Hill experience. Asked for garlic in the sauce and Parmesan cheese as a topping. They threw some packets on the table. Side salad was a wedge of iceberg and two wedges of unripe tomato and a glob of mayo. Appalchia Italiano?

The Pine Grove Furnace General Store's half gallon challenge is just as disgusting for the quality of the ice cream and what it does to a thru hiker's stomach evident by the fetid insect streaming ice cream hurls near the store and AT. The watering hose outside the store has been used many times to wash down the food hurls.

JPritch
08-06-2019, 16:21
This:
https://goodto-go.com/products/herbed-mushroom-risotto?variant=42021718919&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&gclid=CjwKCAjwyqTqBRAyEiwA8K_4O6YPu-xQCI91NAZD7CBalP4wo-N2D_-MDtuYAWbQeEE2BtIegV_71xoCJsQQAvD_BwE

I asked every camper and passerby if they had salt or seasoning they could spare. About killed myself downing that whole package.

Night Train
08-08-2019, 14:27
A swarm of gnats crossing the RR tracks at NOC.

Dogwood
08-08-2019, 18:29
This:
https://goodto-go.com/products/herbed-mushroom-risotto?variant=42021718919&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&gclid=CjwKCAjwyqTqBRAyEiwA8K_4O6YPu-xQCI91NAZD7CBalP4wo-N2D_-MDtuYAWbQeEE2BtIegV_71xoCJsQQAvD_BwE

I asked every camper and passerby if they had salt or seasoning they could spare. About killed myself downing that whole package.

Many have stated this 'entree' is best if it has something added to it. It makes sense. Most dont make mushroom rice a meal in itself. Adding a pouch of chicken or dried shrimp and maybe some chives and added dried shrooms this can be delish!

Mother Natures Son
08-08-2019, 19:17
What part of C-Rations didn't you like? I thought everything tasted like S...! We couldn't wait to get back home as none of us kids (Scouts) wanted to eat them. (Dad was not happy with us.)

Scrum
08-09-2019, 13:05
Good topic - thanks for starting the discussion. To me, everything seems to taste better in the back country than in the front country. Notable exception was hiking with a friend in the 90s who was in the army and we used some MREs that had been liberated from his base. Only the little bottle of Tabasco sauce in the package was eatable - the rest was cardboard. As for bad restaurant food, I seem to recall a very unappetizing meal at the Chinese buffet in Gorham NH.

TwistedCF
08-09-2019, 16:22
C-rats are just like any other canned food, with possibly more sodium. If you don't like lima beans then you're not going to like canned lima beans. Also, anything that comes in a can taste better warmed than cold. A lot of the military foods, in all their incarnations, c-rats, k-rats, MREs etc., are palatable. Some are just plain gross. SPAM wasn't part of the official c-rat line up during WW2 but the US Army bought and issued tons of it to the troops to supplement c-rats. When we got MREs there were 6 out of the original 12 I really liked. The beef stew was good. It was really good when warmed and splashed with the included Tobasco sauce. I didn't care for the chicken and rice but I'm not a big fan of chicken. I could eat it but it wasn't my favorite. There was a ham and egg omelette that to this day I just about gag thinking about it. A lot of it is personal preference but the consensus among the troops was that the omelette was bad!

Mother Natures Son
08-09-2019, 19:04
Boy, this post brought back a lot of memories for me. I was thrilled when the C-Rations had Spam in them... until I ate it. It tasted nothing like real Spam. (Why?)

IGY6
08-09-2019, 19:35
I remember when the omlet MRE came out... I would have to agree, it's pretty bad. But lemon or pineapple pound cake... that was good, I think, we were starving about all the time but we would choke it down.

TwistedCF
08-09-2019, 19:42
If it was in a USGI c-ration marked can it probably wasn't Hormel brand SPAM, but rather some generic government contractor potted meat. Or it could have been way out of date if it was surplus! In the early 90s we were occasionally being issued rations that were packaged in 76 with a shelf life of six years. I'm no mathologist but 1976 to 1991 is a little past the "best if eaten by" date. And anything that makes it onto a surplus store shelf is either already expired or otherwise potentially compromised. The US Army in particular, and I'm sure the other branches too, don't just decide to do Spring cleaning and sell off a bunch of stuff that is still useful until it's being replaced by something substantially better. I admit to being caught in the nostalgia trap at times. A few years ago at an outdoor show one of the vendors had several cases of old MREs. My Dad had never eaten one of the "new" style Army rations so I bought one and we took it to the food court and ate it on the spot. Spaghetti with meat sauce if I remember correctly. It was pretty much what I remembered and my Pop didn't have any trouble choking it down. I have no fear about eating out of date rations as long as I'm close to my own toilette for the evening but I would never depend on them on trail. Even if they are fresh the sodium is a problem for me these days. Still, it was fun getting to share one with my dad, along with some stories about memorable meals we have eaten around the world.

Scrum
08-09-2019, 19:43
Boy, this post brought back a lot of memories for me. I was thrilled when the C-Rations had Spam in them... until I ate it. It tasted nothing like real Spam. (Why?)

"Real Spam" - that term made me laugh. Sort of seems like an oxymoron. :)

Traffic Jam
08-09-2019, 19:45
Never had a bad meal on the trail. The problem is having high expectations for my post-hike meal. Recently had a disappointing meal at a Damascus restaurant (which will remain unnamed).

Slow Trek
08-09-2019, 23:20
Not to bad mouth Spam,because Lord knows I have eaten my share when hiking,but this thread forces me to share a story. In my real life I sell tools,at places like meat packing plants. One customer at a pork plant told me he was changing jobs from mechanic to quality control-product sorter. I asked what the new job involved. I will never forget the answer-"Pet food,pizza meat,spam-somebody has to make that choice". To this day I have no desire to know exactly how the choice is made...