Dining In

Plan B

Dinner after a hiking day should be a reward. Dinner after a driving day should be, at worst, a minor inconvenience. But finding a restaurant on the road can be a discouraging endeavor.

So eat in! You're already in a place that's close by, has a casual dress code and can serve affordable, hot, nutritious, good-tasting food with excellent service. It's called your hotel room.

What??

Plan A is still to find a restaurant that meets our requirements (close by, affordable, serves hot, nutritious, good-tasting food, has a casual dress code and provides excellent service - in case you missed it). But sometimes local restaurant prospects are dismal. Other times we're just too damn tired to go hunting.

• The Internet
• GPS
• Dehydrated camp food that actually tastes good

And it's the third great invention that makes Plan B work. With clean water, a microwave oven (kindly provided by the innkeeper), a measuring cup and a stir spoon (which we bring), we have instant room service.

Procedure

Plan B is executed in about 30 minutes. It employs two food pouches that together cost under $20. Each pouch is nominally 2 servings, but they are so low in calories that, unless you want to hit the vending machines before bed, you'll eat two servings. We tend to pick a mild meal and a spicy meal, then share them. Eat the spicy one second.

No-brainer preparation:

1. Boil water
2. Open pouch
3. Remove oxygen absorber
4. Add the water
5. Stir
6. Seal pouch
7. Let stand
8. Stir & serve

(We also carry disposable plastic bowls and spoons.)

Selection

There are many, many entrée choices from the three major vendors - Mountain House, Backpacker's Pantry and Alpine Aire - as well as from a handful of others.

We find them on the shelves at Cabela's and REI and they are of course available online. Picky people that we are, we screen them at home before we take them on the road. By doing this we can spit out a yucky one at first bite, trash the rest of the pouch, and feel secure in a kitchen full of backup food. We recommend you do your own taste test before you travel. That being said, it will in no way stop us from telling you what we like.

Everything we have tried so far is in the three lists below.

Notes

• A number of our test meals were labeled "Best if used by 2047". Are you serious? We will be outlived by Chili Mac With Beef?
• Not to put too fine a point on it, but try before you travel. While many of the freeze-dried meals tasted great, others had us scanning the ingredient list for Soylent Green.
• And if you feel funny eating camping food in a Hampton Inn, remember Sheila's words of wisdom:  "But dear, this is camping".

Bon Apétit