Well guys, I tried out one of Backpacker's Pantry Cold Pasta Salad with Vegetables vegetarian meals for two and I find myself having a hard time writing a review. So instead of a review I've decided to post a letter that I recently sent to the folks at Backpacker's Pantry. Enjoy.








Dear Backpacker's Pantry,
My name is **********(Jahadaz) and I was sent a meal of your production for review. Ever since eating this meal which was about 20 hours ago I have had a few questions rolling around in my head. The meal I'm referring to was "Cold Pasta Salad with Vegetables".

A little background information about myself before continuing. I am an avid survivalist, and consider myself an outdoors-man. I love camping, backpacking, fishing and hunting, and have even been known to partake in a little mountaineering. I spent several years in the Military and feel somewhat of a MRE connoisseur. With these things in mind, I feel that I have had more than enough meals in the field to give a qualified opinion about a meal such as this. My opinion on this matter is that field meals do not need to sacrifice taste for high calorie content or size. It is more than possible to have excellent tasting meals that are both tasty, and nutritious all while maintaining the outdoors-mans needs of being easy to prepare, lightweight, and with minimal amount of trash to pack out.

This particular meal didn't reach most of these goals. It was light, and technically only had the one bag and one olive oil packet so on the pack out side there wasn't much in the way of garbage. It also had a high calorie content, and a surprisingly decent amount of nutrients in it as well.

Where it failed miserably was in the flavor department. I prepared this meal in the Umatilla National Forrest and was near enough the 5000' elevation required for correct preparations according to the packaging. I was not able to correctly insert 1 3/4 cups of cold water because most people, myself included, do not bring measuring cups with them into the mountains. A quick and easy fix of this would be a clear section in the packaging with a "fill to this line". This meal also did not come with a utensil which would be cheap and easy to add, but luckily I had a spare plastic fork with me so I didn't have to try and eat this with my bare hands.

The real problem came when I opened the bag. The aroma was strong in every sense of the word while the meal was still dry. After adding water, stirring, waiting half an hour, adding olive oil, and stirring again the smell was intense enough that any hunt would be ruined. The person I had with me actually asked me to stop opening the bag to try and eat the contents for fear of him vomiting. I was able to get about ten bites into the meal before giving up. The taste was foul. I cannot place my finger on what was so bad about it, but the olive oil that was supposed to mellow out the strongest of the flavor didn't work. What a disappointment. I requested this meal specifically because it sounded perfect for me but instead I found myself hungry, smelling terrible, a little sick, and rather annoyed. On the plus side the packaging was resealable so I didn't have to smell it all night.

The next morning I found myself with another little surprise. Even after only ten small bites of this meal I was blessed with the most violent movement I have had in close to a decade. Then I was hungry, dehydrated, and seriously considering calling off the rest of the trip due to health and safety issues.

So to my question, when is this meal designed to be eaten? I can't find a time for it. At a campsite I would just bring real food. On the mountain I would now be considering aborting and heading back down. On a hunt I would smell so strongly that any animal, domestic or wild, would smell me far before I could find them. The visual was bad enough that I could never get my child to eat this in a survival situation, much less the smell or taste.

I have another one of your products to review which is the Baco and Cheddar Mashed Potatoes. I find myself putting this off because while I find it hard to believe that anybody could screw up instant potatoes, the pasta was so bad that I seriously find myself concerned about how that will go.

Thank you for your time,
**********

~Jahadaz