It's not only the gym that makes a person alive, and if you read our reviews and articles regularly, you may have noticed that we also enjoy hiking. It's just that taking a hike with food that contains plenty of protein, is filling and doesn't take up too much space.It's a problem, of course. Fortunately, there are manufacturers like Adventure Menu that allow you to take a nutritionally complete meals even in places where you simply can't go to a restaurant or buy something fresh. You can read more about our experience with this brand's products in this review.
Content of the review
If you would be interested in comparing Adventure Menu products with competitors rather than a detailed review, check out our ranking of the best ready meals to find out more. But for now, let's take a look at the detailed reviews.
Surprisingly good ingredients with no preservatives
Most people look at a bag containing, for example, meat and a side dish with a shelf life of over three years, it must have a huge amount of preservatives in it. But the truth is that you would be hard pressed to find preservatives in Adventure Menu. The basis is fresh ingredients, which, according to the brand's representatives, come from local suppliers. These are then used to prepare the food, which in the case of Ready To Eat meals is then sterilised, i.e. preserved using temperatures in excess of 100 degrees Celsius. This is a gentle way to prepare food that actually makes it last this long without the need to add any additives.
To give you an idea - we were given 'St Martin's goose with cabbage and dumplings' to try, for example, and it contains 37% boneless goose leg, 36% red lettuce andcabbage, 26% potato wedges and the rest is sugar, vinegar, onion, rapeseed oil, wheat flour, cumin and salt, which we think is a great composition. Of course, avid orthoretics may not like the sugar or flour, for example, but theI mean, compared to the other alternatives that you have when you're looking for food to eathow many days you have to find food, the Adventure Menu is absolutely flawless and contains no bad or unhealthy problematic ingredients - rather, it perfectly replicates the composition of most home-cooked meals. So we rate the ingredients very positively and let's take a look at how it stood up to our stress test on one of our hikes.
You'll appreciate the simple preparation
When it comes to preparation, mate obviously has a few options that should reflect your capabilities. In case you want to keep the Adventure Menu at home and prepare it in situations where you can't manage to cook, you can heat it directly with the bag, for example, in the pot. If you are going on a hike where you have all the necessary equipment with you and you are in a place where there is no a fire is not a problem, you will also find several ways to heat the food. However, we decided to explore the least traditional option.
We used a special cooking bag and put a warming capsule with 90ml of water in it, while the line marking the recommended amount of water can be found right on the capsule bag. So all you need is the aforementioned 90 ml of cold water and in 12 minutes you have a perfectly restaurant-quality hot meal. Since you don't have to handle a fire anywhere, this method of heating is also great in national parks.
We, of course, tried everything out in the wild and it works great. The water starts boiling almost immediately after you insert the heating capsule, so there's a boiling point the food bag immediately and let the chemical reaction heat up your food. Of course, after the time has elapsed, the food is beautifully reheated without worry, so just grab a fork and you're good to go. You can reuse the cooking bag every time, whereas you logically need a new cooking capsule every time.
How does the food taste?
When you open the cooking bag, you may find food that doesn't look very appetizing. Especially if you have a sweet tooth and are expecting a St. Martin's goose served up like in a restaurant. But once you taste it, you won't know the difference from a restaurant. The goose meat was really beautifully tender in our package, the potato chunks were just right and the cabbage nicely coated the two remaining ingredients. This option was slightly greasier for our subjective taste, but if that's a problem for you, of course choose another dish to suit your taste preferences. The deer meat, which we also got the chance to try, was better in this regard and also delicious in taste.
The pack contains one 450g portion and I honestly had my doubts as to whether it would be sufficient. Even more so after a full day of sporting activity. But in the end, I had a lot of work to do to finish the portion at all and frankly, it kept me full for a surprisingly long time. By the time I finished, all the water had evaporated from the brew bag and only the inflated heating capsule remained. All I had to do was let everything cool for a few more minutes, and it was possible to pack up and get going again.
Price as for a classic meal
To summarize the previous few paragraphs, the Adventure Menu really is a 100% substitute for a good restaurant meal. And it's priced accordingly, too, as you'll pay anywhere from to for a single serving of Ready To Eat food, depending on which dish you choose. And of course, it depends on what context you're evaluating it in. It's obviously more expensive than if you get a can of tuna and rolls, but it tastes delicious and is as filling as a full restaurant meal. So for us, we have absolutely nothing to fault the price either. If you want to heat up your food as much as we did in the countryside, you need to take into account the purchase of warmingcapsules and a cooking bag, but it is reusable and as long as you don't lose or destroy it, it will serve you really reliably.
Is it worth buying?
That brings us to the final summary - is Adventure Menu worth buying? For us, it definitely is. If you want to hike without losing your comfort, the Adventure Menu is the obvious choice. Preparation is simple and you can, for example, pitch a tent while your food is heating up. And then all you have to do is get down to the food, which you will undoubtedly enjoy as much as we did after a hard hike. The Adventure Menu offers a wide range of vegetarian and vegan dishes, so there's something for everyone.
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