Tramping Food: Nongshim Udon Soup

 ...prepacked Udon for tramping meals...

Here is another potential meal idea for when you are out on a outdoor adventure. These are the Nongshim brand prepackaged Udon Noodle Soup meals. 

Nongshim Udon Noodle Soup

There are a multitude of pre packaged meal options available in Asian food stores and this is a good example. It contains everything you need to make a decent noodle meal with the simple addition of boiling hot water. 

A look at the Udon pack:

The Nongshim Udon soup is a self contained meal wrapped into one package. Inside the package you will find :

Udon noodle pack

Liquid soup mix

Dried flakes pack

A plastic serving dish

Udon noodles are pre-cooked so they just need a short boil (2 minutes is sufficient) or a longer soak (5-10 depending on brand) in boiling water to be ready to eat.  Adding the soup mix and dried ingredients package brings the flavor. 

Front of the Nongshim Udon Soup packet

Nongshim sounds Japanese but it is actually a Korean company and this pack is produced in Korea. Korean people eat a number of dishes that are similar to Japanese food due to their interactions over centuries past. They make some good food including snacks, Ramen, Udon and packaged all in one meals. 

Nongshim include a liquid soup mix and dried flavor pack

Most people know what Udon are but if you are new to them they are thick wheat noodles about the size of a pencil around. They are soft and often come as part of a thin soup (like a consume) with vegetables added to it for flavor. Common vegetables used are onions, mushrooms, carrot and radish.

...best cooked and eaten from the pot...

These Udon packs are perfect as they are but if you wanted to make them a bit tastier and more nutritious you can add items to them. Off the top of my head I would think about adding cooked meat or fish, cheese, fresh and dried vegetables and condiments like garlic, ginger, soya sauce, vinegar, pepper and chilli sauce. A small packet/spoon of Miso paste will also make for tastier noodles. 

Udon Soup pack and cooked soup

I always added a small measure of Soya Sauce when I am eating these Udon and a small shake of S&B brand chilli powder. One of those small soya sauce fish you get with a sushi meal is enough for a single bowl of Udon. Add soya to taste but just remember soya sauce is very salty so I would taste it as I went. 

...a small fish of soya sauce is a good additive...

Anyone who is a fan of Ramen or Udon will know what S&B powder is...it is an essential addition to both these noodle dishes. S&B is a Japanese brand of powder specially manufactured for soups. It has a mix of ground chilli, garlic, seaweed and other herbs and spices meant to improve the flavor of your soup. A good Ramen shop will have S&B powder readily to hand for their customers. 

S&B brand chilli powder for noodle dishes

You can buy your own S&B at most Asian food stores have a look in the section for Japanese food or the sauces section. I brought mine from the Japan Mart in Riccarton Mall. Decant it into a small bag as the bottles are glass and quite heavy. 

Dont add too much as it is a bit spicy...just a pinch on top is good!

...just a dash of S&B enhances the flavor...

Nongshim include a plastic tray for mixing your Udon in but I would tend to leave this at home. It is just extra rubbish to haul around for the rest of your tramp.  I just put all the packets into a sandwich sized Ziploc bag and cook it in my cook pot. Udon is much better eaten from a bowl or pot. 

Try the Nongshim Udon Soup out for yourself!

You are going to need either a fork or chopsticks to eat the noodles. 

Where can I find these?

You can find these noodles at good Asia supermarkets and shops selling Asian and Japanese food items. I brought some from the Japan Mart at Hornby Mall but I have also seen them at Kosco Shirley, Ken's Mart on Colombo Street and at V-Mart in the Bush Inn Centre. 

Kosco Asian Supermarket in Shirley, Christchurch 

I love noodles and this pack is a pretty good riff on a bowl of Udon. With a few ingredients added they make an excellent lunch or dinner meal and they are tasty and filling. Keep an eye out for them the next time you are in a good Asian Supermarket. 

You Tube: Nongshim Udon Soup

Rations from the Lake Daniell Trip in May

 ...food for an overnight tramping trip...

I'm going to take a look at the 24 hour bagged ration I took with me when I visited Manson Nichols Hut back in May. Once you start spending a night out camping or in a hut your food planning needs to get a bit more elaborate and this is the way I do things. 

Eating my lunch at Manson Nichols Hut at Lake Daniell

I like to bag my tramping food into 24 hour rations as I find this the easiest way to control my food usage while giving me an easy to handle all in one package. All of the items are put into a large sized Ziploc bag and then placed in my yellow food bag. Each ration holds all of the food, drinks, accessories and ancillary items I need to survive for 24 hours. 

The 24 hour ration I took to Manson Nichols Hut

The rations I took on the Heaphy Track in 2021

The food on this trip was dictated by two things. Firstly I had a number of  about to expire freeze dried meals in my tramping food supplies. I had to use them by the end of June 2022 so I used freeze dried packets for all the main meals on this trip. 

My cooking gear at the hut...MSR Windburner stove

Using freeze dried meals meant I could use my MSR Windburner stove as the meals only require hot water to added to them. The Windburner is best used to heat water so it was ideal...the 1 liter pot is enough for a freeze dry meal and a hot drink. 

Breaking down my 24 hour ration:

Let's take a look at the breakdown of all of the items I carried in my 24 hour ration pack.As I said all the main meals were freeze dried. I had one for lunch, dinner and breakfast on day two. Normally I use a mixture of freeze dried, dehydrated and fresh meals so it is uncommon for me to use freeze dry for every meal. 

My 24 hour ration as taken to Manson Nichols Hut

My 24 hour ration contained the following freeze dried meals:

Day1: Lunch

Backcountry Cuisine (BCC) Cooked Breakfast (1 serve)

Day 1: Dinner

BCC Spaghetti Bolognaise (2 serve)

Day 2: Breakfast

BCC Apple Pie (2 serve)

In addition the ration pack contains a number of other items, these were:

Knorr (Chicken Noodle) simmer soup, steak bar (for breakfast), snacks for the next day, Earl Grey tea with sweetener, accessory pack and a pot scrubber. 

Freeze dried main meals, soup, accessory pack, snacks and tea

The accessory pack is in a smaller Ziploc bag. It is universal across rations and always has:

Salt/pepper sachets, sugar sachets, 6x Aquatabs, 2x 3 in 1 Coffee sachets, Raro/Vitafresh sachet, a Cup -O - Soup, 3x plastic freezer bags.

 In addition I had a powdered Apple Cider sachet (bloody delicious!!!) I brought from an American food supplier based in Auckland. I have a limited supply of these so they don't go on every trip. The freezer bags are used for trash, cutlery storage or some other use. 

Accessory pack: salt/pepper, Aquatabs, sugar, soup, drink powders, coffee

I always carry an emergency supply of food with me on any tramp and in this instance I had a BCC Lamb Fettuccine, some instant oats, a cup of soup and some snacks all carried in a separate bag. This food was not used by me on this trip as it was there in case I found myself stuck and unable to get back to the car. 

Emergency food items I took to Manson Nichols Hut

My hot beverage of choice is Chanui Earl Grey tea and I took an ample supply of tea bags as I knew I would be spending a lot of time in the hut and would probably want a few mugs of tea. Normally I carry 4 tea bags per day with a couple of extras just in case they are needed. 

...I carried plenty of Earl Grey tea and sweetener...

Here are some better quality images of the freeze dried meals I carried on this trip including the Cooked Breakfast, Spaghetti Bolognaise and Apple Pie all made by Backcountry Cuisine...

BCC Cooked Breakfast: front

BBC Cooked Breakfast: nutritional information

BCC Apple Pie: front

BBC Apple Pie: nutritional information

BCC Spaghetti Bolognaise:front

BBC Spaghetti Bolognaise: nutritional information

All of these meals simply require hot water to be added and then left to rehydrate for 10-15 minutes before consumption

Eating my rations at the hut:

Here are some photos of me preparing the meals at Manson Nichols Hut and eating them. I had the hut to myself on the day so I spread myself out a bit wider than I would normally do...

Preparing my lunch at a rainy Manson Nichols Hut

Backcountry Cuisine Cooked Breakfast

For dinner I had the Knorr soup which I prepared on the now blazing woodburner. There were some pots and pans at Manson Nichols Hut so I used one of them. My main was the BCC Spaghetti Bolognaise...

Knorr Chicken Noodle simmer soup on the boil

My dinner gear set up at one of the tables

Time to eat my dinner at Manson Nichols Hut

I usually have instant oats for breakfast, cereal with dried milk or instant Grits but I decided to take an almost expired Apple Pie dessert instead. I have used these for breakfast in the past and they are really good. I paired it with a Jack Link's steak bar as the Apple Pie had little to no protein in it. You need the protein for sustained energy release...

Preparing the Apple Pie for breakfast

Organising your food into a DIY 24 hour ration has a number of advantages with control of food intake and ease of packing being the most obvious. It is not always the lightest option with all the accessories I carry. You can easily get by with some snacks and a couple of meals chucked into a bag and thrown in your pack. My method is probably too elaborate for most people but I have been using it for over 20 years and it works for me.

NZ Bush Adventure YouTube vlogs you might find useful: 

Backcountry Apple Pie

Backcountry Cooked Breakfast

DIY 24 hour ration packs