Most memorable tramping meal

@pipeking It was actually pretty good. The chicken and oriental risotto flavours work well together, and spam is always good, and dried peas are pretty decent. correction to original post- wasnt rice risotto, was with pasta I think. I have a few packets of the stuff in the gear cupboard atm, just went and checked

I didn't have it while tramping, but we spent some time trapped behind Goat Creek, on the true left of the Mokihinui River and directly opposite Goat Creek Hut, tenting in the rain during a situation which we were later informed was the most rain the Mokihinui catchment had received in a long time. We couldn't see the hut, but from the opposite bank we had to watch some random helicopter drop down to check if anyone was there, probably doing the rounds looking for hunters. It'd come and gone before anyone could run out to the river bank. I was trying to carefully ration my remaining pieces of cheese and expired bread during this time, without knowing how much longer the rain would persist, but my main reading material was FMC Bulletin #178. It includes a recipe called Mount Doom Chocolate Volcanic Cake from someone in the Palmerston North Tramping Club. It's a big wad of couscous mixed with a whole lot of chocolate of various sorts. One cake serves 12. I bought all the ingredients and made a cake soon after I got home. It wasn't as great as I'd imagined.

On the subject of desserts - think I've tried to make dessert out of everything in my tramping pack, with the probable exception of pasta, over the years. None were truly memorable, but some proved good enough to repeat! Rice is the obvious one - rice pudding - but you really need a fire to boil basmatti for long enough to make pudding. Expensive on gas! Couscous cooked then sprinkled with sugar and fruit/nut mix was quite good. Porridge - there's been several attempts to make biscuits out of porridge, sugar and oil - in a frypan. Taste is ok, but they've always required a spoon to eat! Instant mash - with sugar and some jam I found in a hut. Figured if I made the mash runny cooked with sugar, it's be a bit like sago with jam stirred in. Must have been good as I made it again for breakfast! Sure there have been more ... I start to crave dessert (and bread) by about day 8!

A staple of one of my tramping friends is cheesecake freshly made and chilled in the river

That... That is a thing of beauty. Made before the trip or during the trip? Im incredibly jealous of your friend either way. I normally end up with pineapple lumps as desert.

Oops, just to clarify, I def didn't marry my sister :-)

Thing is ... if I took cheesecake mix, it would never make it to day 8. Or day 3 for that matter!

@madpom I have a funny feeling I would have the same problem. Cheesecake is just too delicious. Might look into cheesecake mix for next tramp though... Hmmm... Me and rationing food are not always the most compatible of things. I tend to just pack enough that I can eat a ton and have a little left over.

On cheesecake, I like the BCC three fruit cheesecake. I wouldn't have the BCC ice cream again though.

That... That is a thing of beauty. Made before the trip or during the trip? Made on arrival at the hut