Food For The Sole Coconut Rice and Cuban Black Beans

A great meal whether hot or cold

Well, I know it’s great cold because that’s how I had it. I’m sure it’s awesome hot too.

So tonight I was bored and browsing some of my favorite hiking blogs, and I got annoyed. Seems like almost nobody had any new content up. Not that I’m a shining example of regular posting myself, but I’m not “big time” either, nor is this blog my main focus in life. Nonetheless, I decided that I couldn’t bitch about other blogs if I was sitting on my own hands, so I decided to post something that I’d been meaning to do for a few weeks.

As you might remember, I tried some Food For The Sole meals as cold-soaked lunches on my last AT section hike back in June. Several of them were immensely tasty, although in the end I decided that cold-soaking wasn’t for me. I am apparently as finicky as Morris the Cat.

Anyway, I tried out their Coconut Rice and Cuban Black Beans on a miserable rainy day. I hit the Campbell Shelter roughly at lunch time, and I had it to myself, so it seemed like a good time to do a quick cold soak. I soaked this meal at most for 30 minutes, but to my surprise it turned out just fine texturally. And even though I was in my typical early-hike blunted appetite phase, this meal perked up my stomach.

What I was working with was a repackaged 5.2 oz. meal containing 670 calories and an ingredient list that I remember as wowing me when I ordered it. FFTS describes the meal as “Rice sautéed with onions and cinnamon, then cooked in a broth of coconut milk and almonds, perfectly complemented by earthy beans, cooked slowly over low heat, allowing the flavor of cumin, onions, and peppers to meld with the beans.” They forgot to mention the adobo seasoning, poblano peppers, scallions, cilantro, garlic and some other goodies to include THE KEY- golden raisins. Those little bits of chewy tartness were the perfect complement to the other flavors.

When I sat down to eat I wasn’t all that hungry but knew I needed to eat, and I was resigned to forcing it down my gullet. But the taste turned my attitude around. And not only did it make my stomach happy, I even felt less pissy about going back out into the rain afterwards. In other words, it was a great morale boost.

I bet it makes an awesome hot dinner too, but for anyone looking for a surprisingly cold-soakable commercial meal, either for lunch or for dinner, you can’t go wrong with this one.

It seems like there’s a lot of new companies popping up to offer backpacking meals that are a step beyond the usual chili mac or lasagna type stuff the big brands offer. Put Food For The Sole on your list as one of the best of them.

Grade: A-