Food Reviews: Good To-Go Thai Curry and Herbed Mushroom Risotto

File this under: photographs that are only exciting to Hawaiians and Californians that never see snow ever. Road to Salmon River trailhead, Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness, Oregon. 

Over winter break, Dennis and I borked our backpacking trip in the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness. On all technical aspects, we were prepared for what would have been our first Winter trip, but we were absolutely not prepared for the degree of boredom we'd experience in a cold dark tent at 5PM, with nothing to do until sunrise at 8AM the next morning. I say "borked" because we made it to the site, set up the tent, had dinner, got in our bags at nightfall, and bailed only an hour later. The appeal of warm dinner and warmer toilets in downtown Portland was simply too great. Oh well.

Dennis laughing at my weakness

Before we left we made dinner, so I got a chance to try the Good To Go Thai Curry, as well as the Good To Go Mushroom Risotto, which are reviewed below. I could have sworn I took pictures, but I can't find them. Suffice to say, the mushroom risotto looked like grey slop, and the Thai curry looked like yellow slop. Exciting, I know.

Thai Curry. From www.goodto-go.com

Good To-Go Thai Curry: Spicy Yellow Coconut Curry with Vegetables and Jasmine Rice

Flavor, Nina: 4.5/10

Flavor, Dennis: 2/10

Ease at camp: 10/10

Price: $11.50 for "double": 2 small servings
Would buy again: No

Best for: light dinner for 2, big dinner for 1

Praise: wholesome, lots of vegetables, rehydrates in the prescribed time, full flavored. Could probably be improved tenfold with the addition of fresh lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaf, Red Boat Fish Salt, and True Lime with the hot water. 

Criticism: amateurish and imbalanced flavor, low protein, broccoli texture (bit leathery) might be weird to some, presence may be inauthentic to some

From: http://www.bikepacking.com/

I'm not a curry expert per se, but I've made my own curry paste from scratch a handful of times. I don't half-ass it: I'll drive a few hours out of my way to get authentic ingredients from a Thai market, I mash the curry with a mortar and pestle, I don't replace galangal with ginger, I don't replace cilantro root with cilantro, I don't add bell peppers or broccoli or other Western ingredients to the finished product. I give a shit about authenticity because I think the authentic version tastes best. Thai people have been perfecting their recipes for countless generations, who am I to add random junk?

With this snobbery in mind, a few things were off in the Good To-Go Thai Curry. First, it tasted sweet. Second, the cinnamon, cumin, and cloves were very strong. There was zero lime flavor, and despite the inclusion of tamarind, zero sour quality. The fish sauce was completely undetectable. The curry had almost no floral (kaffir lime, lemongrass) character. It was flavorful, but flat. It resembled a weird Indian curry- it was nothing like the classic Southern or Northern Thai curries I've had before. Dennis thought the flavor was outright disgusting, but he does tend to exaggerate. Despite our hunger, we barely ate a third of the package.

The positive: this is probably the best rendition of any commercial, shelf stable Thai-style curry dish  (with the possible exception of Tom Yum Pretz which are SO GOOD). If you have no idea what Thai curries taste like, and if you're not keen on sour flavors in your food, you might like this. It tastes of spice, creamy with coconut milk, filled with lots of dehydrated vegetables. It is satisfying and rich and it will fill you up. In addition, unlike GTG's chili, the curry rehydrates completely in the recommended time (20 minutes).

So it's not all bad, but I think it's nowhere near as good as something you can make yourself for $3/serving, and it's especially disappointing because it comes from someone with such an impressive culinary background.

Risotto. From: www.goodto-go.com

Good To-Go Herbed Mushroom Risotto 

Flavor, Nina: 6.5/10

Flavor, Dennis: 5/10

Ease at camp: 10/10

Price: $11.50 for "double": 2 small servings
Would buy again: No

Best for: light dinner for 2, big dinner for 1

Praise: great risotto texture, some mushroom flavor, filling, higher calorie:weight ratio

Criticism: almost zero "herbed" flavor, very light mushroom flavor, a little watery when prepared according to package directions, very under-seasoned

The herbed mushroom risotto was OK but nothing special. It was very bland before I added salt and tasted like a gentle mushroom-rice stew once it was fully seasoned (perhaps I added too much water? It was almost soupy). The flavor is good, and approximately what you'd expect: mild mushrooms, garlic, nutritional yeast, and the faintest hint of basil. The texture is great, creamy and smooth from nutritional yeast and dotted with chewy/soft mushrooms.

So the risotto is not bad at all, it's just a little boring. It's like a poor man's mushroom-barley soup. I can only assume that Heather doesn't use wild mushrooms (porcini, morel, shiitake, chanterelle etc.) out of concern for cost, and the flavor suffers for it. I think if Good To-Go added a little shiitake, miso, and porcini and increased the amount of herbs, they'd have a great risotto. Even just a little miso and porcini powder would make a world of difference.