In 2020 Mountain House released this meal based off the classic Pad Thai dish providing 490 calories in a (at least self-described) 2 serving pouch that has a wide range of (all gluten-free) savory ingredients. While many just add water backcountry backpacking meals are based on rice, and this meal is no exception with its rice based noodles, at least the form factor of the aforementioned rice is different enough to make this a meal a worthy consideration for those who are looking for something a little different at dinner time.

The Mountain House Pad Thai meal offers 490 calories and is ready to eat in 9 minutes.

Making the Meal and Impressions

In addition to rice noodles, the Mountain House Pad Thai with Chicken meal packs in chicken, sugar, spices, tamarind, peppers, carrots, onions, and more even including fish sauce made from anchovies plus oyster sauce. After removing the oxygen absorber and adding only 1 and a third cups of boiling water, the meal is ready in 9 minutes. Despite the seafood ingredients, the meal isn’t overly fishy…although it’s detectable. When it comes to packing out the bag, I’ll probably save this meal for the last night of a trip and pack along an OPSak bag to help keep smells down. The meal comes in Mountain House’s newer packaging, which features a shorter pouch that is easier to eat from and doesn’t necessarily require long utensils, along with rounded corners that won’t puncture anything in your food bag – overall a big improvement in form factor. And with a 30 year shelf life, there’s no rush to get this one rotated into your backcountry meal plan.

The meal is quite savory, and packs in some spice as well that is strong up front but dissipates quickly enough that even those with a low spice level tolerance should be able to make it through the meal. The chicken stands out – it’s included in large chunks that add a feeling of heartiness to the meal, although a couple of these chicken pieces seemed like they could have used a couple more minutes of rehydration time. However, only 490 calories worth of food are provided in the pouch, making this a stretch for dinner even for one hungry hiker.

Complicating this even more is that the meal is quite good – great actually, which made me wish for more of the meal on two different levels. Although multiple oils are already included in the meal, adding olive oil would be one way to boost calories, although for me crushed peanuts, both for calories as well as crunch, will be packed along to go with this meal in the future. Also of note is that the noodles here are small – and subsequently easy to eat and without making much of a mess.

Taste is great, but you may want to bring some additions in order to boost the calorie count.

Conclusion

Overall while this is a great tasting meal – perhaps one of the best in the current Mountain House lineup – this one just had me wishing for more in the quantity and calorie department when eaten by itself without any additions. With those additions however the meal becomes quite workable and one to look forward to out on the trail.

The Mountain House Pad Thai with Chicken meal retails for about $11. Find it here at REI Co-op as well as here at Amazon.com.

Editor's Note: This review originally appeared in Issue 47 of TrailGroove Magazine. You can read the original article here.