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Reviews > Food > Packaged Meals > Tasty Bite > Owner Review by Christine KorhonenTasty Bite Kashmir Spinach Owner Review Name: Christine Korhonen Age: 31 Gender: female Height: 5' 4" (1.6 m) Weight: 150 lb (68 kg) E-mail: chris@wormguy.com Location: Western Montana Backpacking Background: I'm in Montana enjoying the summers and becoming re-acquainted with winter. Now that I'm back above the snow line, I'm attempting some winter camping and snowshoeing. I'm a lightweight backpacker mentally, if not always in practice. My summer pack weight is around 19 lb (9 kg) with a tent, but my winter pack hovers around 25 lb (11 kg).  Product Information: Manufacturer: Tasty Bite URL: www.tastybite.com Item: Kashmir Spinach (Palak Paneer) Price: US $1.99 on website Dimensions: Listed Weight: 10 oz (283 g) Measured Weight, full pouch: 10.4 oz (295 g) Measured Size, full pouch: 5 1/2 wide x 6 1/2" high x 1/2" thick (14 cm x 17 cm x 1 cm) Kashmir Spinach Description:  Tasty Bite Kashmir Spinach is a heat-and-eat meal of creamed spinach and Indian cheese cubes imported from India. It comes sealed in an aluminum "smart pouch" within a colorful paperboard box. The meal is advertised as vegetarian, gluten-free and kosher, with no MSG or preservatives. According to Tasty Bite, it has an 18 month shelf life, requires no refrigeration and can be eaten without cooking (i.e. cold). Ingredients: The ingredients listed on the box are all recognizable: spinach, tomatoes, onions, salt. Because Kashmir Spinach contains Paneer cheese, it is not vegan like some of the other Tasty Bite meals. The white squares in the picture on the box are Paneer cheese. This cheese doesn't melt when heated like other cheeses. According to the nutrition facts, 60% of the Kashmir Spinach calories come from fat and 20% each from protein and carbs. This must be why it tastes so good! Kashmir Spinach is my favorite Tasty Bite flavor. Like all of the Tasty Bites, it's got some spice to it, and that separates these meals from the other backpacking food I eat.  Heating: Kashmir Spinach requires little preparation. Just heat it up, and it's ready to go. The heating instructions recommend immersing the pouch in boiling water for five minutes. Alternatively, open the pouch and microwave the contents. If I don't want to do dishes and don't mind the wait, I'll heat the unopened pouch in boiling water. It takes 3 - 4 minutes after the water starts boiling for the food to be hot. This may mean 8 - 10 minutes of cooking in all, depending on the weather. Since the food is in a sealed pouch, it's difficult for me to tell exactly when it's heated through, so I tend to heat it longer than may be necessary. The pouch fits nicely in my 1 L pot covered with 2 cups (470 mL) of water. It takes a little longer and another 1/2 cup (120 mL) of water to heat two pouches at once. Since I use my big pot, I always use my MSR Whisperlite stove for this method. If I don't mind washing, I might open the pouch and use my smaller, 3 cup (700 mL) pot to heat the spinach without water. With this smaller pot I can use my alcohol stove. This method takes 3 - 5 minutes to cook a meal. Opening: The bottom of the pouch has an accordion fold, so once removed from the paperboard box the pouch can stand up on its own. When the bottom is expanded, the food inside slides down and fits in the lower half of the pouch. This provides a bit of moving room once the pouch is opened. The Tasty Bite pouch has a notch on either side 3/4" (2 cm) down from the top. In principle, the pouch can be ripped opened using these notches. Sometimes this works for me and sometimes it doesn't. In the past I've have to fight with the pouch to get it open, and now I'm afraid I'm going to spill the contents when using the notch to open the pouch. So far I haven't spilled anything, but I find it less stressful to open the pouch using my scissors.  Eating: I usually add some cooked rice into the pouch to cut the spice and stretch the meal. Kashmir Spinach also goes well over pasta. The pouch is tall and narrow, and I find it difficult to fit my hand in to eat without brushing the sides. It is much easier to pour the spinach out and eat it from a bowl than to eat it directly from the pouch, but then there's that washing to do. If I'm determined to eat from the pouch, I usually roll down the top edges so I can get to the bits at the bottom without coming out with a green hand. I have eaten a Tasty Bite cold, and it's not as bad as it sounds. The spice really helps there. Packing: When I bring a Tasty Bite on a trip, I remove the outer box and just throw the pouch into my food bag. I've never had a pouch puncture, and it's not something I worry about. The pouch for every Tasty Bite flavor looks the same, although the flavor's name is stamped on one side. The name is in small letters which can be a little difficult to read in low light. After eating the meal, the pouch rolls up into a 6" x 1" (15 cm x 2.5 cm) strip which fits easily in a Ziplock sandwich bag. Field Use: I've eaten Kashmir Spinach at elevations from 1000' to 8000' (300 m to 2400 m) in Montana, Wyoming, and California. Temperatures ranged from 25 to 80 F (-4 to 27 C) through summer and winter. Since these ready-to-eat meals are heavier than my other backpacking food, I tend to eat them at a campground before the backpacking trip starts or in the first couple of days of the trip. On one trip through a blizzard I didn't eat the Tasty Bite until the second evening. It was below freezing the night before and during the second day, and the contents of the pouch froze a bit around the edges. The texture and taste of the food was unaffected. Of course the pouch was heated before eating. Since there are no Indian restaurants in my state (as far as I've found) I'm glad I can "Take home a fine Indian restaurant today!" with Tasty Bites. Positives: Tastes nice and spicy. Easy to prepare. Negatives: Heavier than dehydrated food. Pouch is difficult to open sometimes. Read more reviews of Tasty Bite gear Read more gear reviews by Christine Korhonen Reviews > Food > Packaged Meals > Tasty Bite > Owner Review by Christine Korhonen | |||
