Sonya Muhlsimmer has recently released the eBook version of her cookbook Xtreme Gourmet aimed at raising the standard of bushwalking food. This is a fantastic book, and I’ve not seen anything that comes close to the ideas in this book. The print version is not far away and it should do well.
Sonya has at least three strengths that qualify her to write the book. She was first a chef with a passion for flavours and food. Then she morphed into a food technologist, and the excellent photos in the book reveal that she is an avid outdoors person from way back. The book starts with a quick whiz through nutrition basics, then looks at five different food groups with suggestions of dried versions that are suitable for bushwalking. There are a lot of ideas you could use to spice up you own recipes - crispy bacon bits perhaps or dried capers. She has suggested menus for 7 and 14 day trips. Impressively, the seven day menu has a different meal suggestion each day for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The heart of the book is the recipes. These are attractively presented with lots of colour pictures and tables of ingredients with weights and cooking times. A typical Sonya meal has the ingredients in two bags, prepared at home. It’s obvious that a lot of effort has gone into the recipes - they often have a fair list of ingredients to maximise the flavour but mostly condense to two bags. There are clear instructions of what to do at home and what you need to do in the bush. In a brilliant addition, the back of the book has print-yourself labels to stick on the bags, with brief instructions of the typical two steps needed to cook the meals. And make no mistake: this is cooking, not just rehydrating. It does require a bit more effort than just pouring hot water into a foil bag and will use a bit more fuel.
There’s a lot of variety here - chick pea patties,buckwheat pancakes with Nutella, cracked wheat salad, savoury shallot pancakes. It beats the pants off the stuff most of us eat. Vegetarian variations are suggested and each recipe has a kilojoule count so you can make sure you have enough energy to cope with your exertions. She has two recipes including my favourite bushwalking food Lup Chong, sweet Chinese
sausage. If you didn’t like it you didn’t cook it long enough so the fat renders down.
This is a timely book. I found it disturbing that even on the first night of a walk through the Overland Track most people in the hut opened foil packets. This book shows it doesn’t have to be so. There also seems to be a trend from the ultralight end of bushwalkers to go ultralight with food as well as equipment and only take 50% of the energy they actually need, that is, effectively starve for the trip. A few basic facts on nutrition and energy are worth considering.
As you can tell I’m a big fan of this book. It’s great. I have no connection with Sonya other than paying $20 for her eBook, but if she offered me a spot on one of her trips where she was doing the meals I wouldn’t hesitate.
Bushwalk
