“When my family was younger, we did a lot of backpacking, camping and rafting, but we always took fresh food with us. We thought that almost anything you like to eat at home and at restaurants could be turned into a backpacking meal,” Smith says. According to Smith, Backpacker’s Pantry top sellers in 2025 are pad Thai, pad Thai with chicken, and drunken noodles. “After a day of hiking or backpacking or rafting, you settle together around a meal,” Smith says. I love doing spice blends to actually make the food taste yummy and not just something to put in your body for calories.”“I want the food to look like and taste like what it says it’s going to look like and taste like.”