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April 16, 2012 Posted by Josh in Gear Reviews, Van Dwelling Gear

GSI Outdoors Kung Foon

When GSI Outdoors sent us their new Kung Foon, my initial impression was that it was equally as ridiculous as it was cool.  As I read the packaging and investigated further, this crazy little contraption actually started to make sense.  After a bit of use, I could see that the creative people at GSI Outdoors have actually put together a unique and usable combination with their new spork... er... uh... Foon.  

The Pieces:


The Pros:

  • The whole idea behind the Kung Foon - Combine the chopsticks and the Foon to create an uber-long super Foon.  This works quite well for use with dehydrated meal pouches and for stirring food while cooking.  Jetboil and other deep pot users are bound to find happiness with this fact alone.
  • The Foon  - It's quite evident that use of this utensil was actually taken into heavy consideration during the design process.  The bowl is quite deep, which is great for soups and stirring.  The outside two fork tines are barbed, so the Foon works quite well when stabbing and picking up food.  It's super strong and durable as well.  GSI sent us the stainless steel model and I seriously can't imagine it ever bending or breaking.
  • The chopsticks - As far as GSI's chopsticks go, they're nothing crazy, just regular chopsticks but I will say this:  We are big fans of chopsticks in general for one reason- they force us to eat with the same mentality as our travels.  There's no need to shovel heaping spoonfuls into your mouth.  Take things slow, enjoy life and your food one small bite at a time.  


The Cons:

  • Weight - The Foon is a bit heavier than we'd like.  Again, we've been using the stainless steel model.  I'm sure the titanium model is much lighter and would solve this issue easily.  Even though I haven't used the titanium model, I'd say it's worth the extra couple of bucks to save some weight.  
  • Size - This comes with a bit of a disclaimer as well.  The only real issue here is the tin carrying case.  Although one may win bonus cool points when pulling their eating utensil from its own snazzy custom carrying case, it seems entirely unnecessary.  It's too big to justify stuffing into a backpack and quite frankly, takes up more of our "kitchen space" in our van than I'd like.


Do we recommend it?

Yes, but if you couldn't already tell from reading this review, there's just two things we recommend should you decide to buy a Kung Foon:  Buy the titanium model and ditch the fancy tin case.  Happy fooning. 

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