A Taste of Home in Foil Packets and Powder

Troops from nearly 50 lands dine on combat meals in Afghanistan — each reminding them of where they’d rather be.

Article: http://nyti.ms/cDZLU2

Interactive (View contents of 14 of the military rations): http://nyti.ms/cXQGSn

I was camping this last week with my brother's family, and introduced my Niece (8) and Nephew (10) to MRE's (civilian version). They loved them!

goatrider, my nephew is the pickiest eater i know and he'll eat anything if it's an MRE.

Great find, Doug. Though, the "displays" of each nation's ration don't exactly make one very hungry... <grin!>

I recall the first generation of MREs. To a man, we woulda rather had C's. The two dehydrated meat patties were horrid. The fruits, simply awful. Plus, howinthehell were we spozed to carry all the water and who had the time to rehydrate that crap. I used to live on candybars/beef jerky/cans of fruit.

I are enuf of them in the Sinai. I then avoided them where ever and when ever I could.

The eleventh General Order for military personnel is to complain about the chow, a directive I followed faithfully during my time in service (the C ration era). We consumed, once a month, left over C rats from the Late Unpleasantness (the Korean Conflict).

I would have to say that current MRE's are pretty decent, albeit a bit on the heavy side. Of course, anything can taste pretty good when your options are severely limited....

Good to see that the British Multi Climate rations are some of the best. Decent tea Typhoo Tea bags (recently gave a buddy some of the older British Army instant tea and he said he liked it!! ), lifeboat matches and water purification tablets. I still would have liked to have seen the old fashioned Fruit-S Biscuits still in there though, as they are pretty tasty with a nice hot cuppa tea. (which only US folks can dream about. No tea in the the MREs. It doesn't take much to slip a couple of tea bags in there, though how you get a decent cuppa with a chemical reheat bag is a little beyond me though )

http://rations.vesteyfoods.com/ration_packs.asp?ptypeID=4&packID=19

Even direct from the manufacturer the UK Multi climate rations are a little on the expensive side.

The poor Ukrainians (and thats the officer ration )

The Russian ration is apparently even worse, which is why all the Russian enlisted men have nice shiny coats and wet noses.

Looking at the various nation's rations, beyond the dog's dinner appearance of certain dishes laid out on a stark white plate, it strikes me that I could get along quite well on any of them. I'm not sure about the tuna pate (Norway), and kimchi (Korea) is always questionable until determined well or foul by taste, but I've cooked up and eaten worse.

There are some oddities. The US ration seems to be the only one that includes toilet paper. Single-use toothbrushes, three, in each Italian ration. The "sponge" in the Danish kit looks suspiciously like a green nylon scrubber and I'm not sure how it fits in.

It also strikes me as odd that most of the rations come with matches. There are precious few military uses for matches and fewer people smoke. Matches seem like an atavism when a miniature Bic ($.75) would keep you in lights for a month assuming a pack-a-day habit.

That said I really do like the 'lifeboat' style matches that come in the British ration. If you're going to go to the trouble of packing matches make them good ones.

I also like the plastic cylinder, looks like a miniature match safe, that comes with the Australians ration. Looks like quite a useful object. Perfect for medications, needles and a little thread, or other small objects. Stuff a couple of hooks and split-shot inside and wind the outside with line and you have a little fishing kit for recreation or survival where fish are a sure thing. Make a fishing kit small and light enough in a compliant environment and it might be worth it.

The sesame bars in the Polish kit are an excellent ration choice. Loads of calories and very tasty. Reminds me to stock up on some for my kits. Oh, and I agree about the teabags. Wonder why they're not in all the rations?

I remember the 1st Gen.MRE's & B-units which were the latest rations,just before the MRE's,One in particular was-Pork in water,which came in a small can,when it was opened It Stunk like Swine Soup(Pig poop),It was accompanied alway's with Cracklin'Cornbread,which was Hard asa Rock,& Drier than a witches,uh er,It was Real dry.The Idea was to break up the Cornbread & Mix it in with the Pork in water,& You had to make Sure,you didn't spill any of it,upon your BDU's as It would Stink for day's on end.Dehydrated Strawberry ice cream was Currency,Vanilla/Chocolate,not so much,& The oatmeal chocolate bars we used as candles,they burned a long time!We Never ate the Charms candies,they usually burned in the Dung buckets in hopes of making it smell better!LRRP rations were the Best,they only came in 1 flavor-Putrid,but it was easy to gobble down that loaf of ? whatever it was,& It came with Tasters Choice coffee,& Grape/Lime Kool-aid,& Cadbury's shortbread cookies-also Currency!MRE's nowaday's are Primo!