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When I've bought US mres from UK eBay sellers they've arrived with baltic postage on them so at least over here it's nato allies pocketing them and selling them on. Thanks Americans!
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Sep 24, 2017 01:36
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The dude I buy MREs from locally is associated with one of the wild land fire departments and they get issued them. He hates them.
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Sep 24, 2017 02:15
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occamsnailfile posted:I read somewhere specifically that veterans are allowed to purchase them from PXs though I don't know at what cost. Once they buy them they're private property no matter what the bag says, but I don't know what cost or volume they can get. They cost something like $8.50 each. It's not just vets, anybody with access to a Commissary can buy them (never seen them for sale at a PX but it's basically the same idea). So vets, active duty, reserve/NG, dependents, government employees, etc.
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Sep 24, 2017 12:22
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I don't know if anyone watches the YouTube channel Emmy Madeinjapan, but she eats and reviews MREs from different countries. So in case any MRE connoisseurs want to watch before they buy, that's as good of a place to look as any.
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Sep 24, 2017 16:37
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Marxist-Jezzinist posted:When I've bought US mres from UK eBay sellers they've arrived with baltic postage on them so at least over here it's nato allies pocketing them and selling them on. Thanks Americans! A large number of MREs sent to the Ukraine ended up falling off the back of a truck in a similar fashion.
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Sep 29, 2017 20:10
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A buddy who collects this poo poo gave me- two cases MREs, and assorted individual rations from around the world. Super excited to try poo poo.
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Oct 8, 2017 09:55
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I haven't really dig into any of yet, but the chocolate that comes in the Russian Mountain Ration is my favorite non-dark chocolate ever.
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Oct 10, 2017 07:19
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bulletsponge13 posted:I haven't really dig into any of yet, but the chocolate that comes in the Russian Mountain Ration is my favorite non-dark chocolate ever. The Russian ration has very few good components, and the chocolate is one of them. I'm also partial to their beef stew and chicken & rice dishes. Much, much better than "tourist's breakfast" or yet another plate of impossibly greasy kasha.
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Oct 10, 2017 13:35
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All the Russian chocolate I've ever had was really good, I'm not sure why. It's such a joyful thing I wouldn't expect Russia to be into it. 
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Oct 10, 2017 13:52
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Grand Fromage posted:All the Russian chocolate I've ever had was really good, I'm not sure why. It's such a joyful thing I wouldn't expect Russia to be into it. Ukrainian chocolate is quite nice as well, as are Roshen Minky-Binky candies.
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Oct 10, 2017 14:04
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I wonder if Russian chocolate is good because of the soviet "one version of everything" system? Russian friends/my own reading have told me that sometimes whatever soviet version of an item existed was really good.
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Oct 10, 2017 17:41
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Theokotos posted:I wonder if Russian chocolate is good because of the soviet "one version of everything" system? Russian friends/my own reading have told me that sometimes whatever soviet version of an item existed was really good. I mean, I've also had some Russian food that was absolutely terrible. I think it really depends on exactly what the product is, with luxury goods like chocolate being great and regular stuff like canned meat products being bland and coating your mouth with thick grease. I have eaten tushonka though, and for the most part it tastes similar to Spam surrounded by fat. If it wasn't for being packed in fat, it would basically just be round Spam.
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Oct 10, 2017 17:46
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Russian candy is great. I would demolish anything that came out of the Red October factory, although Rot Front wasn't bad either.
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Oct 10, 2017 19:00
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Definitely, it makes sense for luxury stuff to be better quality.
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Oct 11, 2017 04:05
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When I was overseas, there was a Georgian contractor who used to bring me Russian candy bars, because I was chill with him and didn't act like an rear end in a top hat. I miss him, and the chocolate. And his chick assistant was hot and flirted with me in broken English. I wish I could find this stupid chocolate from the FSB Mountain Ration. It would be my go to candy for like, ever. E- if anyone knows where to get the chocolate I am talking about, I will love you forever. E2- apparently, it's a official government contractor and I can't find any place that sells it. bulletsponge13 fucked around with this message at 05:58 on Oct 11, 2017 |
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Oct 11, 2017 05:13
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Ensign Expendable posted:Russian candy is great. I would demolish anything that came out of the Red October factory, although Rot Front wasn't bad either. Rot front sounds like a eerily well named candy factory, like if the He 177 was actually called the 'Grief' instead of the 'Greif'
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Oct 11, 2017 21:22
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Chinese Ration (Type 13) Last year, we got to see the 2010 model of the PLA's ration, and it mostly came up wanting apart from a delicious moon cake. In 2013, the ration was redesigned with a brown bag and some new components. How does it stand up to the original? Well, for the first time in military food history, it actually got worse.    The bag is little different from the Type 10 other than being brown instead of green.      Google Translate continues to be Google Translate.     There's some simple heating instructions on the back. Notice how the diagram uses an old Chinese canteen design instead of the more modern ones, which resemble NATO canteens.  On the work kitchen table, you see the entire contents of the ration. This is extremely sparse compared to most other countries, with even less food than the already weak Type 10.  There are two entree bags, which come already packed in the flameless ration heater and wrapped in a sort of foam insulating bag.   See that dust? I have no idea what it is, but both entree bags were coated in it. Even after I wiped it off, it returned after heating. I have some serious concerns.   Removed from the heater, these are covered in dust. What the hell?  The bags generate quite a bit of steam when cooking, far more than an American MRE.   Regardless of the ingredients, these were some of the blandest meals I've encountered. But they had a bigger problem, one which requires me to provide you with video evidence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCSyzEeXjF4 I've never encountered a ration entree so hard as to require chopping. It comes out of the heater practically feeling like there's a solid coating over it. It's a downright chore to try and get bite-sized pieces out of this bullshit.  This is your entire accessory pack: a spoon and a napkin.   The only side dish is this tiny little pack of chopped pickled cucumbers, which would be better used as a topping with how small the portion is.     The powdered beverage has a similar gross malty taste as the previous one, and I dumped most of it out. Amazingly, that tiny little bag it comes with is meant to be a portable cup! I can't imagine anyone but a ninja being able to mix and drink from that flimsy thing without spilling it everywhere. And...that's it. Nothing else. Four items. ---------------- This is the most pathetic showing I've ever seen, and I've eaten loving cat food from Kazakhstan. I can't imagine even a small Chinese soldier getting sufficient food for a day of combat from this. It's deficient in virtually every category, and would be deficient in every category if it didn't include a heater. I'm also 99% sure that powder on the bags is carcinogenic.
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Oct 21, 2017 19:59
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China.food
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Oct 21, 2017 20:21
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chitoryu12 posted:I'm also 99% sure that powder on the bags is carcinogenic. I thought "Man from hot food fluorine pull new gamma" sounded ominous, yet appropriate
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Oct 21, 2017 21:05
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So that's where all that fake plastic rice is going.
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Oct 21, 2017 22:08
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Darkest Auer posted:So that's where all that fake plastic rice is going. That was my first thought.
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Oct 21, 2017 22:27
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Well, all those tiny Chinese soldiers really don't NEED much food now, do they? (Seriously, People's Army needs to stage a coup. I doubt Li Keqiang is munching on a child's portion of plastic rice as we speak.)
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Oct 21, 2017 22:35
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I have also eaten a PLA ration and can confirm they're terrible. Grabbing any random item from a 7/11 would be vastly superior.
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Oct 22, 2017 03:16
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That's not a bug, it's a feature so that you can eat the rice like a granola bar.
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Oct 22, 2017 04:10
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I feel like I offered this before and got lazy, but if you give screenshots that I can read I’d actually translate for realsies.
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Oct 22, 2017 04:48
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I can translate the rest of one of those sentences: "Half of your food was stolen due to poor hot food security."
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Oct 23, 2017 02:17
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Xiahou Dun posted:I feel like I offered this before and got lazy, but if you give screenshots that I can read I’d actually translate for realsies. Unfortunately the bag has been thrown out long ago, so those pictures are all I have.
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Oct 23, 2017 03:01
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Well crap. I offered at least. Bonus : I don’t have to read god drat simplified.
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Oct 23, 2017 03:49
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So armies have not only cooked food, they've also created drinks. And part of the study of military food should also include the creation of military beverages. I decided to start this by having some grog, made to the actual Royal Navy recipe: 4 parts water to 1 part rum, plus a dash of lime juice. I used Pusser's Blue Label, which purports to be the actual Royal Navy recipe.  Turns out it just tastes like exactly what it is: watered-down dark rum with a little lime. It would probably be really refreshing after a hard day's work, but you wouldn't want to actually settle down with a cup of this when you could just have a cup of rum. I'm not really a homebrewer, but I think it would be interesting to make up some spruce beer. I do know what my next drink project will probably be, though: WW2 torpedo juice. 2 parts 90% alcohol and 3 parts pineapple juice.
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Nov 6, 2017 19:26
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Of course you only get the authentic flavour if you filter methylated spirits through burnt bread.
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Nov 6, 2017 19:32
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Horrible Lurkbeast posted:Of course you only get the authentic flavour if you filter methylated spirits through burnt bread. I was going to tell him "Best of luck! Nice knowing you..."
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Nov 6, 2017 19:39
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Unfortunately I don’t think I’m quite crazy enough to risk blindness. Maybe I can squeeze the alcohol through some bread and see what happens to the flavor anyway.
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Nov 6, 2017 19:41
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chitoryu12 posted:Turns out it just tastes like exactly what it is: watered-down dark rum with a little lime. It would probably be really refreshing after a hard day's work, but you wouldn't want to actually settle down with a cup of this when you could just have a cup of rum. The reason for watering it down was not to make it taste better; it was done to prevent the sailors from drinking their entire  half pint ration of rum in one go.
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Nov 6, 2017 19:57
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I was about to say, I'd be interested to see someone recreate the various liquors mentioned in Ken Burns' Civil War documentary, but I don't want anyone to go blind or die. Forget about industrial contamination in your MRE; they didn't call it "popskull" for nothing. I always look sideways at anything on a restaurant menu purporting to be "grog." You never know what it's going to be. I remember a legendarily bad Bar Rescue episode where their "grog" was a huge glass with three kinds of rum and what might have been blue curacao, which is just revolting. Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Nov 6, 2017 |
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Nov 6, 2017 19:57
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Halloween Jack posted:I was about to say, I'd be interested to see someone recreate the various liquors mentioned in Ken Burns' Civil War documentary, but I don't want anyone to go blind or die. Forget about industrial contamination in your MRE; they didn't call it "popskull" for nothing. I do have a book on colonial drinks that would be interesting to try. Also, check out chicory coffee some time. It adds a sort of nutty/dark chocolate flavor when used in moderation.
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Nov 6, 2017 20:04
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Come to think of it mojito is just grog done right.
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Nov 6, 2017 20:08
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I heard about a grape flavour field expedient 90% alcoholic beverage. Allegedly, American powdered drink crystals were the only thing that would make captured German ethanol palatable.
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Nov 6, 2017 20:17
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chitoryu12 posted:Also, check out chicory coffee some time. It adds a sort of nutty/dark chocolate flavor when used in moderation.
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Nov 6, 2017 20:28
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I'm fond of pointing out that lobsters were originally ground up shell and all and served cold to prisoners.
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Nov 6, 2017 20:43
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Ensign Expendable posted:I heard about a grape flavour field expedient 90% alcoholic beverage. Allegedly, American powdered drink crystals were the only thing that would make captured German ethanol palatable. Would this be replicable with MRE beverage powder and the aforementioned 180 proof alcohol?
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Nov 6, 2017 20:51
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