A Taste of Home in Foil Packets and Powder (Inspecting Foreign MREs)

New York Times ^ | September 4, 2010 | ASHLEY GILBERTSON

[tlb]

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

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ASHLEY GILBERTSON/VII NETWORK, FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES; FOOD STYLIST, MARIA WASHBURN

[tlb]

Flash presentation. Some really gross stuff in those kits.

[The Magical Mischief Tour]

The British one, the center food pile, (main course?) looks like turds over rice...

[musical_airman]

Having eaten these before, if that’s what home tastes like to you then you should move. On the other hand, it was interesting to see the South Korean meals. Everything else was very western, and pretty similar.

[DemforBush]

There's a pretty good website that has lots of details about various country's combat rations - mreinfo.com. As with the story, the French rations looked to be the best, with American, Canadian, and German being a respectable second. The Russian ration pack had some of the grossest stuff I've ever seen:

The tushonka on the top right looks downright unfit for human consumption!

[RachelFaith]

I loved eating these. When my dad was in the Army during the time of the first Gulf War, he brought these home often. Then when he was over there, we sent him REAL food.

[R. Scott]

I see the US still includes the green bug juice.

[9YearLurker]

Only the US provides toilet paper. Those Aussies are tough, though—musk candy?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Mmm, dog food!

[Fresh Wind]

The US ration includes toilet paper. I wonder why?

[Candor7]

They won’t include a Koran for the same purpose.

[Fresh Wind]

I would sooner wipe with my left hand than allow the pages of the koran to offend that sensitive part of my body.

[Candor7]

Hey, its a free country!

[Sarajevo]

It all tastes great with hot sauce.......lots of hot sauce!

[Robert A Cook PE]

I’m surprised they are keeping them stored in round steel cans. Heavy, hard to pack, least efficient way to ship food,

Of course, those might be WWI (er. WWII) left-overs ....

[DUMBGRUNT]

lots of hot sauce!

Almost worked for pork and little MF'ers, OK on beef and grease¿?

Nothing could help the green eggs.

[ansel12]

French boxed rations in the 1980s included a small bottle of Cognac, and a full pack of cigarettes to go along with the Pate. They were truly excellent.

[ArrogantBustard]

Upper left looks like cat food.

Upper right looks like something my cat would refuse.

[ASOC]

Thanks for the link.

I did note that other than US, most ration packets are one-a-day.

Lots of cool photos - thanks again for the link.

[Billthedrill]

Yeah. Notice the Brit rations have Tabasco? I could even eat C-Rats with Tabasco although it didn't do much for the pound cake.

My late Dad used to tell me the story of what happened when his unit met some French troops east of Paris. They swapped rations and the Americans were chowing down on the fish soup while the French were gobbling the C-Rats, each looking at the other like they were crazy. I guess after awhile even HammyMammies start to look good.

[Sarajevo]

Nothing could help the green eggs.

I think I was one of the few who actually liked those C-Rat eggs.