We hear on the news almost daily about the activities of our men and women in the military. We know all about their movements, their missions, their equipment, their successes, and their setbacks, but have you ever wondered what they eat? Thanks to some extra MREs from my brother-in-law, now I can fill you in on the one aspect of our military you don't see on the news.

For my first MRE dining experience, I selected menu number 8, creatively titled "Beef Patty". A thick, heavy-duty plastic package contains the meal and ensures it can be dropped from a plane, submerged in water, and driven over by a tank before eating.

This is no whimpy meal. Clockwise from the top left we have two Wheat Snack Breads, Mexican Style Macaroni and Cheese, Nacho Cheese Pretzels, BBQ Sauce, Cheese Spread with Bacon, Iced Tea Drink Mix, napkin, miniature bottle of Tabasco sauce, mint chewing gum, heavy-duty spoon, waterproof matches, moist towelette, and a huge pack of salt. The main course is pictured below.

To cook yourself a Beef Patty, you just slip the plastic-wrapped beef into an included cooking pouch, add a little water, and quickly stuff the whole thing back in the box before it gets too hot to hold. At this point, bad smelling smoke and steam pours out and in about ten minutes your beef is cooked. Extracting the beef from the cooking pouch and then the beef's own pouch, both made of bullet-resistant plastic, is tricky to accomplish without burning your fingers.

It might not look like much, but I was pleasantly surprised by Beef Patty's great taste. It was like a small piece of good meatloaf. Smothered in barbeque and Tabasco sauce, it was even better. The Mexican Style Macaroni and Cheese was pretty good, too.

I learned that Nacho Cheese Pretzels are actually Combos or at least a really good knock-off.

Unfortunately, the two Wheat Snack Breads were all but inedible and the Cheese Spread with Bacon (with no detectable taste of cheese OR bacon) only made them worse. The mint gum came in handy for removing the odd flavors from my mouth.

The sweet tea mix wasn't terrible, but I can assure you you'd need a whole lot more than the six ounces it makes to quench your thirst if you used even half of the giant pack of salt.

I found it comical that nutrition facts were printed so prominently on each item. Somehow it seems like you might have more important things to worry about on a battlefield than your saturated fat intake.

Overall though, an MRE makes a pretty satisfying meal. It's been several hours since I ate and I still feel like I'd have enough energy to search a town for insurgents and pull Saddam out of a hole. Rest assured that whatever the news says our military is doing next, they're doing it with full, satisfied stomachs.

Posted by JoshC at April 7, 2007 3:59 PM

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