MRE's (Military Meals Ready to Eat)

[ImportantElements]

Hey guys, 

 

So I wanted to know if any of you tried different types of MREs out there. Its actually an interesting topic to me, and lately I've been trying to get a hold of MREs from different countries. 

I've tried so far 

US MRE (8 different menus)

German MRE (not bad at all)

French MRE (Wasnt super impressed, but tasty no less)

Russian MRE (3 types) very impressive and tasty

Lithuanian MRE (not bad, but not a lot of food variety inside)

Polish MRE (Very very good)

Latvian MRE (not good at all)

 

I actually made a review with my friend of Lithuanian MRE for those who is interested, right here 

 

What about you guys? What kind of MRE's have you tried, and what are your favorite ones ?

 

 

 

 

[Kerala]

How or where do you source these MREs?

[cakewalk]

And why?

[Anna N]

Wow. Apparently even I can buy them!  $185 from Amazon.ca. 

 

 I can see one or two just to satisfy my curiosity beyond that ... meh. 

 

Edited April 5, 2018 by Anna N (log)

[kayb]

Have to admit, the difference in quality among Russian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Polish is intriguing.

 

[Duvel]

In my childhood my father would take me once a year to the "open days" of the German army garrison in the next larger town. It was always fun for a kid, because you could see live helicopters, tanks and all kinds of weird equipment (like a automated bridge building tank).

For my father, who had to spend two years of then compulsory army service, it was all about memories - the good and the bad.

He was always excited about the food you could have there - actually every year the same pea soup with sausage. And of course we always took one or two EPa's (the German MRE) home, for nostalgic purposes. I can't say it was a memorable meal tastewise. Basically canned food, together with a array of butter, charcuteries and jams for the dried bread in the pack. My highlight was the little dry-fuel burner that was included and I liked to have the meal prepared outside on the terrace, which resulted usually in a more cold-and-burned pasta in tomato sauce. But it was a bit of an adventure and I liked it.

When I checked the Wikipedia entry on the German MRE's today (thanks) memories came back and funny enough, not much seems to have changed in the last 30 years, when it comes to the nutrition of the German armed forces (German "Einmannpackung" at Wikipedia). I thus agree to your conclusion "not bad at all", but partially out of sentimental reasons ...

Edited April 6, 2018 by Duvel
link fixed (log)

[ChocoMom]

Back when we didn't have kids, hubby and I would go camping every chance we got.  It didn't take much to feed us. After we had kids, and the fish we caught didn't end up being enough for all of us...we bought quite a supply of MRE's.  I can't recall what brand, but hubby ordered some, and we'd take those camping. All you'd need was pot of water to boil the entree in.  There was a huge variety- tortellini, chicken and dumplings, beef stew, chili, stroganoff, etc....Each pack came with some very hearty crackers, Tang, coffee, eating utensils, and some other odds and ins.  They were quite tasty, and filled everyone up. Very handy for camping. 

They keep for an insanely long time, and we still had a couple cases in the basement when the house burned down.  

[Dogchef]

Haven't eaten any "army surplus" food in years, but....

 

Big Clive (dot com) loves reviewing MRE's;

Canadian

Russian

Lithuanian

Norwegian

Other stuff?

Lots of time wasting, yet very entertaining videos :-)

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

These meals don't look ready to eat!  Shouldn't they be in the military food topic?

 

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/37174-food-in-the-military/

 

 

[Duvel]

39 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

These meals don't look ready to eat!  Shouldn't they be in the military food topic?

 

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/37174-food-in-the-military/

 

 

Ha ! At least the German ones have been designed to be eaten in the absence of additional water and/or any heat source, if required. So straight out of the pack they are "ready to eat" (though they gastronomic value might suffer a tiny bit )...

[nickrey]

When we had to eat these meals, we used to spend all our time working out how to spruce the meals up to give more flavour (curry powder, etc). Somewhat encouragingly, this led to a number of people developing a strong interest in cooking.

 

As these are field rations, my general question is:  Why would anyone eat one of these if you don't have to?

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, nickrey said:

Why would anyone eat one of these if you don't have to?

Purely to satisfy our curiosity.

[tikidoc]

I’m with Nick on this one... as someone who HAD to eat them, I have no desire to consume them now. Although I understand that they have improved quite a bit since the late ‘80s when I ate them. They used to be pretty rude.

 

I did find them useful for one thing - bartering. I spent 9 years in the Army National Guard, much of it in a medical company. During that time, I went on several trips to Central and South America, where we set up free clinics and provided care to locals. Very often, the locals found the MREs to be a novelty, and I think the sheer number of calories in a pack was attractive, so I was able to barter for local meals and goods. I ate on the local economy whenever possible, and traded away my 2 daily MREs (we got MREs for breakfast and lunch, and hot meals for dinner). I came home with all sorts of hand made items, including some lovely alpaca sweaters from Bolivia.

[rotuts]

there is a key ingredient in MRE's :

 

hunger.

[Johntodd]

LOL!

 

(sorry for the zombie reply)

 

MRE ... "Meals Rejected by the Enemy!"

 

Not bad food if you've been humpin' it all day.  The hot sauce really helps!

 

Had quite a few of these back in the day.