MREs- Meals Ready-to-Eat/Maybe Relatively Edible?
MREs are the most commonly used survival rations, used by the US military and emergency relief packages alike. Now that I've sampled one, I can see why.
First off is the sheer convenience of the meal. While most survival rations consist of one calorie-loaded entree, MREs consist of a complete meal, beverage, entree, side item, and desert, and all you need to do is add water.
The main meal is nothing short of magic. I put the foil package of chili and pasta into the heater envelope, and added a few tablespoons of water. This activated a chemical heater in an instant. All I had to do was slide it into the angled cardboard box, and wait a few minutes for the whole meal to heat itself up. No fire, no electricity, no waiting for water to boil just, just... shazam!
Anyways, it was pretty cool.
The entree itself was pretty close to the edibility standards of food in our servery (and we have the 3rd best food in any school in the US). There was a little more pepper than I would have liked, but considering that MREs stay edible for decades while some servery leftovers in my fridge are already going stale after a week, I'm not complaining.
Additional items included a package of peanut m&ms, crackers, and a dairy shake that fell between Instant Breakfast and an iceless strawberry smoothie in tastiness.
So while shows like NCIS can make derogatory jokes about MREs as food sources, I totally vouch for their use in any number of situations. I'm going to be hard pressed to find another long-term food source providing so many easily preparable calories (over 1000) with so much variety. I'd even consider it as a handy option for the occasional OC meal next semester, backpacking supplies, or a picnic lunch. I'd even say they could be a substitute for serving for breakfast for kids, but I think only Vin Diesel can pull that one off.
No comments:
Post a Comment