Daily Rations - Part 4 - Macaroni and Asian Beef

Of all of the ration packs that I've reviewed so far this week, this one is the one I've feared most, even more than the cabbage rolls.  First of all, while I'm pretty sure I know what macaroni is, I wasn't really sure what Asian beef sauce was.  I imagined a cross between Chef Boyardee canned pastas, and that red "sweet and sour sauce" you get at mall Chinese food restaurants.  After opening the pack and checking it out, I was only mildly more confident.  If it was a cross between these two things, at least it seemed to lean a more towards the Chef Boyardee, instead of resting in the middle.

While the smell that came out of the package wasn't spectacular, I had hope in my heart.  After taking my first bite, I was really surprised.  I was really surprised because the mysterious "Asian" sauces wasn't that bad at all.  Stranger still was how much I disliked the macaroni.  I would have thought that the meat with a possible four year expiration date would have been much worse than the pasta.  Considering I think I might have some pasta in my cupboard that's been around for at least a year or so, and I'm sure it's fine. When it comes to meat I wouldn't trust frozen meat for more than a few months, let along a couple of years.

All around I'd say that I was pretty surprised by this meal.  I was expecting a horror show, but instead I got a slightly spiced meat sauce with some really horribly textured pasta.  It wasn't great, and if I got it at a restaurant I'd probably return it, but not bad for a quick lunch today.

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Daily Rations - Part 1 - Cabbage Rolls

Over the next week I've decided to sample ration pack meals.  In the past I wrote an entire review on a ration box (this box contains all that a soldier would need to survive a day), and I've attempted to make an improved dessert out of ingredients from various ration packs.  This week I've decided to sample a different ration pack meal for lunch every day.  I've only recently discovered the curiosity that is a ration pack, and since sampling one, I've been obsessed with trying more.

One thing to keep in mind is that ration packs are not really designed for taste.  The most important part of a ration pack is to feed a soldier (or sometimes a civilian in a difficult situation), as well as provide them with the nutrition they need to survive and keep moving.  This means two things, first of all these packs are designed to last.  Many ration packs can last several years with out going bad, and can also survive with no refrigeration.  Ration packs are also designed to give the person eating them a very specific amount of energy, enough to carry heavy gear through hostel environments. That means they have lots of the stuff the average health conscious person sitting at home probably wouldn't want to eat, like lots of salt and sugar.

For the first meal I've decided to sample a cabbage rolls.  This is a difficult food for me to review because of my heritage.  I'm half Ukrainian, and that means that I have memories of my grandmother making me cabbage rolls when I was a kid, and I loved them.  So no matter how hard I try, I have to compare these to hers.  In fact the only reason I took this particular ration pack in the first place was to compare my memory of my grandmothers cabbage rolls to these one coming out of a package that is at least two years old.  Seems fairly unfair doesn't it?

As you can imagine these don't hold up at all to the ones my grandmother made. In fact these were so awful I had a really hard time getting through them.  To start, I'll mention the parts that I didn't mind, and then I dedicate a paragraph to why I couldn't stomach these.  The sauce was the surprise highlight of this meal.  It was a little sweet, but it had a nice tomato flavour and I might even say I liked it more than my grandmothers.  My grandmother's sauce was a lot dryer and didn't have nice chunks of tomato like this sauce did.  I also liked the cabbage, but to be honest, screwing up the cabbage would have taken some serious work.  It's pretty much the easiest part of this whole meal.

The part I hated was the part that took up the most space in this meal, and that was the filling.  My grandmother's cabbage rolls consisted of rice, pork, spices, and occasionally some very finely chopped vegetables. This filling contained meat, a big block of thick dense mystery ground meat.  It was like eating a giant disgusting meatball.  I think it may have worked a little better if the meat wasn't so tightly packed, and I think you could have achieved that by mixing in some rice, vegetables, or something.

Unfortunately for the first meal, things aren't going that well.  However I have hopes for some of the future meals.  I thought that I would start with a tough one, and maybe save a few of the "better" possibilities for later this week.  Even though this wasn't like my grandmother's cabbage rolls, I have to admit that in a pinch, it's still pretty amazing.

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Classic/Creative Candy Advertising

Beware the popcorn army.  I'm never going to be able to eat another bowl of popcorn without imagining that they're little popcorn men thrown together in a giant bowl.  I'll walk them to their doom, and throw them in my mouth like Jabba the Hut throwing rebel scum into the Sarlacc Pit.

I found this ad here.

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Old Candy Critic Articles - Chocolate Relief

I've decided to take down several old articles from the candycritic.org and re-post them here on the Candy Critic blog.  This week I'm posting an article written by Tedd, a fan of Candy Critic, and man who served overseas in the military.

Late in 1990 I was a Combat Medic in Desert Storm. Sleeping in a tent in the middle of the desert, sand in places I don't even want to mention, dealing with heat that I never thought possible during the day and freezing temperatures at night. Always wondering what that bang was or what that glint of light was coming from across the dunes. Was that a mirage or an enemy truck?

Things weren't all bad while I was there, however. I was with fellow soldiers, we played lots of card games, Nintendo sent us a bunch of Gameboys, Chef Boyardee sent a bunch of their goodness. The company I remember most was Hershey's. Chocolate and the military have had a long and fruitful relationship and Hershey's didn't forget this.

You see, in the United States of America, the production of chocolate proceeded at a faster pace than anywhere else in the world. It was in pre-revolutionary New England — 1765 to be exact — that the first chocolate factory was established in this country. During World War II, the U.S. government recognized chocolate’s role in the nourishment and group spirit of the Allied Armed Forces, so much that it allocated valuable shipping space for the importing of cocoa beans. Many soldiers were thankful for the chocolate bars, which gave them the energy to carry on until more food rations could be obtained. Today, the U.S. Army’s "Meals Ready to Eat" contain chocolate bars and chocolate candies, and chocolate has been taken into space as part of the diet of U.S. astronauts.

What Hershey's sent to Desert Storm were 144,000 bite-sized chocolate bars, wrapped in nifty desert camouflage wrappings and specially formulated to withstand temperatures of over 100 degrees F. I remember getting up out of my cot one morning and going to the tent we had set up to take care of sick and injured soldiers. There, I saw a box that I originally thought was just another makeshift desk drawer. It had Hershey's printed on it, and when I looked inside, imagine my delight when I saw those mouth-watering, bite-sized packages of choco goodness. I felt like it was Christmas! I immediately dug in and grabbed a few, laid them on the table, unwrapped one, and popped it into my mouth.

What does a chocolate candy bar that doesn't melt in 100 degrees taste like? VERY GOOD! I remember it was a bit harder than other candy bars I have eaten, and it didn't melt in my mouth, but the taste was very close to the Hershey's we all know and love. After coming down off of my chocolate high, I decided to test the heat resistance and stuck a few in my pocket...ok, pockets. Throughout the day and several days thereafter, I and the other soldiers of my unit used them as "chips" for card games - those that we didn't eat before we got them on the card table. In a town nearby they were a treat for the children that lit up their faces like the sun.

Hershey's knows how to support the military and I thank them for their contribution to the Desert Storm conflict. They, and other companies, raised the morale of all the military while away from home and family. It was, and still is, nice to see that the military is appreciated to the point that companies like Hershey's are willing to go that extra step to let our guys and gals know they are appreciated.

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Something In His Pocket

Found this shot on "The Big Picture" gallery called "Afghanistan, September 2011".  It's a great reminder that those people fighting abroad are regular people.

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Candy For The Troops

I love to hear about the fine folks of the military getting sweet treats while doing work overseas. It makes me happy to know that a little treat can make people so happy.

Click here to read about a new Candy initiative about sending treats to troops.

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Baby Ruth For The Boys

I'm guessing that back in the 40s the boys in green really dug Baby Ruths. I'm also guessing that in the 40s the boys in green where slobs because they left all their Baby Ruth wrappers just lying in a big pile.

Ad from Vintage Ad Browser.

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