Best Rations
 

RL's thread gave me a brainwave (noone is as shocked as I).

What's the best countries rations you've eaten? I've been told the Brit ones are pretty good these days but I've never tried them.

i dont know about the brits MREs but the Italian army has some bangin MREs they even have mini scotch bottles in them the only thing that would be a downside is that they are too bulky and weigh more .every thing in them are good especially the MRE menu that includes macerel.(excuse me if i spelled it wrong):munchin

The best rations I had was when my Team did excersises in Germany. For some reason, after German langauge school in Oberamergau, I ended up the team schmoozer/translator/get us a dry place to sleep with great food guy. We're running around in civvies and all, so I would go to Gasthofs and private residences and have a chat. Always got a barn roof over our head, even if invited to sleep in the house. But!!! OH..... The food....... Nothing like home cookin' :D

Disclaimer:
This is not a hijack. Just going with 'best countrie's rations' ;)

I remember French rations were pretty gourmet. I suppose if you were French you'd just consider it "food". Bonbons, real cheese and crackers. Tactically, I think they were problematic as they had too much aroma.

I really thought the Air Force had exceptional chow. Next would be the Navy.

The French?
 

We stayed on a French base somewhere in France one time. We got up for breakfast early and went down to the NCO mess. We sat down with our coffee at a table and ate the bread on it. We were still hungry so we started on the next table and worked our way through about 10 tables before some of the rest of the team (only 1 team here) showed up. They started in on the rest of the bread about time the French NCOs showed up.

As the shit hit the fan, that "WAS" breakfast for "EVERYBODY", our table beat a hasty retreat as the cooks were working themselves into a high lather with everybody else.

It all worked out by supper time. We were doing a night infil jump on one of the Eugenie (sp?) FTXs and were parked down by the runway when they issued us the supper field ration. I do not remember the meal but I do remember the small bottle of wine, one per man, that came with it. Everybody drank it and thought it was pretty good.

About 10 days later wine would come back to haunt us but that story is for another day and thread.

Pete (the ugly American - sometimes)

i don't know about the best foreign rations, but i do not recommend Norwegian food for variety...it seemed to be white fish, black bread and currant jelly for breakfast, lunch and dinner...except when we had headcheese from a caribou...

I would say at the time, ‘60s – ‘80s, Germany had the best food, rations or otherwise. Remember eating in Germany training areas, gasthofs, and a great variety of eateries from all over the country. Berlin and Bavaria had the best and most respectively. Was TDY in a small village for a month in wine country. We ate in every place in town and it was all great!

US rations: AF, Navy, Army. I ate in many different messes – CPO Mess was nice service, Officers’ Mess in Berlin also good.

Take a look at this site! Very interesting. http://www.mreinfo.com/index.html

Bob

You apparently never got stuck with the German ration with the Sulze in it.

The British rations were hit and miss. The main courses were terrible, but everything else was top notch. The biggest problem with them is that they required a LOT of water. They included real rice (a pain to prepare in the field, but tasty and filling) and very large bars of chocolate.

The main courses were awful. They smelled bad, they tasted bad, and were very often the constancy of dirty car wax and rock salt with saltine crackers mixed in. I kept looking for the label on the can that simply said "Ass Parts, Assorted, Mixed". There is at least one can of some form of curried meat in every box. I like curry, just not on my corn flakes.

The Italian rations were awesome. Very tasty, decent portions, and easy to prepare. The Italian rations had a foil pack of wine in them (sugar enhanced) which I think about whenever my kids drink those Capri Sun things.

The one positive thing about going on the exchange program with the french in Tahiti was the food. The rations were good, but they were pretty heavy in your stomach afterwards.

Pete: You are not alone in your experience with the bread and coffee. I am a full fledged card carrying member of the Big Breakfast Eaters Society, and always have been. My first morning with RIMAP in Tahiti was a sad day indeed. "What the hell? These guys live off of bread, coffee, and cocoa powder in the morning!?" It took a lot of self control on my part not to pick a couple of the papayas growing outside of the chow hall.

More Rations
 

For those still interested in the subject yet another site (Japanese) with a great assortment of rations to include the first MREs.

http://phototec.hp.infoseek.co.jp/yokoku.htm

I liked C rations.

Razor, I never had a German ration with Sulze but do remember having it when I was a kid with some sort of meat.

Bon Appetit!

Sulze is rumored to be some sort of meat, but I ain't buying it for a second.