How to pack energy, nutrition and comfort into small, portable containers for soldiers far from home is the challenge faced by military meal planners around the world.
An eye-opening slideshow in the New York Times gives a glimpse of what "home" tastes like in fourteen different countries.
Photojournalist Ashley Gilbertson snapped a series of detailed (and oddly beautiful) photos of the packaged meals fed to international troops stationed in Afghanistan. It comes as no shock that France feeds its troops well, with rations that include cassoulet, venison pâté and caramels. South Korea packs a serving of kimchi, of course, and the United States adds pork ribs and barbecue sauce to its M.R.E.’s (Meals Ready to Eat).
But there are also surprises, like the three tiny toothbrushes Italy gives out every day to its soldiers, or the small bottle of Tabasco sauce Great Britain includes in its rations.
Meat stews are prominent, from Polish beef goulash to British lamb curry, and caffeine in some form is nearly universal, which makes sense. Hot coffee and a simple stew is exactly what we would want if we were seeking a little comfort far from home.
- View the slideshow: A Taste of Home in Foil Packets and Powder - New York Times
What do you think? If you had to pack up a taste of home, what would you include?
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(Image: National Library of Scotland)
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I'm a soldier and I can assure you, no matter how fancy the name of the dish, when you make something that's meant to keep for a couple of years it is NOT good. The omelette looks like a lung, and doesn't taste much better.
The chocolate bars are greatly appreciated, though! We do tend to get creative when we can - use the gravy from the meatballs to replace some of the liquid when making instant mashed potatoes, and it's not too bad. You can also empty your powdered milk (meant for coffee) into them, too. And the bread in a bag almost tastes like fresh baked if you plunk it into the water to steam along with your rations. But when you're hungry and cold, pretty much everything tastes good.
In the Canadian Forces, we have vegetarian rations, and they are pretty good. I try and pretend to be a veggie in the field. ;)
Oh god, I just looked at that slideshow. The Canadian ration they had, Swiss Steak, is possibly the worst of them all. I can almost smell the rations through the screen...that is not a good thing!
Poor Eastern Europeans - those don't look very good. I am also surprised that the Spanish meal looks so unappetizing. And the Swedish/Norwegians are the only ones that don't get dessert.
We get those little Tabasco sauces in our MRE's, too. Also, for some reason, they seem to think we like to have mushrooms in EVERYTHING.
What an intriguing project. When I was in college, I read a book for an advertising calss called something like 'Real Coke, The Real Story,' all about the history of the Coca-Cola company. The reason for the book was mainly to talk about the whole brouhaha when they changed the formula and came out with 'new Coke' - and then the decision to bring back 'Classic Coke,' which of course everybody knows wasn't the original formula.
Anyway, it was a fascinating read, full of all sorts of interesting information, but what I remember most was learning that during World War II, somebody in the American government decided that ALL U.S. soldiers should be able to buy a 5 cent coke, no matter WHERE in the world they were.
Thus, the U.S. government literally footed the bill for the construction of Coca-Cola production plants around the world, thus vastly increasing distribution and availability of Coke. And the rest is pretty much history. . .