Archives for the 'mre' tag
Food at War
While nearly every outlet is taking this week to look back on five disastrous years in Iraq, both the WaPo and NYT have nice pieces up that look at eating in the midst of war. While the MRE certainly still has its place, wartime food is much more than hard tack.
Ashley Gilbertson of the NYT’s Baghdad Bureau speaks and eats with Italian war photographer Franco Pagetti, who knows his food.
Franco sent me an e-mail early in the morning with his grocery list. For the gnocchi all we needed were potatoes, and for the sauce tomatoes and white onions. He already had Italian sausage he’d couriered in from home.
In Iraq, going to the market is incredibly dangerous — when McCain visited one in 2007, he took a company of soldiers. Our Iraqi staff just went alone. Low profile was safer, but the main concern was suicide bombers. Bazaars were their preferred locations to kill the greatest number of people.
When Franco arrived, we got to work on dinner. Making gnocchi is not an easy process, especially from scratch. All the more so when you are sous-chef to Franco. We were using his grandmother’s recipe, and he was fastidious. “Ashley! Use a knife to take off the skin! You will burn!” (He was right). “Ashley! You idiot! What’s wrong with you? You’ve never cut an onion?” (Not really.) “Ashley!” “You’re not making footballs, you make gnocchi!” (Never again.)
Walter Nichols, meanwhile, covering the domestic beat, writes for the WaPo about the food scientists who make up the MRE, and a new combat ration for soldiers — the First Strike Ration.
When U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan open group combat rations in the months to come, they might find an unexpected treat: a walnut tea cake that serves 18. And before they even get to it, they’ll have chicken pesto pasta and Burgundy beef stew to finish off.
At a recent Pentagon demonstration of advances in field food, a group of Army veterans and young soldiers who had recently returned from Iraq stood shoulder to shoulder with military brass to sample entrees and desserts that will be introduced in war zones over the next few years.
Let’s hope we can cross Iraq off that list — or at least our participation in it — as soon as possible. Certainly for the troops’ sake, but also so someone can write an updated Iraq travel guide already.
This Week in Bacon
Worried that on your next wilderness adventure you will likely have neither the time nor wherewithal to slay and cure a feral pig, and thus camp sans bacon? Have no fear! This week we bring you the indubitably delectable Precooked Eggs with Bacon — Breakfast Entree One Color by Mountain House.
Now you can bring the eggs. Mountain House’s Precooked Scrambled Eggs with Bacon yields enough for two, half-cup serving. It’s the easy way to make breakfast. Just add boiling water to the pouch and watch the sun come up while you eat.
The remarkable shelf life of Mountain House products explained here.
