in The Kitchen Sink 110 Words

Military Meals

My friend Mike from London / university / St. Thomas sent me a link from Saturday’s New York Times to a gallery of military meals. It’s fascinating. I had several reactions:

  • I get nostalgic seeing that generic Canadian moist towelette
  • PAPER matches? (hangs head in shame)
  • I’m sure those all those soups and stews look less like vomit when they are in a cup
  • The Americans provide tortillas but still refuse to admit Spanish should be an official language
  • The German matches are so cute! Hedgehog!
Screenshot of the galley from the New York Times article “A Taste of Home in Foil Packets and Powder”

8 thoughts on “Military Meals”

  1. I’ve eaten several IMPs (individual meal packets). The swiss steak is one of the worst, along with the macaroni and cheese nicknamed “lung in a bag.” The lasagna is not bad. That bread is really weird, it’s flat in a packet and then when you open it up it inflates. IMPs often contain chocolate bars with long shelf lives: Coffee Crisp and Mint Royales were frequent.

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    1. I’ve also eaten my fair share of IMPs. Yay cadets (http://www.cadets.ca/). Air for you, right Theresa?

      I didn’t mind the swiss steak but that is nowhere near liking it. Lasagne was considered the best by us too. Breakfast was universally bad. Beans and wieners were awful already and then I was sea sick one trip after eating them. I haven’t had beans and wieners since (does Cassoulet count) and I was 16 at the time.

      Basically the whole meal was gross except for the chocolate bars and juice crystals.

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    2. Mint Royale! I have not had one of those in years. Maybe not since we owned the convenience store. They were a personal favourite.

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  3. According to my co-worker Mathias:

    [17:08:55] Mathias: the german epa is awesome
    [17:09:07] Mathias: especially the cevapcici
    [17:09:26] Tiffany: hrmm
    [17:09:47] Mathias: and it lasts for 30 years!

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  4. Totally off topic, but I can’t believe I didn’t register your Spanish in the US comment the first time I read your post. To clarify, there is no official language in the US. Don’t get me wrong—I don’t understand the people who have a problem with Spanish. I could go on, but I won’t since this is a food blog. For the record, I’m still bitter about art class replacing Spanish class in elementary school.

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    1. I did know that there is no official language. I used the phrase, rather flippantly I admit, as short hand for “refuse to acknowledge the bilingual make-up of the population.”

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