Sunday, January 20, 2008

MRE Menu 12: Veggie burger in BBQ sauce

BLECH!

That is all. If there is a disaster and the Feds are handing out MRE's, this is one to trade to your goofy vegetarian neighbor who won't eat the decent ones. This thing is *nasty*. Like every other vegetarian MRE. The white-coat guys at Natick are apparently carnivores...

Can't even say that the sides are any great shakes. Cranberries, a nice little cake, and a couple of slices of MRE "bread" (more of a soft cracker). That's pretty much it. No "there" there, alas. Avoid, avoid, avoid (unless you are starving to death, of course, in which case ya gotta do what ya gotta do -- I did manage to eat about 2/3rds of the thing by stuffing bread in my mouth between every bite, but that was for scientific purposes, not something I recommend you do voluntarily).

- Badtux the "ICK!" Penguin

8 comments:

  1. I was hoping you'd get back to the MRE reviews... my employer is finally thinking about stockpiling supllies for disasters.

    Have you run across these guys - http://www.coyotecamp.com/ - and if so, what do you think?

    Mr 618, the "I'll-let-Badtux-do-the-heavy-lefting" non-penguin...

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  2. Just took a spin by that coyotecamp place. It's an interesting idea -- bundle up off-the-shelf canned and packaged foods into ready-to-eat meals -- but the bulk and weight would be a problem if you were trying to store these foods rather than immediately hand them out to firefighters on the fireline.

    I guess I'd need more info to tell you more. Their web site is quite non-specific about what's actually in each of those meals, unlike with MRE's where it's all set in stone at the beginning of each year, or freeze-dried bought in bulk when you know you have a can of 5 pounds of freeze-dried potato flakes or whatever. How many people you're intending to feed and for how long, and the cooking facilities available to you, would decidedly make a difference in what you stock up.

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  3. The damnable thing is that there are veggie burgers that are actually tasty. I end up eating one about once a week or so. But one does not find it in an MRE. Apparently, the military is as committed to serving inedible garbage as the airlines are.

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  4. Actually, Steve, most MRE's are quite edible. Tasty, even. During my Christmas trip I ate a number of MRE's and without exception they were all edible and in some cases much better than edible, albeit in most cases they were somewhat bland and required some hot sauce to spice them up (but they're aimed at young folk with more sensitive taste buds than this elderly penguin, so that is understandable). Then I encountered this "veggie burger" MRE... sigh.

    - Badtux the Well-Fed Penguin

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  5. It's been a while since I've had the veggieburger MRE. But if I recall correctly, it's pretty tolerable smothered in the BBQ sauce ...and as long as it isn't heated. :) For some reason some MREs taste fine or better unheated.

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  6. I'll give that a try, FX. I happen to have a Veggie Burger pouch that I need to eat, so I'll see what happens. Another thing I thought of was maybe topping it with some MRE cheese. I have some MRE cheese left over from one of the other meals, maybe that'll help hide the nasty taste. It's worth an experiment trying it, anyhow.

    - Badtux the Culinary Penguin

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  7. I'm eating one right now. Had to get the reviews before I was done heating.

    Not too bad at all. My opinion ;)

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  8. So what did you do to make it edible?

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