The food standard of the U.S. military is very high. What you can see in Western restaurants is what you can eat in U.S. military camps, from lobster and seafood to ice cream and desserts.
Of course, the varieties served in the military camp are rotated every day, and it is impossible to have everything on the menu like a restaurant.
The above mentioned food is in the camp environment, but on the battlefield it is The conditions are not so good. The following is an introduction to American field rations.
"Meals Ready to Eat" (Meals Ready to Eat, referred to as "fast food", MRE - this is the standard field ration of the US military / Combat rations. "Snack food" is a complete set of wet, dry, frozen and dehydrated food packages, plus some accessory packages (condiments, spoons, cutlery, paper towels, etc.), sealed in parts in a rough (someone said: There are twelve kinds of "fast food" in a brown plastic bag, each of which contains about 3,000 units of food calories. Each officer and soldier participating in combat operations is allocated four packs of "fast food" a day.
In terms of cost and convenience, T field rations are the Army's most ideal field rations. You will usually see three aluminum trays containing food - a meat entree, a starchy food, and a vegetable. The field ration box also contains one of the most popular Army condiments. —Soy sauce produced by McHenry Company! For the Army and their food suppliers, the rations supplied to the troops must take into account various tastes, especially since there are currently many U.S. citizens of various races serving in the military. Therefore, special flavors are added. Food and condiments have become an inevitable trend in T field rations. Overall, T field rations have been implemented quite successfully. Of course, everyone has their own preferences. For example, a cavalry officer interviewed by us said that T field rations are very successful. The honey-glazed chicken breast with rice in the field rations was criticized as useless, but a senior supply officer of a certain cavalry regiment praised the dish as so delicious and said that even if he had to eat it every day, he would not You'll feel tired! Because the United States is a melting pot of races, its army officers and soldiers also have diverse tastes and preferences.
During the Persian Gulf War, "fast food" got a bad rap. Some people call this "Meals Ready to Eat" (Meals Rejected By the Enemy, or MRE for short). Part of the reason for this situation is that during Operation Desert Shield. In the first few days of August 1990, the first batch of US troops stationed in the Persian Gulf area (mainly the 82nd Airborne) were unable to complete the logistics supply operation. Division and the 101st Air Assault Division), there was nothing to eat except "fast food". At that time, there were only four types of "fast food" (now there are as many as twelve), plus Saudi Arabia. Some special dietary requirements make the situation worse.
Prior to Desert Shield, the Saudi Defense Forces were the main security force ordered to protect Muslims in Mecca and other holy places, but they were not a field force and therefore lacked the resources to allow them to operate in northern Saudi Arabia. Various field life-support equipment for maintaining life in the desert. For example, the Saudi army did not have field rations that could be eaten immediately, nor did it have field kitchen equipment, so it was unable to prepare its own meals. Therefore, the Saudi military asked the US military if it could purchase millions of field "fast food" from the US military to serve as temporary field rations for the Saudi army until their own field kitchen was built. The US military readily agreed. However, when the batch of "fast food" ordered by Saudi Arabia arrived, someone (no one knew whether this person was a Saudi Arabian or an American) discovered that among the four "fast food" , there are two kinds of them that contain pork (one of them has ham, the other is roast pork), so Muslims are not allowed to eat these two kinds of "fast food". In order not to make the Americans feel embarrassed, the Saudi military kept the two kinds of "fast food" that did not contain pork to eat themselves, and then generously donated the rest of the "fast food" to the third military unit that had been deployed along the Iraqi border. Various units of the 18th Airborne Army. As a result, the officers and soldiers of the 18th Airborne Corps ate field "fast food" of ham, eggs and roast pork for several weeks. Of course they were tired of it! However, every officer and soldier still complied with the meal, and did not worry that this incident affected their combat mission, and still successfully recaptured Kuwait from the Iraqi army.
After this lesson, the U.S. Army rushed to increase the number of field "fast food" dishes and improve their quality. The first step is to increase the packaging and types of "fast food". Then, the next step - currently still in progress - is to no longer be limited to traditional field ration dishes, but to introduce better field "fast food". I hope It can match the eating habits and hobbies of the younger generation of Americans that have become the mainstream of the U.S. Army. We will talk about more new technologies for making "fast food" later, but first let's take a look at the content and dishes of "fast food" currently available to the U.S. military.
If you open a box of "fast food" - at the end of 1993, "fast food" only had one kind of packaging - you will find that there are various "fast food" dishes in the box. One serving of each.
This arrangement is so that no one can complain. The Army and food suppliers tried to force soldiers to choose only one dish. Therefore, the first unwritten rule for eating "fast food" is that when the troops distribute "fast food", each officer and soldier on the team reaches into the box and takes a random portion. In this way, no one will shout that he was "cheated". The second unwritten rule is that everyone can exchange "fast food" with each other. After getting the "fast food", it takes some effort to open its packaging (each package of "fast food" weighs two pounds/one kilogram) because the brown plastic bag is very strong and almost bulletproof. No wonder a soldier told me that I should consider including a Swiss knife with scissors in the packaging of "fast food". If you want to know what is in these small brown plastic bags, here are several "fast food" menus:
(1) Menu No. 2 - Fried corn with minced beef, frozen dehydrated pears, Cookies, apple jelly, oatmeal cookie bars. Beverage powder (fruit drink), cocoa powder, C condiment pack (selected coffee, creamer, sugar, salt, pepper, chewing gum, matches, wet wipes, toilet paper), and a spoon.
(2) Menu No. 4 - ham omelette, potatoes with gratin, biscuits, and cheese slices. Oatmeal cookie bars, drink powder (fruit drink), C condiment pack (selected coffee, creamer, sugar, salt, pepper, chewing gum, matches, wet wipes, toilet paper), "Tabasco" spicy soy sauce, and a Take the spoon.
(3) Menu No. 7 - Beef stew, biscuits, peanut butter, cherry cake, condiment pack A (selected coffee, creamer, sugar, salt, pepper, chewing gum, matches, wet wipes , toilet paper), Tabasco sauce, and a spoon.
(4) Menu No. 8 - ham slices with natural juice, potatoes with milk, biscuits, apple jelly, chocolate candy bar, drink powder (fruit drink), cocoa powder, seasoning package A ( Choice of coffee, creamer, sugar, salt, pepper, gum, matches, wipes, toilet paper), Tabasco sauce, and a spoon.
(5) Menu No. 11 - chicken rice, biscuits, cheese slices, chocolate candy bars, drink powder (fruit drink), candy, A condiment pack (selected coffee, creamer, sugar, salt, pepper, chewing gum, matches, wet wipes, toilet paper), Tabasco sauce, and a spoon.
After opening the "fast food" meal bag, go to get a drink (usually boiled water, hot boiled water is used to make coffee, cold boiled water is used to make drink powder, or get a bottle of milk). Then it’s up to you what to do with your meal kit. If you want to reheat the entire meal package, place the entire package in boiling water (if hot water is available).
But real "fast food" gourmets prefer another heating method: the first step is to find a familiar military truck driver to help, and when the car engine is running slowly, put the "fast food" "Throw the entree bag into the exhaust pipe, wait for five minutes (the time must be calculated very accurately), and then ask the pilot to step on the accelerator, and the entree bag will fly out of the exhaust pipe with a whoosh, just in time. Totally hot!
There is another heating method, but many troops do not like to use this method, which is to use a small "snack heater" issued by the Army. This is a heater that uses a catalyst, and when water is added, it generates enough heat to keep the "fast food" warm enough to enjoy. In polar regions, such heaters are widely used to warm frozen "fast food" meal packages. Because this kind of heater uses the catalytic effect of the catalyst to heat, it will not smoke or produce flames when used. However, the disadvantage is that this kind of heater will produce hydrogen during the catalytic process (which is very easy to explode). gas), at the same time, the catalyst is toxic, so it must be properly disposed of after use and cannot be discarded casually.
You may ask, what does this field "fast food" taste like? not bad. But the main course must be scooped out of the meal bag with a spoon, so if you are not careful, you may get it dirty (here is a good idea for you: tear the seal of the meal bag a little more, so that you won’t get it dirty). so dirty). But overall, this kind of field "fast food" is quite practical and convenient.
Generally speaking, it is difficult for the logistics supply system to handle this kind of "fast food". The leaves of "fast food" contain a lot of water, so not only are they heavy, but they are also quite large. Of course, they also produce a lot of waste. Since after eating "fast food", a lot of garbage is produced (the Army calls it "wet" garbage), so it is a good idea to use the original brown plastic bag of "fast food" to contain all the garbage. This "wet" waste is a big problem with "fast food" because the Army's current environmental policy is that no matter which land the troops are stationed on, they must care for it as their own land. This means that all rubbish must be taken away or buried in an approved dump site.
Despite all these problems, "fast food" remained the ideal field ration until the Army figured out how to make drinking water from the thin desert air. Since "fast food" does not require much water when eating, "fast food" will continue to be the best field meal for U.S. troops when they are fighting far from home.
This makes us have to talk about the future of "fast food" development. The Army's primary goal was to make field rations both pleasing to the troops and nutritious.
The current "fast food" can already achieve the second goal because they contain average nutrients, especially in terms of mineral content (in some areas, soldiers sweat a lot, and the absorption of minerals is very important. ), each "fast food" can replenish about 3,000 units of usable calories (if the entire portion is eaten completely), and each soldier can be assigned four "fast food" a day. What is surprising is that. Because each "fast food" contains too many calories. Therefore, although the combat tasks are heavy and the workload is heavy, the officers and soldiers of the troops fighting abroad actually gain weight. This is almost unheard of in military history.
But this still does not solve the problem of taste changes. In addition, due to the increasingly diverse composition of the military (since Muslims are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States, the Muslim population in the U.S. military is also increasing), there is an increasing need to produce products that can satisfy vegetarian diets. Field rations and "fast food" that meet the strict dietary requirements of soldiers and Muslims. In late 1993, the U.S. Army produced a new series of "fast food" - mainly vegetables, such as lentils and potatoes - and air-dropped them to Muslims in Bosnia as relief supplies. . At the same time, in order to cater to the increasingly popular tastes of Americans, the U.S. Army is also studying the introduction of some "fast" foods, such as burgers, and may also introduce Mexican tea or Chinese entrees.
But the most popular thing in the future (yes, you guessed it) may be the "fast food" with a slice of pizza inside. This "fast food" also has a special-shaped heater that can heat wet-packed pizza and melt the cheese on the pizza. This new line of "fast-food" snacks may be delivered to field troops in the next few years and should be very popular. However, an old cavalry sergeant who dined with us at Fort Bliss said that unless the supplier could figure out a way to put a bottle of self-freezing beer in the meal package, this pizza "fast food" would not be possible. It’s complete! One thing is for sure, though—the Army is spending a lot of money in the hope of making the U.S. Army the best-fed army in the world.
Rejoice, fellow gourmets!