Sunday, April 25, 2010

Veggie cheese omelet MRE review

I bought an omelet MRE at the local military surplus store.  I wanted to test it out to see if I can stand eating this for two weeks straight after The Big One (earthquake) finally hits California.  It cost $7.


First, I don't think what I got is exactly what American soldiers eat.  I've seen military MREs sold on Ebay and they are not packaged like this.  The bag I got was thick and bulky.


I opened the bag and it came with all of this.  Going sort of clockwise from the top left, we have the MRE heater, a spoon, the hot beverage bag, matches (green), napkins (below matches), moist towelette, crackers, blackberry jam, spiced cider, shredded potatoes with bacon, two pieces of gum, Tabasco (with all of its content leaked/evaporated already), beverage base- raspberry, salt, egg omelet with vegetables and cheese, cinnamon scone, and toaster pastry.  That's a lot of packaging for just one meal.  Thank goodness I didn't eat this on Earth Day.


Here are the pastries.  The crackers and jam were fine.  The crackers were huge.  The toaster pastry is essentially a Pop Tart, and that tasted normal too.  The cinnamon scone was surprisingly decent.  It was a bit chalky and you had to ignore the indentation left by the desiccation packet.  I've certainly had worse pastries from Safeway.

Now on to the main course.  The MRE heater generated a lot of heat, but not much of it was transferred onto the two packets (omelet and potatoes).  I suspect it's because all other MREs only contain one packet of food to heat instead of two.  I had to re-heat my food in the microwave to make it a little more palatable.  I also added my own Tabasco and ketchup.  This is what the entree looked like, pre-sauced.

The omelet is the orange blob on the top of the picture.

Are you grossed out yet?  The omelet had the consistency of a snorkel mouthguard.  The only taste was a hint of processed American cheese.  I did not taste eggs or "veggies".  The potatoes were edible.  They tasted wet.

I don't think I am going to put MREs in my earthquake emergency kit.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

that is a military MRE. looks like an older one, as the newer one doesnt have the side item.

the omlet one is the WORST. i made the mistake of eating one today. im still tasting the cardboard and drywall paste "flavor" of it, 6 hours later.

get a veggie burger or chicken dumplings MRE. they are friggin good!

-from a active duty soldier

Anonymous said...

Nope, that is the exact same MRE that is still being provided to us in the U.S. Army. It is trult indeed the worst "main course" one can try to eat. The hashbrowns and the other side items are all that people will eat out of that package. As a matter of fact, we have often had eating contests using this particular combo just for it's gross factor.