As I said, the foil bag contained three separate boxes, enough to feed a person for one day.
First off the "breakfast" box contained a semi-sweet chocolate bar, some fruit candy, a small packet of cream crackers, instant coffee, and a tube of sweetened condensed milk. It also had a folding solid fuel stove, solid fuel tablets, three different packets of what I'm guessing are water purification tablets, which apparently are to be used in a certain order (I can't read the instructions), toothpicks, a spatula, matches, and what I found most interesting, 3 little disposable toothbrushes, pre-applied with powdered toothpaste, each about the size of those disposable dental floss things popular in the states. I was sort of surprised at how little actual "food" was contained in the breakfast box, (basically the crackers, coffee and milk), but a friend of mine in the Italian Army described to me the "perfect breakfast": A cappucino and one croissant. "All that other stuff in the (American) mess hall? Ham? Eggs? Pfft! Too much! A cappucino and a croissant -- perfect!"
Not much to review here. The crackers were slightly sweet, the condensed milk was brown in color, in a toothpaste-sized tube, and of course I used it as a spread instead of actually making milk with it. The fruit candies were dark brown with lots of crystallized sugar, sort of like Mexican candy but not as chewy.
The "Lunch" box (or dinner box, they're interchangeable I suppose) contained flatware, "Tortellini al Ragu", "Wurstel in Liquido Governo", fruit cocktail, some multivitamins, instant coffee and more mystery tablets.
The tortellini surprisingly tasted almost exactly like the US MRE cheese tortellini. I thought being actual Italian food from Italy, it would be a lot different from "Americanized" tortellini, but it's the same. The "Wurstel" were little cocktail hotdogs in a salty broth, like vienna sausages. The crackers were kinda hard, but solid. I haven't opened the fruit cocktail yet.
The "Dinner" (or lunch) box contained "Insalata di Riso" (white rice) and "Tacchino in Gelatina" (turkey in gelatin, not as gross as it sounds), crackers, an energy bar, coffee, and sugar. The rice was nice and moist, being that it was canned and in water unlike foil bagged rice which tends to be dry unless you heat it up. The turkey was really good, I thought it was beef, like pot roast until I looked up the definition of "tacchino". Very tasty. The gelatin it was in was not unlike the "protective gelatin coating" of Spam, hehe. I did not enjoy the energy bar, however. It was like dried up unsweetened fruitcake -- soft, chewy, and somewhat crumbly. Still better than the US "Hooah!" bar. Ugh.
Well that's it. I also had the "Modulo A" (Menu A) which contained for lunch and dinner minestrone & tuna (minestrone very much like US MRE minestrone, and the tuna was in lots of olive oil); and pasta alfredo & beef in lots of gelatin.
Hope you enjoyed the review. I'll try to answer any questions you folks may have, if any. Next time I'll go over the contents of the Australian rations!
or five...
