The MRE as received:
As you can see, this meal was packed by SOPAKCO.
The ingredients:
In case you can't read the smaller items, the full list includes the Lamb and Barley Stew entree, Chocolate Pudding dessert, grape drink, pretzels, raisins, peanuts, and ginger snap cookies, plus an FRH and abbreviated acc pack. As you can see, the snacks items are packaged in shiny mylar, not drab. The acc pack was a bit strange, too. It had a spoon, wet wipe, matches, salt, pepper, two packs of sugar, a paper napkin and a roll of Toilet paper. No coffee or tea to match with the sugar.
The entree is dated 4051 (Feb 20, 2014) and the pudding is 4048.
On to the eating.
I elected to save the FRH for future use, as well as the snack items and pudding. I heated the entree in boiling water for a few minutes. The stew smelled delicious when I opened the pouch. I could clearly see the carrots, corn, potato cubes, and barley in the rich-looking tomato-based sauce. Four or five large chunks of real meat were also apparent. We added nothing at all to it, to get an "as issued" assessment.
My wife had the first bite. She said it reminded her a lot of her Italian meat and pasta stews. She found it tasty but a bit bland. "Kid friendly" is how she described it. My sensations were that the barley and vegetables were firm, not mushy. The sauce had a silky mouth feel, quite satisfying. I would be hard pressed to positively identify the meat as lamb if I hadn't been told because it was extremely mild with absolutely no "muttony" or gamey flavor. I was impressed to find as many large chunks of lamb as were there.
Note size and texture of this genuine lamb chunk. I scarfed down every bit of it. Bottom line? Delicious. If I ever have it again (Please PLEASE, NATICK, make this a regular MRE offering!) I'd add a dribble of hot sauce just to accentuate the rich tomato sauce. That's all this entree might need.
I'll do a sequel review of the chocolate pudding when I have that.
