This MRE was from an Ameriqual case A packed in June of 2005. Check out how these are packed in the case - they have them all turned around from how they used to pack them:
2005 Case A - How they're packed
At least for this MRE Ameriqual has started printing their MRE labels in what I call "the right way" - with a single design and not that repeating pattern design they've been using for years.
Menu 6 - Chicken Fajita
On some of the 2004 MREs I had last, they had this giant datecode printed on the back of the MRE bags. I thought that was pretty handy for figuring out how old a case-less MRE is. But I didn't see that stamp on this bag. I looked all over and finally found a stamped datecode - but it was stamped right on the crease where the bag was sealed.
Date stamp on edge of seal (click on picture to zoom in and you'll see it)
Once I opened it up, I saw the now-famous bag-within-a-bag (from now on called a 'baggie'). It's kind of interesting how they have everything but the main entree in that baggie.
Contents - main entree and everything else in a plastic baggie
The plastic baggie
The baggie even has its own datecode.
Date stamp on the outside of baggie
And here are the contents of the baggie. As far as MREs go, I wasn't looking too forward to this one. The chicken fajita part looked interesting but there weren't any crackers or wheat bread and no dessert. And no, I don't count "Nut Raisin Mix" as anything close to a dessert.
Contents of the baggie
Check out the gum in the accessory pack - they smashed it nice and flat. I don't know if that happened as a result of the new way they're packing the MREs or if it was just an accident.
Accessory pack - check out the smashed gum
This MREs is screaming out for three FRHs. That's right...three of them. One for the entree, one for the rice and cheese spread, and one for the hot beverage bag so I can have my French Vanilla Capuccino. But alas...I only had one. So I put the entree in the FRH, stuffed it back into the entree box, and then did my best to stuff the rice and cheese spread in there, too. Hint to anyone trying this - stuff that rice down real far into the box. I didn't stuff it far enough down and only half the rice got hot.
Heating the entree...and the rice and the cheese
Here are the tortillas. They looked/smelled/tasted just like the kind you can get at the grocery store.
The tortillas (only 2 included)
The rice was about as exciting as it looked. It was really begging for some tobasco sauce (that wasn't included). I tried some of the salt-free seasoning blend and that made it a little better.
Yellow and Wild Rice Pilaf
And here's the chicken fajita filling. There were nice big chunks of chicken and little bits of red and maybe green peppers. I don't know what it is about MRE meat, but no matter how good it smells and tastes, it always looks like every other bit of MRE mystery meat.
Chicken Fajita Filling
I decided to try making some fajitas. So I laid out a tortilla, scooped some chicken filling on there, squited on some mostly-hot cheese, and took a bite. It tasted pretty good but after one bite, chicken filling and cheese started dripping out everywhere. The tortillas just aren't big enough to make a nice burrito-like enclosure where you can take a bite and everything stays in the tortilla. Try as I might, for every bite I got in my mouth, an equal amount squirted out the back end of the tortilla. After a few bites I gave up.
That's when I said "screw it". I dumped the rest of the cheese and rice and seasoning blend into the chicking fajita filling and stirred it all up until it was a nice gooey mess:
Screw the fajitas, just mix it all together
Then I alternated between eating a spoonful and putting a spoonful on a folded over tortilla and taking a bite. That worked out pretty good.
I think a more accurate name for this MRE would be "Chicken Fajita Parts" because you're gonna have trouble making actual fajitas out of this stuff. But eating the separate parts and mixing them together worked out pretty well.
If they had just thrown in some real dessert and some crackers or wheat snack bread, I would have rated this MRE 8 out of 10. As it is, I'd have to say it's about a 6.
