1987 Chicken A La King (Menu No. 9)

[SentientTootsieRoll]

I was going through some of the pics I've taken of the old MREs I've had. I forgot about this one! This was one of the first brown bag MREs I've had since I was a kid when I went on eBay last year and found some for sale. The pictures you see were taken in August 2016. I still fondly remember the experience, so let's take a look!

Apologies for the awkward camera angles, I was still in the process of figuring all of this out at the time. High bandwidth users may also wish to click on the pictures since the thumbnails improperly rotated for some reason.

Let's list off what's in this ration:

- Chicken Ala King entree
- Fruitcake
- Cocoa beverage powder
- Cheese Spread ("Hurray, 30 year old cheese spread!", said no one ever)
- Crackers
- Beverage Base Powder Orange
- Accessory Packet A with:
- Coffee
- Creamer
- Sugar
- Salt
- Chewing Gum
- Matches
- Paper, Toilet

Let's have a look at the beverage powder.

Looks a little off, doesn't it? I mixed it with water and it still tasted great. It had a hard time dissolving.

{Guilty Confession Time}
While we're on the subject, I have a confession to make. For those of you who have seen these MREs, whether in person or in reviews, you might have noticed some of the drink mixes that have hardened into a block over time. Any normal person some semblance of sanity would've said "meh" and tossed it aside to be thrown away. I, on the other hand, have gone ahead and eaten that stuff directly. This didn't happen just once, but I've done it a few times. Despite what it looks like, I haven't gotten sick and it tasted great. And yes, I will happily do it again. There, I said it.
{/Guilty Confession Time}

*Ahem*, moving on...

When I initially opened the chicken ala king, I was expecting an unbearable smell of some kind given how old it is. Imagine my surprise when it actually smelled passable. And as the story always goes, upon eating a small bit, I was left with a nasty, sour and bitter taste in my mouth. Pass. I can't tell you I was surprised. The crackers made up for all of it. I can't really describe it, but they were on point with the crackers during this generation of MREs. They taste so natural and fresh I'd give about anything for them to produce them like this today. The fruitcake was also pretty desirable. While it did appear the nuts had gone bad since they were dark, I still ate it and tasted fine. I really wish they still produced that item as well. Luckily, the Australian CR1M has something very similar in their current production rations at this time of writing. While not shown in the pictures, I had the cocoa and that tasted great as well.

The coffee and sugar were still good. The creamer had chunked up into a block. I did take a small bite but it was pretty sour so I ended up tossing that out. The gum was a little hard at first, but after that it was fine. Overall, I had a lot of fun with this one!

[steve1989]

Hey Sentient!

What a rite of passage - Chicken Ala Thing. Nicely done man. A brave venture! Your palate is strong - well on your way to iron stomach status. Too bad Ala Thing was a no go, though. It's always the same any time I've taken a crack at that menu though. Was it ever good? We might know someday.

Those CR1M fruit cakes are the closest thing to the old MRE nut cakes, you're right! I love those things - the nutmeg & clove really give them such a decent flavor.

[alohakid]

SentientTootsieRoll - If you don't mind me asking, do you recall how much you paid for that MRE? Thanks for the share.

mahalo