![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
First up a picture of all of the contents, it included the brown multi use bag and a spoon, which are not pictured. I decided to make two meals out of this one, ending off the day with one meal and starting tomorrow with the other one, as I have a New years dinner to attend tomorrow. As this one is fairly out of date and I would rather not have food poisoning over New years, I may decide to omit things that look or smell.. iffy, if any presents itself. Personally I have my doubts about the nut mix and possibly the chicken. Though the seller mentioned he had tried one of every menu and said there was no problems.
This will be the meal for today..
Crackers, First Strike Bar, Toaster Pastry, Grape drink, Beef jerky, Bridgford Italian style sandwich, peanut butter and caffeine gum;
And here the meal is all laid out, a fairly decent late lunch or early dinner, however you want to look at it;
Time to dig in..
First thing is the Bridgford Sandwich, Shelf Stable, Italian style, Sausage, Pepperoni and Sauce in bread. It was quite dense, and gave off a lovely smell of spices. Breaking it in half revealed the filling, which all seemed and smelled OK. However, after just a few bites, I started to feel my mouth getting dry, and thusly had to gulp down most of the drink. This continued throughout the meal, and it felt like I needed a drink with more or less every bite taken of the sandwich and the First Strike Bar. I went through the Grape drink quite quickly, quite reminding me of Kool Aid, which I can only assume the mix is. Unfortunately it did not last nearly long enough for the full meal, so I had to bring in some water to quench the thirst the food gave.
The sandwich had quite a bit more smell to it than actual taste, though I could definitely taste something akin to.. tomato paste? Along with herbs. No problems chewing it down, beyond what is mentioned above. Personally I am a sucker for Bridgford sandwiches and desserts, and this was no exception. Perhaps a bit more seasoning could do, I do have the hot sauce provided but I will be saving that for the chicken. Quite inoffensive and was quick to go down. My only complaint is that it was extremely dry, or at least seemed to suck any moisture in my mouth right away. I would not be surprised if this is by design, to promote a higher water intake while in the field.
Moving onto the First Strike Bar, Cinnamon & Apple flavoured..
This one I had pretty high expectations for, as it is the first one I have ever tried. It did not disappoint, quite a bit of cinnamon flavoured with some apple in the background, a bit chewy but with crunchy bits inside. Not quite as chewy nor sticky as I would have thought from previous reviews I have seen, it was quite tasty and a light snack to have on the go, or just inbetween meals if you so choose. Quite reminded me of taffy or some similiar candy, and even though the cinnamon and apple taste was there, it was not a punch in the face of flavour, so again, quite inoffensive, but tasty!
Crackers came out in one piece, complete with a hiss, which surprised me. Unfortunately, US MRE crackers I have over eaten myself on at this point and have started disliking a bit more than liking. Peanut butter was smooth and creamy, just as the day it was packaged! ( I can only assume ). Though, this combo just added the need to drink liquids, as it dried out my mouth even more, both the dry cracker and peanut butter may have been a bad choice to go with this meal. Another drink package or two would have come well in hand to go with this.
Toaster pastry was your average Pop tart, frosted brown sugar flavour. Quite sweet, had not cracked at all, which surprised me given the age. Still tasted like it was made yesterday, nothing exceptional, but nothing I feel disappointed by.
And last, the beef jerky sticks. Quite tasty, not dry nor did it feel like anything had gone bad. Very oily, as the picture may be able to show. Quickly falling apart into very small pieces as I chewed on it, I did get some BBQ and teriyaki flavour from them, just as written. However, again, it was quite inoffensive, flavours weren't a punch in the face but rather lingered at the back, giving a more pure meat tasty almost. Not a bad thing by any stretch. Next up was the caffeine chewing gum, which I can only liken to the Hot Tamale candy, quite spicy, strong cinnamon flavour, nearly to the point of being unpleasant. I should mention Hot Tamales are not in my top 10 candy, so that is a bit of an shame. Would have preferred mint or some other flavour, as this ration is very heavy on the cinnamon flavours.
Overall, for my first, and probably last, stab at a FSR, the first meal did not disappoint. I wish there had been some more variety given that cinnamon was quite prominent in this first meal, and I would dare say the toaster pastry almost fell into that category too. While this is a 24 hour ration, I feel like it is designed to be eating as two meals, perhaps with a snack or two throughout the day, which seems quite the opposite to other 24 hour rations, where you have at least 3 proper meals, usually with a dessert for the dinner thrown in, along with various snacks, a lot of drinks and other minor things to keep you snacking on throughout the day. Though I have nothing to complain about, so far it has been a very solid meal, and I will report back tomorrow with what the rest of the ration offers. So far, so good! And delicious, of course.