Some pictures where we started. Back in the days - 200 years ago - these woods were in the ownership of a noble, but today anyone can visit the region. We had ... I had a strict plan where to go to, but naturally we took a left turn instead of a right one and this mistake was worth it.
It is not much, but I never saw this little chapel thing before. The text talks about the origins of the chapel, which was built in 1880 by countess Emma Róza Batthyány. It was built for the memory of a shepherd who was bitten by a snake and did not survived it.
Beside the chapel there was a bell, which was destroyed during World War II and never rebuilt. The writing also says that since then the chapel was renovated a couple time, the last time was 2006.
Somehow my girlfriend found these mushrooms fascinating, she is more artistic than I am, so I post her picture of them. The more interesting thing is the second picture with the stick figure.
These woods are not just a simple woods, but there is a path within the area which has a challenge. The task here is to lean on the wooden bench and turn your torso 5, 10 or 20 times (depending on your how fit you are). The path has around 20 stages each with different task.
The ration
The ration of the day was an US First Strike Ration, Menu 9 in specific. I have chosen this ration because it had a tear on the outer bag (no pictures about that).
Content of the ration: Sandwich, Italian; chicken garlic herb; caffeinated chocolate pudding; spread soup mix cheddar potato bacon; filled cinnamon bun; tortillas; cracker; FSR chocolate; raisins; snack, corn kernels; diary shake vanilla; beverage (1); beef snack: teriyaki and BBQ; caffeine mints; re-closeable bag; spoon; accessory pack B.
Actually this was a very heavy ration full packed with yummy goodness. I was very skeptic regarding this ration as basically there is not hot meal in the bag and I could not see how the soldiers could get full just with sandwich elements. At the end I was surprised.
The first stop
We had several stops during the walk, just to enjoy the scenery, to watch the landscape, to hear the birds and the sounds of the wilderness. But after an hour or so we had our first "real" stop and tried out the first elements.
As you can see on our first stop we had six elements from the ration: diary shake vanilla; snack, corn kernels; filled cinnamon bun; beef snack: teriyaki and BBQ; sandwich, Italian; FSR chocolate. Here is our review in details:
The sandwich was OK. It was not the best thing in the whole ration, but I see myself eating this a second time. The bread had a good consistency, it was soft to the touch and had some springiness. The filling to bread ratio was good, I enjoyed the whole sandwich.
It was a little spicy because of the pepperoni it had, but I was missing the flavor of the cheese. The ingredients list contained some powdered mozzarella, but it was nowhere to be found.
The second item was a First Strike energy bar. It was smaller then I remembered and actually it is. I do not know why they have reduced the size of the bar, maybe it is too good.
Nevertheless I enjoyed the bar very much. The flavor is not so sweet, just good for my taste, but it is very chocolaty and I could not taste the dried fruit in there. The rice crisps are a very good idea for the texture, but because of the texture it stuck in our teeth.
The first surprise came when I saw the pack of beef jerky. It had a white decal on it and I cannot answer the question of why. I tried to peel it is but it stuck there very good so I did not bothered with it.
I had the jerky just for myself, because my girlfriend said after the first bite that they taste like old socks. I do not know where she tasted old socks, but it is not my business.
I liked the jerky very much, in fact my biggest concern with them is that they could have packaged more into the ration. There were two types of jerky - teriyaki and BBQ - but to be honest I did not felt the difference. They were good, but almost the same for me and when you check the ingredients list you wonder where are spices and herbs they used for them.
I found the texture very good and as far as I can judge, the BBQ one was a little softer.
The cinnamon bun was a little let down. It tasted very artificial, I did not enjoyed it very much. There was the cinnamon, but it was not that good.
I liked the bread, it was soft to the touch, but the bread to filling ratio was unfulfilling too. This is one of the weakest points of the ration to be honest. Nevertheless the diary shake helped him a little, which is our next item.
I never quiet understood how this diary shake thing happens, but it was very good. The pouch was almost full with some white substance which dissolved remarkably.
The aroma was very good, very vanilla like and it tasted astonishing! One of the best features of the whole ration. You need this with the cinnamon bun, because it goes were well with the bun.
But the best thing was the texture. Velvety, creamy, heavenly smooth.
Our first stop ended with the toasted corn kernels. I expected nothing from them and I got nothing from them.
They were fresh and crunchy, but too salty and beside the salt I felt nothing else. Actually it was that salty that I almost drank all of our water reserves and in the woods there was no possibility to refill our bottles. Because of the salt content, I would leave this item out of the ration.
Second stop
So we walked forward and my girlfriend made some more artistic pictures. I do not know what sort of plant that green thing is, but it looked very funny. It was very light when I touched it, maybe it was hollow. Nevertheless after an hour we found our second stop.
It was actually very impressive. The shelter was so big that a whole elementary school class would have room in there. We found some football (soccer for our US friends) goalposts, but the grass was very dingy. But this was a very beautiful scenery, I wonder why we did not made more pictures.
On our second stop we ate the rest of the ration: Chicken garlic herb; caffeinated chocolate pudding; spread soup mix cheddar potato bacon; tortillas; cracker; raisins; beverage (1); caffeine mints.
At this stop I opened up the accessory pack which had: a toilet paper; 3x moist towelette (when the picture was taken, we already used two of them); some matches; iodized salt; gum and a beverage base.
The First Strike Rations do not have no Flameless Heaters, but some menus have items in there which could use some heating up. The chicken breast is such an item and it causes no harm to heat up the tortilla too.
As the "main entrée" was that small I could fit both the chicken breast and the tortilla into the green pouch. Then some water and the fireworks started. While the elements heated up, we tried the other stuff.
The texture of the raisins were very soft, chewy which I very like (but only when eating the raisins on their own, I do not like them in dessert or other food). It had no seeds, such a pleasant surprise!
Tasting them was a little underwhelming: they are just raisins. A little on the sour side, they added some sugar to the pouch but I did not felt it. A very simple yet tasty treat.
I never had this kind of pudding before. The classic vanilla flavored, shake like hell type of pudding is my favorite kind of dessert in the whole MRE world, so I expected much from this item.
The first thing I noticed was that I hate the packaging. It has a little nipple to chew on, but for me a main entrée type pouch would be better and eat the pudding with a spoon. Beside that I have no other objections with the dessert: a very smooth texture, milk chocolate flavor and it was very milky. It was good on its own, but was better with the crackers.
The crackers are in this ration the standard MRE crackers, just the design was new for me. When I opened the pouch I heard the hiss and this is the only thing I can report about them. They were a little stale, but nothing to worry about and had a very natural flavor (no flavor at all) so it gone well with the condiments: the pudding and a cheese spread.
The cheese spread came with this white decal too, I cannot explain it. I hoped for a great experience regarding the spread, because I heard good thing about the bacon version. When trying the spread on its own it taste bad, I mean not my cup of tee. Very potato like, has no cheese flavor in it and the bacon bits are adding nothing to the party. There was the possibility to make a soup out of the spread by adding to it three ounces of water. Next time I will try that.
I really enjoyed the mint pills. You can see here four pieces, but in fact there are five pastilles. Yes, I ate one before making the picture.
They have a gentle menthol taste, it was very refreshing after all the items in the package. It is not a hard candy but very though to chew on and it had no filling.
I hate the tropical punch flavor. Is it a flavor at all? It is very sweet, too sweet to be honest, it tastes very artificial and smells like marzipan. I drank it because I am a though guy, but I did not enjoyed it. The only good thing I can say about the powder is that I dissolved very fast and without any lumps.
Somehow my girlfriend had to make a picture from all the stages of the preparation of the main meal, so here you can see all six phases.
The chicken breast was not that big, but it was enough for two tortillas. It was juicy, very moist, but the flavoring could be better. I could not taste the spices and herbs added to the chicken, it felt just salty and the main reason for that was the meat juice.
I could shred the meat very easily and mix it with the juices. As already said it was enough for the two tortillas - one for my girlfriend and one for myself. Yes, I choose the purple platter, so manly!
We also saved some of the cheese spread for the tortillas, but unfortunately they added nothing to the meal.
Nevertheless the main meal was great! I enjoyed it very much, even thou the tortillas had some sour smell to them and brought not much flavor to the scene.
Final thoughts
PRO:
+ The diary shake vanilla was the best thing in the ration.
+ I really like concept of these tortillas in the US rations. This one was very good too.
+ I liked the variety of the whole package. A little from this, a little from that and the end result was very promising.
CON:
- The corn kernels. Too salty and I drank too much water after I ate it. Could be a problem on the battlefield.
- No FRH. Both the chicken and tortillas needed some heat, and I think, because there is no heater there is no coffee. I missed the coffee too.
- I did not liked the packaging at all. Too bulky.
My girlfriend and I had a great experience in the woods and the ration tasted more or less good. Next time I will try out menu 4 or menu 6, they have the wraps in them. I am eager to taste them.
the other was wonderful
