Polish S-RG-5 Ongoing thread

[Rahzmataz]

This is my second ever ration, the first being a delicious British 24 hour ORP. I've decided to try to document this one a little better, so with that in mind, here we go!

First off, some pictures:






The ration contains around 3800 calories and comes in a pretty heavy duty plastic package. Mine turned up with a couple of small holes in it, but the ration seems okay.

The bag is packed pretty full. There's a contents list is as follows:

Poultry Stew (300g tin)
Meatballs in Vegetable Sauce (300g tin)
Bacon (100g tin)
Chicken & Pork Luncheon Meat (100g tin)
Rye Crispbread (2 packs)
Rusks (2 packs)
Freeze Dried Fruit Mix
Apricot Cereal Bar
Dark Chocolate (100g bar)
Honey
Blackcurrant Jam
Drink mixes (2 Lemon, 2 Blackcurrant, 1 Lime and Green Tea)
Instant Coffee x2
Sugar (10g pack)
Salt x2
Pepper x2
Chewing Gum x6
Coffee Candy x3
Vitamin C Candy x3
Wet wipes x3
Cutlery set x3 (Knife, Fork, Spoon, Teaspoon, Napkin)
Esbit stove (12 Fuel Tabs)
Box of Matches
Windproof Matches x3
Rubbish Bag
Ziplock Bag x2
Disposable Cups x4
Water Purification Tabs x4

The chocolate had clearly melted and solidified, so I opened it to check and taste, and it was FANTASTIC. Dark chocolate, but not bitter atall, very easy to eat. I ended up putting it in a ziplock. I also had myself a small snack, going with the Cereal Bar and the Lime and Green Tea drink. The Cereal bar (which I forgot to get a picture of) had a VERY strong Apricot taste, and left me a little thirsty, but it felt filling and... Hearty, I suppose? I'm generally not a fan of fruit tea type drinks, but honestly this one was great. Nicely sharp, but smooth and easy to drink.

As I get through bits of the ration, i'll make sure I get pictures, and update the thread.

[Rahzmataz]

It's breakfast time here in the UK, so I set up the stove and grabbed Meal A from the bag. I've never used an esbit stove before so I didn't know what to expect, but I was impressed by how quickly it got the can (Poultry stew) going. Turns out the fuel tabs smell a bit weird when they're going, a little like fish. Oh well!

My breakfast (which i'm eating as I write this) consists of:
Poultry Stew
Bacon
Crispbread
Honey
Forest Fruits drink

The Poultry stew is pretty nice. It's comforting in that weird way that stews are. Seems a little underseasoned, but I can forgive that, the ration comes with salt & pepper. Decent size chunks of meat too. I wouldn't mind if they added chunks of potato, though.
The Bacon has a kinda spam-like texture. It's nicely smokey. I ended up mixing it in with the stew, which seemed to work nicely.
The Crispbread is very dry, as expected, but I don't really feel like there are enough options to make it tastier. I'm saving the Jam for the other Crispbread, so all I have is the Honey, which is delicious but you just don't get enough. I think 2 of each would be better, and it'd be a very minor weight increase.
I made up the drink with hot water, but honestly it tastes like it'd be great cold too. Very inviting smell, and a nice fruity flavour. I wouldn't say it necessarily goes with the stew, but it's good all the same.

All in all, this breakfast was okay. Nothing special, but decent food. I imagine if it was a cold morning, that stew would taste like ambrosia. I'm not sure how well it all goes together, but each individual bit was decent. I'll probably try the lunch in the next couple of days.

[Delicious]

Thanks for the review. There is something wrong with the pictures you added - they are not displayed

[Rahzmataz]

Damn, it must be to do with where i'm hosting them. I'll move them somewhere else and change the links, hopefully that'll fix it. Cheers for the heads up!

Edit: Okay, should be fixed. Sorry they're so absurdly large!

[carlosflar]

I had a couple of these short ago! they taste delicious i traded them for some spanish ones and i'm super happy with that XD Also, this is something a lot of rations could learn from, putting the honey, jam, and little satchets that often break inside plastic bags, that way you have a double layer of protection... Also try the tea granules by themselves, they make for a nice refreshing sweet

[carlosflar]

i like the absurdly large images
you can see everything pretty clearly...
The only thing bad about this ration in my opinion, are the crackers... you have on one side, the small and hard crckers that are amazing but the other crispy and flufffy ones...

[Rahzmataz]

I totally agree about packing the jam and honey in extra little bags, great way to avoid a huge mess if they burst.
Haven't tried the tea granules by themselves, but I think I might do that next time around. I imagine they're quite strong?
Ah yeah, the crackers. The smaller ones, the rusks, are great. I found myself happily working through them with a cup of tea while I was working. The others, though... They're so dry! They don't really taste of all that much, and they get stuck in your teeth. They worked well with the honey, but there just wasn't enough.

[Rahzmataz]

Right, to finish off this ration, let's talk dinner. On this menu, my dinner was Meatballs in Vegetable Sauce. I used the Luncheon Meat and Jam with the other Rye Crispbreads too.

Again the stove performed brilliantly, food came out hot but not burnt to the bottom of the can.

The meatballs were decent, not amazing and a little lacking in texture, but they tasted great. The vegetable sauce, on the other hand, was FANTASTIC. Really flavourful, well seasoned, thick, and warming. It tasted of root vegetables in general, and had bits of carrot and onion in it. It was seriously delicious, one of the better things i've ever eaten from a ration. You get 4 meatballs in the can, so it's not a bad helping really.

The jam was largely as you expect jam to be - Absolutely packed with flavour, really enjoyed it. Certainly gave some flavour to the crispbread, as did the luncheon meat. It was pretty salty, but hearty. If I was really hungry, i'd have jumped at the chance to eat that. I washed it all down with some Blackcurrant tea, which I tried making cold this time. It's better hot, but it was nice all the same.

After dinner I tried out the last few bits of the ration - Freeze dried fruit is one of those things i've never been overly fond of, but this was alright. The smell when I opened it was really inviting, and it tasted great. Nice little addition, and very light. The Vitamin C candy was delicious, very strong vit C flavour, but not sour. Very nice, i'm glad i've got a couple more. The coffee candy has a nice rich coffee flavour to it, I wouldn't say it was bitter either. I'm not sure if it'd replace your morning cup, but if you're on the move and craving coffee it'd be a godsend.

I'll put some pictures in the attachments, then i'll probably do one more post later with my final thoughts.

[Rahzmataz]

Okay, so this is a bit of a wrap-up and final thoughts. Let's start with...

The good:
The esbit stove was sturdy and worked great, i'm definitely gonna keep it.
The drinks, either hot or cold, were really tasty.
The food was, generally, pretty nice. Filling, comforting, and hearty.
Plenty of cutlery and disposable cups included, nice touch.
The dark chocolate was great, not bitter atall.

The bad:
The rye crispbreads were SO DRY, and there wasn't really enough stuff to put on them. I actually still have a pack, and I might try them with random condiments and see.
The outer pack could've used a carry handle maybe, or a resealing strip.
Not enough jam or honey, 2 of each would be way better.
I wouldn't have minded an isotonic drink of some sort.

Overall, it was a good ration. Food was tasty and pretty filling, the drinks were good hot or cold, and they give you plenty of cutlery, napkins, etc. I'm not a big fan of the tins over pouches to hold the food, but that's just me. All-in-all, not bad, Poland. Not too bad at all.