This is Meal No 1 "Chinese Style Beef Macaroni"
Now, this sounds odd to me as a US West Coaster (born and raised in California and living in Washington for nearly 25 years). I was expecting something like Chow Mein, but that turned out to be a bad guess. Another poster commented that "Chinese Beef Macaroni" is a dish popular in Quebec.
As usual, the meal is packed in the foil-lined paper sack with the two main dishes on the outside to protect the smaller items between them.
Below the components are laid out (spoon, napkin and salt packet not shown)
Entree: Chinese Style Beef Macaroni (boxed retort pouch)
Dessert: Pear Slices (boxed retort pouch)
Ritz Snackwiches with Real Cheese (commercial pack of crackers with cheese)
Kellogg's All-Bran bars, Honey and Sesame flavor
Lipton Instant Soup packet, Root Vegetable flavor
Passion Fruit Sports Drink packet
Soy Sauce (2 packets)
Instant Coffee (2 packets)
Sugar (2 packets)
Coffee Colorant (2 packets, "creamer")
Werthers Original Coffee flavor sugar free hard candy
Salt & Pepper
Matches
Moist Towelette
Gum (cinnamon flavor)
Toothpick
Spoon
Paper napkin/towel
Entree: Chinese Style Beef Macaroni. Date code: 10230. Baxters brand
As you can see below, this was FAR from Beef Chow Mein! There is a large amount of ground beef with macaroni noodles and a very few bits of vegetable (maybe celery and red peppers of some type)? It smelled and looked fine both before and after heating. The flavor and appearance were both fairly bland and it did not really have a "chinese" taste to me. Great if you like "grey" food. I added some soy sauce (most of one packet which was a little too much) and it was better. I actually enjoyed it despite the plain-ness and I ate it all. Would have probably worked well with some pepper sauce.
Passion Fruit drink:
The drink powder mixed well using some hot water and then cold. Tasted like cool aide type drink. Passion fruit not a favorite flavor for me, but there was certainly nothing really wrong with this drink.
Ritz Snackwiches with Real Cheese. Dated 2011
On opening the package, there was an instant smell of corruption. Very unpleasant smell of rancid fats. I tasted a tiny bite and it was not only stale but had a metallic, bitter tang. I had to spit it out. I even threw away in the kitchen instead of by my desk because the odor was so strong.
Kellogg's All-Bran Bars, Honey Sesame Flavor. Date Code: 09150
Seems to have held up pretty well, especially considering it was likely the oldest item in the meal. Just a little stale, but no off flavors. Would have been fine to eat, I think, but I wasn't looking to inject bran into my diet today, so I ate only a couple of bites.
Below is one of the evil Ritz crackers and the All-Bran bars
Sliced Peaches Date Code: 10196. Baxters brand
A little more brown than yellow. Smelled OK. Very floppy or limp, but had a little bit of "bite" still. I'm not a fan of peaches, so I only tried one bite. Probably OK to eat still if you like peaches. Sorry, no photo.
Werthers Original No Sugar Added Coffee flavor.
Seemed a little smaller than regular Werthers candies. It was still hard and not sticky or gummy at all. Had a medium strong coffee flavor. Nice.
Cinnamon Gum
Seemed fresh as new. Not at all hard. Not too strongly cinnamon. The flavor did fade very quickly, though.
Instant Coffee, Sugar, Colorant
I made myself a late-afternoon cup of Instant Coffee. No issues with the very fine powder. Everything mixed up well and it was an OK cup of boring instant coffee.
I did not try the Lipton Soup, matches, towelette or paper napkin. Sorry guys.
Summary: looks like the commercial crackers were the only inedible item. The All-Bran and Peachers probably don't have much longer to live. But everything else was in pretty good shape and worked well for lunch. I look forward to eating the other meals soon, too. Except for the Salmon with Tuscany Sauce. Sorry, but that just sounds nasty.
Rob
