French RCIR Menu 5

[oktoberskyline]

So, I got pictures of this RCIR this time. I ordered the last one that Wats6831 had up for sale last week, even thought it wasn't the one from the top of my list, its still a rare ration to get a chance to try. This one had the following things:

Beef Tortellini main dish
Oriental Salad
can of tuna
fish soup powder
chocolate muesli
Jelly fruit bar
vanilla commando bar
fruit nougat bar
64% dark chocolate bar
caramel semolina cake
a box of biscuits 4 packs sweet/4 packs salty
1 coca mix
2 coffee
2 tea (one black, one jasmine)
2 sugar
2 salt/2 pepper
1 plum jam
6 water purifying tablets
1 iso-tonic sports drink mix
trash bag
a folded spork
collapsible Esbit cook stove w/6 cook tablets and matches
tissues

I was excited to get started with this thing, having seen Steve1989's video on this, it was treat to get ahold of one. I built the stove up, lit the fuel tab, and popped the can of tortellini and let it heat. In the mean time, I sat down and decided to try the different bars, starting with the Barre Commando; It seemed like a dense yet flavorful nougat, but it wasn't my favorite. The favorite bar of mine was actually the Pate de Fruits, or jelly fruit, raspberry flavored; that was one of the better things in this ration, bursting with very natural tasting and enjoyable, would love to have another one these. The fruit nougat bar on the other hand was something that I couldn't even finish, it didn't tickle my palate. About this time, I figured the pasta was done since the fuel tablet had burned out, I popped the lid, unfolded the spork, and chowed down. The tortellini itself wasn't bad, it actually was fairly meaty, but there was something off about the sauce. Maybe its just that I'm more used to an Italian style sauce, but this one had a funny flavor I'm not used to, but I did finish it. I popped the top on the tuna and dug in, the cat once again decided he wanted to chow down as well, so I shared it with him. After the tuna, I moved on to the Iso-tonic drink and semolina cake, which had just sort of turned more to a mush then a cake, tasted pretty good actually, the drink tasted like a medicine, and I think that if it had more flavor it would have been better. I didn't eat the chocolate bar, I instead shared it with a friend, she enjoyed it very much and said it was smooth.

The next morning I made the muesli and ate it with some of the sweet biscuits. The muesli was very good, flax seed and chocolate chips galore, plus it had a very nice dry milk that reconstituted smoothly. The biscuits were pretty good too, it was surprise to have the individual packs with 2 crackers each. 4 packs salty and 4 packs sweet. I tried the salty ones too, they aren't good alone, but I'm sure they would be good with other parts of the meal. I have yet to try the oriental salad, fish soup, tea, and coca. I already know I don't like plums, so the jam is out. I have no use for the purifying tabs, but we all already know what they do and sugar is, well sugar, it tastes good.

[elandil]

good review, great job on the pics. Look forward to seeing more.

[sourwes]

Nice review! Other than the Russian IRPs and Canadian IMPs, the French RCIR are definitely in my list of top 3 rations. The RCIR have a better assortment of mains than most, but the extras are almost all the same. Otherwise they would be my number 1. They are a little pricey though...

[wats6831]

Thanks for the post octoberskyline. Nicely done.

[oktoberskyline]

So, a bit of an update, I bought another RCIR Menu 5 that expires in 2019 and there were some differences in it. I truly enjoyed the differences thought, the biggest thing being the strawberry jam, that was delicious really, very strong and enjoyable flavor. The next thing that was different was a desert that translated as milk rice, it tasted and seemed like sweet milk in rice, the texture was strange because of the light sweet milk and grainy rice. A last and tasty addition to the kit was the box of biscuits. You not only get the salted and cereal, but a new addition of cocoa biscuits. You get 3 cocoa, 2 cereal, and 3 salted, and man are the cocoa are full of chocolate flavor, the strawberry jam went well on them. All in all, they were some nice surprises and I've also included a picture of the tortellini after its been cooked.

[parafireboy]

Great review and pics, thanks for sharing!

[wats6831]

So, a bit of an update, I bought another RCIR Menu 5 that expires in 2019 and there were some differences in it. I truly enjoyed the differences thought, the biggest thing being the strawberry jam, that was delicious really, very strong and enjoyable flavor. The next thing that was different was a desert that translated as milk rice, it tasted and seemed like sweet milk in rice, the texture was strange because of the light sweet milk and grainy rice. A last and tasty addition to the kit was the box of biscuits. You not only get the salted and cereal, but a new addition of cocoa biscuits. You get 3 cocoa, 2 cereal, and 3 salted, and man are the cocoa are full of chocolate flavor, the strawberry jam went well on them. All in all, they were some nice surprises and I've also included a picture of the tortellini after its been cooked.

I just tried some of those biscuits this past weekend. I have to say I was very impressed. They have a great flavor (I didn't try the salted), they are study for dipping in coffee or tea, and packaged well, NONE were broken. Pretty amazing. I wish we had biscuits/crackers like this in the US.

[SD_Jeff]

The chocolate biscuits are very nice, sweet and chocolate-y. Big surprise to me is that the other biscuit types are also sweet. In fact I don't taste anything but the sweetness.

I totally love the pate de fruits bars, those are SO good ! I also enjoy the other bars, "commando barre" and nougat bars. Love them to death.

That fish soup is really unique and not for the "I'm not fond of fish" types. Strong fishy smell but makes a decent cup of soup. I prefer the leek soup myself, major yummy on that one.

[alohakid]

Yet another great hunger inducing review... many thanks oktoberskyline!

mahalo

[drcynic22]

Really good review! I've gotta admit that the French RCIR is on top of my list of rations I'd love to try.