Day 6: Friday dinner: #18 - Cajun Rice with Beans and Sausage
Here's another MRE that I haven't tried before. And also another MRE playing the name game. While the MRE bag is titled "Cajun Rice w/Beans and Sausage", the entree is titled, "Rice with Beans and Cajun Style Sausage". And here I was thinking was I was going to be eating some cajun rice but no...it's just regular rice with cajun sausage...how misleading!
I wouldn't say I cheated with this MRE but a couple of hours before dinner, I was getting a little hungry and since I knew this was the last MRE in the box and I knew what would be in it, I cracked it open early and dug out the "cheddar cheese pretzels"...also known as "Combos". These things were perfect snacking food.
Once dinner time proper rolled around, I started off the meal with some cheese spread and crackers. Wow...when you get cheese, you really get cheese! The entree took 10-12 minutes to heat up and once it was done, I cracked it open to take some pictures.
Now here's one thing you can't see from the picture below - that's me holding the entree in my hand...that's the *incredibly hot* entree searing my hand...and that's me crying "it burns! it burns!" and I take each picture. It take a few seconds for the camera to autofocus and snap the picture and I know I can't move the entree around or it'll go out of focus. So the flash goes off, I drop the entree on the counter, shake my hand until burning stops...then repeat it a few more times to make sure I get a good pic.
Cajun Rice with Beans and Sausage
The entree itself was pretty good...or at least I'm sure it would have been good if I hadn't gone a little too overboard with the tobasco sauce. Had I been smart, I would have just used the little 1/8 ounce bottle in the accessory pack. But I decided to break out my full-sized bottle and I put in what I thought would be a decent amount. Wow was I wrong...way too much tobasco - it kind of overpowered any other flavor that might have been in there. But one thing I did notice (while my mouth was burning) that you can't tell from the picture was that the "sausage" in the entree wasn't the nice round type of sausage I was expecting but was instead nicely cubed into 1/4 inch pieces. The red beans and rice was normal...but the "sausage" had all the markings of the usual MRE mystery meat.
Dessert was the famous "Chocolate Sports Bar". They couldn't call it a PowerBar since they were obviously too cheap to include a *real* PowerBar so they just put together their own mash of high-carb chocolately goodness, pressed it out into a bar shape, and wrapped it up. You can see the result below.
Chocolate Sports Bar
I don't know about you, but when I first saw that bar, the first thing I thought was, "that looks like what they saw floating in the pool in Caddyshack". Yuck. Fortunately, the taste wasn't so bad.
Caddyshack flashback:
Is that a Baby Ruth or a Chocolate Sports Bar?
thanks to sportsmed.starwave.com for the pic
One last thing I noticed about this MRE - it contained a mutant accessory pack. Take a look below:
Mutant Accessory Pack
Notice anything strange? That's right...two packages of toilet paper! I wonder...was that an accident or are they trying to tell you something about the Cajun Rice with Beans and Sausage?
And speaking of toilet paper, I know you've seen those nice little packs...but have you ever opened one up and attempted to use it? Here it is in all its (unused) glory:
MRE Toilet Paper
