u/345joe370

DISCLAIMER: NO SPEED TRAPS OR WEED WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS POST. FILMED IN FRONT OF A LIVE STUDIO AUDIENCE

These are the hauls I've had over the last few weeks from some amazing people. The first pic is a bunch of Ukrainian goodness from Affectionate-Fig. He's an excellent seller located in Ukraine. The same refrain for any foreign rations applies here as well. But so far everything has arrived intact and unmolested. He always carries a plethora of interesting international rations and other militaria. He's active on here, the Discord and he has a store on eBay.

The second pic is from my main G, SirG2020. Since I wasn't able to get a Brazilian I went with the next best option of a Portuguese 12H ration. I'm excited to dig into that. I also purchased a Danish 24H and one of the best rations in existence...the chocolate muesli Norwegian AFR. I'm hoping that DryTech/Turmat is able to sell the mains here in the US one day because I'd seriously buy a case or 3 of these and since he is such a Mensch, he also sent me a UGR cinnamon roll tray with the icing. Another fantastic seller located here in the US so no funny business from US Customs. He has a huge selection and gets some pretty rare items over here.

The third pic is from my Habibi. The Great and Powerful Amelié. She is located in the Motherland (not Mother Russia but Mummy England). I purchased a Swedish survival ration and a Halal ORP. I didn't realize how small the survival ration was so I like to fill the shipping box when possible. I'm already paying for it so might as well. She also got me some snacks to go along with it and by special request some canned fish. She generally has access to plenty of British rations, the occasional Irish one, and some really cool stuff. She's also active on here and the discord.

Last and certainly not least is my main squeeze and all around good dude. The Man, The Myth, The Legend Mike Kreisher otherwise known as MKR. He runs an awesome YouTube review channel featuring MREs from around the world and our own backyard. The past couple of weekends he ran his 8ft folding table MRE Sale Extravaganza and boy howdy did I collect. I bought several old tan bag MREs and some civilian ones. The best part was the RCWs. These things are extremely rare so I jumped on them when I saw them. The last weekend of the sale I went into full foreign mode. I snagged several Russian ones as well as the Chinese food bars in coconut and pineapple. I also threw some extra dollars and told him dealer's choice with whatever other foreign rations he wanted to add and he sent a few bangers. A couple of PLA rations, 6500kcal of Dutch goodness, couple of French RIERs, another tan bag US civvie, Type B Slovenian and the one that blew me away is a 2000? Norwegian 24hr AFR. I was not expecting something that cool. He's also located in the US and does sell rations occasionally and all of my dealings have been fantastic.

Again we sing their praises across the Internet because they are great sellers and even better people. If you're looking to purchase foreign rations these are good people to start with.

This is a 24 hour Russian Dry Ration for Army Everyday Life. RationNerd reviewed this as a Russian Scout ration. Regardless this is a mostly dry ration with a pâté, meat and ketchup. When I opened it up and started pulling items out I noticed a dried smut on the packaging that came from something. I was about to cry thinking about my beloved Apple jam and breathed a sigh of relief that it was intact. The culprit was the ketchup and it got all over everything and ruined all the salt, sugar and anything else in paper packaging. Not a big loss. The mains and drinks and jam were fine. I ended up losing the crackers too because when I rinsed the packs off water got in and destroyed them. Not a big loss but still a loss. We press on and persevere. I bought some sourdough wasa crackers as a replacement and it all worked out just fine.

I ate this over several days just because I'd get full quick. The first meal I had was the mashed potatoes with fried onions. It was a basic powdered, mashed potato with crispy fried onions that rehydrated like all instant mashed potatoes. They were smooth and creamy, with a nice buttery flavor, with pops of sweet from the onions to balance out the seasoning. These were fantastic as a meal and too bad there wasn't another meat in it to go with them. 9/10 for me.

It also came with a chicken noodle soup that was a welcome edition. I thought it'd be like a chicken ramen but it was more like the Lipton chicken noodle soup packets and I love those. Another well seasoned item and a hearty chicken broth made this a 8.5/10.

There was a small packet of oatmeal with raisins for a quick and filling breakfast. I'm not the biggest fan of raisins but will eat them in rations because I paid for them. This was good oatmeal though. It was creamy and just enough sweetness to not be a sugar bomb first thing in the morning. The raisins kind of got lost in it as there were only a few and they rehydrated and basically fell apart. Add a protein of some sort and a damn fine breakfast to be had. 8.5/10 for me on this one too.

When I finally got to eat a larger meal I was planning on eating the rest of the items but that's when I discovered the ruined panzerwafles. This ended up being a good thing because the meal was the perfect size. Rice pilaf, chocolate bar and the meat main. While the rice was hydrating, I heated the meat directly on the stovetop with the lid just opened so I could catch all that glorious fat and juice. It had so much juice in it that I poured it into the other spot because I didn't want to waste it. This is a perfect use for the hardtack but I didn't have any and used the rice instead. The pilaf was a lightly flavored affair and I'm glad I saved that juice to mix in with it. It added loads of flavor and more importantly salt that it so desperately needed. The pilaf by itself was well flavored it really lacked salt. 7/10 by itself and 8.5/10 with the meat juice.

The meat ended up being a hamburger steak so the loss of the ketchup hit a little harder. I love the stewed meat mains in the Russian MREs but I find them to be extremely salty and love to mix them with the carbs. It was still fantastic. It was tender and juicy and just held together enough to cut with my spoon. It was beefy and had a good texture and chew. Not the best cuts of beef but it was ground so not much of an issue. These are hard for me to rank high because of the salt level but I'll still give it an 8/10. The ketchup, especially if it's like Heinz, would've been excellent with the sweetness and tomato flavor.

The chocolate bar was a standard Russian dark chocolate and was nothing special but a nice way to finish dinner. 8/10 all day long.

The last item I ate was the chicken pâté. Pâté is one of the best items to get in a ration IMHO. Many are made with liver of some sort which provides loads of vitamins and minerals. Not something I would eat everyday because it's rich. This was also a 100g portion which was pretty large and almost a meal on its own. Rich and creamy with a light liver flavor. It paired well with the wasa crackers. To pep it up I also added a drizzle of Tabasco Sriracha. I love the old Rooster sauce but that one slaps. It added some spice and zip from the vinegar and a bit of umami depth. It took a 9/10 item and made it a 10/10 item.

The Apple jam is a 10/10 and I ate with a pack of MRE PB on more wasa bread as dessert. It's almost apple butter but not quite. It's not cooked down long enough. If you had a bunch you could make some. This is one of those items I look forward to the most.

Overall this was an excellent ration. It was very straightforward and the portion sizes were perfect. This would be an awesome cold weather ration because all of the food would be hot, hearty and filling. If this one comes up for sale I'd get it again, especially if there are different menus but I'd keep a couple there. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your week.

For breakfast I popped open another of the '24 IMPs that I got from my bud Waffels, menu #9 pasta stuffed with ricotta. It came with the main, fruit cocktail, cornbread, teriyaki beef jerky, PB, raspberry jam, PB & banana trail mix, ice flavored isotonic and sweet & creamy. The only things I didn't have were the isotonic and PB&J. Something leaked a bit in the bag but I couldn't find it. I'm pretty sure it was the jam, but I kneaded it a bit and nothing squeezed out so who knows where it came from.

I love the beef jerky that comes in the IMPs. It's a tough beef jerky but easier to eat due to it being cut in small chunks. The teriyaki flavor was excellent as it wasn't overly salty and you could taste the soy sauce and sweetness and other flavorings. I love jerky of pretty much any sort and this is no different and a 9/10 for me. If it was a bit more tender it'd be a 10/10.

The cornbread in any IMP I've eaten has been amazing and this was no exception. Still very moist and held together really well. Warm this up with some good, salted butter to offset and enhance the sweetness for an exceptional treat. To me this was a bit weird of a choice with the shells. As far as I've know.and have seen they only have cornbread, tortillas and hamburger buns. If they would come up with a version of either the Italian bread sticks or herb & cheese roll that come in the US MREs, that would've been perfect in this meal. The cornbread was a 10/10 for me. No I didn't want PB&J on the CB. That would've been too sweet and ruined the CB. I have standards. Not terribly high ones but I have them.

The fruit cocktail is just fruit cocktail. It's nothing special and I did get a 1/4 or a cherry so there was that. The sliced apples, warmed are the best fruit side. 6/10 for me.

The PB and banana trail mix was fantastic. I'm not a fan of bananas but I do enjoy banana chips. It was a mix of the chips, Reese's pieces and coconut. Unsweetened fruit with a hit of Reese's made for an exceptional trail mix. 9.5/10 for me.

The main was a ricotta stuffed shell with a tomato gravy. These held up so well because of the thicker pasta of the shells. So even after boiling like 15 minutes they came out pristine. Definitely don't knead this package. The shells were al dente and just perfect. The filling was pretty plain and not bland but needed something like spinach, maybe a whisper of nutmeg. A hefty amount of fresh cracked black pepper in this would be amazing. The gravy was fantastic with a strong tomato flavor, but of sweetness and overall just well seasoned. Again a fantastic main that I would happily trade other components for another pack or 2. Even with a mid filling I still give them an 8.5/10.

I just realized there was no candy bar in this menu. Maybe it was traded for the beef jerky.

All around a fantastic ration once again from our brothers and sisters to the North. If these were easier to get in the US I'd invest in several cases. If you can get this menu I highly recommend it and thanks again Waffels for the experience.

For dinner that night I busted open a menu #12 pub style pulled beef Canadian IMP also courtesy of my man Waffels. Again the IMPs are well put together and make a fantastic meal. They're almost too much food for one meal. I ate the one for breakfast and was pretty much good until dinner. Same basic setup with coffee, PB&J, the main, fruit, candy, BBQ nut mix isotonic and the accessories. I wonder if they're switching to just tortillas? That's 2 for 2 on the '24s.

I used the PB&J to make tortilla roll ups. There's not much else to do with it. I did enjoy not getting full on bread though. Raspberry jam and I said the other was strawberry but I think it was raspberry as well. Either way, absolutely delicious. I've rated it before but I added the BBQ nut mix to it and holy shit that was excellent. Again it added crunchy texture to the filling but what shocked me the most was how the BBQ seasoning went so well with PB&J. There's the sweetness of the jam and PB along with the nuttiness. Then you get the sweet and tangy of the BBQ with the paprika tying it all together. You'd also get the different nuttiness from the sesame crackers in it. Easy 10/10 snack when mixed. The nut mix was a 9/10. A shame the portion wasn't like 25% bigger.

The pears were extremely similar to the apples, in that its just sliced pears in their own juice. No seasoning or anything on them and a welcome addition to the whole meal. The US really needs to look at adding this to the MREs. I wonder if they're packed raw in the pouch and then cooked that way? 9/10 for me.

The candy was one of those giant KitKat bars and KitKats are the shit. 10/10 even though it had seen better days.

The lemon-lime isotonic is good. Kind of reminded me of Powerade. I do like the US one better though. Still a 9/10 drink. I ended up just taking the coffee to work. It's been reviewed to death at this point.

Now onto the main attraction. This was pub style pulled beef. It looks like beef stew and had a nice chunk of beef, along with potatoes and carrots in a thick, rich gravy. It's seasoned a bit differently than what we have in the US and I finally landed on Montreal steak seasoning. It had a bit of dill to it. Regardless this was a hearty stew and would've been nice with a piece of bread to mop up the leftover gravy. Another fantastic main by the Canadians and a 9/10 for me.

Overall this was another fantastic ration by the Canadians. The US military could learn a lot from them. From the pouch to the drinks it's a well executed piece of kit. 9.5/10 ration. I'm going to be so disappointed when I run into one that I don't like.

A little haul from SirG2020 yesterday consisting of a few more IMPs and some more NAFRs. The NAFRs are brand spanking new too. So fresh you can smell it. I need to look my years on the IMPs but I believe l lack menus 8 & 17 from '19-'21 timeframe. He also included a beef patty with an FRH and BBQ sauce and apple cider and lemon iced tea drink mixes. The tea is phenomenal but I haven't had the cider yet. Maybe with dinner tonight. He's located here in the states and ships from the West Coast. He always has some cool rations and gets featured on the RationNerd YT channel a lot. So if you're looking for foreign rations and don't want the hassle of US customs, he's got you.

Breakfast this morning was a good old Canadian IMP. Menu 13 Honey Garlic Chicken from 2024 to be exact. This one of the ones from my good pal Waffles. Folks if you've never had one, then you better get one. Although hard to find here in the States they're worth the trouble. I'd be willing to make a road trip to Canada to try out my luck with customs. I need to build some smugglers compartments in the HiHy. Onto the review my fellow pirate crew. That's right, I'm going to be the King of the Pirates.

The first 2 pics are the package and the contents. Canada has the best MRE bags on the planet. No doubt about it. Watertight and resealable...what are we doing US? Wtaf are we doing? It came with the main, sliced apples, PB & strawberry jam, tortillas, tropical trail mix, sweet & creamy, ice flavored isotonic, beach towel, mint and an actual mint, the IMP spork, Tabasco packet, Mr. Big candy bar, hot beverage bag and matches. This was a wonderful breakfast spread.

Let's start with the mundane parts first. The sweet & creamy is always amazing. I've reviewed it before and I believe it comes in every menu. Always a guaranteed hot beverage. The tortillas are standard military issue flour tortillas and made a great wrap with the PB & J and the trail mix. The peanut butter in this one was made in Canada and not the US, so not sure when that changed. They were using the same PB in US MREs, made in the same factory along with the jam. The strawberry jam is the same you get in US MREs and made in Stone Mountain Georgia. I will say that I like the not as sweet PB because it pairs well with the other sweet things.

The ice flavored isotonic drink was fantastic. It dissolved perfectly in 500mL of high quality H2O for both packs. It tasted like a blue raspberry drink. Or maybe it's blueberry as I finish it up. I get a blueberry smell and taste as well. If it's blueberry and blue raspberry that makes it an extremely unique drink. Maybe my Canadian homies can help a brother out. Easy 9/10 for me.

The tropical trail mix had almonds, cashews and peanuts that were all roasted AND salted. Finally some salted nuts. Most nuts and trail mixes I get in rations are not salted. It's tough to eat a huge pouch of unsalted nuts. Just throwing that out to the universe in hopes countries will change. The extra salt is probably negligible in the scheme of things when you're out on maneuvers. It also had dried papaya and pineapple. By itself, absolutely fantastic side and perfect portion size. 9.5/10 for me. Added it to the PB&J tortilla wraps and holy shit what a perfect snack. The extra bit of salt to accentuate the sweet of the jam and the crunch for texture. That was a 10/10 baller move.

The sliced apples are always fantastic and I wish the US would add the same thing to ours for a better sweet treat component. Not overly sweet and still retains a bit of crispness. Yes I heat mine when I heat the main and they're so much better to me. I put the main in the pot and the apples on top. Again an easy 9/10 and I just wish it was a double portion. It wouldn't add much in extra weight or calories.

The main was a big portion of honey garlic chicken and it was excellent. Loads of chicken with a few chunks of potato and a brown sauce with savory and sweet with hints of honey and soy. The sweetness was a perfect level. A buttload of chicken but it was on the dry side for any of the larger chunks. It's really hard to keep chicken breast tender when it's stewed. It's just too lean. A double portion of it over some steamed rice and I'm set. Talk to me after the nap. Aside from the dry chicken it's still a fantastic main and an 8.5/10 for me.

The Mr Big bar is a hodge podge of caramel, rice crispies, peanuts, vanilla wafer all covered in milk chocolate. It's so long I could almost double fist it. I should've measured it. According to the interwebz it's 8 inches long...more than enough to fill any discerning mouth hole. It was more than sweet enough, too sweet for me really. If it had salted peanuts in it that would make this bar phenomenal. 6.5/10 for me.

Lastly is the Canadian mint and I don't mean the Canadian mint as in the expandable towel. It actually comes with a real mint that looks like the towel except its a slight blue color. The mint flavor isn't all that strong and gum would still be better because it helps get the crud off your teeth after eating. 5/10, it's just a mint after all. Maybe a small pouch of gum and then throw in a pack of Pepto would be a welcome addition.

Overall this was a fantastic ration and I'd certainly not turn it down. I'll give the whole ration an 8.5/10. Have great week everyone and stay cool and hydrated.

My curiosity got the best of me and I decided to open one of each pack to check out the contents and possibly make breakfast. Well surprise, surprise you get one pouch of mac & cheese, one pouch of creamy rice & vegetable dinner and enough of Granny's oatmeal to choke at least one horse. That's it. No drinks of any sort, no protein other than the dairy products. Are these a fail? Probably so. I'll be able to decide once I get something to seal these in after opening or not. I'm not cooking 8 servings of oatmeal at once.

With that being said, if you wanted some stuff to feed a family or small group these might not be that bad. A can of freeze dried beef and chicken along with some sort of trail mix to add to the oatmeal and you might have something. Throw in some seasonings and hot sauce along with a suite of drinks and you could do just fine. The biggest problem I see though is long term storage because of the dairy in all of it. Just my 2 cents.

Look at what I got!!! I ended up paying $8.50/pack on eBay. I have never tried them before but have seen less than stellar reviews. I'll have to check and see if all the contents are the same or if these contain different menus. They're pretty heavy but I don't think they're any heavier than some of the Dutch 24hr rations or the Romanian ones. The website is completely useless drivel. Utter hogwash if you ask me. Unless there is something on the back these will be a complete surprise. The only thing I know is that it's all dehydrated food. You would need access to loads of water to survive on these whether you reconstituted it or raw dogged it. Yes you can eat freeze dried food without rehydrating first but it will suck the water out of your system to compensate. Have a good night ghouls and goblins.

I have a few hauls from over the last few days from MKR, Waffels, Helvah and 2 special ones from eBay. The first pic is from MKR for a Polish SR-G-5, some IMPs and a few extra goodies. Waffels coming in clutch with a few more IMPs for the collection. I'm almost there. I have 2 more menus I'm missing coming from SirG2020 with some NAFRs then I believe I'll need 2 more of the '21-'22s to complete the collection. Speaking of NAFRs, I have 4 of the super new dates and a menu 1 RIL from Helvah. He ships from France with DHL and boy let me tell you that they get here fast. Also this time no tariff bill...yet. the last 2 pics are super special and rare. First up is menu 5 RCW, spaghetti with meat and sauce. These were between the LRP and MCW and designed specifically for arctic conditions and consisted of an A & B for each menu. The piece of resistance is a 1979 24 hour Norwegian Emergency Survival SP63 ration. This thing is an absolute beaut Clark. It's still sealed and looks brand new. Whoever had this stored it extremely well. It appears to be a metal box in the cardboard sleeve and is about 2300 calories. I'm excited to see what's inside sometime in the future.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week. Also stay hydrated and cool.

I was in the mood for Polish last night for dinner and wanted something to go with my leftover Filipino food. I grabbed a shooter's ration menu 2 by Arpol. Arpol makes civilian and military rations for Poland and folks IMHO they make some of the best rations on the planet. Even better than the French. As a bonus I decided to open US menus 7 & 8 because I have never had those mains before so I could have an honest opinion for the ration fight over on the discord.

As you can see the Polish ration is pretty small but has a surprising amount of items in it. It included the meatballs in tomato sauce main, pork pâté, hardtack crackers, apple energy bar, several drinks with coffee, orange isotonic, cherry hot chocolate and kisiel. I saved the crackers and ate the pâté with some swedish crisp bread. It was creamy and smooth with a slight mineral taste from the liver and was well salted. It kind of reminded me of potted meat but better with all its porky goodness. The pâté is always a hit with me and one of my favorite ration items. 9.5/10 for me.

I actually ate the meatballs tonight for my appetizer since I was full from the pâté and Filipino food. Meatballs and tomato sauce are a match made in heaven and my death row meal along with my Granny's lemon meringue pie. Not a huge main but made for a good appetizer. The meatballs were tender with a tight texture and were well seasoned and not strongly flavored with any one thing. So not overly garlicky or oniony and well balanced all around. The sauce was also well balanced, not being overly sweet or savory. I like to put the hardtack in the gravy to soften up a bit and it complimented it well. Were they my Granny's, not by a long shot and none ever will be. But for what they were, I would totally smash these again. 9/10 for me.

I didn't have the drinks because it was late the first night and dinner again tonight. I will drink the coffee and hot chocolate for breakfast as a cafe mocha. I did have the apple bar too. The smell was amazing and very appley and felt like fall. It was dense and chewy with a deep apple flavor but not like apple pie. Just straight up apple. 8/10 bar.

As I stated earlier I popped open menus 7 & 8 to try out the beef strips in a savory tomato sauce and meatballs in marinara sauce. I didn't eat the other components yet except for the Italian bread sticks. I warmed them up in the air fryer to eat with meatballs.

First up was the beef strips and boy howdy did this bring back a memory or two. We ate spaghetti and meat sauce practically every Thursday growing up but on a Thursday here and there we had it with Chuck roast instead. It may not seem like but the cut of meat makes a huge difference in the red gravy and was no different in this case. The gravy was super savory with a deep, rich tomato flavor that paired excellently with the savory beef. The meat was tender and toothsome at the same time with a pleasant chew. If you haven't had this one I strongly suggest you try out. Serve it over a bed of rice or toss it with some pasta to make a heavenly repast. 10/10 for me. I might have to order a case of just the main.

Lastly was the meatballs. One of the first things I noticed was the gravy was more vibrant and ripe tomato colored. The gravy also had chunks of tomato along with the tiny meatballs. Where the beef strip gravy was super savory and deep, the marinara was lighter and had a slight sweetness. It reminded me more of the Sunday gravy than the beef strips. The meatballs were tiny, which makes sense for being in a retort pouch. Big ones wouldn't fit as well. They were tender and easy to eat but honestly I liked the Polish ones better. I'm comparing this to the beef strips though and the main was an 8.5/10 for me. This definitely is not a bad main and I'd eat it if it was offered but the beef strips are way better.

I have 2 hauls of mostly Canadian IMPs from nos-7717 and MKR. The first pic is from nos-7717 on eBay. I won 2 of them from his auctions and the other 2 he sent due to the time it took to get to me. I'm an extremely patient guy, probably too patient but many times it works out in the end. We're all busy and life gets in the way. He kept in communication and answered my messages quickly. Pretty much he ended up shipping them when he came to the US.

The next 3 pics are from my latest MKR order. I bought the surprise box he had and the 3 vintage IMPs. He sent 2 US MREs and a butt load of goodies including drinks, plenty of Minotaur products. mains from various other rations and even a Canadian LMC. LMCs are just like the US MORE, a supplemental snack pack.

I recommend both sellers if you see that they're selling things and MKR is about to drop a bunch of rations to sell from his 8 foot long table of wonder.

I saw a recent post from Ebonwood with several beautiful sets of dice and one called Emerald Starfire caught my eye. I went to the site and made the purchase only to have them reach out to inform me that the dice were not ready. So I was offered to wait, a refund or a one-of-a-kind set that he was playing around with. I jumped at the chance to grab them and was even allowed to name them. Such a cool experience and I highly recommend Ebonwood and will be buying from them again.

Here are two hauls from the last week. I was waiting until the others arrived to do my post. The first 7 pics are from DTG. I never had any problems with my orders from Koda and the gang (I assume there are other folks). The 1/4 GB came with my Gabon Rhino note and I included a close-up of the alpha letter. For those that don't know, Goldback releases a smaller amount of alpha notes along with the regular ones and uses the Greek α to denote them. The rhino note is awesome. Similar to the elephant note I have. There are several different animal notes on DTG for purchase. I also purchased 25 of the new Florida 1/4 GBs to add to my stack. Thank you Inspector P66. You're awesome and keep up the good work. These are all alphas as well.

The last 2 pics are from my stack of 25 1/4 Florida alpha GBs and first subscription box from Eclectic Coins. I did the $50 box and received 9 1/4, 2 1/2 & 3 1 GBs. It's random based on the USD that you buy. The 1/4s and the Wyoming are all alphas. This will be a great way to add to the state on my GB stack.

I just need to get better storage for my assorted booty. Thanks for stopping by and have a great upcoming week.

An itty, bitty, teeny, tiny haul from my man SirG2020 in the form of a Polish SR-G-2 and a Slovenian Type A. This is my first Slovenian ration. It comes in a huge bag for the amount of stuff in it. It's about 2/3 the size of the massive Polish 24 hr. If you haven't had a Polish ration, these are some of the absolute best all around rations you can get. It's extremely well put together and the Polish really take care of their troops. Even the civilian rations are fantastic. Also if your looking to get foreign rations on US soil without the hassle of US Customs putting their're dirty, grubby little fingers all over your stuff then go see my man SirG2020. He ships from the West Coast all over the US.