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dolariYou know, I planned to actually be drawing a third comic this year - something to do in my spare time when I'm not doing AWFW or CS. For gods sake, I'm barely even able to make THOSE TWO on time. I have a paid comission I need to do, too, and DOR is coming up. I'm not going to have any hair left on my head when 2007 ends.
There was something I forgot to do while I was in Vancouver. In the hustle and bustle, I missed visiting an army surplus store and, in a fit of just doing Wierd Shit, I wanted to pick up a Canadian MRE. I missed out on my chance (There aren't many in Vancouver, and none in Victoria). So when I got back, I decided to make the most of my rental car deposit and grab a few on EBay.
Lookie what came in today:
I love how Canadians, like Pennsylvanians, call the last meal of the day "supper." I've always called it "dinner."
Breakfast and Supper MREs! The US ones used to have a breakfast "ham and eggs" MRE, but they were so bad, they were removed from the very first MREs in the 80s and never brough back. Here, it looks like Breakfast MREs never died.
I was a little worried, though. While these were 6 years old, from 2001 and 2002, and should have remained good for another three years...there was this:
I'm half expecting to open that bag up and find a packet of spider corpses marked "liquid honey." Although if it's not sterilized, and has fermented...wouldn't that be a packet of mead?
American MRE:
Canadian IMP:
I seem to have lost all my pictures of the MRE bundles, so I hope MREINFO.COM doens't mind me borrowing their images. The American MREs are about the size of two VHS tapes stacked on each other, wrapped in a thick plastic bag.
The Canadian IMPs are a little larger, about the size of four VHS tapes, three stacked on top of each other, one packed agaist the other three. The packaging is a paper bag material glued to a firmer foilbacked cardstock paper box. The MRE looks like a package, the IMP kinda looks like a brown bagged lunch. More homey that way. :)
Packed:
Unpacked:
After reading some of the IMP menues on mreinfo.com, I now realize I opened up the wrong IMP for a good impressions of what was in one. This IMP was "Cabbage Rolls" which came with a foil pack of Cabbage Rolls and Foil pack of Apple Compote. The rest seemed to be snacky things, like Ritz Crackers, Oreo-ish cookies, two packs of coffee, two packs of raspberry jam (although nothing to use the jam on, except maybe the Compote), orange drink, two packs of creamer, a spoon, a large napkin a box of matches and some life savers candies.
It came across more as a "quick sugar rush" thing, to get you going till you could find something more substantial to eat, but like I said, I later found out this pack was just oddly packed - each meal should have a meat (the cabbage rolls), a fruit (the compote), and a starch (the oreos). With the compote, the oreos, the orange drink and the jams, this one just happened to be REALLY sugar heavy.
The Cabbage Rolls were pretty darned good, much better than some of the better of the MRE dinners. Mind you, it's STILL an MRE dinner, which means it's nothing to write home about - but it's a GOOD nothing to write home about. :)
I like the name "Freddychef."
There was something I forgot to do while I was in Vancouver. In the hustle and bustle, I missed visiting an army surplus store and, in a fit of just doing Wierd Shit, I wanted to pick up a Canadian MRE. I missed out on my chance (There aren't many in Vancouver, and none in Victoria). So when I got back, I decided to make the most of my rental car deposit and grab a few on EBay.
Lookie what came in today:
I love how Canadians, like Pennsylvanians, call the last meal of the day "supper." I've always called it "dinner."
Breakfast and Supper MREs! The US ones used to have a breakfast "ham and eggs" MRE, but they were so bad, they were removed from the very first MREs in the 80s and never brough back. Here, it looks like Breakfast MREs never died.
I was a little worried, though. While these were 6 years old, from 2001 and 2002, and should have remained good for another three years...there was this:
I'm half expecting to open that bag up and find a packet of spider corpses marked "liquid honey." Although if it's not sterilized, and has fermented...wouldn't that be a packet of mead?
American MRE:
Canadian IMP:
I seem to have lost all my pictures of the MRE bundles, so I hope MREINFO.COM doens't mind me borrowing their images. The American MREs are about the size of two VHS tapes stacked on each other, wrapped in a thick plastic bag.
The Canadian IMPs are a little larger, about the size of four VHS tapes, three stacked on top of each other, one packed agaist the other three. The packaging is a paper bag material glued to a firmer foilbacked cardstock paper box. The MRE looks like a package, the IMP kinda looks like a brown bagged lunch. More homey that way. :)
Packed:
Unpacked:
After reading some of the IMP menues on mreinfo.com, I now realize I opened up the wrong IMP for a good impressions of what was in one. This IMP was "Cabbage Rolls" which came with a foil pack of Cabbage Rolls and Foil pack of Apple Compote. The rest seemed to be snacky things, like Ritz Crackers, Oreo-ish cookies, two packs of coffee, two packs of raspberry jam (although nothing to use the jam on, except maybe the Compote), orange drink, two packs of creamer, a spoon, a large napkin a box of matches and some life savers candies.
It came across more as a "quick sugar rush" thing, to get you going till you could find something more substantial to eat, but like I said, I later found out this pack was just oddly packed - each meal should have a meat (the cabbage rolls), a fruit (the compote), and a starch (the oreos). With the compote, the oreos, the orange drink and the jams, this one just happened to be REALLY sugar heavy.
The Cabbage Rolls were pretty darned good, much better than some of the better of the MRE dinners. Mind you, it's STILL an MRE dinner, which means it's nothing to write home about - but it's a GOOD nothing to write home about. :)
I like the name "Freddychef."
