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What Soldiers Eat, By Country

nytimes.com

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Re: What Soldiers Eat, By Country

#31

Post by sliverstorm »

silentbicycle wrote: post #19
sliverstorm wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I highly recommend adding some to soup stock, especially vegetarian soups But can vegetarians eat bacteria? They are animals too.

That depends on how neurotic they are. (Laziest trolling ever, PS. Back to slashdot with you.) I'm suggesting it specifically because vegetarian soups tend to have less umami (the savory, "meaty"/MSG flavor). Non-veg cooks can just simmer bones, etc., but vegetarians need to get umami from mushrooms, grilled root vegetables, boiled parmesan reggiano rinds (which are totally awesome , BTW), miso, etc., and vegemite is…

Not trolling, I am just amused at the arbitrary lines-in-the-sand I occasionally see vegetarians and vegans drawing, and was curious about their outlook on this matter.

Re: What Soldiers Eat, By Country

#32

Post by Volscio »

elblanco wrote: post #17
silverlake wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I heard constipation was a problem for soldiers. One other country supplied fiber pills. Did soldiers take Metamucil or something to help move things along?

Nothing much. Some of the meals have a high fiber cracker you can use with the Peanut Butter or Cheese Spreads and I think the chocolate drink mix has some fiber. But I don't think it provides nearly enough fiber to overcome the logjam inside you. Eventually it just passes. But the meals aren't meant for long-term survival (no more than a month or so) anyway. I spoke one time with a researcher who worked for the part…

On the plus side of field constipation, it keeps you from having to pop a squat in the middle of nowhere with no cover. :)

Re: What Soldiers Eat, By Country

#33

Post by steveh72 »

silentbicycle wrote: post #7
bootload wrote: post #2

the accompanying article is much better, "A Taste of Home in Foil Packets and Powder" ~ http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/weekinreview/05gilbertson.... The bit that caught my eye, "Australians get a dark-brown spreadable yeast-paste treat called Vegemite, for example" . I have a picture of the item being described here ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/4961948487/ which came from a PR1M (Patrol Ration One Man)…

I have two giant jars (910 g/2 lb each!) of Vegemite, one of which is approaching 2/3 empty. It's lovely stuff, though I can understand people hating it - it's concentrated and has an intense flavor, and people who don't know better probably use waaay too much. It tastes kind of like yeasty soy sauce that has been boiled down to a salty, thick black spread (or very dark, mushroomy miso). It's great scratched on butte…

Vegemite is predominately Aussie, and there are 2 different kinds of Marmite - New Zealand and UK. You find the New Zealand stuff in Australia and NZ; the UK stuff most other places. NZ marmite is black, UK marmite is more brown.

They all taste different, but most likely uniformly awful unless you grew up with it.

Re: What Soldiers Eat, By Country

#34

Post by leif »

silentbicycle wrote: post #20
sliverstorm wrote: post #18

I noticed that a lot of this food is tinged with red or orange- which seems to be because it's high in protein. That got me to thinking- it must be difficult to be a vegetarian or a vegan in the army. Which also got me to thinking- should you have the right to insist on vegetarian/vegan food? Not only is it more expensive and more of a problem to provide, but you are a tool of the army, and you probably do your job f…

How are vegetarian protein sources more expensive? Many are quite cheap (if sometimes bland). Most beans keep well and are easy to ship and prepare in bulk, which certainly suits the mess hall. I don't see how it'd be a huge logistics issue (compared to shipping/handling chicken, for example). I've never been in the military, but I've worked in a deli, and handling chicken sucks. Also, the whole vegetarian "protein d…

The vegan/vegetarian diet problem is very real, and it is not just protein. You can very easily miss out pretty severely on a lot of things just by cutting meat out of your diet (iron, for example), and you do have to work hard to make sure you maintain a balanced diet. I don't see this as a problem for MREs, as composition has been pretty well solved, and I doubt it makes it any harder to solve the perishable problem.

Re: What Soldiers Eat, By Country

#35

Post by silentbicycle »

elblanco wrote: post #23
silentbicycle wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are vegetarian protein sources more expensive? Many are quite cheap (if sometimes bland). Most beans keep well and are easy to ship and prepare in bulk, which certainly suits the mess hall. I don't see how it'd be a huge logistics issue (compared to shipping/handling chicken, for example). I've never been in the military, but I've worked in a deli, and handling chicken sucks. Also, the whole vegetarian "protein d…

It's more a problem of people just not eating stuff that's been slogged halfway across the planet and deposited into an active combat zone. So they try to supply menu items that'll get eaten. That being said, there's usually a vegetarian meal in every box of MREs.

Fair enough. I bet a lot of soldiers probably want to eat something that reminds them of home, and dried beans probably rank alongside powdered eggs.

Re: What Soldiers Eat, By Country

#36

Post by harshpotatoes »

tlack wrote: post #11

I feel like applying for a job at the New York Times just so I can fix their terrible Flash-based gallery software which is used in this article and many others recently. Totally kills the otherwise-interesting browsing experience for me. HTML5 would be more than sufficient for this.

I'm curious, but how does flash detract from the browsing experience/ or how would html5 add to the browsing experience?

To me it just seems like choosing one programming language over another...

Re: What Soldiers Eat, By Country

#37

Post by thechangelog »

tlack wrote: post #11

I feel like applying for a job at the New York Times just so I can fix their terrible Flash-based gallery software which is used in this article and many others recently. Totally kills the otherwise-interesting browsing experience for me. HTML5 would be more than sufficient for this.

So would HTML 4.

Re: What Soldiers Eat, By Country

#38

Post by silentbicycle »

sliverstorm wrote: post #31
silentbicycle wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That depends on how neurotic they are. (Laziest trolling ever, PS. Back to slashdot with you.) I'm suggesting it specifically because vegetarian soups tend to have less umami (the savory, "meaty"/MSG flavor). Non-veg cooks can just simmer bones, etc., but vegetarians need to get umami from mushrooms, grilled root vegetables, boiled parmesan reggiano rinds (which are totally awesome , BTW), miso, etc., and vegemite is…

Not trolling, I am just amused at the arbitrary lines-in-the-sand I occasionally see vegetarians and vegans drawing, and was curious about their outlook on this matter.

A lot of people have identities based on loud-but-poorly-thought-out politics/ideologies. Vocal / recent-convert / squeamish teenage vegetarians are hardly unique in this regard, and nor does it mean that intelligent people haven't arrived at similar conclusions for reasons that aren't vapid. As with most things, though, the loud "I believe so hard in cause X" people tend to drown out the thoughtful ones. (Also, the vegetarians I've known have been more pragmatic than the vegans, who are generally more ideological.)

The only group I've seen seriously struggle with the whole "OMG I'm killing bacteria by breathing, what should I do" issue are the Jains, and I find them pretty silly. (I'm not a vegetarian, but when I was...I still found them pretty silly.)

Some vegetarians are amazing cooks, too. Constraints can really drive creativity.

Re: What Soldiers Eat, By Country

#39

Post by silentbicycle »

leif wrote: post #34
silentbicycle wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are vegetarian protein sources more expensive? Many are quite cheap (if sometimes bland). Most beans keep well and are easy to ship and prepare in bulk, which certainly suits the mess hall. I don't see how it'd be a huge logistics issue (compared to shipping/handling chicken, for example). I've never been in the military, but I've worked in a deli, and handling chicken sucks. Also, the whole vegetarian "protein d…

The vegan/vegetarian diet problem is very real, and it is not just protein. You can very easily miss out pretty severely on a lot of things just by cutting meat out of your diet (iron, for example), and you do have to work hard to make sure you maintain a balanced diet. I don't see this as a problem for MREs, as composition has been pretty well solved, and I doubt it makes it any harder to solve the perishable proble…

Eating a balanced diet isn't hard as long as you don't eat the same thing basically every day (i.e. fast food). I think it's probably a non-issue, except for (say) naive teenage vegetarians - it's only a problem if you cut out meat but don't replace it with anything. I've done my research - if you have specific examples to the contrary, I'm all ears.

I ate a vegetarian diet for seven or eight years, a vegan diet for a few months* along the way, and have had a primarily* * vegetarian diet for years since then. I give blood regularly (I'm AB+, a rare donor blood type), and I've never, ever, ever had a problem with low iron - it's usually been quite high. While that's only one data point, it seems consistent with what I've read about nutrition - problems mostly occur when people give up meat but still eat a rather monotonous diet. ("In other news: Eating nothing but twinkies and whiskey is bad for you...Film at eleven.")

* I'm a cooking geek, and was interesting where those constraints would lead me.

* * same, plus fish and occasional Italian and French/Vietnamese charcuterie (Bánh mì!), but I cook/eat vegetarian by default.

Re: What Soldiers Eat, By Country

#40

Post by elblanco »

silentbicycle wrote: post #25
elblanco wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like Vegemite better myself. It's less intense of a flavor.

Could you describe the difference a little more? I'm really curious, but when I've seen Marmite here in the states, it's always been so ludicrously overpriced (for a little jar) that I've skipped it.

I haven't had Marmite in quite a while. But if memory serves, the savoriness (smell and flavor) was really more intense -- it's hard to describe, almost like burnt steak ground up into a paste. Vegemite always seemed to be more palatable to me.

I guess the best way to compare the two is Guinness extra stout vs. regular Guinness.

Unless you really like it, you probably won't use much of either -- it can go for a very long time. I personally like to use it like a seasoning to add savoriness to my cooking.

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