Topic: Our Food Critic's Reaction: These Rations Are MR-Ick

Chicago Tribune
March 25, 2007
By Phil Vettel, Tribune restaurant critic
After forcing down just a few spoonfuls of the food they're expected to eat every day, I have an even deeper appreciation and concern for our men and women in uniform.
Small wonder our servicemen are having trouble maintaining weight, if what I tasted is representative of what they're fed in the field. This dreck could (and perhaps should) be repackaged as diet food, because, despite its high caloric content, I can't imagine anyone finishing this stuff. The MRE Diet could sweep the nation, although there might be landfill issues down the road.
I sampled two main courses and a dessert, and here are my reactions:
*Beef roast with vegetables: Absolutely awful. The meat is soggy, the vegetables have been ground into indecipherable bits (apart from the tell-tale orange of the carrot fragments) and the gravy is reminiscent of something from a can. With a wagging dog on the label.
*Penne pasta with spicy vegetable sausage: At first blush, acceptable. The pasta is predictably limp (canned supermarket pasta suffers the same fate), but the tomato sauce isn't horrendous, and some vaguely fennel-like substance has been applied to the vegetarian sausage. But the seasoning has a chemical aftertaste and, 15 minutes later, the tip of my tongue was still tingling suspiciously. Not a good sign.
*Crunchy toffee cookie: Actually good! It comes out of its protective pouch looking like an actual cookie, has a pleasantly crunchy texture and imparts discernible butter and caramel flavors. Among our troops, these crunchy treats must be worth their weight in gold.