Re: [HoE] Milrats/MREs(was: Longevity)

[Allan Seyberth <darious@darious.com>]

>They do make great food for those long pack-only trips into the
>mountains, though.  Besides, after being raised on my mother's meatloaf
>MREs were a step up.

Having eaten several of them - I think I'd rather go hungry.  Or bring
their equivalent weight in cereal bars.  :-)

(blam)
re:cookies
>These make great trade items with the rest of the crew.  I used to get
>cheap ciggies sent to me off of the indian res to trade for these.  Stuff
>like this is probably the "cash" of the Wasted West.

I would imagine that stuff like MREs would be pure gold in the wasted west
- probably more valuable then ammo.

(blam)
re: coffee
>The coffee also is great for attracting bugs.  I don't know why but I
>always wound up with a layer of bugs floating on top of my coffee, mmm. 

That wasn't bug attraction - that was toxicity.  :-)

>>MRE's were so concentrated, or there were chemicals in them, that one
>>usually didn't have to undergo a bowel movement but once every four 
>>days.
>>
>Even then you'd swear you were passing a stone or something.

I think Damon summed this one up the best.  (see below)


>    Benevolent(or sadistic) Marshals for HoE may want to buy an MRE for 
>his whole posse, and tell them this all they get during the RPG session.  
>To give them a "taste" of the Milrats their PCs have to eat.  If 
>anything, it may help them get into character more. ;)

I don't think that this would be accurate though - in the wasted west, the
alternative to the milrats would be radiated rat.

When the options are starvation, or contaminated food, even MREs sound
pretty good to me.


>  A case of MREs (containing 10, I think) runs about 50 bucks.

A case has 12 - for an average price of 60-75, barring bulk discounts that
would lower the price, or if you live in a survivalist happy state where
demand is higher - at least it seems to be here in New Mexico.

(blam)
>   I like to think of it as an oatmeal bar- only less flavorful ;)

Ahh yes - the oatmeal bar......   actually pretty good.  It looked like a
sanding block, crumbled in your mouth like a fine wood chip/sawdust
combination, but didn't taste too bad.

(blam)
>   I hate to digress, but their are several Ranger Receipes for 
>"improving" your MRE.  One of the more interesting ones was taking your 
>crackers, putting on the cheese spread, and then sprinkling your juice 
>mix(Kool-Aid) on top. This is known as a Ranger Pop-Tart, and it's 
>actually not bad.  Or at least, it wasn't bad the last time I had one.  

Another one was to take your beef cookies, add a little (well, a lot)
water, and mix in the soup stock that came with that MRE.  Not too bad...

My favorite one during my year in Korea was to just trade an MRE to one of
the Korean soldiers for some of their ramen.

>>MRE's were so concentrated, or there were chemicals in them, that one
>>usually didn't have to undergo a bowel movement but once every four 
>days.
>
>   If that.  And, without going into too much detail- dry adobe is 
>softer, may pass less painfully.  <g>

Yeah - well, I didn't really want to go into that.  :-)


-------------------
Allan Seyberth
darious@darious.com

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Aristotle:
It is the nature of chickens to cross roads.