Out of curiousity, I bought two French "MREs" from a seller on eBay.  They shipped quickly and I picked them up from the post office today. Shipping from Lithuania took 9 days. (I have no connection to the seller, I'm just a customer.) https://www.ebay.com/itm/MRE-RCIR-French-Military-Food-Ration-24H-MENU-Combat-Daily-Pack-Survival-Box/152684344262


I got one each of the #5 Beef Tortellini and #13 Pasta Carbonara menus. I opened the #13 and tried it for dinner tonight. Each one of these is a 24 hour ration pack, including food for three meals plus snacks. 








More pictures with descriptions of the #13: https://imgur.com/gallery/OObXh


It's interesting comparing them with US MREs. One thing I've noticed with European military rations is that they seem big on pate. Also, I like how the French ratio pack comes with a little Esbit stove to heat the tinned meals, or boil water for hot drinks. (Esbit fuel tabs are hexamine, which I like better than Trioxane. Among other things, hexamine has a better shelf life.) 


The pasta carbonara was good. I should have just cracked the seal on the tin while heating it instead of removing the lid completely, though. The sardine pate tasted more like tuna. I ate the pate on the "cereal" crackers. I also tried the chocolate crackers which were good, especially when dunked in hot coffee. 


Speaking of coffee:





The instant coffee was pretty good, better than Folgers instant. Interestingly, the pack did not come with any kind of a creamer, just sugar. That's fine by me, since I drink it black.


I haven't tried the tin of sausages or the rice with milk yet. 

Cool, thanks OP. Interesting.

Pasta Carbonara sounds good.

Did it come with a little white surrender flag?

The tissues are dual use. 

BTW, since someone already PMed me about the silicone lip guard on the cup:

Snow Peak Hotlips. They are meant for Snow Peak brand cups but work fine on the Keith TI canteen cup and USGI canteen cups.Amazon Smile link benefitting the Second Amendment Foundation: 
https://smile.amazon.com/Snow-Peak-Hotlips-Pack-Orange/dp/B0038WTTVS/

Have you ever personally worked with a French Army unit? I did in 1989-1991. 

So what country produces the best tasting MREs? And how's the weight:calorie ratio of MREs compared to things like Mountain House freeze dry packs?

There are a lot of Youtube channels dedicated to evaluating MREs from around the world.  Check out Steve1989 for example.

Eastern European countries seem to have the best overall.  The US is probably the worst, because US MREs are designed to survive tough conditions rather than for taste.  Other countries just throw some small grocery items in a cardboard box and call it an MRE.

I ate some more of the ration tonight. The potee paysanne or farmer hotpot:



I left the lid mostly on while heating it. This worked better than when I heated the pasta with the lid removed. I liked it better than the pasta.The rice pudding / riz au lait was very tasty.

 

My daughter liked the cafe / coffee energy bar.




Finally, the fruit nougat bar and some hot chocolate.




The hot chocolate was on par with Swiss Miss. The nougat bar was really sweet. It would be good if you needed a quick burst of energy.

Overall, I am really impressed with the French ration. It's much nicer than the US MREs I've seen.

Had the beef tortellini from the second ration pack, last night while camping. It was damn good.

Attached File



Used my regular Esbit pocket stove to warm it up.

Attached File

Damn, that's pretty cool, OP. Those rations look really tasty! Was your daughter bouncing off the walls after eating the energy bar?

Is there an escargot and frog legs version?  

here's a corrected link to the OP
https://www.ebay.com/itm/152684344262

Thanks for posting your reply soldier65, I get tired of people just repeating this shit, echo chamber etc.

I've also worked with the French.  I've noticed that people who have worked with them don't make those stupid jokes.

As far as their food goes, they had wine in the chow hall and on ship.  Their MREs were pretty good.