Friday, November 21, 2008

Dinner and a Movie

"Don't worry, about dinner tonight, I'm bringing it down." he said.

"Are you sure? I was just going to heat up some leftovers."

"We can have the leftovers if you don't like what I bring." he countered.

At this point, I was baffled. AG can make a mean pork chop, so I don't doubt that he can cook, and to keep the leftovers handy didn't sound too promising. I had no idea what he could be talking about.

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An hour later, we stood in my kitchen. I watched expectantly as steam hissed out of a small, cardboard box. AG had brought down MRE's (Meal Ready to Eat) for the both of us. Mine was BBQ pork, with clam chowder and a piece of lemon poppyseed pound cake.

The olive green packets didn't look very impressive. Neither did the clear green bag with a white piece of styrofoam in it. The instructions were to add some water and prop the bag "on a rock or something" and showed a handy illustration with the bag tipped, supported at an angle by a "something". I also had a plastic flask which I dumped water and powder into to make my lime green energy drink. Both packets also came with a single serving of coffee, matches, salt, sugar, creamer packets, AG had a mini-tabasco sauce, and napkins that double as toilet paper.

I was pleasantly surprised.

The BBQ pork came with two compressed pieces of wheat bread, cheese spread, and BBQ sauce. The flattened bread and cake products were kind of weird texture-wise, but they didn't taste bad. And the sandwich was filling, I couldn't even finish my meal. (This was probably a good thing because AG says that 1 MRE has a full day's calories packed into it.)

I got a little impatient waiting for the soup to heat up, so it was kind of lukewarm, but it was really hearty, with big chunks of meat. AG's meal was chicken noodle soup that scalded my tongue (guess he's not the impatient one of the two of us!), an energy bar, chocolate shake, and a full package of peanut M&M's.

Apparently, there are about 30 different flavors, and I'm told the Vegetarian Omlet option is the absolute worst. When the guys eat together, there's a great deal of bartering cheese spread for peanut butter, and that sort of thing. It's also not cool to dig through the supply box and pick the meal of your choice.


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As for the movie, we sat down to watch "High Fidelity" and I was promptly asleep in 20 minutes curled up next to AG on the couch. Not a bad date.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have always wondered what MREs are like. Now I know. And, I can agree without ever tasting it, Vegetarian Omelet would be the worst. There really is no good way of preserving an egg.

Sounds like a cute date.

Chris said...

You two are too cute! Like ru, I have always wondered about MRE. Now I just wonder about their menu planner...I mean who pairs clam chowder with BBQ?