Greetings my beautiful lovelies. Hi, it's Emmy. Welcome back! Today I'm going to be tasting another military ration, and it's going be...this one! This is a British ORP, or operational ration pack. It's a 24-hour pack, so it contains food for 24 hours -- a full day -- but what's really unique about this particular ration is that it is a Sikh/Hindu ration. So what's unique about this ration is that the food has been prepared for those that observe Sikh or Hindu beliefs. Both religions have similar beliefs when it comes to the preparation of their food, and that's why they are combined together in this ration. Much of the dishes are vegetarian, and if meat is consumed it must be slaughtered in a very particular kind of way. Also beef is not consumed because beef is considered holy. So this ration came to me from Blackdogbob. Bob, thank you so much for sending this ration to me. It's international and it's quite unique. If you want to see some of the other rations I've tasted, including ones that Bob has sent me, I shall put the playlist up above and down in the description and you can check them out here. So, first off, I really, really appreciate this bag! This bag is wonderful -- it is clear, and it is resealable. So, right from the get-go, we can see exactly what is inside this. Here's a list of food items: "the ration contains a minimum of 4,000 kilocalories. Top breakfast; main meals; and hot puddings are packaged in aluminum foil packages. These should be placed unopened in water, and then heated to a rolling boil. The contents of these packages can also be eaten cold." So I think what I'll do is I'll try eating one hot and then I'll eat one cold. I love that there's instructions that I can actually read. Menu PD 2/16. Got some tissue here. Got an accessories pack; another resealable bag; and in that bag we have three packages of non-dairy creamer -- four packages; water purification tablet; four packs of sugar; a VERY big spork! Look at the size of that! It's huge! I don't think I've ever seen a spork with a bowl that large. Very sturdy plastic. Some waterproof matches with a separate striker; two instant coffees; alcohol wipes; two types of tea bags -- Typhoo and English Breakfast; (this) is some mint-flavored chewing gum I found it interesting that they could include a brand name and a generic . Interesting. British friends do tell me more. Why do they do this? Oh, let's purify some water. This is actually supposed to purify one liter of water. Well! And it is fizzing. It's already smelling like chlorine. So I've never seen a wet-nap that's this large before -- at least the package before. Look at this! This is great! Marvelous! You can actually clean your hand (laughs). It's kind of a stretchy material similar to like a baby's bum wipe. We have our.. grapefruit flavor powdered drink; hot chocolate... ...orange flavored drink? Interesting! Fruit flavored energy drink. Now, this is just a raspberry like isotonic and... cola flavoured powder drink! Wow! That's new! Then we have a fruit explosion! (laughs) It looks like a pureed fruit; cheese oat biscuit; smooth peanut butter: two packages; a sesame snack bar; apple and cinnamon muesli with milk; a package of plain rice... I've never seen that before! A can of peanuts! Look at that, so great. This is a bottle of hot sauce! 'Hot original pepper sauce: Hot Diggity Dog." I think that's actual glass. It reminds me a little bit of the Tabasco bottles that you could get in some of the U.S. MREs. Unfortunately they don't pack them in glass anymore. But, so stinking cute. Those ones were really tiny. This one's about twice the size of that. Tomato basil soup; vegetable korma. Lastly, we have an apple turnover. Bridgeford. That's a US company. Then we have our reusable bag. I really like also that it stands up by itself -- doesn't tip over -- great for just... dumping stuff in. Wonderful! So, from my understanding, British soldiers have a little hexamine stove that they bring along with them to warm up these packets of food. So, as I mentioned, I'm going to try one of these cold. I'm going to try the vegetable korma cold, and then I'm gonna heat up the tomato basil soup ...and the rice in some boiling water. So, I'm gonna go plop those in some water. Be right back! So while those are heating up, let's go ahead and taste some of the other things. So for our first breakfast, let's try this! This is apple and cinnamon muesli with milk. "Add about a hundred mls of water; mix well, and allow it to sit for one minute." (cutting the sturdy packaging with a presumably blunt knife) It looks just like oatmeal. It looks like has some pumpkin seeds in there. I'm gonna add 100 mls of cold water. It's probably about a half a cup of water. Mix that up a little bit, and then we're going to close it up and let sit for about a minute. Let's have our other breakfast which is our Bridgeford apple turnover. And since this is breakfast why don't we prepare a hot drink as well? Let's have this: I've never had this before. This is hot chocolate flavored drink: Type Orange. Indeed.... it is.... flavored with orange. All right. Add some of that in there.... This smells wonderful! Cheers. Mmm! That is nice! A little bit fancy! Just a little kiss of orange in there -- not overpowering -- you still taste the chocolate. Nice and hot and sweet, just as hot chocolate should be. YUM! So, now let's open our Apple turnover. I have had one of these before in one of my other U.S. MREs -- I think it's going to be pretty similar. Yes, it looks exactly the same. There's a little desiccant in there -- food preservative. And here is the turnover. It doesn't really look like a typical turnover, but this is supposed to have a long shelf life. So there's a little bit of apple inside there, and, I don't know if those are cinnamon bits or what, but let's give that a go. Itadakimasu! It's okay. It has an odd texture, it's very kind of dense chewy texture -- almost more like pizza dough, but not crispy. The flavor is very apple-cinnamon, and there's a little bit of a bite from the apples in there. Mm-hmm. It does taste like it has some preservatives in it. It tastes like something you would buy pre-made at the grocery store, like an Entenmann's or Little Debbie's, but kind of smushed and compressed. Yeah, that's what this is like in terms of texture. It's okay, but it's certainly a lot better with a hot drink. Yeah, so here's our muesli. Reconstituted. Let's make another hot drink -- I'm going to make a Typhoo tea. Add some hot water to that. I love black tea~ Here's our tea... Put our tea bag here. Do you squeeze your tea bag? I customarily do not squeeze my tea bag. Let me know in the comments if you squeeze your teabag. (laughs) I'm going to add a little bit of sugar. I don't ordinarily add sugar or cream to my tea, but since I'm having British breakfast, I might as well. All right, a little bit of whitener, non-dairy creamer. All right, cheers! Mmmm! That's a strong cup of tea! I didn't added too much water to that - I probably could have diluted that a little bit It's strong delicious cup of tea, and it has a little bit of body to it. I really like that about a cup of good black tea. It actually has some... texture. I know it sounds crazy, but it's thicker than just ordinary (beeping from water boiler) water which just came to a boil. Let's try our muesli. So it reconstituted pretty well. It looks a little bit milky; and there's these great big pumpkin seeds in there -- or pepitas. All right, let's give that a go. On the package it said apple and cinnamon, but I don't taste that at all. I just taste pumpkin seeds. Don't taste any cinnamon or apple, but it's quite good! It's actually softened up a lot in just the one minute's time that it's been sitting here. Mm-hmm. It'll definitely stick to your ribs. A good way to start the morning: nutritious; full of fiber; and you got a little bit of the crunchy nuts which I love. Pumpkin seeds are delicious! Nice kind of tender crunch to them because they're kind of a thin nut. Seed. Mmm, great flavor too. Very very lightly, sweetened, if sweetened at all which I also appreciate, but I don't taste any apple or cinnamon. Maybe this one was mislabeled. I would actually eat this on a regular basis -- (I) like that! Let's do a little taste comparison: I'm gonna make another cup of tea, but I'm gonna use the generic pack. I'm going prepare that in the same exact way: drop my bag in, add some hot water, and I'm gonna actually add the same amount of water: not too much. Not as aromatic as a Typhoo, I have to say. A little bit of sugar, a little bit of creamer. Cheers. Mmm. Based on this very unscientific study, the Typhoo seemed to have a little bit more flavor, although this isn't bad at all. Mmm, it says these are cheese oat biscuits. There are five very oaty-looking biscuits or crackers as we might call them here in the US. And they're pretty thick. They smell good. They smell cheesy. Alright, let's give that a go! Mmm! Mm-hmm. Just lightly salted; really great toothy texture; oaty; and has a nice little bite to them. Yup, they're very tender and crumbly; kind of flaky; and good kind of cheddary cheese flavor -- a little bit like a Cheese-it, but much toothier in texture. Mm-hmm. Good. I like this. I like the amount of salt on there -- very, very lightly seasoned. Nice! Let's try that with a little bit of peanut butter. So I'm gonna knead my peanut butter up. Oh it even says so! Brilliant. It says KNEAD PACKAGE BEFORE OPENING. Right, because you're gonna have --- (peanut butter squished within the packaging) did you hear that? All right, here we go! Hmm. I much prefer it plain. I'm not a huge peanut butter fan, so that's probably the reason why I don't enjoy it so much. I like the cheesy flavor of the biscuit and then once you add the peanut butter that totally eradicates it. All you taste is peanut butter, which is great in the sense that it gives you some extra calories, and, of course, protein. I'm gonna make some Nescafé here. It says "tear here," but there's no -- oh it does tear! Okay, I was wrong. Oops! This looks like just your regular old instant crystals. I am not a huge fan of this style of coffee, but when you're out on the field this is what you get because it's really easy and fast. I drink my coffee black. Cheers! Yep, that's the freeze-dried coffee -- it tastes a little bit burnt. It's quite thin... Mmm. It has some coffee flavor in there, but it's a little bitter as well. But, it does its job. This is Salysol salted peanuts: Cacahuetues. I love that this is in a tin. Ah, there they are! Beautiful little peanuts. Let's give 'em a go! Mmm! So I said earlier that I don't like peanut butter so much, but I love peanuts on the other hand -- I love the crunch; I love the roasted flavor; and the saltiness. Peanuts are scrumptious! Nice! Eight ounces of water, and this is the fruit flavored energy... drink in apple flavor. Supposed to mix one of these packets with 50 mls of water, and that's.. this is about two hundred and fifty, so I'll put half of this in there. Ooh. Very large crystals of sugar. Next drink we have is the raspberry drink. Ooh, that smells like raspberry Push-ups. Bright pink color... Next let's try the grapefruit flavor with sugar and sweeteners. Oooh, this is a very fine powder. And this has a lighter pink color -- like pink grapefruit, I guess. And then the last one is most intriguing to me is this one. It's the cola flavored powder. Add some of that to there. This too is a very fine powder, like the raspberry. And this is brown as a cola... would be. So now I have all my beverages mixed up. Let's go ahead and try our entrées. I fished them out of the hot water. Plain rice. So the only other time I've had rice in an MRE was in my Japanese Self-Defense Force ration. That one.... Oh! I've also had it in my Chinese PLA ration so both of those are in the playlist if you want to see other takes on rice. Ooh, this looks great! This actually looks like basmati rice. It's long grain. It has a little bit of a yellow cast to it. But I don't think it's seasoned... because it does say it's plain; and it's all individual grains, nicely separated. Let's just give it a taste plain. Here we go! There's a little bit of saltiness to it. It tastes like rice: pretty firmly textured long grain rice; and the grains are all nicely separated. I'm sure it'll go really well with this. This is the vegetable korma, and this is in creamy coconut sauce. I'm gonna try this cold. So, here is the curry. It looks like there's carrots and peas, and I think these are potatoes. I'm sure this would be infinitesimally better warm, but I'm curious to see what it's like cold. Here we go. Mmm.. Mm! That's actually very good -- very, very tasty; not overly salty; nice curry flavor. The texture's a little bit odd because potatoes when they're not warmed up are a little bit crumbly, they kind of have a starchy texture to them, rather than being nice and soft and tender. Although these are cooked all the way, they don't have that kind of smooth, pleasurable ,soft texture to them. It's more of a kind of crumble, but the flavor is pretty good. Mm-hm. Mm! and you can taste the coconut in there as well. Let's have it with the rice, because the rice is warm. Mmm! That's nice. I like that entrée a lot! This spoon is odd though. Because the bowl is so deep, it's kind of odd to eat food with it because you really kind of have to, you know, press your lips into it to scoop everything out. Yeah. Not a huge fan of this spork. And this is from a person who thinks that she has a big mouth. But, I think this design actually would be very good with the soup. Let's test it. Here. Whoo! Ooh! That looks great! Nice and hot. It's nice and thick as well. It actually smells a lot like pasta sauce. All right, here we go! Mmm... Hmm. As you heard, it has very thick and viscous texture to it. The flavor's not bad -- it does taste a little bit canned, or preserved. It's a little bit sweet, and it has a little hint of basil in it, so it tastes a little bit like pasta sauce kind of.... Yeah, not bad. I think with a grilled cheese sandwich It would be actually quite delicious. Let's try out our drinks next. Here is the energy drink. There seems to still be some sugar down the bottom there. Hmm. It tastes a bit like kind of those powder packs of apple cider, but, of course, not hot and it has a little bit of that artificial sweetener flavor to it. It is a bit odd because of the apple flavor -- I don't necessarily associate apple flavor with energy drinks, but I think that's just my own bias. Let's try the raspberry next -- this smells a lot like a raspberry Push-ups, that kind of artificial raspberry flavor. And it has a very friendly pink color. Let's give that a go. Nyaa! I actually like that better than I expected! There's a good amount of acidity to that. I was expecting it to be like Kool-Aid, and just cloyingly sweet. That is quite nice. I like that. Mm-hmm. And the raspberry flavor is not bad in there as well -- hey! Great! I want to try this one next. This is the grapefruit. I love grapefruit. Very nice citrus smell to it as well. Ooh yes! I like that one. Mm-hmm. Very quenching; citrusy; definitely tastes of grapefruit. Like that! No bitterness at all. It's kind of like a lemonade, but with more of a grapefruit aroma. Mm! That one is great. It does have a little bit of an artificial sweetener kind of finish to it. I've never tasted a powdered Cola beverage ever, so let's give that a go. It looks a little bit like flat beer. It doesn't smell like flat beer. It smells like gummies -- like Cola gummies. Wooo.... and it tastes like Cola gummies too, but not as sweet -- a little bit more tart, which I appreciate, but I don't really like that flavor. It's kind of reminiscent of a very flat, tart watered-down Cola. Unh, I don't like that one. I almost forgot to taste the hot sauce, gee! Ooh! It's a dark sauce. I was expecting it to be red. The curry itself is not spicy at all, so let's try it with some heat. Here we go! Mm. Yum! Well that changes it a lot. There's a lot of acidity in there, so it makes a little tarter. But a good amount of heat, too. Nice. Mm-hmm! Definitely hotter than Tabasco. Like that! More of a just a pronounced burn, similar to like Cayenne? Just right there. And right on the tip of your tongue, all over your tongue. Nice. I like that! This is another snack. This is a fruit explosion purée. I got the red cap which is the apple-strawberry-banana. Mmm. And that's great. Mmm-hmm. Fast, simple way to get some calories. Very, very smooth purée -- kind of like an apple sauce but a little bit waterier. It tastes mostly of apple, but there's a little banana flavor in there as well. Like that. This is a very classic traditional candy that you can find in the Middle East and in Asia. Sometimes that can be very brittle -- this one looks to be kind of in between. Mm-hm. So this is made up of sesame seeds that's held together with a syrup of sugar. It has an interesting texture -- it is simultaneously kind of crunchy, and sticky as well. The sugar kind of becomes kind of this taffy. And it still remains crunchy in the middle. Very, very simple candy: satisfying; full of protein; great little travel snack. All right, let's wash that down with our purified water. Blech! Pathogen free, but chlorine ridden. That water is terrible! It tastes like bleach. But, it's, you know, free of giardia. All right, so there's the water. Finish things off with this pack of gum: very nice packaging -- thick-mill plastic; resealable bag; I like that. Mmm. Mm-hmm. Nice and fresh crisp exterior, chewy middle; the gum is a little bit firm though -- mm-hmm -- firm rather than being elastic, but great intense minty flavor. Perfect way to finish off your meal. Mm-hmm. Next let's test this match. Here's a little striker; and this is our waterproof match. Oh yes! Very nice! Very, very good burn. I like the amount of fuel that's on there. Excellent! And very wind resistant, too. I actually had to quench that in some water to extinguish it. Very nice match. Okey dokes! So that was the British ORP: the Sikh Hindu version. Thank you so much Blackdogbob for sending this to me -- it was a real treat to have these things -- so many things I have never seen or tasted before -- Absolutely delightful. Alright! Thank you guys so much for joining me. I hope you guys enjoyed that one. I hope you guys learn something. Please share this video with your friends; follow me on social media; and I will see you in my next video! Too-da-loo! Take care! Byeeeeeee!
