Chow in Iraq

OK it is no secret that I like food. I like to cook and try new things. Being in the Army has allowed me to travel and sample all sorts of new dishes whether that is kimichi, alligator, rocky mountain oysters, crayfish, soups and other dishes from southwest Asia, sushi, and all of the Iraqi food I’ve eaten. I will eat just about anything at least once, OK well I never tried the Ka-go-gi (dog) in Korea but I never was in a restaurant that would serve it. Since I think I will eat anything I don’t consider myself a picky eater, Shantel on the other hand will disagree with me, she claims it is hard to cook for me because I like a lot of flavor and spice to my food and I’m not a big fan of eating the same thing regularly, unless it is steak, of course. Put that way she is probably right, I do prefer my food with a lot of flavor, spice, and variety.

With all of that said I haven’t seen an American Dining Facility since the early part of May and have been living off Iraqi food, both from the Officer’s kitchen and the Soldier’s kitchen, MRE’s and the British equivalent, Halal meals (meals originally designed to meet the religious requirements of Iraqi soldiers and people) and something we call UGR meals, I’m tired of them all and would give just about anything to eat in the mess hall at Ramadi, which I was beginning to think was one of the crappier ones in Iraq.

I believe it was Napoleon who once said that an Army marches on its stomach. That is as true in the early 21st century as it was in the early 19th century. What is in the following posts is a description of what I and the rest of the team eat, along with pictures. One picture I failed to get was of the massive amounts of food and drink supplies that we do have available. I believe that only the American Army would make sure that an isolated 25 man team would be this well supplied with food. Even if I complain somewhat about some of the meals, make no mistake this stuff is ten times better than the c-rations that were the American Soldiers primary source of field chow from World War II until the advent of the MRE and are even better than those earlier versions of the MRE that I ate when I first came in the Army, some 14 years ago.