Probably KFC.
Yeah. We got good KFC in New Zealand.
Hi, my name's Sam.
I'm a bombardier in the New Zealand Army
with the 16th Field Regiment.
About to try some United States military MREs.
Narrator: In November,
the New Zealand Army traveled to Hawaii
to participate in a joint training exercise
with the US Army.
We asked one of their soldiers to try an American MRE,
which stands for Meal, Ready-to-Eat.
The MREs block you up a wee bit.
So, I got three MREs.
We've got the pork sausage patty with maple flavor,
we've got the cheese tortellini in tomato sauce,
and then we've got the creamy spinach fettuccine.
I chose this one because I haven't eaten it yet.
Yeah.
We got the creamy spinach fettuccine here.
Maple mustard and onion pretzel nuggets.
We've got peanut butter.
Got some small condiments, including chewing gum.
We've got the First Strike nutritious energy bar.
We've got a hot-beverage bag.
We've got the crackers to go with the peanut butter.
And then we've got the heater bag
and the cardboard container to house the heater bag.
Yeah, it will be, yeah.
With the honey mustard and onion pretzel nuggets.
Sam: Yeah, the precursor.
Yeah.
Not too bad.
It's better than I thought it was going to be.
We're going to crack into the crackers.
Sam: They're not too bad. We have something similar.
Usually have a lot of cheeses, like just cheese spread
and jalapeño cheese, where we don't have that.
Sam: Yeah, we don't have that.
Sam: No, we get issued a KFS,
so your knife, fork, and spoon.
Or a spork.
Just peanut butter and crackers.
And then I'll crack into this one.
Sam: The main course, yeah.
That's the MRE heater.
It's to heat up your meat pack or your main course.
So, there's a little pouch here.
Just has a chemical reaction with the water,
and it heats up,
and essentially the residual heat heats the MRE.
Yeah, sure.
Sam: So, I'm just placing the main course
into the heater bag,
and then you've got your,
the actual heater, on itself,
the line of water where you want to fill it up to.
That's probably enough. And then you just
give it a bit of shake,
just to activate it a little bit quicker.
Fold up the edges,
and then just chuck it in this little pouch here
just to stop the edges from folding up.
Then try and keep the actual heater pack on the bottom.
Should be good to go in, like, five minutes.
Probably KFC.
Yeah. We got good KFC in New Zealand.
Probably a 20-pack of Wicked Wings.
I don't know if youse have Wicked Wings.
They're just a spicy wing.
Since the end of 2016.
Too many.
We'll take our own stuff out,
so I like to take a pull of peanut butter
or Nutella or something like that.
Just high in calories,
so I'm not having to eat MREs all the time.
Well, you can just see it.
Sam: Yeah, four or five minutes, yeah.
It's been boiling away.
Sam: Yeah, superhot.
Try not to burn myself.
Yeah, then just
squeeze it around.
So, this is the main course,
the creamy spinach tortellini.
Doesn't look too bad.
Not too bad. Maybe a six out of 10.
Lack thereof. Yeah, it's spinachy.
Yeah, it's not too bad, actually.
Yeah, I don't know what I was
thinking I was going to get, but.
Yeah, for sure. I don't know how many calories are in that.
Maybe, like, 500 calories, yeah.
Probably just the two, two single-meal ones, yeah.
Yeah. If I was going about farther distances
or working a wee bit harder,
I'd probably need a wee bit more food,
but, yeah, it's enough to keep me going.
Normally lose a little bit of weight in the field, so.
Is the beef ragout?
Yeah. The pizza one wasn't too bad, actually.
Well, this you're probably going to have to eat
all in one go.
Or like the scroggin bag, like I was saying.
So you basically tear all the carbs
and all the sweets and stuff and just chuck them in one bag
so you can just graze the whole time, pretty much.
So, scroggin, I guess it's a New Zealand term.
Just a mixed bag of nuts and freeze-dried berries
and that kind of thing.
And we just all cut it out of the MRE version,
and we just chuck it in one big bag
so we're not having to muck around with rubbish
and all that kind of thing. So we can graze.
Sam: This is the First Strike nutritious energy bar.
Sam: I have.
Sam: Very sticky.
Packed full of calories and sugars and stuff.
Quite a bit of chocolate in our energy bars.
Yeah, definitely.
I'll hide the chocolate bars in my sleeping bag at night,
so when I jump in I've got something to look forward to.
Sam: Creamer.
Freeze-dried coffee.
Some salt.
Crushed red pepper.
Some sugar.
A towelette to clean your hands.
Matches.
Just a napkin.
Chewing gum.
It's peppermint.
They're pretty similar, just different flavors.
I'm in Hawaii, so I'll probably go get some poke bowl
or something like that.
KFC.