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#3229472 - 03/09/11 06:18 PM Best Chow In the U.S. Military?  
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IMO, the Navy and Marine Corps have the best chow in the U.S. armed forces. In general, the food is better at shore installations, though it's not bad aboard smaller ships and submarines. Aircraft carriers are the worst. Navy and Marine cooks seem to be about equal in skill, and if you're with a Navy or Marine outfit, you can usually look forward to eating reasonably well.

Next would be the Air Force. Their chow is not as good as Navy or Marine chow, but they'll pitch up damn near anywhere with a hot meal. I was working with what is now the USAF 3rd Special Operations Squadron out in the middle of nowhere one time, and fully expected we were going to be eating C-Rats that first day. Much to my wondering eyes, a vehicle came in, four-wheel-drive with steam compartments on the back, and we lined up and had a hot meal. While not quite up to Navy and Marine standards, it was pretty good, and very surprising considering that we were many miles from anything in the jungle and they drove it all the way out to us, especially since there weren't that many of us out there!

Last, I'm sorry to say for you Army types, is the food that I've been served by the U.S. Army. It is edible. Beyond that, I can't say much. I remember being at Camp Zama one time and eating there. My first morning, I had a piece of ham with my breakfast. My partner asked me how it was. I told him, "It's the finest piece of smoked gristle I've ever eaten!" We pretty much survived on cereal for breakfast while we were there.

I also ate with the Army in Korea. Good Lord! I guess it must have to do with the number of people they're feeding, but it sure made me miss the Navy and Marines! Perhaps it's just me, but it seems like the Navy and Marine Corps get a higher quality of provisions than the other services. Maybe I've just been lucky.

At any rate, I used to save my money when we were out in the middle of nowhere or on some vessel, and one of the first things I'd do when we got back to civilization was to find a good restaurant and treat myself to a hearty meal. Most memorable? A mutton curry I had in Hong Kong. I still day dream about that meal. I started to order seafood, but the tuxedoed Chinese guy who was maitre d objected and told me that in Hong Kong, being an island, seafood was considered poor people's food and therefore the chefs' specialties tended to be land food, which they have no room to raise. So I took his advice on the mutton curry and I'm glad I did. One of the most memorable meals of my life.

So, what has been your experience vis-a-vis chow in the military?

Cheers!

Rick... cowboy


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#3229531 - 03/09/11 07:05 PM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
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Chow was not memorable for me in the Army ('85-89), neither positively nor negatively. But while stationed in Germany I took advantage of a great little schnitzel restaurant down the street from my kaserne called "Raphael's." We just called it "Ralph's." I believe it was run by Italian-Germans, so they had great schnitzel as well as dishes like rigatoni cabonara. And of course, the beer.


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#3229534 - 03/09/11 07:08 PM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
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Army chow sucks from experience. The better food goes to the chow hall that has the most visitors ie if everyone on post goes to one you get lobster, if a few go to an outlying chow hall you get chili mac.

Of the few Air Force bases i've been to their chow halls restaurants are top notch.

#3229544 - 03/09/11 07:17 PM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
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We ate pretty well on the Reagan, but then again, our sponsors, the Santa Barbara Navy League, had DEEP pockets. As in, had 5000 lobsters, 5000 grade A prime steaks, and chefs to cook them flown out to the ship during our Round the Horn cruise. The galley at Nuke School in Charleston was pretty great as well, as was the one on NAS Pensacola. Although I also remember that the Air Force folks who were TAD to Pensacola were getting extra per diem because apparently the food wasn't up to snuff. The ASW base here in San Diego is pretty good as well, and since I was going to have my wedding on the Point Loma Submarine base, I can also attest the to catering being pretty good.

I'd have to agree with Sauron that Navy chow is best, even though Air Force thinks (like always) that they have the best stuff.
I've managed to avoid eating on Army bases and Coast Guard stations, so I can't speak on those personally. Unless you count the SOS, blueberry pancakes, and fried shrimp my grandfather used to make when I was little.


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#3229558 - 03/09/11 07:35 PM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
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Often I was just happy to get food.


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#3229567 - 03/09/11 07:47 PM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
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Army chow during my time in was brutal. The menu might say something like meatloaf or something else you might like but the stuff on the line was franks and beans. I think we had a mess Sgt. who sold the good stuff off post.

Our cooks were not cooks they were mechanics who could not figure out how to open the hood on a jeep or radio operators who were stumped by Morse code. They also had a major chip on their miserable shoulders. Electrical tape served to fix holes in coffee filters and a cook sweating into your morning eggs was part of the deal. It's where I started drinking my coffee black because adding milk turned Army coffee green.

I was at an Air Force base once in transit and it was like a hotel with clean cooks and food served in regular plates and cups not trays where everything got dumped together or plastic cups with the handle missing.

I ate better when we were in the field and living on left overs from Korea, at least you got a pack of old cigarettes with your C-rations.

#3229571 - 03/09/11 07:50 PM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
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I was stationed at Keesler AFB, MS. was really great place to eat.


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#3229589 - 03/09/11 08:07 PM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
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Army here. The chow sucked. When I was at Ft Lewis we would drive over to the AF base to eat in thier chow hall biggrin


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#3229601 - 03/09/11 08:13 PM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: oldgrognard]  
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Originally Posted By: oldgrognard
Often I was just happy to get food.


Yes, that goes without saying, hence my having dined on such delicacies as dog, stolen chicken, fish heads and rice, flying fox bat, and all that business. But when you could get chow, what's your take on where the best chow is? Excluding C-Rats, and the later styrofoam wonder, MREs?

Cheers!

Rick... cowboy


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#3229653 - 03/09/11 08:50 PM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
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Army/Air Force/Navy/Marine Chow? Does it matter anymore?

It's pretty much all Fluor/KBR now...


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#3229733 - 03/09/11 09:52 PM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
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As a boy, I was very fond of SPAM and Hershey's chocolate. The patrols usually had copious quantities of both.


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#3229736 - 03/09/11 09:53 PM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
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The company I work for is doing its part to make eating a more pleasurable experience for troops in the field. See the following video, we build the kitchen being shown in use:



That is the ETKS 150, designed to feed 150 men 3 times a day, in practice it does almost twice that. We also build a larger kitchen that can feed over 600 men 3 times a day.

To date we've shipped over 150 of the smaller units and a couple of dozen larger units to Iraq/Afghanistan.


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#3229821 - 03/09/11 11:26 PM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Vertigo1]  
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Originally Posted By: Vertigo1
Army/Air Force/Navy/Marine Chow? Does it matter anymore?

It's pretty much all Fluor/KBR now...


Overseas KBR does most of the cooking at the USAF DFACs Chow Halls, and they actually do a pretty good job. In Balad AB/LSA Anaconda Iraq the DFACs were very good, and I especially loved the made to order omlettes for breakfast. I went to work at midnight until noon, so "midnight chow" (breakfast and leftover dinner) was my main meal of the day. Omelettes, hash browns, sausage, bacon, biscuits and gravy...oh yeah! Another plus was it was as much as you can eat! smile


In general, USAF chow is very good. While I was active duty USAF in the late 80s my base had won "Best In TAC" a number of years for being an outstanding chow hall.

My ANG base on drill weekends now leaves a bit to be desired, but it's not too bad.

I actually don't mind MREs either. Heck, I can eat just about anything anyway. wink


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#3229827 - 03/09/11 11:31 PM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
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I ate an MRE years ago and I thought it was pretty good except for the strong after-taste! I think it was the chicken & rice MRE.


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#3229841 - 03/09/11 11:48 PM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
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When I was a young specialist at FT Stewart many, many years ago, my unit was one of the units participating in the Philip A. Connelly competition for field kitchen and won the entire competition. Our cooks made a steak dinner worthy of a fine steakhouse in this little MKT out at a field site. Unfortunately, my contribution was that they pulled me out of my regular job to wash dishes for several weeks. LOL


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#3229865 - 03/10/11 12:21 AM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Weasel_Keeper]  
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Originally Posted By: Weasel_Keeper
Originally Posted By: Vertigo1
Army/Air Force/Navy/Marine Chow? Does it matter anymore?

It's pretty much all Fluor/KBR now...


Overseas KBR does most of the cooking at the USAF DFACs Chow Halls, and they actually do a pretty good job. In Balad AB/LSA Anaconda Iraq the DFACs were very good, and I especially loved the made to order omlettes for breakfast. I went to work at midnight until noon, so "midnight chow" (breakfast and leftover dinner) was my main meal of the day. Omelettes, hash browns, sausage, bacon, biscuits and gravy...oh yeah! Another plus was it was as much as you can eat! smile


In general, USAF chow is very good. While I was active duty USAF in the late 80s my base had won "Best In TAC" a number of years for being an outstanding chow hall.

My ANG base on drill weekends now leaves a bit to be desired, but it's not too bad.

I actually don't mind MREs either. Heck, I can eat just about anything anyway. wink


I have to agree about how well KBR did with the food there. In 2003, when I was there, it was about the best part of being deployed. There was a stink about what they were charging but I had to admit, for what they were charging we were getting a LOT of food, and some of it was actually quite good.

I remember when I first arrived in Kuwait we stayed at a place that had a DFAC run originally by the British contingent. God Awful food to say the least. I understand why the Brits tried to conquer as much as they did. They were just looking for good takeout and took it to the extreme. I am not sure what the Brits call cereal but the dried lawn clippings that they had out was almost inedible. I go up for my dried out eggs and something called a banger and I was quickly wondering how I was going to survive this deployment.

KBR came in and took over the post and for the next three months the food changed a lot. Not only did they do a good job of bringing in things like steaks, lobster (yep, had it about four times there) but even the burgers and the regular run of the mill stuff was flavorful and actually pretty good overall. I also remember the ice cream, there were literally tubs and tubs of it and someone to serve it. If I wasn't running five miles a day out there and working out five days a week I could have easily put on 10 pounds.

Then the stink over the cost and the contracts and they gave the money to someone else. I suspect the money spend didn't decrease but the food quality sure did. No more ice cream, no more steaks, no more of the better quality stuff. It turned much worse. When I left in late 2003 the food was ok but not nearly as good as when the original vendors had it. I hope it is fixed, the troops deserve the best while they are over there. The whole damned thing was just politics in action and in the end the troops suffered.


The artist formerly known as SimHq Tom Cofield
#3229883 - 03/10/11 12:39 AM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Wklink]  
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Originally Posted By: SimHQ Tom Cofield
[I have to agree about how well KBR did with the food there. In 2003, when I was there, it was about the best part of being deployed. There was a stink about what they were charging but I had to admit, for what they were charging we were getting a LOT of food, and some of it was actually quite good.

I remember when I first arrived in Kuwait we stayed at a place that had a DFAC run originally by the British contingent. God Awful food to say the least. I understand why the Brits tried to conquer as much as they did. They were just looking for good takeout and took it to the extreme. I am not sure what the Brits call cereal but the dried lawn clippings that they had out was almost inedible. I go up for my dried out eggs and something called a banger and I was quickly wondering how I was going to survive this deployment.

KBR came in and took over the post and for the next three months the food changed a lot. Not only did they do a good job of bringing in things like steaks, lobster (yep, had it about four times there) but even the burgers and the regular run of the mill stuff was flavorful and actually pretty good overall. I also remember the ice cream, there were literally tubs and tubs of it and someone to serve it. If I wasn't running five miles a day out there and working out five days a week I could have easily put on 10 pounds.

Then the stink over the cost and the contracts and they gave the money to someone else. I suspect the money spend didn't decrease but the food quality sure did. No more ice cream, no more steaks, no more of the better quality stuff. It turned much worse. When I left in late 2003 the food was ok but not nearly as good as when the original vendors had it. I hope it is fixed, the troops deserve the best while they are over there. The whole damned thing was just politics in action and in the end the troops suffered.


KBR (now Fluor) has been serving all of that stuff in Afghanistan. I'd say the food is generally somewhere between fair and good with occasional spots of brilliance. The ice cream does help when dealing with the extreme stress. The one non-Fluor, army-run DFAC I went to, though, was as good as the others.


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#3229887 - 03/10/11 12:44 AM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
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I want to clarify - while the Army chow was not memorable for me, it wasn't bad either. But then, I have a third-world stomach. My stomach is quite scalable . . . when the good stuff is avalable, I switch on the gourmet setting. When I am broke, I switch on the ghetto setting. I have prepared drunken meals with pasta, milk, several slices of yellow American "cheese" product, some sort of baloney-like meat-abortion, and garlic salt which tasted like 5 star quality (if you added multiple half-star restaurants together). Trust me, beer goggles work on food just like on girls. biggrin


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#3229994 - 03/10/11 03:05 AM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
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One of the things we ate that I liked best was SOS, that should tell you something about the rest of the menu.

#3230010 - 03/10/11 03:30 AM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
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I'm Air Force so I'm biased, but the best chow hall I've ever ate at was the one at Langley. Their breakfast was friggin' awesome, not to mention the cooks took pride in their work and put on a show like at a Japanese restaurant or something. They were throwing knives, spliting eggs in mid-air, you name it. Second, was Travis, although the lines were a little long. I've had chow at navy bases, but not on a ship. They were ok, about on par with the Air Force.

Another good place was the chow hall at Cold Lake, CFB in Canada. They had great chow and awesome egg sandwiches if you were busy and on the go.

#3230056 - 03/10/11 04:21 AM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
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Never served myself but I tried the Navy chow a few times when I was in Naval ROTC in High School.
Even ate ship-board a few times at sea on the USS Ponce and then the USS Lexington when she was still a training Carrier it was good stuff for military grub.
I remember they even had 3 kinds of milk too (Regular, Chocolate and Strawberry).
Not too shabby and it really impressed my 15 year old gut.
Here is on old photo of me on the USS Ponce in 1981.

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#3230097 - 03/10/11 05:06 AM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
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#3230254 - 03/10/11 01:12 PM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
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I'm with Letterboy1 - my stomach easily handled anything the army could throw at it, with the exception of veggies like apinach, okra, or squash. Field chow, whether MREs, A-rats, or T-rats, went down just as easily as stuff I'd eat in town, and I'd go back for seconds if I could.

The only USAF chow hall I ever ate in was at Tinker AFB, and it was interesting because instead of the army's "you can't have french toast and a biscuit because that's 2 starches" their attitude seemed to be "say when!" Was the food any better? If so it wasn't so much better to justify driving the 90 miles from Ft Sill LOL


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#3230434 - 03/10/11 03:58 PM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
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Originally Posted By: Sauron
IMO, the Navy and Marine Corps have the best chow in the U.S. armed forces. In general, the food is better at shore installations, though it's not bad aboard smaller ships and submarines. Aircraft carriers are the worst. Navy and Marine cooks seem to be about equal in skill, and if you're with a Navy or Marine outfit, you can usually look forward to eating reasonably well.

Next would be the Air Force. Their chow is not as good as Navy or Marine chow, but they'll pitch up damn near anywhere with a hot meal. I was working with what is now the USAF 3rd Special Operations Squadron out in the middle of nowhere one time, and fully expected we were going to be eating C-Rats that first day. Much to my wondering eyes, a vehicle came in, four-wheel-drive with steam compartments on the back, and we lined up and had a hot meal. While not quite up to Navy and Marine standards, it was pretty good, and very surprising considering that we were many miles from anything in the jungle and they drove it all the way out to us, especially since there weren't that many of us out there!

Last, I'm sorry to say for you Army types, is the food that I've been served by the U.S. Army. It is edible. Beyond that, I can't say much. I remember being at Camp Zama one time and eating there. My first morning, I had a piece of ham with my breakfast. My partner asked me how it was. I told him, "It's the finest piece of smoked gristle I've ever eaten!" We pretty much survived on cereal for breakfast while we were there.

I also ate with the Army in Korea. Good Lord! I guess it must have to do with the number of people they're feeding, but it sure made me miss the Navy and Marines! Perhaps it's just me, but it seems like the Navy and Marine Corps get a higher quality of provisions than the other services. Maybe I've just been lucky.

At any rate, I used to save my money when we were out in the middle of nowhere or on some vessel, and one of the first things I'd do when we got back to civilization was to find a good restaurant and treat myself to a hearty meal. Most memorable? A mutton curry I had in Hong Kong. I still day dream about that meal. I started to order seafood, but the tuxedoed Chinese guy who was maitre d objected and told me that in Hong Kong, being an island, seafood was considered poor people's food and therefore the chefs' specialties tended to be land food, which they have no room to raise. So I took his advice on the mutton curry and I'm glad I did. One of the most memorable meals of my life.

So, what has been your experience vis-a-vis chow in the military?

Cheers!

Rick... cowboy
So, I see Army chow hasn't improved since I left in 1988. That Chili Mac got very old after a while.
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#3230580 - 03/10/11 07:01 PM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
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Measured in Llamathrusts
Lifer

Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 24,718
Alabaster, AL USA
It's mess hall by mess hall in the Army. The one we had in Germany was so good they used to check meal cards to ensure the folks from our unit got a chance to eat.

Then they consolidated the mess halls and it became far too uniform - to the lowest denominator. Except at training bases, where the headcount is so high their budget allows for fancy food.

Never complained about chow in the field. It's not designed to be tasty, just filling. Indeed, most of it came in exactly one flavor - tobasco.


The opinions of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.

More dumb stuff at http://www.darts-page.com

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#3230845 - 03/10/11 11:30 PM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Wklink]  
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Weasel_Keeper Offline
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Weasel_Keeper  Offline
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Veteran

Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 10,790
Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA
Cofield, when I was in Iraq in '07 the DFACs were all FREE! We didn't have to pay for anything and could eat whatever and as much as we wanted. We'd load up our cargo pockets with cereal and milk boxes and fruit on the way out. smile We still had ice cream and milk shakes, a decent salad bar, pasta bar, deli type sandwich bar, plus the regular chow line with usually three entrees and the fixin's. We even had N/A beer in ice barrels if we had a craving for beer (couldn't have alcohol in Iraq). There was mention of seafood nights with shrimp and lobsters but dinner time was while I was still sleeping since I worked from midnight to noon. I did manage to have a steak or two on my couple of days off, but most of the time I was either eating breakfast or lunch.

During my 5 day stop in Moron AB Spain on the way back from Iraq I was kind of shocked when I had to pay for chow hall food. Loaded up my tray like I did in Iraq and ended up paying like $10.00 for my meal. A little surprising since my per diem was $3.30 per day. I scaled down my eating habits after that. wink


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#3230872 - 03/11/11 12:04 AM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 8,677
kludger Offline
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kludger  Offline
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Posts: 8,677
SE Pennsylvania, USA
I really only miss the classic Army chow hall "$hit on a shingle" breakfast, which was eggs on toast with creamed beef over it all... my favorite breakfast from '87-'91.

It seemed to be cooked the same tasty way in all the chow halls I had breakfast at while in the service in US and Germany (in Saudi Arabia they didn't offer it), but I've never found a civilian restaurant that cooks it the same tasty way, probably good for my cholesterol that I've given up trying to order that.


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#3230906 - 03/11/11 12:57 AM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
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Posts: 5,872
Sauron Offline
Successor to Bill the Cat!
Sauron  Offline
Successor to Bill the Cat!
Hotshot

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Quantum Superstate
Get fat!

U.S. Army S.O.S.

1 lb. ground beef
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups evaporated milk
1 cube beef bouillon
2 cups water
4 tbsp. butter
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Brown ground beef. Remove excess fat and save for making roux. Season with salt and pepper and bouillon cube. In another pan, make roux by placing 4 tbsp. reserved fat in pan, then slowly adding flour, stirring constantly over low heat until thoroughly blended. Cook for five minutes, but do not brown. Combine milk, Worcestershire sauce, and water. Add butter. Add roux to milk mixture, stirring constantly until thoroughly blended. Then add meat mixture and cook until thickened, about 10 minutes, or until desired consistency is achieved. Serve on toast.

Cheers!

Rick... readytoeat


"We are extending ourselves in Space and Time not because of capitalism or socialism but in spite of them. The Right/Left Capitalist/Socialist establishments are psychologically unprepared for our emerging situation in Time and Space." - F. M. Esfandiary, Upwingers
#3230920 - 03/11/11 01:14 AM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
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kludger Offline
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kludger  Offline
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SE Pennsylvania, USA
Awesome Sauron, thanks for the recipe, I'm saving that to cook one of the next weekend mornings...


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#3230927 - 03/11/11 01:25 AM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
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Sauron Offline
Successor to Bill the Cat!
Sauron  Offline
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No problem! If you want the Navy version, delete the Worcestershire sauce, chop an onion and sautee it with the beef, and throw in a pinch of nutmeg or mace.

You could probably get creative and substitute Jimmy Dean pure pork sausage for the ground beef.

The recipe above is vouched for by a retired Army colonel, so it should be pretty close to the real deal, scaled down of course. I think the original recipe from the Army recipe card starts out, "Take a half ton of ground beef..."

Cheers!

Rick... hahaha


"We are extending ourselves in Space and Time not because of capitalism or socialism but in spite of them. The Right/Left Capitalist/Socialist establishments are psychologically unprepared for our emerging situation in Time and Space." - F. M. Esfandiary, Upwingers
#3230929 - 03/11/11 01:28 AM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 6,493
JoeyJoJo Offline
Wurkin' man
JoeyJoJo  Offline
Wurkin' man
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Posts: 6,493
Colorado high-country
The chow while I was in the Navy sucked...it was all frozen SYSCO food, liquid eggs, milk processed by UHT (some kind of process that made it's shelf life longer) which made it taste rotten, and the variety was pretty skimpy. Sometimes I'd rather buy a bunch of junk food in the ship's store or grab and MRE for a meal lol! Once in a while tho, we would get some decent food.

Then for my 'crank' duty (every enlisted has to do 90 days of mess duty) I worked in the officers kitchen; and of course they had full blown meals to order. Although, I got to eat some decent food and gained some weight hehe

Last edited by NoUseForAName; 03/11/11 01:34 AM.
#3231117 - 03/11/11 08:56 AM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Weasel_Keeper]  
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 11,234
LukeFF Offline
Veteran
LukeFF  Offline
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 11,234
Redlands, California
Originally Posted By: Weasel_Keeper
Overseas KBR does most of the cooking at the USAF DFACs Chow Halls, and they actually do a pretty good job. In Balad AB/LSA Anaconda Iraq the DFACs were very good, and I especially loved the made to order omlettes for breakfast. I went to work at midnight until noon, so "midnight chow" (breakfast and leftover dinner) was my main meal of the day. Omelettes, hash browns, sausage, bacon, biscuits and gravy...oh yeah! Another plus was it was as much as you can eat! smile


I was at Anaconda as well and found the chow hall to be pretty good. I mean, when you have 'surf and turf' every week, how bad can it be? biggrin



That's our dentist and one of our physicians (who are brothers).

This one has a story behind it. While we were there, the supply convoys started being attacked, so the quality/type of food being served was cut back for a while. Anyhow, there would be these signs put up around the DFACs notifying people about this, and they began with, "Due to Convoy..." After that, "due to convoy" became the catch phrase in our unit when something went wrong or didn't turn out as planned.






#3231121 - 03/11/11 09:06 AM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 11,234
LukeFF Offline
Veteran
LukeFF  Offline
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 11,234
Redlands, California
As for my time in the Army, it was hit and miss. The food in Germany was pretty good. As you see from my Iraq pics up above, it was very good. biggrin The only thing that bugged me about the food in Iraq was the milk - I just never liked the taste of it, so as a result I didn't eat much cereal when I was there.

At Fort Bragg, the food was very good. Of course, that had a lot to do with the fact I was stationed at the post hospital. Like Dart's experience, they checked ID badges to make sure hospital personnel got first dibs.

In the National Guard, it was mostly barely edible crap. Not much good I can say about it. wink

#3231879 - 03/12/11 12:13 AM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Sauron]  
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 11,752
Vertigo1 Offline
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Vertigo1  Offline
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Posts: 11,752
Zeta Aquilae System
I only ate the "surf and turf" a few times in Afghanistan. The steak was awful. Stringy and typically burned to a crisp. I don't really like seafood either.

Luke: at Fort Gordon, I would also run down to the hospital to eat.


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#3231925 - 03/12/11 01:00 AM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Vertigo1]  
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 17,303
Nixer Offline
Scaliwag and Survivor
Nixer  Offline
Scaliwag and Survivor
Veteran

Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 17,303
Living with the Trees
Army Chow here also....mostly terrible until we got a new cook. This guy did amazing things with standard army fare...I mean amazing. He actually cared.. I mean our rare "hot's" in the field were even really good when he was there.

C-Rations sucked pretty much, although you could get creative.


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#3231947 - 03/12/11 01:13 AM Re: Best Chow In the U.S. Military? [Re: Nixer]  
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 5,872
Sauron Offline
Successor to Bill the Cat!
Sauron  Offline
Successor to Bill the Cat!
Hotshot

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Posts: 5,872
Quantum Superstate
Originally Posted By: Nixer
C-Rations sucked pretty much, although you could get creative.


The best creativity of all with C-Rats is to trade everything you have for the canned peaches, LOL!

I was lucky. I liked C-Rats. I was considered insane and possibly dangerous, but people would give all the ham and motherf*ckers I could stand for free!

Cheers!

Rick... hahaha


"We are extending ourselves in Space and Time not because of capitalism or socialism but in spite of them. The Right/Left Capitalist/Socialist establishments are psychologically unprepared for our emerging situation in Time and Space." - F. M. Esfandiary, Upwingers
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