Food in the Military (split from POTUS47 adm thread)

[daftandbarmy]

I spent six months eating at a British cookhouse in Afghanistan. Breakfast was usually good. I took every other meal at the Gurkha line for four months until they left. The remaining two months were pretty dire. Other deployments where I ate in KAF DFACs had pretty good food.

Although pretty plain, I can't recall any food in a British Cookhouse that I would classify as 'disgusting'.

Except the 'day after' curry made from leftover beef. It was always like chewing a meal made up of small rubber cubes.

The troops never saw a chicken curry, purpose made, and it almost kicked off a revolution at one point as I recall.

Those white colonialists are fastidious about the quality of their south Asian dining room staples...

 

[OldSolduer]

Believe it or not CFB Shilo was great.

Dundurn was very good as well.

 

[RangerRay]

Hell, I liked Wainwright hayboxes…

 

[NavyShooter]

Back in '97, I was staying in Pirbright Camp competing at the Bisley matches with the CAF Team. We ate at the mess - and oh my, it was terribad.

Until.

We took the cooks out on the town with us on a Friday night, and when we got back to camp from the pub, we convinced him to draw the keys from the guardhouse and open up - he flashed up the galley for us, and we demonstrated how to cook a proper over easy egg.

Their solution - a metal rail at the edge of the grill enabling a literal puddle of hot oil on top of the grill surface.

Our solution - a hot grill, a kiss of butter, and a flipper. The cook was amazed....he'd always been taught that the eggs would stick to the grill without the puddle of oil.

After that night, every morning one of their grills was setup for "Canadian Eggs" and we enjoyed that considerably. WORTH the beer it cost.

They'd do their deep fried toast at the same time as they did their eggs up in the puddle of oil on the grill top.

shudder

 

[AmmoTech90]

Although pretty plain, I can't recall any food in a British Cookhouse that I would classify as 'disgusting'.

It wasn't disgusting, but compared to the Gurkha cooks, 16 AA chefs couldn't keep up. Never really saw a chef at a FOB.

 

[quadrapiper]

Seems the department gets expensive tastes around September no matter who is president. Here is a article from the Daily Caller published through the Maine Wire. Seems like they have similar need of seafood and furniture.
Article Link

I’m gonna call bullshit on framing the foodstuffs as extravagance. The occasional good meal in theatre/on deployment is long established as a creature comfort for the troops.

The Daily Caller/Maine Wire's framing of salmon as a luxury item seems odd, unless it's some sort of East Coast culinary weirdness. Not exactly a regular diner at CAF steamlines, but seem to remember seeing salmon on a moderately regular basis.

 

[CBH99]

First time I ever had Apple Crisp was as a recruit doing my QL2, circa 1999/2000...the food served throughout my 11 years in was always pretty good. No complaints at all here

Whole deployed I had the opportunity to eat at a mobile field kitchen the Portugese brought with them. Holy cow!! 10/10

 

[daftandbarmy]

Back in '97, I was staying in Pirbright Camp competing at the Bisley matches with the CAF Team. We ate at the mess - and oh my, it was terribad.

Until.

We took the cooks out on the town with us on a Friday night, and when we got back to camp from the pub, we convinced him to draw the keys from the guardhouse and open up - he flashed up the galley for us, and we demonstrated how to cook a proper over easy egg.

Their solution - a metal rail at the edge of the grill enabling a literal puddle of hot oil on top of the grill surface.

Our solution - a hot grill, a kiss of butter, and a flipper. The cook was amazed....he'd always been taught that the eggs would stick to the grill without the puddle of oil.

After that night, every morning one of their grills was setup for "Canadian Eggs" and we enjoyed that considerably. WORTH the beer it cost.

They'd do their deep fried toast at the same time as they did their eggs up in the puddle of oil on the grill top.

shudder

Did they ladle a couple of hot stewed tomatoes on top, as well as a scoop of beans?

Cor Blimey, drooling now

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Believe it or not CFB Shilo was great.

Dundurn was very good as well.

I remember "Newfie night" in Shilo, fresh lobster and fried baloney. CFB Chilliwack won awards back in the 1980's. Then there was RCAF box lunches, to die for!

 

[PrairieFella]

The thought of box lunches now makes me shudder. Here's your dogshit hygaard with 300% your daily sodium.

 

[stoker dave]

I never had a problem with the quality or quantity of food on board HMC ships.

On long deployments, however, I found it became monotonous. Think of going to your favourite restaurant..... now go there three (or maybe four) times a day for four or five months straight.

 

[OldSolduer]

I never had a problem with the quality or quantity of food on board HMC ships.

On long deployments, however, I found it became monotonous. Think of going to your favourite restaurant..... now go there three (or maybe four) times a day for four or five months straight.

Gotcha.

One thing - the Bosnia tour in 1997. Our kitchen staff purchased local bread fresh baked every morning. It was awesome.

 

[Furniture]

I never had a problem with the quality or quantity of food on board HMC ships.

On long deployments, however, I found it became monotonous. Think of going to your favourite restaurant..... now go there three (or maybe four) times a day for four or five months straight.

My last trip on WIN the cooks had given up and the food was terrible, but generally you're right. Though a couple of my trips were over 8 months... That's a long time to have little say over what you eat, apart from the port visits.

 

[Lumber]

My last trip on WIN the cooks had given up and the food was terrible, but generally you're right. Though a couple of my trips were over 8 months... That's a long time to have little say over what you eat, apart from the port visits.

Who needs a calendar when you can tell the time in steak, chowder and pizza?

 

[NavyShooter]

NATO 05 - we put into Wilhelmshaven for a 10-12 day RAMP (Rest And Maintenance Period) where about 1/2 the crew flew home on LTA.

Those of us left behind actually spent the time doing maintenance - and resting.

One of the mornings I went up to the upper decks about 11 or so, and saw that the cooks had setup the BBQ down on the Jetty and were starting to burn burgers for us. I headed down and took over from one of them on the BBQ and told him to take a break. I stayed behind the BBQ for the entire prep/lunch time doing the burgers, browning buns as requested, etc....at one point someone brought me a couple cans of beer....and damn...it was almost like being home for a few minutes. BBQ, Beer, Friends, Beef. It was good.

 

[FJAG]

Hell, I liked Wainwright hayboxes…

Whenever we went there we had our own field kitchens with us. The only time I ate in the mess was when I went there much, much later to do a court martial.

he flashed up the galley for us, and we demonstrated how to cook a proper over easy egg.

Their solution - a metal rail at the edge of the grill enabling a literal puddle of hot oil on top of the grill surface.

They'd do their deep fried toast at the same time as they did their eggs up in the puddle of oil on the grill top

Went to the Brit's 14th Fd Regt's field kitchen for breakfast once when they were there with 3 RCHA. I swear that the "hot plate" they had had about a 1" rim on it all around which was over half filled with grease/oil/lard or what have you and they floated their eggs and toast in that

Did they ladle a couple of hot stewed tomatoes on top, as well as a scoop of beans?

No to tomatoes. yes to beans.

One thing - the Bosnia tour in 1997. Our kitchen staff purchased local bread fresh baked every morning. It was awesome.

With the Alpini in the Alps. Hard to believe that Italian food can be bland and boring but it was - OTOH there was fresh crusty bread in heaping baskets and red wine (and occasionally ration pack brandy) so everything was perfect.

 

[OldTanker]

Serving with RSS SALH late 90s, working summer at Dundurn. I used to go home most weekends but over the August long weekend I volunteered to be the duty officer for the weekend to allow the other folks who live further away to have a long weekend at home. I was the only officer on the camp and eating in the officers' mess. When I went in for breakfast on the Saturday there was only one kitchen staff on duty, a young First Nations lady (we had contracted out the food services to a company that normally serviced oil camps). She served me my breakfast and said since I was the only one eating in the mess, would I like something special for supper that night? Sure, says I. She said bring a bottle of white wine at lunch then. So I did, but wasn't sure what would be the result of giving this young lady a bottle of of wine (I won't discuss my prejudices of the day). Come supper time I ambled into the dining room. The lights were off and there was one set table, complete with candle and flowers. The table had been set with a very nice gingham tablecloth. I sat down and noticed my bottle of wine, half empty, sitting on the table. Well, this should be interesting, thinks I. Shortly the young lady brings out a beautiful meal, some chicken concoction, very tasty indeed. She came over a bit later and asked me how I was enjoying my meal. Delicious, I said, but not oil camp standards. She chuckled and said "I only work the oil camps to make money for my studies. During the rest of the year I am attending the Cordon Bleu Academy in Paris studying to be a red seal chef. I needed the practice of cooking something special for a change." Wow. So much for my prejudices. Lesson learned. Don't judge a book by its cover.

 

[Halifax Tar]

Things may have changed slightly since I last spoke to a cook about this, but the CAF has recently (last 10 ish years I believe) gone to standardized menus across the CAF. Every CAF galley is serving the same food with the same recipes following the same cooking instructions... except in the Navy. Since ships have to order food that's available at local ports, they are unable to strictly adhere to the prescribed recipe. This allows for both flexibility in ingredients and flexibility in recipe. And this "allowance" seems to persist even when ships are alongside Halifax/Victoria and do have access to the exact ingredients required by CAF standard. For example, if you were making baked haddock at the Galley in Halifax, and the recipe says to add just salt and pepper and bake, then you can do that and that only. But, if you are a cook on a ship and say "You know what... we have some extra sliced almond... what if I lightly floured the haddock piece and then pressed a thin layer of sliced almonds on top before I bake them?", you could do that, and the crew will love you for it.

@HalifaxTar, what did you let your cooks get away with?

While I was the log chief I know we'll enough not to get in the way of their creativity lol.

Personally I couldn't care less what we spend on food. It's one of the few little things we have in Navy so I'm cool buying what ever they like.

Now a days we cater ever supper on foreign ports. Trying to give the galley crew some rest.

Back in '97, I was staying in Pirbright Camp competing at the Bisley matches with the CAF Team. We ate at the mess - and oh my, it was terribad.

Until.

We took the cooks out on the town with us on a Friday night, and when we got back to camp from the pub, we convinced him to draw the keys from the guardhouse and open up - he flashed up the galley for us, and we demonstrated how to cook a proper over easy egg.

Their solution - a metal rail at the edge of the grill enabling a literal puddle of hot oil on top of the grill surface.

Our solution - a hot grill, a kiss of butter, and a flipper. The cook was amazed....he'd always been taught that the eggs would stick to the grill without the puddle of oil.

After that night, every morning one of their grills was setup for "Canadian Eggs" and we enjoyed that considerably. WORTH the beer it cost.

They'd do their deep fried toast at the same time as they did their eggs up in the puddle of oil on the grill top.

shudder

There is a reason a nick name for them is shit eaters.

 

[The Bread Guy]

... With the Alpini in the Alps. Hard to believe that Italian food can be bland and boring but it was ...

I may be prejudiced with relatives from central Italy, but even though you can find great food anywhere in Italy, I've found that "butter Italy" cuisine in the north is a bit less ... Mediterranean than "olive oil Italy"

 

[Blackadder1916]

When I think back to service provided vittles there were many meals that I would classify as good, maybe some as exceptional; probably just as many that were mediocre and some that were inedible. However, there are few occasions that I specifically recall that I use as benchmarks for specific culinary items.

The best scrambled eggs - from a haybox in the hut at the Granville range during my basic training.

The best ham sandwich - on a service air flight shortly after takeoff from Cairo; the cabin flight crew handed them out, not part of the meal service, because someone obviously was aware that we, after months of the cardboard like bread we typically got in Ismailia, would appreciate the simplicity of tasty, soft bread, good butter and ham. Well done, the flight crew and the flight kitchen at Lahr.

The best strip steak and baked potato - from a kitchen trailer, manned only by a single Cpl cook while on Fallex out in the RMA. I had Evac Coy HQ and Amb Pl set up in an abandoned quarry and the Evac Pls were deployed a few miles away. Because the rest of the Fd Amb remained back at the Hohenfels cantonments, one of the two kitchen trailers was sent with us because of the distance (normally they remained together, one for meals for unit members, the other theoretically for patients). Not only was the meal perfectly prepared, but I was amazed that the Cpl not only singlehandedly set up and cammed his vehicle and trailer but also prepped the meal and hayboxed it for the two deployed platoons (who also gave glowing reviews about the quality of the meal).

And from excellent performance by an army cook to . . .

The worst performance by a military cook* - while on course in Borden, one Sunday evening we went to the kitchen for supper. The only choice on the menu was something the cook called "sweet and sour luncheon meat with rice". Basically it was generic spam (or a spam-like substance) in a brownish sauce. It might have been a proprietary sweet and sour sauce but it could just have been a conglomeration of whatever was leftover in any condiment bottles. After our overwhelming objections to this was brought to the Duty Cpl, who brought it to the Duty Sgt who brought it to the Duty O who brought it to the KO (who was at home enjoying his Sunday expecting that the MCpl i/c of that shift would have the meal in hand) who came in and tore a strip off the MCpl and questioned him about what happened to the rations that were planned for that meal.

* other than the cook alleged to have been discovered having sexual relations with bologna