Military Rations of the World, Part 16 - Latvia!

This review is for a ration of the Nacionālie Bruņotie Spēki, or the Latvian National Armed Forces. Their military defense concept is based around a mobile professional rapid response force and a large reserve segment that can be called upon relatively fast when the need arises. It consists of approx. 4600 regular forces, 8000 national guard, and 11,000 reservists.

This one is a single meal ration, which comes in a black plastic pouch with the label on the side in Latvian and English. The plastic is a bit thinner than most ration pouches, comparable to a sturdy garbage bag.

Contents include:

-Solid fuel ration heater
-Accessory pack
-Raisins
-Main entree: Beef liver in Cream Sauce
-Rye bread (2 slices)
-Dark chocolate bar
-Honey
-Strawberry jam
-Rice pudding with peach

Inside the accessory pack (very simple):

-Sugar (20g)
-Spoon
-Tea, Yellow Lavel
-4x Instant coffee (For those extra long sentry shifts)

The little field stove in this one is one of my preferred templates, it folds out easy and is very sturdy. Strangely, it comes in a plastic bag instead of a cardboard box like every other field stove I've encountered.

Field stove in action. The wide, flat tins are ideal for this method of cooking, you can see how it's steaming and bubbling in this picture.

Time to get it out on a plate...

...nice!

One Latvian dinner: Beef liver in cream sauce, raisins and chocolate, rice pudding, coffee and tea.

First, the rye bread. This is what I was most looking forward to trying. It definitely had the rich, dark, malty smell of a nice rye bread, but was also EXTREMELY dense. Like, closer to fruitcake in density. Otherwise, it was moist and flavorful, and its rich rye flavor with a hint of molasses was a nice counterpoint to the sweetness of the honey and jam.

The chocolate is labeled 'Laima' or 'Laimo', and is of the same excellent quality that one can usually expect from a Central/Eastern European country's ration.

As for the beef liver... I understand why so many countries put it in their rations. Liver is a very dense meat packed with calories, protein and other nutrients. This doesn't change the fact that you're still eating liver. The biggest compliment I can pay to this dish is that the liver must have been thoroughly pre-cooked before canning, which greatly reduced the intensity of the metallic offal aftertaste. On its own, the cream sauce isn't too bad - more like a thick gravy.

Lastly, for dessert: Rice pudding.

You get a small packet of this, and it does expand nicely, but the smell of the peach is far more prominent than the taste of it, despite seeing little bits of it in the dish. The rice has that powdery freeze-dried texture, and the dish is mostly bland with only a hint of sweetness. If I had to eat it again, I might just throw the sugar packet in with this for best results.

As always, thanks for reading! Come back tomorrow when I will be jumping across the Baltic sea to: Norway!

http://imgur.com/gallery/Rj2O6 - Part 1 - China
http://imgur.com/gallery/Yo3ng - Part 2 - Germany
http://imgur.com/gallery/Z16Ib - Part 3 - Poland
http://imgur.com/gallery/sMZSV - Part 4 - France
http://imgur.com/gallery/qGb4K - Part 5 - USA
http://imgur.com/gallery/c39uV - Part 6 - Britain
http://imgur.com/gallery/KmiwG - Part 7 - The Netherlands
http://imgur.com/gallery/GSxfv - Part 8 - Spain
http://imgur.com/gallery/6xw4S - Part 9 - Canada
http://imgur.com/gallery/IcEr6 - Part 10 - Lithuania
http://imgur.com/gallery/aIP60 - Part 11 - Russia
http://imgur.com/gallery/K0Tws - Part 12 - Italy
http://imgur.com/gallery/nt7WB - Part 13 - Sweden
http://imgur.com/gallery/yKbax - Part 14 - Denmark
http://imgur.com/gallery/r1ZUL - Part 15 - Australia
http://imgur.com/gallery/VPTSk - Part 16 - Latvia
http://imgur.com/gallery/IXemh - Part 17 - Norway
http://imgur.com/gallery/9klVU - Part 18 - Ukraine
http://imgur.com/gallery/kmPSY - Part 19 - Japan
http://imgur.com/gallery/JocOT - Part 20 - Croatia.

http://imgur.com/gallery/4AGTJ - Humanitarian Daily Ration