Mid Rats at their unfinest!

[Brinktk]

In the Infantry/Artillery/Armor, midrats usually consisted of beef jerky and a dip of snuff.

And coffee...you can't forget the coffee!

[Gun Grape]

One of the things I miss from my Jarhead days.

Mess deck/chow hall coffee cake. None better

[dundonrl]

Nothing wrong with chilimac. I always liked the S.O.S. though in spite of what everyone else may have thought of it. Lots of pepper on it, that's what made it edible.

chilimac and SOS.. good eatin there..

[Tamara]

Well, tonight, it was a few handfulls of that spaghetti in the bag in the frig.

Trying to do better.....just haven't been able to do it everyday.

[tbm3fan]

Well if your wife were Filipina, and a great cook, then you could have some Sinigang fish one night and then Chicken Adobo with lots of long beans added the next night. She knows me enough to know I won't eat the more typical Filipino dishes that are fried in oil. Actually the only fried food I will eat is her lumpia which are to die for.

[Tamara]

Well, not quite mid rats but.........

Working on improving my eating habits today, so for dinner, I made a salad and spaghetti (Angel Hair). Made salad in the big bowl, took my dinner salad in a small bowl and put the rest of the big bowl in the frig. Cooked up all the spaghetti that was in the silo, probably somewhere under a pound. Small plate to dinner (with anchovy paste, Parmessian, kippers, and croutons); large amount, large baggie to the freezer; smaller amount, large baggie to the refrigerator.

So I'll have a supply of noodles for quick meals for about two weeks. I mean, I won't eat spaghetti every night, have Moors & Christians, stews, potatoes other days.

And the rest of the salad? Salad in a baggie for here at work.....which I am about to go eat.

[dundonrl]

Not chili and rice . . . it's chili and macaroni, or simply "chilimac." I liked it so much that I make it to this very day when short on time and ideas. My kids love it too!

ChiliMac MRE's..my favorite :)

[Albany Rifles]

In the Infantry/Artillery/Armor, midrats usually consisted of beef jerky and a dip of snuff.

[Tamara]

About paying for it. Well, that was one of the points that was once made to me.

Ie....."You're going to pay more if you want deli meats at mid rats as oppose to just what is left over. Further, mid rats are meant more to be a way for officers who have missed a meal than for everyone to have a 4th meal."

As things go, two items I remember about eating on ship.

One was picking up my breakfast, often, on a paper plate from the wardroom galley and eating it on the way to morning flight quarters for helos. Perhaps I didn't do that everyday, but it seems I did it often enough.

Secondly, I often volunteered to sample the mess decks. I found that I didn't over eat as much nor spend as much time at meals. An unfortunate disadvantage, though, was that it contributed to an isolation from the other officers.

[Genosaurer]

Actually, that's not always true. One must keep in mind is that officers actually pay for the food they eat.

As does every enlisted sailor - it's just that we pay in a slightly more indirect way, in the form of having our Basic Allowance for Sustenance immediately and entirely deducted from our paycheck for the duration of the time we're attached to a command with a galley. We did some number crunching on watch (nothing better to do on a 9-month deployment) and concluded that E-6 and above enlisted sailors actually pay more per month in lost BAS for the enlisted galley than they would if they were pocketing it and paying to eat in the wardroom.

[Tamara]

I was on one ship where the worst cook around was rotated regularly between the mess decks and the ward room.

[Squirrel]

Actually, that's not always true. One must keep in mind is that officers actually pay for the food they eat. We have a mess bill every month and for some reason I've never understood, there is always some asshole that tries to cut corners so that he (we) can pocket more of that mess bill money. My take on it is that you are usually in some asshole of the world, and one of the few things we have going for us is decent food, so why are we eating fucking grilled cheese sandwiches three times per day while the crew is having fried chicken for dinner, hamburgers for lunch, and breakfast to order at 0600? When I was XO/CO I always put it to a vote in the wardroom. Who wants to eat off the mess decks? The vote was generally unanimous for eating what the crew was eating. We just ate off of real plates instead of aluminum trays.

I know that O's have to pay, my DIVO reminds me of that when I would bust his balls for walking into the shop with a fresh-made breakfast burrito full of real eggs, cheese, hashbrowns, and sausage. I've worked in the Chief's Mess, and the Wardroom. I've seen the differences when I was cranking.

How the wardroom resolves their differences here versus your boats, I have no idea. But, they had it pretty good on deployment. Not every day, no...but damn, MUCH better than what we were getting on a regular basis.

I think that this has probably been a point of difference since time immemorial.

[kato]

Mom taught me that fish was not meant for leftovers due to food poisoning concerns.

Mmm. My Dad taught me that leftovers don't exist. Hunger winter of 1946 experience as a kid. If there's something coming on the table you eat it. Probably also influenced by my grandparents, who experienced the Beet Winter of 1916 as youths.

The vote was generally unanimous for eating what the crew was eating. We just ate off of real plates instead of aluminum trays.

At the base i was stationed at, if you were on duty on the weekends, you ate in the NCO mess, since the enlisted mess was closed. Compared to what we regularly got that was almost restaurant quality. And not talking fast-food either. Real meat, potatoes that weren't fit for pigs, desserts that weren't concocted from the apples grown on the local training grounds. Made by the same kitchen though - that would have been the difference for officers.

[desertswo]

It's a far cry from the mess decks to the wardroom, Sir...

Actually, that's not always true. One must keep in mind is that officers actually pay for the food they eat. We have a mess bill every month and for some reason I've never understood, there is always some asshole that tries to cut corners so that he (we) can pocket more of that mess bill money. My take on it is that you are usually in some asshole of the world, and one of the few things we have going for us is decent food, so why are we eating fucking grilled cheese sandwiches three times per day while the crew is having fried chicken for dinner, hamburgers for lunch, and breakfast to order at 0600? When I was XO/CO I always put it to a vote in the wardroom. Who wants to eat off the mess decks? The vote was generally unanimous for eating what the crew was eating. We just ate off of real plates instead of aluminum trays.

[desertswo]

Hmmm... what are you guys talking about. Our guys in Iraq and A-stan envied your food

You know how it is. No matter how bad you think you have it, there is always someone who has it worse. There were times I didn't eat dinner because it was just so sucky it couldn't be eaten. However, I had an insight that others didn't. As the Engineering Auxiliaries Officer, I owned all of the non-propulsion related equipment . . . including all of that stuff in the galley and scullery. All of the ovens, mixers, refrigerators, etc., etc., etc., belonged to me and my men as far as repair and maintenance were concerned, so we were in their spaces fairly often and I saw how the guys who made the food ate. I found it interesting that they were eating things like peppered beef on rice, while we were eating freaking dog food, or a close relative of it, so I approached the assistant supply officer in charge of the galleys and told him that if I saw the mess cooks eating better food than the crew again, I was going to drop a dime on him to the XO. Food suddenly got better over night. Funny how making them "an offer they can't refuse" always seems to work, yes?