Unboxing & Taste Test: UK 24-Hour Military Rations - Menu #19

I'm a big fan of YouTubers like Ashens who do unboxings and taste tests of food - especially food that's a bit different from what we normally eat on a day-to-day basis. After watching a few unboxing and taste test videos of military rations, I decided I wanted to try one too.

I found tons of them for sale on eBay - despite the box being covered in warnings that it was the property of the Ministry of Defence and wasn't to be resold. Oh dear.

Anyway, I scrutinised the menus rigorously, as I didn't want one that came with baked beans - as I can't stand them. I ultimately decided on a menu #19 box and ordered it. The box was £5, and the postage was a couple of quid on top of that - so I got it for just under a tenner. Not bad, considering it was a whole day's worth of food that I did actually eat.

Here's an annotated photo of the entire contents of this ration pack:

1 - Pack of tissues
2 - Stormproof matches
3 - Water purification tablets
4 - Spork
5 - Antibacterial wipes
6 - Coffee sachets
7 - Tea bags
8 - Sugar sachets
9 - Creamer sachets
10 - Tabasco Green
11 - Caramel flavoured hot chocolate drink
12 - Dental chewing gum
13 - Grapefruit flavoured drink powder
14 - Orange flavoured drink powder
15 - Blackcurrant flavoured drink powder
16 - Apple flavoured energy drink powder
17 - Fruitful museli
18 - Chicken in yellow curry with rice
19 - Potato and leek soup
20 - Sticky toffee pudding
21 - Cookies & cream cereal bar
22 - Ginger oat biscuits
23 - Chili beef jerky
24 - Nuts cocktail
25 - Fruit pocket (apple, blackcurrant & raspberry)
26 - Melon, mango & pineapple fruit mix
27 - Squeezy peanut butter
28 - Fruit & nougat bar

So I made two videos documenting this little foray into the world of military rations; an unboxing video and a taste test video. I even ate all of the food out of a partitioned metal tray with the provided spork for added realism. Admittedly I cooked my food pouches in a pan of boiling water on a gas oven rather than an open fire - but I don't trust myself near open flames to be honest.

Unboxing Video:


Taste Test Video:


Included with my ration pack was a feedback form, which I also filled out:

Honestly, some of the stuff in there was AMAZING. I could totally live on the chicken curry, sticky toffee pudding, nougat bars, cereal bars and nuts cocktails. The oaty biscuits and peanut butter weren't bad either, and very filling. The only food I didn't really enjoy were what I predicted anyway; muesli, as I'm not a big fan of it, dried fruit, same story and beef jerky, because it tastes like salty old shoes. The drinks were a bit lacking, but then I subsist purely on fizzy pop, I'm not really familiar with powdered juice mixes.

I'm keeping an eye on the eBay listings - if I spot any other ration packs that look good and are a decent price - I will be more than happy to try them. I wouldn't mind sampling some from other countries too. :)

Mog Anarchy Visits The National Media Museum's GAME LOUNGE!

So, on Sunday I took a trip down to Bradford to visit the National Media Museum. It's a massive building that is full of media-related history - including TV, cinema, the Internet and of course, the floor I  was most interested in: VIDEO GAMES.

The 6th floor is home to the GAME LOUNGE; which is a big room filled with refurbished arcade cabinets and old consoles you can actually play on. I'd like to add that they're all free to play too - except Space Invaders (which costs 10p) and Point Blanc (which costs 50p) - admission into the museum is also totally free.

The cabinets included:

Space Invaders, Point Blank, Gauntlet, Donkey Kong, Defender, Asteroids & Frogger

The console games included:
Super Mario Kart, Pong, Manic Miner, Prince Of Persia, Goldeneye 64 & Sonic The Hedgehog 2

The whole Games Lounge is nicely decorated with full wall-length murals of classic video game iconography and even features these lovely Tetris-block seats to sit at to play the table-style arcade cabinets and console set-ups.

It also features a classic staple of virtually every British museum and tourist attraction - the penny press! Basically you pay a £1 coin and a 1p coin to flatten out the 1p coin and stamp a design onto it. Here's the two I got made - a Pac-Man one and a Space Invaders one.

To round this blog off nicely, here's a compilation of the videos I filmed during my trip; my guided tour of the Games Lounge and several videos of me being way too overexcited trying out the games and arcade cabinets - even losing my ZX Spectrum virginity, playing Manic Miner for the first time!

They also sold a wide array of gaming merchandise in the gift shop - including an awesome messenger bag, Tetris stickers, books, Pixel Bricks and more!

Fable Anniversary's Pause Screen Suggestion

While playing Fable Anniversary, if the batteries in your Xbox controller die or a wired controller is unplugged, you will be greeted with this message:

This is why is love Fable; it's SO BRITISH. And it's not the sort of British most video games are - either taking the piss out of Britain or completely misinterpreting Britain. I know most Americans, when they think of the UK will think of LONDON and nothing else. A "British" accent is a London accent - which in itself is a misnomer, there are shitloads of boroughs (and for Americans, that is pronounced like "burrows") of London, all with their own unique accents and dialects. Most people from outside of the UK have no idea where I'm from, because my accent "doesn't sound British". 

In addition, if there's ever a level or world based on the UK, what do they use? Tower Bridge, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham fucking Palace, the London Eye and Big Ben - London, London, London, London and London. I'm from the UK and I've never even BEEN to London! The closest thing to London I've visited is Essex - and if you don't live in the UK, you won't know where that is either. Ugh. 

Rant over, I think I shall take the pause screen's advice and treat myself to a cup of tea AND an apple.

I've just noticed how FUCKED that picture looks. The mug is one of those oversized ones and the apple is one of those mini kids' apples. Whoops. :)