Last month at the IDEX expo in Abu Dhabi I was able to pick up a few main meal retort pouches from LSS (Loyalty Support Services) of Jordan, writes Bob Morrison.
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In the past I have made mention of the LSS military ration pack retort pouch main meal options, which are an alternative to the original meal trays, but at previous expos samples had been unavailable to take away. When attending IDEX 2025 I was offered a tray meal in addition to three different retort pouches so I opted for LSS Kufta Meat With Tahini, a dish which I enjoy but have previously only sampled in the self-heating version (see here).
Naturally these Jordanian-produced pouch meals, which mostly mirror the trays in their choice of Middle East and International cuisine options, are Halal-certified where appropriate and are therefore also suitable for inclusion in LSS Humanitarian Rations packs produced for regions with a Muslim population. Personally I love Middle Eastern food and while in Abu Dhabi I sought out an Iranian / Persian restaurant because the one I occasionally frequented in London over the last quarter century or so didn’t survive the COVID crisis so I was suffering withdrawal systems… but that’s another story. Back to LSS.
A Loyalty Support Services ‘### With Chicken’ ration pack main meal, of which there are several different flavours with either plain or Basmati rice for added variety, weigh 250g and provide between about 320 kcal to 450kcal apiece in total, dependent on type; the missing 70kcal being provided by an accompaniment in keeping with the style of the original meal as usually served in the civilian world. The three main meal pouches I was given were Mandi Rice With Chicken, Freekeh With Chicken and Kabseh Rice With Chicken; other similar mains include Machbous Rice With Chicken, Madhbi Rice With Chicken and Qidreh With Chicken. Lamb, veal and fish dishes are also produced by LSS along with vegetarian options such as pasta-based and bean-based dishes.
For this review I heated the Mandi Rice With Chicken pouch, simply simmering it in the bag for eight minutes and then decanting into a Wildo CAMP-A-BOX bowl for the photo. As expected, it was full of flavour. For those who are unfamiliar with Mandi, this is a Yemeni dish which is popular in much of Arabia. Traditionally Mandi is slow-cooked with charcoal in a clay oven or a fire pit, with the meat first boiled in spices and then suspended in steam above for hours while the rice is cooked in a pan underneath using the meat stock.
The Kufta (Kofta) Meat With Tahini tray meal, which I also heated by boiling though being in a metal container it could alternatively be warmed in a mess tin over a fuel tablet cooker, also provided a tasty main course; usually flatbread rather than rice would be the accompaniment for this dish. Tahini is made from ground sesame, which gives the dish its distinctive flavour; the Kufta (kebab) in this meal was veal and the accompanying chunks of potatoes were boiled. In this case the contents weighed just 200g, but according to the carton it would have provided 590kcal.
At present I don’t have any trips to the Middle East pencilled in until the end of the year, though there is a slight possibility that I might be able to slip in an assignment in Jordan in early summer dependent on other commitments, so rather than binge eating on the Freekeh and Kabseh (my favourite) retort pouches I have held them to one side as a treat for another day.
Footnote: For my next Rations feature I plan to look at a couple of the latest German / Estonian freeze-dried meal pouches produced by Tactical Foodpack, which I picked up at Enforce Tac last month. In the pipeline are Norwegian Arctic, German EPa and American MRE ration packs picked up by my colleague Carl Schulze on recent exercises.
[images © Bob Morrison]
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