MRE stands for “Meals Ready to Eat.” This is what soldiers in battle zones survive on for weeks, even months at a time. They have a reputation for tasting like cardboard, and completely blah. Many times all you have to do is just add hot water. Although most people don’t realize it, MRE technology has come a long way since WWII. Not so long ago my office was above the lab where astronaut MREs are made, and let me tell you, I tried some great stuff. Now it seems that British soldiers will be getting chicken tikka masala as part of their battlefield rations:

An Army marches on its stomach and the British troops will soon have Indian curry, chicken balti and pulau rice on its ration instead of tinned cheese, stodgy casseroles and stale biscuits.

In the biggest change to the armed forces’ rations for 40 years, a new generation of meals are currently being tried out that are not only supposed to taste better, but embrace healthy eating as well, a spokesman of the Ministry of Defence has said.

Designed to last for up to three years in any climate, the new boil-in-the bag meals have been brought in by the ministry to try to calm discontent in the ranks over outdated menus, as well as complaints about the quality of British ration packs compared to the ones given in the US.

I’m not surprised. Indian food IS the most popular food in England. But won’t the soldiers need fennel seeds afterwards also?