'Tastes unusual but quite nice': British YouTuber wowed by Singapore's army combat rations

Typically, we don't think of army combat rations as tasty.

But not everyone shares the same sentiments. 

In a YouTube video uploaded on April 27, a British content creator called Jono, who now resides in Greece, bought and did a taste test of our field rations. 

And he actually enjoyed the food. 

Jono had ordered a 24-hour ration pack from eBay for €60 (S$88) and shared that only the main meals were sent to him. 

He said he then paid an extra €15 to get the accessory pack from elsewhere, which came with chocolate biscuits and apricot and honey cereal bars. 

This was still incomplete so he sourced some items like Pocari Sweat, Milo 3-in-1 powder and soursop drink on his own to "fill in the gaps". 

For the main meals, he received a pack of mushroom and basil rice chicken, and Javanese noodles with chicken franks. 

It also came with a dessert of sweet pumpkin with barley and nata. 

Taste test 

The first dish the YouTuber tried —mushroom and basil rice chicken—already left him pretty impressed. 

"Well that smells pretty good!" he said as he poured out and mixed the food, adding that the meal came with a generous amount of chicken. 

"Very nice! Very strong flavour of chicken and basil." 

Up next was the noodles with chicken franks. 

Upon first bite, the YouTuber remarked that the dish was "quite unusual" and had a "smokey, sweet flavour to it". 

He also pointed out that the chicken franks tasted like just regular hotdogs. 

However, he did enjoy it and said it was on par with the mushroom and basil rice chicken. 

"Very nice! I'd be very happy if I was a solider and I was getting this," Jono said, giving it a thumbs up. 

Moving on, he tried the chocolate biscuits. 

"They taste very good!" he praised. 

Jono was also impressed that the portion size was generous. 

"I can't believe you get two packs of these, five [biscuits] in each! That's 10 biscuits." 

The YouTuber thoroughly enjoyed the apricot and honey cereal bars too.

"It's very tasty. It's quite moist in the middle, packed full of energy, of course. Yeah, very good!" 

The final food item he tried was the sweet pumpkin with barley and nata. 

"That's very unusual but actually quite nice," he remarked, describing the dessert as sweet and creamy. 

He also suggested that one should eat it for breakfast. 

"Another nice course in this ration pack," Jono praised. 

Overall, he concluded that it was a "pretty good" ration pack. 

AsiaOne has reached out to Jono for more details. 

In a Reddit Singapore thread about the video, several Singaporeans shared that they actually quite like our combat rations. 

One said that back when he was in the army, he would sometimes eat these if he was lazy to go to the cookhouse. 

Others shared their favourites such as curry noodles and biscuits. 

"It was so good [that] people were willing to buy them with cash during outfield," revealed a netizen. 

There was also someone who pointed out that Singapore's ration packs have progressed over time. 

He shared that back in the 90s, our combat rations were an "embarrassment" and nothing compared to what the Australians were getting. 

ALSO READ: 2 YouTubers from UK review Singapore army field rations

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