GBM & MRE’s images promised 5 months ago
Category: Food and Restaurants

Just take a close look at each of these images and read what is written on them. Its funny because it exists.

MRE Heating Bag

Chunky Salsa Front:  It says chicken breast strips with rib meat and chunky salsa.  Then under allergens at the bottom, it says "also contains fish."  What? 

Chunky Salsa Back

Rice Pilaf Back

Rice Pilaf Front:  Colored with Thurmeric?  Thats just fucking scary 

11:25 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

(George Bush Market) GBM & MRE’s Part II
Category: Life

Hello folks, I have no pictures for you today due to technical difficulties.  Meaning that I lent my camera to a friend and it was promptly stolen from his store the next day.  So technically I'm pissed and now it's going to be difficult to get pictures.  Technical Difficulties. We will proceed with no visual aids for now.

Clearly printed on the MRE bag, amongst other things are the following:

                                              GOVERNMENT PROPERTY

COMMERCIAL RESALE IS UNLAWFUL

AND

FLAMELESS RATION HEATERS ARE PROHIBITED ON COMMERCIAL AIRLINES UNLESS SEALED IN ORIGINAL MRE MENU BAG

That flameless ration heater thingy is going to come up again before I'm done here.

I'm not going to pretend that I know exactly how these people get to have MRE's for sale at the affordable price of $USD 0.60 each, but I can imagine.  Now, these folks in the stores are no thieves or bandits.  They obviously buy products and resell them for profit, plain and simple.  Somewhere in this country somehow, US supply trucks are being intercepted, unloaded and the goods brought to GBM for resale.  The good news is that George Bush's approval ratings are the highest in this marketplace, long live the Bush. Oh, and you wont find any Ratpacks in this market either, so they must be doing something right. 

So I bought 10 of them, I figured if soldiers can survive off of this stuff then I can too. I got two of each of these menus: Beef Stew, Chicken Fajita, Chicken With Salsa, Beefsteak With Mushroom and Chili & Macaroni.  Despite the menu labeling I was not ready for the contents.   Each MRE is generically the same in the sense that the constituent parts that make an MRE are the same across menus.  Each of those parts however varies greatly from one menu to the other.  The writing on the little boxes is somewhat un-nerving and the instructions for the flameless ration heater thingy are both funny and scary.  The writing, images and nutritional images on the boxes is what makes me want to have images so much.  In fact, I'm not going to write about it much more until I can get some images up.  I don't care if I have to scan the boxes and bags, I'm getting images up tomorrow. 

There's a seal on one of these packages that says INSPECTED FOR WHOLESOMENESS BY U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE P-19076

Wholesomeness???  What is that?  For crying out loud, you need to see that shit.

9:42 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

(George Bush Market) GBM and MRE’s part I
Category: Life

There are these markets here in Kabul that cater specifically to the large population of foreigners who come to Afghanistan.  By cater I mean that these markets carry products that most local Afghans either cant afford or don't want/use.  These types of places come in handy when I get cravings for a snickers bar or cornflakes.  Name brand products I am familiar with that have visible (non-expired) expiration dates, that's what I am looking for at these markets.  Having these kinds of places here makes my apartment feel more like home and helps keep homesickness at bay.  Having lived here for almost two and a half years now, I liked to think that I knew the whereabouts of all such markets in Kabul.  I was so wrong.

One day last year, after some shopping, my driver was helping me unload the car.  He asked me if I had ever been to George Bush Market.  Looking at the things I had bought that day, he figured that I would also like to shop there.  I had never heard of George Bush Market so I was definitely intrigued based on name recognition alone and I asked him to take me there next time we go out shopping.  He tells me that it's really safe because it's right next to a police station and right in the city etc…     So next time we went shopping, we made a stop at GBM.  Let me just say this before I say anything else.  George Bush Market has to be the best, most affordable market in Kabul with fresh products available that the expatriate community desires.  It just doesn't look good and most foreigners I know wouldn't be caught dead there, for fear of being caught dead there.  Let me explain by first explaining what it looks like and then by explaining exactly what GBM really is.

George Bush Market consists of 2-3 rows of shops, located on the Jalalabad Road (Kabul's IED alley).  These shops are no more than empty shipping containers with one wall and the floor cut out, turning the container into a makeshift store.  I must have driven past GBM over 500 times since I moved here and never knew it existed.  Since it is directly adjacent to a second hand goods market, I just thought it was part of the second hand goods market.  It's grimy & muddy, the walkways aren't paved and there are lots of desperately poor folk walking around soliciting donations.  But as soon as you walk into one of those stores, you begin to see things that look familiar.  Dr. Pepper & Snapple by the case, chocolate and vanilla pudding, mozzarella cheese by the brick, individual servings of canned fruit, individual cereal servings, boxes of Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies, huge vacuum packed pre-spiced and cooked bags of chicken fajita and tortillas, Gatorade by the case, protein shake mix in those ridiculously huge jars.  I wondered to myself "where does all of this come from, and how can the prices be so low?" 

The answer came to me in the form of an MRE. 

Americans call them Meals Ready to Eat the Brits call theirs Ratpacks short for Ration Packets.  Brits also call American MRE's Meals Rejected by Ethiopians, but we won't get into that today. 

To be continued….

With pictures….

I think…..

5:37 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Check this out
Category: Sports

I hung out with these folks today.  We skated this empty dried out fountain in the city.  These folks are awesome.

www.skateistan.org

9:27 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Not again.....
Category: Travel and Places

Yes again!

I'm on another flight this afternoon to LAX in order to get back in town for my best friend Mike's wedding.  I'll only be there for a  week so hit me up if you are in the LA area and you want to hang.

9:27 PM - 4 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Back in Dubai
Current mood: exhausted
Category: Travel and Places

I made it safely to Dubai folks, my flight to Kabul boards in about 3 hours.  Once again, my apologies to those of you whom I was unable to visit or contact.  This time around, my vacation was all about hanging with my family and getting back in touch with them.  Keep in touch though, I will be back in about 3 weeks for my best friend Mike's wedding in May.  I will post again when I get to Kabul, but not until I get some sleep.  The last time I slept properly was two nights ago in Paris.  Lots of stuff going on this year, lots of stuff whirling around my dome.  I'll resurface when the dust settles though, I'm sure of it. 

2:28 PM - 2 Comments - 3 Kudos - Add Comment

My new US number...

is 310 748 8101

Hit me up!

1:18 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

It’s done
Current mood: anxious
Category: Travel and Places

Finally I was able to book a ticket.  I’ll be in LA on the 19th yall, see you soon!

11:47 AM - 10 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment

Hmmmmmm

The way some people misunderstand Marley's "No woman, no cry" lyrics makes me think that no harm no foul should mean the same to them as: leave them ducks alone. 

Random thought

That is all

Currently listening : None Shall Pass By Aesop Rock Release date: 28 August, 2007

12:04 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Blame the wind
Current mood: melancholy
Category: Writing and Poetry

Today I stood in awe

watching the treacherous southern wind

push a cloud mound, northbound

down the peak of a mountain

like reluctant minutemen

in pyroclastic mimicry.

A gaudy march.

Trouble.

I tried to tell myself that it's just a mountain, some clouds and a strong wind.

But, I've never been much of a salesman so there's no surprise

when I realise that I'm not going to buy this shit either.

So I own up to what has happened and I blame the wind.

Today the wind is not with me

Today the wind is against me

Today, the smell of death preceded the wind

like it's own reputation for being cold.

They say don't kill the messenger.

What if there is no one else left alive?

My head hums like rattled bee hives.

R.I.P

Commander Zubair Tokhi

????-2007

Presumed to be almost 40 years old.

This rock just got a whole lot less interesting.

Currently listening : Liberation By Talib Kweli & Madlib Release date: 20 March, 2007

10:52 PM - 4 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment