My wife I tried almost all of the labriute meals recently on a trip to the bahamas. We had two complaints - the first as you noted, was that the food did not really look like the pictures on the boxes. The second was specific to the cheese ravioli - while it tasted fine, it tasted more like soy ravioli than cheese ravioli, and again it did not look like the picture on the box.However, as far as taste goes the meals were actually quite good. My wife didn’t like the mashed potatoes because the potatoes had lumps instead of being smooth. But the vegetarian stuffed cabage, and the beef stew we both agreed were very good. Personally as a kosher traveler they are great - no refrigeration, no preservatives, no microwave and you get a hot filling generally good tasting meal (each box also contains an instant noodle soup packet, and mini cookies). By the way, you don’t actually need to wait 14 minutes. The food seems to reach peak heat at about 7-8 minutes. The last 7 minutes of the time are to let it cool off. If you use these in airport however, find a discreet place to activate it, since it generates a lot of susipicious looking steam the first 3 minutes.

I’ve tried several of the La Briute meals and thought they were virtually inedible. The self-heating concept is very clever and works well.

While I was disappointed with the turkey and mashed potatoes, my husband like it. My son has had the beef stew and the ravioli and enjoyed both. The LaBriute meals are better than airline food and the convenience makes using them worthwhile. My cousins travel with 5 children and they all love the meals.

Just for the record, the turkey is the only one I’ve tried that I was really disappointed with. The others are a closer match to the picture, or at least still look like food.

I’ve found that they’re good for packing for scheduled trips to the hospital (like to have a baby, where you have some notice) in places far from NY where they just have no clue how to feed kosher consumers. After numerous explanations of the need for plastic cutlery, etc., and convincing them that no, I can’t just eat a plain baked potato from your oven since you refuse to bake it completely wrapped in foil, the mealmart or wilton’s meals they “stock” are usually freezer burned, are barely enough food, and are likely to pop open while heating, making their kashrus questionable.

But no, I wouldn’t serve LaBriute for dinner because I didn’t feel like cooking. That’s what hot dogs and balogna are for.

Oh, and one more thing.

Be careful taking these on planes. I had two instances (out of many, mind you) where the saline pouch ruptured, and not due to mishandling. Luckily, though (or unluckily), the package seem to be oriented in such a way as the liquid did not contact the magnesium strip, but spilled out of the box. I’m always surprised, though, that TSA doesn’t have a problem with the package.

I recently tried the LaBriute beef stew meal, and I was pleasantly surprised. Not only wasn’t it bad, it was actually an enjoyable meal! It may have been a bit too heavy on the salt, but it was tasty. My friend had the meatball and spaghetti meal, and he enjoyed that also.

Of course, the soup packet is a little odd. The point of these meals is to be able to eat them hot anywhere, but in order to make the soup you need to find hot water. But if you had hot water, couldn’t you just heat up the entire meal by immersing it in hot water instead of using the included mechanism?

The heating mechanism is interesting, but not that convenient. I ate mine in a car, and it is quite difficult to pour the saline onto the magnesium strips, place the meal over it, insert the whole thing back into the box, and let it sit for 14 minutes without spilling while in a moving vehicle. My friend made his at the airport, and I was surprised that the TSA allowed the meal through security, with the included saline packet. But once through security, no one seemed to notice the steam coming out of the meal as we sat at the gate.

One question, one comment — first the comment, the myownmeals are generally what the military issues for kosher MREs, just an fyi (and especially b/c they’re halal also if I recall, that cuts their–the military–expenses in half) - and the question, most people agree that using the self-heating meals is mutar on shabbat correct?

Millhouse:
Regarding the “most people agree” point, I refer you to Kashrut.org. If you would follow the opinion of Rabbi Yitzhak Abadi (see that website for his bio … received semicha from Rabbi Aharon Kotler, z”tl, became Posek of Lakewood after Rav Kotler’s passing ), then it is muttar:

Here is a link to the response to the question of Shabbat use:

http://www.kashrut.org/forum/viewpost.asp?mid=5376&highlight=Labriute

Rav Abadi is quite often a Daas Yachid. With all due respect, while he is indeed a talmid chachom, his opinions on Kashrus and STa”M, to single out a couple areas, are quite well known to be outside the pale. If that’s the only support you can offer, you don’t have any, at least not in an Orthodox context.

(For the record, I have no idea of the halachic & Shabbos implications of LaBriute, etc. - my comment is on your sourcing. Rav Abadi is a convenient source many turn to when they need to posek-shop for a leniency no one in the Orthodox world holds of.)

I have no doubt that the donuts from the “convenient” store you mentioned are vastly preferable to what La Briute sells. In fact, I wish I had taken the donuts on my last trip to Europe; at least they would not weighted down my suitcase like the La Briute boxes did. You are right in that I should spend more time thanking G-d but, most assuredly, my thanks will not be for subpart products!

Marc, I am fine with the fact that you enjoy the La Briute products. However, my experience of the La Briute items mirrored that of Jabbett’s original post. Additionally, I found them to be inferior with respect to quality, taste, convenience and price as compared to the My Own Meals line and that was the point of my post. Kind thanks for your vocabulary lesson though.

I’ve been quite impressed with Meal Mart’s “Amazing Meals” - Shelf stable, and they can go in any microwave as-is, and be considered double-wrapped. I was ready for some pretty gnarly food, having seen the “LaBriute experience,” but I’ve been pleasantly surprised with every one I have tried (although I can’t bring myself to try cholent mid-week). They’re finally hitting the shelves here “out-of-town,” and the response has been pretty good.