The Battle of Akihabara

You may (or may not) have heard the Michelin recently granted Tokyo eateries the most stars of any major city in the world. But Tokyo is not all about high end food.

Mili-Meshi (Military food; Meshi means "food", e.g., Ita-Meshi is Italian cuisine, Thai-Meishi is Thai food) is gradually becoming a 'boom' in Japan. It started among military freaks when a hobby magazine featured military foods from around the world. This caught the eyes of product managers at Sega, the game developer, and they joined up with a Japan Self Defence Force food supplier. Mili-Meshi is now one a popular prize for 'UFO Catchers.'

'UFO Catcher' are those crane machine games in video arcades with toys/stuffed animals you try to grab with a crane but just wind up losing money in. Sega was looking for new types of prizes to lure players. They launched the Mili-Meshi prize Akihabara; the famous 'geek' capital famous for anime, gadgets, and 'otaku' (geeks). It didn't take long to capture the hearts and minds of the Akihabara Crew. The Mili-Meshi pack contains 4 retort food pouches containing 2 Japanese-style pilafs, paella, and Japanese-style steamed rice .

the package

4 retort pouches

The food was originally developed for soldiers to absorb maximum nutrients with minimum effort, and is quite high in calories. However, all the soldiers in Akihabara are marching for it. And now the general public is becoming interested in Mili-Meshi eats, as a major newspaper reported recently.