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Woman’s little brother is coming home from boot camp and his list of food requests is … something

A Marine-in-training aims to celebrate graduation with 10 days of grub.
The list of food which has likely grown since.
The list of food which has likely grown since.@Quiet-Childhood9532 via Reddit

Sometimes all we want is a little bit of home and a lot a bit of comfort food.

On Oct. 13, Redditor Quiet-Childhood9532 posted about her sibling coming home from military training — specifically, the extensive list of items her brother wants to eat when he gets home.

“Little brother is coming home from bootcamp next week. This is everything that he wants,” wrote Quiet-Childhood9532, whose first name is Emily, in the now-viral Reddit post, which has been up-voted nearly 59,000 times.

The items on the “food wish list" are expansive and run the gamut from home-cooked meals to fast-food places he wants to visit, snack foods he's craving and more.

“This is his original list, I added a few things to it that he had mentioned in other letters,” Emily told TODAY Food, adding that her brother gets to come home for 10 days after he graduates boot camp, where he's been for almost 13 weeks. “The 10 days that he’s home, he plans on hanging out with friends and family, resting and eating a lot of food.”

Some of the items on the 27 item long list include: smoked mac and cheese, sushi, doughnuts, brownies, cereal, pancakes, French toast, Honey Buns, Dairy Queen, Popeyes ("maybe"), Arby’s, a meal at a Mexican joint, Oreo balls and cinnamon rolls, amongst other drive-thru and home-baked pleasures.

There’s also an item on the list called “slutty brownies,” which, for the uninitiated, consists of a layer of cookies, a layer of Oreos and a layer of brownies, all baked into one decadent dessert. (Gaby Dalkin's recipe is here.)

Emily’s brother also mentioned in the first draft of his food wish list — yes, there is a first draft — that a friend at boot camp told him about the recipe and he kind of wanted to try them.

The first draft of the "food wish list."
The first draft of the "food wish list."@Quiet-Childhood9532 via Reddit

If you’re wondering why he has such an appetite, other folks who have gone through boot camp shed a light on the voracious appetite one has for familiar foods in the comments, with one Reddit commenter sharing in great detail that after basic training, they visited McDonald’s three times in one day, once after consuming eight (8) doughnuts. It’s clear some service people take the chance to chow down when given the opportunity after such long and sustained physical exertion.

“He hasn’t really said much about what he eats besides he has to eat it really fast,” Emily shared. “Once he said there was a salad bar but he never mentioned it again, but he talks about peanut butter packets a lot!”

According to Military.com, most chow halls these days have salad bars, fried chicken, seafood, Mexican food, pastas, hamburgers, hot dogs, chili, fries and other junk-food items as well, but it’s clear, at least in this gentleman’s case, that there’s no on-base Smashburger where he can chow down.

Emily said that after his time at home is over, he has to go back to California to continue training, which is where the "maybe" next to "Popeyes" on the list comes from.

“He really loves Popeyes, but we don’t have one where we live,” Emily said. “It would be something that we would pick up on the way home if we could!”

All in all, Emily said she is super proud of her brother and can’t wait to watch him welcome home and feed his appetite for his favorites after he graduates this month.

“All through high school it was his goal to become a Marine. We’re very proud of him!” she said. “I’ll definitely be the stereotypical sister crying at his graduation!”