Steve1989MREInfo / Steve1989 / Steve Thomas - that guy that eats old MREs

Scooter Braun said:

My first MRE! I had mine back in the mid 90s though. It was great, at leastfor survival rations. I just started watching his videos and I really enjoy his presentations using mess kits.

"That's a real steamer!"
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I got a bunch of these when I was a kid, or at least this style of MRE. It had the crackers and dried fruit (which is great), and peanut butter. The crackers on peanut butter would stick to the top of your mouth. They're nasty.

I don't remember any of the main dishes but the cookies and sweets were always really good.

The dried fruit was actually good just to crunch up dry.
 
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Dick Pooman said:


Daddy's back again! PLA rations always look like they're miserable to eat.
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Honestly if it wasn't Steve I wouldn't watch anything about rations made by the PLA. They're constantly underwhelming, gross, or both in what they expect their soldiers to eat, and function as a military power. Makes any other style of MRE look good by comparison.

AnOminous said:
Those things are fucking awful. I'd rather eat a Chinese bullet than one of their MREs.
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Show's the bugmen mentality that the Chinese government has towards their military personnel. They expect some poor bastard to fight in frontline operations with a glorified juice pack, pudding, rice crispy squares and some dank protein bars. Really makes you think.

LullerDerbyRollin said:
I am so happy this man is not a cow and that he just remains charmingly weird as fuck.
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Steve is great, I couldn't think of a more wholesome Youtuber outside of some of the homesteading channels that I watch. He also really loves the subject.
 
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Dick Pooman said:
PLA rations always look like they're miserable to eat.
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I legitimately feel genuine human empathy and sorrow for the PLA whenever Steve cracks one of those sad, pathetic abominations open. Like I'm no apologist for China, at least certainly not as bad as some people, but those PLA rations are just nasty and if I found myself eating one in a wartime situation I'd probably be chewing on the barrel of my gun for dessert.

Compare the cheapo United Nations Humanitarian Ration vids he did. Those things are designed to be as bare bones and simple as possible for a vareity of reasons, and they still look way better to eat than the PLA stuff. The UN is legit better at feeding random people with packages scattered out of a plane than China is at feeding their own damn army.
 
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L50LasPak said:
I legitimately feel genuine human empathy and sorrow for the PLA whenever Steve cracks one of those sad, pathetic abominations open. Like I'm no apologist for China, at least certainly not as bad as some people, but those PLA rations are just nasty and if I found myself eating one in a wartime situation I'd probably be chewing on the barrel of my gun for dessert.

Compare the cheapo United Nations Humanitarian Ration vids he did. Those things are designed to be as bare bones and simple as possible for a vareity of reasons, and they still look way better to eat than the PLA stuff. The UN is legit better at feeding random people with packages scattered out of a plane than China is at feeding their own damn army.
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Agreed and the saddest thing about the PLA stuff is, is that the Chinese government controls the industry which means not only are the PLA rations made by state owned factories, but they are also essentially made from the cheapest of the cheapest of components.

This means that even with price controls in place, where the government could effectively issue a competitive ration to an American First Strike MRE at the lowest cost possible, this is still what they deem as the bare minimum of an effective front line combat ration.

Steve said it best in the video when he said that the menu variation is a moral boost, and I genuinely think that is true. PLA rations it's like they're not even trying.
 
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Kaiser Wilhelm's Ghost said:
Agreed and the saddest thing about the PLA stuff is, is that the Chinese government controls the industry which means not only are the PLA rations made by state owned factories, but they are also essentially made from the cheapest of the cheapest of components.
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This would put it below the level of the pet food they sell to the United States that has to be recalled constantly for killing pets. Honestly, there was some beef and rice abomination in one of Steve's videos that I was worried would actually fucking kill him.
 
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Kaiser Wilhelm's Ghost said:
Steve said it best in the video when he said that the menu variation is a moral boost, and I genuinely think that is true. PLA rations it's like they're not even trying.
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It is. One of the big issues the U.S. had with MREs early on was that there were only four to choose from initially. Things have thankfully improved since then. People hate to eat the same thing, day in and day out.
 
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AnOminous said:
I've seen anything from just hamburger with mashed potatoes on top called shepherd's pie.



I liked the one where he had vintage old school Camels that were still fresh. You could tell they were classic.



I don't think anything will ever beat that absurdly elegant French ration. Trust the French to have something like that. Maybe they can't beat any country in the world but they'll eat well while they're losing.
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Apologies for the necro.

That episode with the vietnam-era MRE was the BEST. I don't smoke anymore, but HOLY SHIT would I make an exception for those Camels! You can tell he was jonesing to try those-and I don't blame him.

Old fuckers always tell me the smokes were somehow healthier 50+ years ago. Possibly, or possibly everyone just died of something else before the lung cancer got 'em.
 
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iirc, the reason the PLA's MREs are so shitty is that the PLA is still heavily reliant on frontline field kitchens to feed soldiers on maneuvers. Their MREs are performing a closer function to other countries' emergency survival rations.
 
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millais said:
iirc, the reason the PLA's MREs are so shitty is that the PLA is still heavily reliant on frontline field kitchens to feed soldiers on maneuvers. Their MREs are performing a closer function to other countries' emergency survival rations.
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They're staggeringly worse than those, too, though, often to the point of being outright inedible garbage.

Like this:


It's from 2018 and is one of the few that literally made Steve sick.

ETA: I forgot how bad this is. Honestly, it's worse than some gore I've seen.
 
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millais said:
iirc, the reason the PLA's MREs are so shitty is that the PLA is still heavily reliant on frontline field kitchens to feed soldiers on maneuvers. Their MREs are performing a closer function to other countries' emergency survival rations.
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Understood. That doesn't excuse rotten meat. That wasn't 'chlorophyll', that was rot. I hope Steve doesn't have brain worms from that shit.
Central Planning at it's finest.

Every country has such interesting ideas that can/should be adapted. Ginseng (and maybe their neat Gatorade pouch?) from the Chinese, thicker tack crackers from the russians (or maybe their tea-light heating kit?), that lovely loaf of bread from the Canadians, the milk whey candies from the Yugoslavians, etc...

I would like to research and develop a better meal kit for the troops. More natural, less nitrates and MSG (but with vitamins and minerals that working troops need). Too bad it's such a 'connected' racket...
 
GentlemanFaggot said:
I'm so proud of Canada. The Lung in a Bag managed to be even more disgusting than the Vomelette.
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I'm thinking that 'shelf stabilized omelet' just does not work, no matter if you're Canada or the U.S. -- and mind you, our northern neighbors managed to put poutine in their MREs.
 
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