7 ms·

I remember Steve video about China's MRE where he had stomach problem after eating. Eat some biscuit from WW1-era: totally fine, eat some chow mein from PRC's M

by dikei 5y ago

I remember Steve video about China's MRE where he had stomach problem after eating. Eat some biscuit from WW1-era: totally fine, eat some chow mein from PRC's MRE: instant diarrhea

dmoy 5y ago
I've had Chinese MREs, once. It was the worst food I've ever tasted. Someone in the family had a can from former prc military service. I don't know what it is, but maybe the Chinese army deploys so infrequently (almost never?) that they place zero priority on their MREs. I begrudgingly eat US MREs once every 3-5 years for about a week or so as I replenish my one case of MREs for earthquake supplies. They're actually not as bad now as they used to be. The new replacement for thin wheat bread is like actually edible and doesn't break your teeth.
- dikei 5y ago
  >> I don't know what it is, but maybe the Chinese army deploys so infrequently (almost never?) that they place zero priority on their MREs. I don't know about the Chinese, but my poor army doesn't have an official MRE. On the rare occasion that they are deployed to where they can't setup kitchens, like disaster zones: storm, flooding, etc.., the soldiers typically make do with instant noodle or ration bar until a field kitchen can be established.
  - int_19h 5y ago
    In Chechnya, the rebels have long used Snickers bars as their on-the-go food - apart from its good nutritious qualities as a trail bar, it's also easy to get in any convenience store, and doing so isn't suspicious (or wasn't until it became prevalent, anyway).
  - gruez 5y ago
    I was looking at steve's YouTube channel and there was a Honduran "MRE" which was similar to what you described: random off the shelf food with a long shelf life.
  - Ekaros 5y ago
    Same, what they give out to scouts and tiny units is essentially trekking food now. It used to be things like add water pasta or canned soup. Slight step down in my mind.
- gruez 5y ago
  >I begrudgingly eat US MREs once every 3-5 years for about a week or so as I replenish my one case of MREs for earthquake supplies. What's the TCO on using MREs for disaster prep? I did some light research a while ago and figured it was pretty pricey compared to buying traditional nonperishables (eg. instant noodles, canned vegetables, dried beans). Plus, those foods are easier to work into a conventional meal than MREs. Is there some advantage of MREs I'm missing?
  - int_19h 5y ago
    Not great. Aside from higher cost, MREs are heavy (because they contain their own water), and their shelf life is a couple of years. Freeze-dried canned food beats them for most prepping applications. The point of MREs is to have a high-calorie hot meal that can be thrown into a backpack, and then prepared and eaten in the field with minimal fuss - i.e. no need to make a fire or mess around with utensils. But even the military doesn't rely on them as soldiers' primary source of food except when necessary.
  - dmoy 5y ago
    My MREs are only to get me from point A of Seattle turned into an unnavigable pit of sludge post earthquake to point B somewhere that FEMA can get shit into. If I didn't live somewhere where half the city isn't going to dissolve and/or get tidal waved, then I probably wouldn't have MREs. I didn't have any when I lived in the Midwest. Blizzards and tornadoes, not actually much travel needs to be done in case of a natural disaster. They're contained enough that I can transport them along with water and water filtering/iodine. I should note that depending on the distance I need to travel, I have even more contained dense rations which are basically, as far as I can tell, solid cardboard consistency... food stuffs. MREs weigh a bit more, so if I'm going farther, I wouldn't take too many. For almost all other emergency I'm instead relying on staying put and eating stuff that sucks less.
  - selectodude 5y ago
    MREs self-heat. Hot food is good for morale and in a disaster situation, instant noodles might be "noodle crackers".
- jandrewrogers 5y ago
  The US military invests a lot of R&D in their MREs, and they have improved monotonically over the decades. Even a few decades ago they were actually pretty decent, aside from a couple famous outliers. A couple of the meals invariably are a total miss, and everyone avoids them, but that feedback gets back to the R&D center and they try something different. Having the best possible food in the field, under the circumstances, is viewed as critical for morale as a matter of doctrine by the US military and they invest a lot in it. Soldiers, in turn, are pretty creative at getting the most out of the MRE contents. In some parts of the world, MREs are recognized as currency.

by dikei 5y ago

I remember Steve video about China's MRE where he had stomach problem after eating. Eat some biscuit from WW1-era: totally fine, eat some chow mein from PRC's MRE: instant diarrhea

dmoy 5y ago

I've had Chinese MREs, once. It was the worst food I've ever tasted. Someone in the family had a can from former prc military service. I don't know what it is, but maybe the Chinese army deploys so infrequently (almost never?) that they place zero priority on their MREs. I begrudgingly eat US MREs once every 3-5 years for about a week or so as I replenish my one case of MREs for earthquake supplies. They're actually not as bad now as they used to be. The new replacement for thin wheat bread is like actually edible and doesn't break your teeth.

dikei 5y ago
>> I don't know what it is, but maybe the Chinese army deploys so infrequently (almost never?) that they place zero priority on their MREs. I don't know about the Chinese, but my poor army doesn't have an official MRE. On the rare occasion that they are deployed to where they can't setup kitchens, like disaster zones: storm, flooding, etc.., the soldiers typically make do with instant noodle or ration bar until a field kitchen can be established.
- int_19h 5y ago
  In Chechnya, the rebels have long used Snickers bars as their on-the-go food - apart from its good nutritious qualities as a trail bar, it's also easy to get in any convenience store, and doing so isn't suspicious (or wasn't until it became prevalent, anyway).
- gruez 5y ago
  I was looking at steve's YouTube channel and there was a Honduran "MRE" which was similar to what you described: random off the shelf food with a long shelf life.
- Ekaros 5y ago
  Same, what they give out to scouts and tiny units is essentially trekking food now. It used to be things like add water pasta or canned soup. Slight step down in my mind.
gruez 5y ago
>I begrudgingly eat US MREs once every 3-5 years for about a week or so as I replenish my one case of MREs for earthquake supplies. What's the TCO on using MREs for disaster prep? I did some light research a while ago and figured it was pretty pricey compared to buying traditional nonperishables (eg. instant noodles, canned vegetables, dried beans). Plus, those foods are easier to work into a conventional meal than MREs. Is there some advantage of MREs I'm missing?
- int_19h 5y ago
  Not great. Aside from higher cost, MREs are heavy (because they contain their own water), and their shelf life is a couple of years. Freeze-dried canned food beats them for most prepping applications. The point of MREs is to have a high-calorie hot meal that can be thrown into a backpack, and then prepared and eaten in the field with minimal fuss - i.e. no need to make a fire or mess around with utensils. But even the military doesn't rely on them as soldiers' primary source of food except when necessary.
- dmoy 5y ago
  My MREs are only to get me from point A of Seattle turned into an unnavigable pit of sludge post earthquake to point B somewhere that FEMA can get shit into. If I didn't live somewhere where half the city isn't going to dissolve and/or get tidal waved, then I probably wouldn't have MREs. I didn't have any when I lived in the Midwest. Blizzards and tornadoes, not actually much travel needs to be done in case of a natural disaster. They're contained enough that I can transport them along with water and water filtering/iodine. I should note that depending on the distance I need to travel, I have even more contained dense rations which are basically, as far as I can tell, solid cardboard consistency... food stuffs. MREs weigh a bit more, so if I'm going farther, I wouldn't take too many. For almost all other emergency I'm instead relying on staying put and eating stuff that sucks less.
- selectodude 5y ago
  MREs self-heat. Hot food is good for morale and in a disaster situation, instant noodles might be "noodle crackers".
jandrewrogers 5y ago
The US military invests a lot of R&D in their MREs, and they have improved monotonically over the decades. Even a few decades ago they were actually pretty decent, aside from a couple famous outliers. A couple of the meals invariably are a total miss, and everyone avoids them, but that feedback gets back to the R&D center and they try something different. Having the best possible food in the field, under the circumstances, is viewed as critical for morale as a matter of doctrine by the US military and they invest a lot in it. Soldiers, in turn, are pretty creative at getting the most out of the MRE contents. In some parts of the world, MREs are recognized as currency.