PLA MRE

Hi guys, I know there was a prior MRE thread and it got pretty heated, I hope we don’t go down that road again.

There was a new video by Steve1989MREInfo on the newer Type17 MRE, I believe menu 8, seems the PLA have improved a lot since Type 9 and Type 13. Just thought I will share.

Typical Western opinions: No/Few Chocolate = BAD
AKA. #whitepeoplefood

Chinese consider a good pack of pickles/hot dry tofu/vaccum-packed beef jerky or assorted nuts much more as a morale boost than chocolate and sweet stuff in general

Generally, Chinese people eat much less sweet things than westeners.
Also LMAO at the comments even suggesting that white man's opinion drove the Chinese to improve their rations. Yeah, as if.

I am calling you out on that hash tag as a racist stereotype.
China isn’t the only nation with different tastes and various European descended nations also tend more to the sublime and less sweet than the US so calling “western” is an extremely generalized and stereotypical statement.
having sampled authentic European sweets on occasion I can say they tend to be far less sweet than American.
On the whole each nation that produces rations their own tastes.
The objective of a military ration is to max the food needed for combat operations that means more calories than a regular diet. Even compared to the typical American 2000 calories diet MRE are high density 3 MRE average 2900 calories newer models shifted to a snack when able model cranking it up to 3000 per pack. Chocolate and sweets are known for high density calories. They are also easy to pocket and eat on the move.
modern and older American rations often had Jerky’s, fruit bars, fruit mixes, Hard tack, peanut butter, sausages and more.
the latest even have turnover style sandwich that is somewhat resembling Bazoi.

Insignius said:

Typical Western opinions: No/Few Chocolate = BAD
AKA. #whitepeoplefood

Chinese consider a good pack of pickles/hot dry tofu/vaccum-packed beef jerky or assorted nuts much more as a morale boost than chocolate and sweet stuff in general

Generally, Chinese people eat much less sweet things than westeners.
Also LMAO at the comments even suggesting that white man's opinion drove the Chinese to improve their rations. Yeah, as if.

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Lol, well different tastes for different people, tho I don’t think these reviews are the end all be all, it does give a nice benchmark. Since the guy has tried a lot of MRE, it gives a nice reference as to where to go. I mean learning from others who have been making these things for a long time could speed up development just like everything else, so why not?

Like Terran said the point of MRE is make sure the soldier gets the needed calories, sweets and chocolate offers that, also portability is important for the battlefield. Perhaps the PLA can come up with some version of satisfying high calorie bar sometime later but for the here and now, sweets is a good way to go for a stop gap.

The previous company i used to work with had a subsidiary company that used to be run by ex US Army rangers. They ran a management simulation with us and we had to get 400 pounds of stuff up a mountain working as a team. Our reward was US Army MREs and i can tell you after that much physical exertion it was the best meal we ever had. It did get scalding hot and interestingly it was a three course meal with coffee, chocolate, juices, chicken stew, granola bars etc. I hope PLA meals are as yummy as the US ones. Would love to try one

Just for hahas. Another video with two interesting twists.
twist one. Rather than just the ration on its own We have two side by side one American Cold weather type one Chinese type 09 And the same Entree, Chicken Fried Rice. MCW Spicy Oriental Chicken w/Rice and Type 09
next twist. The video is by a husband and wife. The husband is an American who spent years in China. His Wife is Chinese and moved to the US with her spouse. As such this should be more impartial.should also be pointed out that both kits a a little dated. Also the MCW isn’t a normal ration kit it’s as the name implies meant for extreme cold conditions so cold that the entree and meal have to not freeze. As such a FRH would be useless in the ration the entree is freeze dried. They would use a conventional heater on hand.

TerraN_EmpirE said:

Just for hahas. Another video with two interesting twists.
twist one. Rather than just the ration on its own We have two side by side one American Cold weather type one Chinese type 09 And the same Entree, Chicken Fried Rice. MCW Spicy Oriental Chicken w/Rice and Type 09
next twist. The video is by a husband and wife. The husband is an American who spent years in China. His Wife is Chinese and moved to the US with her spouse. As such this should be more impartial.should also be pointed out that both kits a a little dated. Also the MCW isn’t a normal ration kit it’s as the name implies meant for extreme cold conditions so cold that the entree and meal have to not freeze. As such a FRH would be useless in the ration the entree is freeze dried. They would use a conventional heater on hand.

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Are you kidding me? This guy is probably one of the most anti China YouTubers out there. He and his South African “friend” could spin anything against anything to do with China. They are not only anti China, but also liars. Pure and simple. By clicking on their videos, I would feel shame on myself to be honest!

TerraN_EmpirE said:

The video is by a husband and wife. The husband is an American who spent years in China. His Wife is Chinese and moved to the US with her spouse. As such this should be more impartial.

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Laugh emoji, I need a laugh emoji.

I think we are getting too political over MREs here! As Terran said, countries will follow whatever the demands of their soldiers are. If there is a demand for more chocolate in PLA, it would happen. 50 years ago, US MRE was very “WASP”, now they try to accommodate Asian tastes, Latino tastes, etc.

I had posted my own experience before, but I will add a little more flavour to it. Some of the other Chinese guys in my reserve outfit loved to bring their own condiments to add to the meals, sriracha, chili oil, and even XO sauce. So even if it is “white”, you can put your own spin on it.

Honestly meal packs are gross IMO. Near my last years in, they reduced the use of meal packs to save money, as it was cheaper to get fresh food from the base kitchen and bring it out to the field. One time during an area brigade exercise, they set up a field kitchen (very rare). The cook was an Asian guy (Filipino or Chinese probably, I didn’t see his name) with a big restaurant size wok frying up rice for the whole brigade. It was definitely a nice departure from both IMP and base food (I.e cafeteria food).

ZeEa5KPul said:

Laugh emoji, I need a laugh emoji.

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it's not very straightforward, but here you go.