YMMV / Steve 1989 MRE Info

• Awesome Music: The chill synth tunes from his intros and outros? Composed by Steve himself.
• Funny Moments
  • In one video, Steve remarks that a ration component tastes "...like bacon, or ham. I love ham." A few minutes later when the video cuts out to show Steve, his shirt says 'I (Heart) HAM'
  • Once, he remarked that he'd been on an extremely low-carb diet and that he was so grateful to be eating something normal. What was he eating for the episode, you might ask? 35-year-old MRE beef stew. Which he found not just edible, but good!
• Moment of Awesome:
  • On the very few occasions a decade-old ration is still perfectly edible, even delicious. The US ham and chicken loaf from 1984 has Steve basically squeeing throughout the video.
  • While he infamously tried hardtack, it was a reproduction of a Civil War ration. He actually did eat a ration from the Second Boer War, which took place from 1899-1902, and also a 1906 US Army emergency survival ration. That's right, he's eaten food that was more than a century old without getting sick!
  • For his Thanksgiving 2020 special, he makes his own Thanksgiving dinner MRE with the help of a commercial freeze dryer and a vacuum sealer, complete with US Military MRE-style mylar bags. He then proceeds to review the meal as though he didn't just make it himself, all the while marveling at how good it is, why some company hasn't done this already, wondering if this process could work for making his own survival rations, and getting giddy at the prospect of freeze-drying and vacuum-sealing home-cooked meals to take with him on camping trips.
• Nausea Fuel: Any ration that turns out to be too spoiled to be even palatable, or potentially dangerous to anyone with a weak stomach. This one was literally half inedible due to a compromised seal.
  • The infamous 2018 Chinese PLA Type 13 MRE. One of the worst rations he's ever tasted, the main was inedible despite not being expired. It's also one of the few rations that actually managed to make Steve sick. He can't even rate the other dishes because the putrid smell of the main course is overwhelming.
  • When opening the wheat crackers from the 1992 Norwegian SR92 24-hour Combat Ration, which had very obviously gone off just from looking at them:
  Steve: *audibly distressed* Oh, it smells like rot, ugh! It smells like a terrarium...it smells like a terrarium, with like, a dead frog...
  • This 1987 MRE Pork Patty had expired cheese in it. As soon as Steve tasted even a little spot of it, he immediately drops the cheese packet and runs away retching loudly, but fortunately the audio is turned down severely and mostly masked over with the intro jingle over a "technical difficulties" interlude.
• Spiritual Successor: Sometimes compared to The Joy of Painting due to both being oddly-relaxing series about a guy quietly-but-passionately describing his hobby in great detail.

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