A brave YouTuber is eating 50-year-old MREs

Eating challenges are nothing new to the internet. A writer for The A.V. Club recently subjected himself to four days of eating so called “emergency food” and recorded his reactions. Nostalgia is common to the internet, too, as is a keen interest in military history. But very few have combined all three of these into one project, except for a brave soul who identifies himself as Steve1989. Steve, acting as an ambassador for a site called MREInfo (“Your Source For MRE Information”) has a most unusual YouTube channel in which he opens and then, on occasion, even tastes the contents of decades-old Meals Ready To Eat, some dating as far back as the Korean War. The MREs reviewed in this channel come from various eras, including a couple from as recent as 2013, and even different countries. There are pre-prepared, ready-to-eat meals here from Poland, South Africa, and Canada. Steve subjects them all to thorough autopsies. Cuisine is a key part of military history. After all, an adage variously attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte and Frederick The Great attests that an army marches on its stomach.