MENU 1 Chili with Beans (2014)

[[ex-Member1]]

Today I had a busy day and I've decided (to be lazy and) to open one of my MRE's for dinner. As you can see I went with chili beans menu. Pictures are from the mobile phone so sorry about that there is no more detailed pictures and more of them. Also, this is my first review, please don't judge too much. Didn't used trays and plates, I went full alpha male commando and ate from the bag.

Menu 1, made by The Wornick Company. There is no visible date tag on the bag anywhere.


Contents of the bag with datecodes:

Chili with beans (4034)
Wheat snack bread (4007)
Cornbread (4031)
Caramel apple ranger bar (4010)
Beverage base powder tropical punch (4010)
Cheddar cheese spread (4016)
Hot beverage bag
Cardboard sleeve
FRH (4041)
MRE spoon
MRE accessory pack A (4077)



Beverage looked like this. Tasted very interesting, not too strong not too sweet and I liked that. Since I'm not used of this taste I was pleasantly suprised. On the bag it says vitamin C 70%, sugars 20g , 130 calories, sodium 1%, no fat/protein. Contains soy, so if someone is alergic be advised.


By opening cornbread I thought it went bad. And then Steve mode kicked in my mind with smell/taste test so I went by it, it smelled lightly but nice and sweet. I tasted a small bit and tried to sense acid or something bad but it was OK. It just got crumbled by the time. It was little moist and not sweet as it smelled at first. Very similar to Balkan sweet dish that came from the east to us called lutma or rahvanija but not that dry.


Wheat snack bread. I can eat everything with bread, I can even eat soup with bread ffs so I liked that I have this even there is no smell or taste to it as you all know it. Good to eat while grabbing into chili beans. No crackers in this menu so having snack bread was great.


Caramel apple ranger bar said the pouch... and I thought wow I will get a ranger bar like I've seen they have in FSR menus! But I wasn't lucky, there was this dry cookie that had a little maple smell and taste... We have things like this in our stores made from walnut so I was little dissapointed. And I can still smell that nice apple/mapple, that's a good thing, but I like more when I get things that I never tried and I've tried mapple cookies, and a little real mapple syrup. Can't decide because this was nothing special, but it wasn't bad either...


FRH did great job heating it so it was warm enough. I didn't really had any hard taste to it, smell was nice. After two spoons my eyes went to ground red pepper (remembering KiwiDude's review) from the accessory pack and there I was giving chili beans a little kick. I didn't put even half of it then I mixed it and tried to see is it any better. Since I am European and for US standards everthing we eat is bland I never get used to spicy hot food. It was great at first but after 2-3 seconds my mouth felt as if I licked melted reactor core from Chernobyle. From that moment on everything else dissapeared, but this damn hot red pepper taste. So here I was feeling like a real American with my mouth on fire and I must admit I sent a few bad words towards our coleague* from New Zealand because every breath I took the pain came back... if I didn't watched his review at some point that ground red pepper would remained in it's bag.


I sure do like coffee. And this is my 3rd MRE, second that had coffee in accessory pack so I was really happy. I think I've put too much water because it sucked.


I don't have picture of cheddar cheese spread but I took advice from some of you and I had it in heating sleeve next to heating element from FRH but from outside of the bag. Like main entree the cheese was nice and warm after FRH done it's job. There was no crackers so I had it on my wheat snack bread while eating chili beans, great combo if I may say so.

Sorry for my poor Ingles and bad picture quality. I would like to thanks Steve for being inspiration for this review, if I was bad take it to him

P.S.
*KiwiDude if you read this I hope you understand my pain and that my swearing wasn't nothing personal.

[Norton]

I enjoyed your review a great deal. It was very interesting to hear how American Chili and Cornbread taste to a Central European.
Many of us mix the cornbread with that chili to cool it down a bit. I think it is very spicy for military food.

[kman]

Great review, Asger! Maybe it was just the lighting on that wheat snack bread but it almost looked moldy (green) - maybe it was just the lighting. But good job for trying it all!

Chili with Beans is one of those "staple" (standard) MREs...like Spaghetti or Beef Stew. If you can get through that MRE with even half a packet of red pepper seasoning, good for you!

[MREHungary]

I always wondered how did you find my video so fast, now I have it! Seems we were thinking the same way, because my first review I made is also the Chili with Beans menu. I made a crappy video about the review, unfortunately it is in Hungarian. Here it is:

My package was a 2015 menu, so I just list the differences here.

1. My menu was made by Ameriqual, but with the same design. Date code 5131.
2. The Wheat Snack Bread was replaced with the Vegetable Crackers. First, I was very happy, I always wanted to try this item. It was fresh, smelled like Vegeta (no, not the DBZ character, we have a seasoning mix here in Hungary called Vegeta), but smell did not paired up with the taste. It is very bland. But the cheese spread helped.
3. The Ranger Bar is out, I had a TFF Fudge Brownie. It was good, but too much cacao flavor for me. It was very dense, almost had tooth pain because it was that hard to chew.
4. No Ground Red Pepper for me in the accessory pack, but the Chili was hot enough for me, I required no additional spices. But it was delicious with the Cornbread. The spicy chili and the sweet cornbread was a totally new experience for me and I loved all of it.

All-in-all it was a great fun.

[[ex-Member1]]

I enjoyed you review a great deal. It was very interesting to hear how American Chili and Cornbread taste to a Central European.
Many of us mix the cornbread with that chili to cool it down a bit. I think it is very spicy for military food.

Thanks! I agree it is too spicey for the field, that red pepper is just overkill. Next time I will try mixing cornbread and chili as you said.

Great review, Asger! Maybe it was just the lighting on that wheat snack bread but it almost looked moldy (green) - maybe it was just the lighting. But good job for trying it all!

Chili with Beans is one of those "staple" (standard) MREs...like Spaghetti or Beef Stew. If you can get through that MRE with even half a packet of red pepper seasoning, good for you!

Thanks, I'm sorry for not taking pictures with my camera but I used plain phone cam that is just emergency camera. Bread wasn't moldy at all it's just phone cam killing natural and adding unnatural colours. I have all three menues you desribe as staple, that's my luck I guess

I always wondered how did you find my video so fast, now I have it! Seems we were thinking the same way, because my first review I made is also the Chili with Beans menu. I made a crappy video about the review, unfortunately it is in Hungarian. Here it is:

My package was a 2015 menu, so I just list the differences here.

1. My menu was made by Ameriqual, but with the same design. Date code 5131.
2. The Wheat Snack Bread was replaced with the Vegetable Crackers. First, I was very happy, I always wanted to try this item. It was fresh, smelled like Vegeta (no, not the DBZ character, we have a seasoning mix here in Hungary called Vegeta), but smell did not paired up with the taste. It is very bland. But the cheese spread helped.
3. The Ranger Bar is out, I had a TFF Fudge Brownie. It was good, but too much cacao flavor for me. It was very dense, almost had tooth pain because it was that hard to chew.
4. No Ground Red Pepper for me in the accessory pack, but the Chili was hot enough for me, I required no additional spices. But it was delicious with the Cornbread. The spicy chili and the sweet cornbread was a totally new experience for me and I loved all of it.

All-in-all it was a great fun.

Your video seems nice but language barrier is mood killer since ugrofinic languages sound like a Klingon to me. But keep taking reviews I will gladly watch it with no sound haha. And yeah some things in this menu I wasn't expecting and I'm happy that ranger bar is kicked out. But too bad for wheat snack bread to be replaced with crackers.

It seems cronbread & chilli mixing is like unwritten code I somehow missed to learn. But as I said to Norton above next time if I get this menu I'm tossing that red pepper the f*k away and cornbread goes into entree pouch.

[steve1989]

I love this review, Asger - perfect descriptions and also very neat to hear the opinion of a fellow MRE-lover from over across the pond.

Thanks so much for sharing - as for me I must be really crazy I always dump the whole pack of chili powder in and to give it balance, I break up the corn bread in there too. Hmmmm!


Very cool stuff man - hope to see another review from you again soon!

[elandil]

Great review.

Chili with Cornbread has been a staple here in the south for a while. So it was great to see someone across the pond instinctively mix it together.

Awesome job on the details, loved the descriptive part of adding the red pepper. Now, I'm not saying I am one of those hot food eaters, but I will say my new carry bag has a side pocket thats the perfect size for a cutlery kit and bottle of tabasco...

Look forward to more reviews, getting that alternative view on some of the american foods.

[parafireboy]

Good review! I don't like hot food either, I think it takes away from the taste, but sometimes a little bit of hot sauce of red pepper can be good. As for mixing the cornbread with the chili, I've never tried it, but it sounds really good, and next time I have this menu, I am going to give it a try!

[[ex-Member1]]

Thanks guys. Since this is my first review I am happy you like it. I will continue to make more reviews in time to come. But this red pepper bag will never again be opened for my food you can count on that lol. Maybe it gives balance to Steve but it would give me a paintfull death.

I like to try US food for the first time and MRE's are good way to do it. I also like seeing you guys eating and commenting European food.

This is just great community to be part of. I surely hope I will get my hands on more menues to share my opinion as first time tester.

[rabidwolf]

Good job on the review Asger