Up for review is a civilian Sure-Pak MRE - Pork Rib entree. Sopakco manufactures the Sure-Pak MRE for the civilian market, but primarily manufacture MREs for the U.S. Armed Forces under a very large contract with Uncle Sam. I ordered a case of the civilian Sure-Pak Menu B MREs and the case had a date code of March 2009 and an inspection date of March 2012...so this case was really fresh. The Sure-Pak MRE pouch is just like the military MRE pouch with the same soldier logo except that the pouch is clear in color and is labeled for the civilian market as "Meal Individual" instead of the familiar military "Meal Ready-to-eat, Individual" label. I forgot to snap a photo of the MRE before I actually took the contents out, but use your imagination.
- Sure-Pak MRE pouch
Pork Rib MRE contents:
1. Pork Rib entree
2. Clam Chowder side dish
3. Wheat Snack Bread
4. Toaster Pastry Strawberry
5. Sqwincher Fruit Punch Sugar Free Drink Mix
6. Grape Jelly packet
7. FRH
8. Accessory Packet (Spoon, napkin, wet nap, salt, pepper, coffee, creamer and 2 packs of sugar)
- Sure-Pak MRE contents displayed
Wheat Snack Bread:
I first opened up the wheat snack bread. The snack bread had the appearance of a slice of bread, but that's where the similarities end. The snack bread was pretty dense and dry. I can only describe it as tasting like a slightly stale, flat biscuit. It doesn't necessarily crumble or anything, but moist is not a word that should be used in the same sentence with wheat snack bread. Make sure you have something to drink on hand. I took a couple bites of the snack bread by itself, and then tried it with the grape jelly packet. It's not all that bad by itself, but it is much better with grape jelly. The grape jelly was very sweet, but had a nice flavor to it.
- Snack Bread
I then opened the Clam Chowder side dish. I used an FRH heater that I had leftover from another MRE to heat up the clam chowder. After about 10 minutes, I cracked opened the pouch and the chowder was a pretty warm. Now here's the kicker, the clam chowder was...let's just say very, very, very thick. I would describe it has having the consistency of cake batter...it was that thick. It was so thick that when I took a small sample out with the MRE spoon and flipped it over, none of the chowder fell off the spoon. Now that's thick. I tasted it the way it was, and man, although it had a lot of chunks of clam and had a decent clam chowder flavor...it was way too thick to eat. So, I tossed it into a bowl, mixed it with water and nuked it for 30 seconds. After watering it down, it was more palatable. Surprisingly, you really can taste all the clams, but that's about it...couldn't see any potatoes or anything, just the thick soup and clams. Not bad...I'd compare it to a generic supermarket brand of clam chowder...but nothing to write home about.
- Clam Chowder
The MRE came with a small Sqwincher brand sugar-free fruit punch drink mix. I added the contents to a small bottle of water and shook it up for a couple of seconds. The drink mix dissolved easily without much effort, and it kinda tasted like sugar free Hawaiian Punch...but with a little bit of a weird aftertaste.
- Drink Mix
Now on to the main entree - "Pork Rib, Boneless, Imitation." Let's just say "Imitation" is an understatement. I used the provided FRH to heat the entree up, and after about 12 minutes, the pouch was hot. The FRH provided with the Sure-Pak uses regular water, and is self-explanatory. I tore the pouch open and put the contents onto a small plate. Wow...I don't even know how to describe it. It was rectangular in shape, but kinda looked like a mutated version of a McDonalds breakfast hash brown. No Tabasco with this MRE, so I had to go it alone. I took a bite and holy mackeral! I thought to myself...what the hell is this??? I can only describe the texture as...remember McDonalds came out with a McRib sandwich? Well, it kinda had that texture but didn't taste nearly as good. I can't really describe it as a pork flavor, but you can definitely tell it was processed and formed into the shape it was. I really had a hard time putting the rest of the Pork Rib down my gullett, but I hate wasting food...so I sucked it up and kicked it all in. And to top it all off, it was really salty. Man, Pork Rib is definitely on my list of "what the hell were they thinking?" Maybe if I tossed the Pork Rib on top of the snack bread and poured a ton of Tabasco or BBQ sauce on it would have made it taste better...but I was trying to stick only with what was inside the MRE.
I don't know...to each his own, but I am here to tell you that I am NOT a fan of the Pork Rib entree. I've got another one in the case I ordered...but it's going to have to be a REAL emergency for me to eat that thing again. Wow...it was that bad. No one is going to believe me on this, but I even tried giving a very small piece to my german shepherd...she sniffed it a couple times, chewed it a bit and left it on the ground. I am not kidding...
- Pork Rib entree
After eating the Pork Rib entree, I really didn't have much of an appetite for the Toaster Pastry Strawberry. I cracked it open and it looks like a regular Pop Tart without frosting...sorry, no photo. At this point, I can't really say that I was full...although I didn't eat the Toaster Pastry. I've heard that Sure-Pak MREs are a little light in calories...and it would appear that description is pretty accurate.
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS:
Although my experience with the Pork Rib entree was less than stellar, I still like the fact that this civilian Sure-Pak MRE is very similar in contents to a real military MRE. It's got pretty much everything you need...although this entree definitely could've used some Tabasco or BBQ sauce. The outer pouch seems very sturdy, there's a good selection of menus, and you're pretty much guaranteed to get a fresh case of MREs as long as you order from a reputable vendor. I ordered these from epicenter, and like I mentioned, the packed on date was March 2009 with an inspection date of March 2012.
If I take away the horrible Pork Rib entree, I'd rate this civilian Sure-Pak MRE as very good. I've tried other Sure-Pak entrees that were very good to excellent...so I'll cut 'em some slack on this crappy entree. You can't win 'em all. So, my advice, if you order individual Sure-Pak MREs, steer clear of the Pork Rib entree. But who knows...someone else out there may actually love this Pork Rib thing...anything's possible.
Overall, in my opinion, civilian Sure-Pack MREs are a good value and good alternative...especially, since it takes some work to find fresh, properly stored military MREs these days.[/b]
I *am* a fan of the McDonald's McRib sandwich so I really like this entree. The only downside is that it's a small entree - they really should include two of them!
Just kidding...