New Products
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Karen Ang-Fendlers' New Product Reviews
Born and raised in Singapore, a country where food is the national pastime, it’s no wonder that Karen is a self-confessed foodie! In all her travels, her memories are laced with the meals that she has eaten more than the sites that she has seen. It is her pleasure to share with you her understanding of the Asian products she reviews. Whether the product is new or whether it hails from ancient Asia, her focus is to impart with her readers the knowledge that she has acquired thus far. She is a discerning critic with an excellent palate, a healthy appetite and a wealth of understanding of the nuances in the Asian food & beverage market. Karen Ang-Fendler is currently a Maine-based freelance food writer. She can be contacted at karenangfendler@ymail.com.
East West Specialty Sauces
On the East-West Specialty Sauce company website this phase spoke loudly and clearly to me:
"Today, consumers lead very busy active lifestyles and are not able to devote hours in the kitchen, but still would like to experience the joy of preparing and offering a tasty, nutritious home-prepared meal. Our sauces can help you meet this goal in a matter of minutes, offering you the opportunity to enjoy more precious time with family and friends.”
The readers of this column know that I review products based on exactly the premise above. Good tasty food cooked at home with little time to spend in the kitchen on the weeknights. I tried their Sizzling Stir-Fry Sauce and sent my daughter in college their new Zesty Orange Sauce. I also tried their their recipe for Emperor’s Rice from their website. It was very easy and took me about 15 minutes including rice cooking time to put the whole dish together. True to their promise, I did not need to use any other spices or ingredients to make the rice more flavorful. In fact I ate the remainder of the dish, cold for lunch the next day and it was even better in flavor. It is truly an all-inclusive sauce.
As for the Zesty Orange Sauce, my daughter simply took the cold strips of chicken and salad from her campus cafeteria, microwaved up the Zesty Orange Sauce and poured it over the chicken and salad. She said she enjoyed the sauce and it added much-needed flavor to her school diet on campus. Whether East-West Specialty Sauces intended for their products to be used this way, I am not certain. However, it has made one college kid less homesick for home cooking. This sauce will be one of the regular item I put in her college “CARE” package!
Royal Asia Dum Sum Rings
If I lived in a city where Chinatown was only a walk, a subway ride, or even an hour drive away, I would never pick up dim sum in a frozen food aisle in the local grocery store. This is precisely why for those of us who live out in the suburbs, I would recommend that you try these new frozen Royal Asia Dim Sum dishes produced by Tai Foong USA.
Chinese Dim Sums are delicious breakfast/brunch dishes available in areas where there are a significant number of Chinese people in the community. Traditionally, going out to a Dim Sum house is a social occasion to be enjoyed with friends and family. The traditional Dim Sum houses have many varieties to choose from in their Dim Sum carts.
Royal Asia offers five varieties of Dim Sum rings with Master Chef Martin Yan as their spokesperson. I tried two of the most popular dishes in Dim Sum houses, Hacao and ShaoMai, and both are accompanied with the appropriate dipping sauce. The typical ingredients in a Hacao are shrimp, bamboo shoots, soy sauce and white pepper, all wrapped in rice dough then steamed in bamboo baskets. ShaoMai are open-faced pleated dumplings with shrimp, pork, and soy sauce and sometimes with green peas, wrapped in a wonton wrapper then steamed in bamboo baskets.
The instructions on the ring packages were very easy to follow. All you have to do is steam them in the microwave inside their original container. When the Hacao was heated through, it was very authentic looking, with clear see-through rice skins. The aroma that it imparted transported me back to a dim sum house. It was tasty and the rice dough was tender. My only complaint was that the shrimp used was not as plump as the ones that are at the Dim Sum restaurants. In this particular package, the shrimp were tiny and a little hard in texture. Other than that, the flavor was quite good. The ShaoMai tasted better to me than the Hacao, simply because the shrimp in these were more tender.
Until I live closer to a real Dim Sum house, I will buy it again. It is good enough for when I have a craving for Dim Sum. For more information, visit: www.northernchef.com/RoyalAsiaG.html.
Kame Green Tea Snack Mix
I found this package along the same shelf of the now popular green peas or Wasabi Green Peas snacks. By now most everyone is familiar with this Japanese treat. So it is exciting to discover that there are new snacks along the same genre yet different and available to us.
The ingredients in this package are roasted sunflower seeds, honey sesame sticks, goji berries, green tea coated roasted pumpkin seeds and honey roasted peanuts. The taste is crunchy, savory and slightly sweet.
I tried separating all the individual items and tasting them on their own. This proves a little more challenging than I had anticipated. It was hard to decipher the individual flavor yet each does have a different flavor and texture in its bite. I found that the tastiest way to eat this snack is to reach into the bag, then grab a handful and pop the whole mix into your mouth. This way, it yields a crunchy mix and taste in one crunch. For me, it is a fairly additive snack. At 160 calories in a ¼ cup, it is not huge in calorie count, but still at my age; I have to be careful keeping it in my office drawer.
I highly suggest putting these out the next time you need a cocktail snack in place of the usual Chex Mix or pretzel mix. It will be different enough to the crowd and you will seem, oh so hip to be offering a new snack at the party! This bite-sized snack comes in an airtight, re-sealable pouch to maintain freshness.
Kame also makes another flavor – Wasabi snack mix -- that I have yet to try. This variety has wasabi peas, toasted almonds and broad beans. Sounds interesting. I will pick one up the next time. For more information visit: www.kame.com.
Roland Laksa Paste (Singapore noodle sauce)
Reading about Michael Phelps, the amazing olympic swimmer of Beijing 2008 and his breakfast intake, struck an interesting thought in my mind. What if he had a Southeast Asian diet? Would his breakfast items be similar? Southeast Asian breakfast and breakfast in the United States are vastly different.
Here is what Michael consumes for breakfast on a typical training day:
Three fried-egg sandwiches, with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise, two cups of coffee, an omelette (containing five eggs) and a bowl of grits, a porridge of coarsely ground corn, three slices of French toast with powdered sugar on top and, to finish, three chocolate chip pancakes.
Well, I would venture to guess that if Phelps were an athlete from Singapore, one of his breakfast dishes be Laksa! Laksa, sometimes known as nonya or curry laksa, is usually served as a breakfast item at a Hawker Center (open air food court) or a Kopitiam (coffee shop) in Singapore. Laksa is a spicy coconut milk-based noodle gravy soup that has bean sprouts, shrimp, chicken, omelet strips, dried tofu and fresh cilantro. Its unique flavor comes from a spice paste made from shrimp paste, lemongrass, galangal, coriander and chili.
In the States, Roland sells laksa paste in jars known as Singapore Noodle Sauce or Laksa Paste. If I have a craving for laksa for breakfast and am short on time, I like to cook the paste in chicken broth and add rice sticks, shrimp, fresh tofu, bean sprouts and cilantro. I usually forgo adding the omelet strips or hard-boiled eggs if I have less time on hand. Right before serving, I like to add a squeeze of lime to the dish. If I have the time, the dish tastes a lot more traditional with a combination of homemade shrimp stock and chicken stock.
Although this Roland Laksa Paste does not come close to the traditional laksa dish I am familiar with in Singapore, it is still a tasty paste for a quick bowl of soup for breakfast. So, Michael, will you be able to swim as well on a Laksa breakfast?
To find out where to purchase a jar of this handy paste, please go to: www.rolandfood.com.
Soy Vay Wasabiyaki
The perfect mix for my sushi is soy sauce and wasabi – but I always make it myself. So when my husband came back from a golf game a few weeks back and told me about a marinade that his buddy enjoys using that has this combination, I was intrigued. I have never heard of such a sauce pre-bottled together. It was truly a surprise to discover that this sauce is made by one of my favorite companies, Soy Vay Enterprises.
Soy Vay Veri Veri Teriyaki sauce is always in my fridge. I have not seen Soy Vay Wasabiyaki before on the Supermarket shelf but eventually found it at a local Meat Market at a price of $5.49 a bottle.
Soy Vay Wasabiyaki combines wasabi with soy sauce, adds a generous amount of toasted sesame seeds (a signature ingredients in many of their sauces), sesame oil, soy oil, fresh ginger and fresh garlic. The label on the bottle suggests that it can be used for marinating, basting, glazing and dipping. I tested it on a one and a half pound flank steak.
Soy Vay Wasabiyaki was very much similar in taste to the teriyaki version except for a mild wasabi flavor on my taste buds. It had the teriyaki sweetness, which complemented the zestiness of the wasabi. It held up boldly on the flank steak. Dipping the meat in it brought out more of the wasabi kick. I have also tried it as a dipping sauce on sushi, but personally found it a little heavy in taste and too sweet for sushi. However, others trying it seemed to enjoy it.
Will it become a staple in my kitchen? For a busy family, Wasabiyaki will not disappoint and adds an interesting variety to the weekday meals. I would recommend Soy Vay Wasabiyaki to anyone that is a fan of teriyaki and wasabi flavor.
For more information on Soy Vay Wasabiyaki and my personal favorite Soy Vay Veri Veri Teriyaki, visit www.soyvay.com.
Hot-Kid Rice Crisps from China
At my age of forty-something, I am always looking for a low calorie snack. So when my niece Rachel, who was visiting from Barcelona, arrived at our house with these Hot-Kid Rice Crips, I had to give them a try.
The crisps are made by Want Want Group in China, the world’s top manufacturer of rice cracker. The crisps have a light airy crunch, good rice aroma and just the right amount of sea-salt for the right saltiness. To top it all off, the crisps are about the size of a Ritz cracker, and they are only 10 calories apiece. When you need a crunchy snack in the afternoon, it is a prefect alternative to higher fat content snacks such as potato chips or crackers. They go very well with hummus and other dips.
Rachel carried these crisps with her from Spain (which she often does when travelling due to her gluten-free diet). I have never seen them sold in the U.S., so I did a little research and found that they are carried by Wegmans. You may also order them on line from My Brand.
Hot-Kid Rice Crisps are made with Japanese short-grained rice that is known for its sticky texture. They are gluten-free, oven baked, have no trans fat, cholesterol free and wheat free and contain no cholesterol or MSG. They come in an assortment of flavors. I would highly recommend them, even if you are not counting calories or on a gluten-free diet.
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Asian Creations Tantalizing Teriyaki Sauce
Ever ruin your salmon dish with a bad teriyaki sauce? Fear no more, Asian Creations’ Tantalizing Teriyaki will not disappoint.
I am a sucker for teriyaki sauce. I will always be tempted to try a new brand when I am in the market shopping. In my busy life, pre-made bottled teriyaki sauces usually translate to a quick and tasty dinner. All I need to do is buy a protein of my choice and dinner is served.
With that being said, however, there are some teriyaki brands that are far better than others. Tantalizing Teriyaki Sauce made by Asian Creations by Linh & Loann stared back at me in the store and dared me to try it.
The label was eye-catching, and I believe it was the word “tantalizing” that made me put it in my shopping cart. That night, I made my standard dish of salmon with teriyaki sauce and a sesame seed crust, bok choy and soba noodle.
Asian Creations did not disappoint. The teriyaki sauce had a rich aroma, good consistency and the right blend of sweet and salty flavor. It did not taste sweet and gloppy like some bottled sauces tend to be. It had a fresh natural after taste. At about $4.99 a bottle, you can get quite a few easy meals out of it. I would say it is worth keeping in your fridge for when you need a quick simple sauce to use.
In the future, I will definitely try the other Asian Creations sauces and seasonings. For more information on Asian Crea.
All products from Asian Creations by Linh & Loann contain no MSG or preservatives. They offer products from six Asian countries: China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. Simple recipes are provided on the labels of their products and on their website: www.asiancreations.net.
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Kadoya Sesame Oil
Whenever I pass on a recipe that requires sesame oil, I am always sure to take the extra time to educate my friends about my preferred brand. When you smell food that has been prepared with the best sesame oil you will want to eat it!
Kadoya Sesame Oil is my one and only brand of sesame oil. It has the most wonderful aroma, with a deep, dark and delicious sesame taste. Unlike many light colored sesame oils which have no aroma and are usually made with un-toasted sesame seeds, Kadoya toast their sesame seeds to develop the intense flavor of the oil.
This natural flavoring ingredient is best used in small quantities. I especially like mixing the sesame oil into my soy sauce-based marinades and salad dressing preparations to enhance the flavor. I will also drizzle a few drops of the oil to top off a finished dish as it always makes the food smell wonderful and packs a huge flavor punch.
Sesame oil is not customarily used for sautéing or frying, as it will overpower the meal with its strong flavor, so you'll want to be cautious with the amount used. As you become more familiar with the oil you'll know how much you like to use in your recipes and adjust to your taste. Your opened bottles of Kadoya sesame oil should be kept refrigerated and should always be shaken to help even out the consistency before use.
I highly recommend this product to anyone looking for an intense flavoring ingredient. Since a little goes a long way, I recommend purchasing in small quantities. About $3.99 for a small bottle.
Kadoya Sesame Mills Inc. is a Japan-based company primarily engaged in the manufacture and sale of sesame seed oil products. The company offers sesame oil, hot sesame oil, sesame seed paste, ground sesame seeds and roasted sesame seeds, among others, for both restaurant and household consumption. For more information, visit www.kadoya.com.
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Golden Temple Naan Bread Mix
Traditionally, most Indian meals are served with a variety of fresh warm breads as an accompaniment, especially with curry. Naan is perhaps one of the better-known varieties in Indian restaurants here in America. Naan is leavened flat bread from northern India cooked in open clay ovens called a Tandoor. It is usually too elaborate to be made at home. However, Golden Temple is betting that its Nan Bread Mix can help you create this unique flatbread in the convenience of your own kitchen.
The mix comes with yeast and flour mix packets and bread machine is not needed so anyone can attempt this recipe without buying another appliance for the kitchen - nor do you have to have a Tandoor! Additional ingredients needed are sugar, water, milk and vegetable oil.
Even though this is a mix, it still does require a little planning on your part to make the naan. It took me about an hour or so to make a batch. If you are pressed for time, buying frozen naans where available may be easier and taste just as good. However, there is something very earthy about kneading the dough, watching the bread bubble and having the wonderful aroma of fresh bread in the house.
Although the instructions on the box only give you stove top directions for cooking the dough, I have cooked them in a hot 420-degree convection oven for about 5 minutes on each side on a pre-heated baking sheet. It makes about eight pieces. The Golden Temple brand bread mix is good quality and it does have an authentic taste similar to what I get at an Indian restaurant.
Try other Golden Temple Naan varieties like onion and garlic flavors. I paid about $3.59 for a 12.3 oz box at my local grocery store. It is available in most major grocery chains or you may purchase them from this online store www.ishopindian.com.
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Chung's Gourmet Foods
We spend every July 4th holiday with our friends Ron and Tracy at their summer house in Belgrade Lake, Maine. I traditionally make egg rolls for the occasion. This year I flat out ran out of time to make them beforehand and decided to serve Chung’s Egg Rolls instead. I kept my fingers crossed hoping that no one would be disappointed.
The eggrolls are offered in either a frozen or refrigerated version. I decided to test the latter in both the shrimp and vegetable flavors. They come four in a package with sweet & sour sauce packets and are priced at about $5.99. The instructions on the package give three methods of preparations: conventional oven, deep-fry and microwave. I chose to do them in the oven.
Usually with pre-package egg rolls the cabbages tends to taste like paste. These eggrolls, however, tasted like cabbage, shrimp, carrots and celery. They were crispy, had a good flavor and the sweet and sour sauce went well with the dish. As a personal preference I added soy sauce.
We did all agree that my homemade egg rolls were far more superior than Chung’s. However, when you are short on time, Chung’s is the perfect convenient source for a tasty alternative to the homemade version.
Chung's Gourmet Foods was founded in 1986 and headquartered in Houston, Texas. Their egg rolls can be found in any major grocery store in the deli or frozen food section with many varieties are available. For more information, visit www.chungsfoods.com.
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Bali Spice Peanut Satay Sauce
There are many benefits to raising a teenager that loves to cook. One of them is being pleasantly surprised by a creative meal that greeted me on a late night home from work. My daughter, at eighteen, is turning out to be quite a chef.
The entrée of the evening was marinated chicken tenders. She marinated them in Bali Spice Peanut Satay Sauce along with fresh grated ginger, garlic, brown sugar and salt. The meat pieces are then skewered onto a bamboo stick for grilling. It was then served with fresh cucumber, rice and more of the Bali Spice Peanut Satay Sauce for dipping. The sauce had an excellent peanut flavor, the right amount of ‘heat’ spice and good consistency. There was no need to add any additional spices, salt or pepper. Good just as it is for dipping. Thumbs up!
Satay is one of my daughter’s favorite dish since her trip to Singapore, so when she chanced upon this bottle of sauce at our local grocery store, she decided to give it her best efforts. When I was a little girl in Singapore we had Satay only occasionally since it typically was an expensive dish to order in a restaurant or time-consuming to make at home. With this Bali Spice Peanut Satay Sauce, now anyone can easily prepare it with little time on hand.
Bali Spice helps create delicious dishes, it is all-natural and qualifies for vegetarian and vegan use. This line of products by Peaceworks was established post 9/11 to help foster business ventures with the west and Muslim countries. They believe that shared business goals lend to increased understanding. It is a cool company; please learn more about them by visiting their site: www.peaceworks.com.
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Vita Coco coconut water
About two weeks ago, I was training for a 10K run and it was a brutally hot, sweltering day. Immediately after the run, I found myself craving something more than water to drink. My sister who is in a lot better condition then I handed me a very chilled tetra pak of Vita Coco, coconut water. She said to me, hey, do you remember this? Oh yes, I said.
I have always enjoyed coconut water while growing up in Singapore. Coconut water (or juice) is the thin liquid found naturally inside young green coconuts, not to be confused with coconut milk, which is made from the white flesh of older coconuts. It is a popular drink in South East Asia where it is available fresh. However, it has been years since I drank some.
Despite my intrigue in the product I was immediately skeptical as I only remember enjoying the fresh juice and have never liked the taste when packaged in a can. To my surprise, it was so refreshing and the taste was authentic.
In researching Vita Coco further, I found that it is marketed as a natural alternative to artificial sports drinks because of its high potassium that will replenish electrolytes lost during sustained exercise. There are many different flavors available, some have added sweeteners or are mixed with fruit purée. The natural flavor is my favorite, especially after a workout or a run.
There are many other brands of coconut water available in the supermarkets as it is no longer restricted to only Asian or Hispanic markets. Give Vita Coco brand a try, www.vitacoco.com.
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Wanchai Ferry Chinese Dinner Kits
In addition to my love of cooking and my weekly product review for All Asia Food News, I am also the Sales Director for an Extended Stay Brand of Hilton Hotels, Homewood Suites. For the last month, I have been offering this Wanchai Ferry Chinese Dinner Kit in our 24-hour convenient shop for guests that may be away from home for an extended period and would love to cook something in their room. Since all the suites have cooking capabilities, these items have been selling well.
Launched in May of 2007 by General Mills, Wanchai Ferry Chinese Dinner Kits have four varieties to choose from. Spicy Garlic Chicken, Sweet & Sour Chicken, Cashew Chicken and Kung Pao Chicken. On the grocery shelf of the international or ethnic food section, the Wanchai Ferry dinner kit is identifiable by a tall bright red traditional Chinese take-out box.
Each box comes with ingredients, including Jasmine rice, a seasoned cornstarch in which to mix the chicken and a can of water chestnut or bamboo shoots. The ease of preparation makes it convenient for a traveler in a limited kitchen to grab one of these boxes and create a meal with choice protein. Depending on how much protein you use, there is enough for a healthy serving for two to four people. In my opinion, the sauce in the pouch is what makes the whole dish tastes so good. One may also add vegetables or spring onions to liven up the taste even more.
If Oriental cooking intimidates you, this Chinese Dinner Kit will take the worry out for you! It is an excellent choice for a "box" dinner. It is available at most major grocery stores and will be shelved in the ethnic or international food section at about $4.79 per box.
For more information and history on Wanchai Ferry™ brand, please visit:
www.WanchaiFerry.com.
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GOLDEN CURRY, made by S&B Foods Inc.
My sister, who lives in Singapore, introduced me to S&B Golden Curry Sauce when visiting me here in the U.S. When I saw the product I told her how odd it seemed to be using a curry paste made in Japan and not in India. That was about eight years ago and here I am, still using that Japanese-made curry paste at least once a month.
You can buy S&B Golden Curry Sauce in three heat levels: mild, med hot and hot. I usually use the med hot because it caters to the majority of taste tolerance and because the hot can really pack some heat!
The box containing the curry sauce mix is 3.5 oz and costs about $2.50. Inside the box, you will see a plastic container with a sealed top. The ready-made curry sauce mix comes in the form of a solid block that is sectioned into five pieces.
Follow the exact instructions on the box and you will see that the mix contains all the flavors so you do not need to even add salt or pepper.
However, if you choose, you may increase or decrease the amount of vegetables and meat. The consistency of the curry stew is thick, if you prefer, you may adjust it by increasing the amount of water. Sometimes I add a can of coconut milk for an even richer sauce.
If you are interested in finding out more of why curry is so popular in Japan, there is an interesting story on the S&B website: www.sbfoods.co.jp/eng/currystory.html.
S&B Golden Curry can be found in most local Supermarkets’ Asian aisle or at: www.AsianFoodGrocer.com.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------HAKUBAKU ORGANIC NOODLES
Hakubaku organic noodles are one of the most beautiful and healthy products to keep in your pantry. Although these noodles are manufactured in Australia, they are authentic and the biggest selling dried noodle product brand in Japan.
Hakubaku turns raw wheat into five varieties of Japanese noodles and three kinds of pasta for the Australian market. Currently there are four varieties available in the U.S. : Soba, Udon, Somen and Ramen. Their website gives detailed descriptions of all the different noodles with helpful nutrition information and great recipes.
Here are some basic facts from their website on Soba: www.hakubaku.com/
Soba noodles are thin Japanese noodles made of buckwheat flour (soba-ko) and wheat flour (komugi-ko). They are roughly as thick as Italian spaghetti, and prepared in various hot and cold dishes. The most basic soba dish is zaru soba in which boiled, cold soba noodles are eaten with a soya based dipping sauce (tsuyu).
I am a huge noodle fan. I enjoy almost all traditional Chinese noodle dishes, as well as Singaporean, Malaysian, Japanese, Thai, Korean and Vietnamese noodle dishes. With Hakubaku noodles, I think that you will become a noodle fan too. Grab a package of Soba and try my creation below. I make this often to take to the office for lunch.
Cold Soba and Salmon
1 3oz piece of Salmon without skin
1 bundle of Hakubaku Soba noodle
1 tablespoon of Teriyaki Sauce (Soy Vay Veri Veri Teriyaki is one of my favorites)
Place salmon on a baking sheet and drizzle the tablespoon of Teriyaki sauce on top. Bake for about 15 minutes at 400 degrees. While the salmon is cooking, prepare the Soba noodle according to the package instructions. Once the noodle is cooked, drain and place in a lunch container. As soon as the salmon is done, toss with the noodle along with the teriyaki sauce in the pan. Cool and chill, and it is ready for eating. If you prefer, you may squeeze some fresh lemon juice onto the dish.
ENJOY!
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For authentic Thai taste: BLUE DRAGON THAI RED CURRY PASTE
Blue Dragon is named after the Chinese symbol of good fortune and for thirty years, it has helped the British people create authentic Chinese dishes at home. Now they have crossed the Atlantic and are anxious to do the same for the American home kitchen with their red curry paste.
Blue Dragon Red Curry Paste is a spicy aromatic Thai curry with lemongrass, galangal & kaffir lime. When I saw this new Thai curry paste packaged in a small glass jar with such ingredients as shallots, garlic, galangal, lemon grass, kaffir lime peel and shrimp paste, I had to try it. This stuff seems authentic but how will it taste?
The pastes are easy to use and deliver excellent aroma and flavor. I tried the recipe offered on the label for Thai Chili Beef. The dish turned out to be delicious and required very little effort. Keeping this paste on hand is a good time saver and it makes Thai cooking more accessible to the consumer.
Their recipe-focused website, www.bluedragon.com, provides a consumer-friendly, fully interactive resource to help make authentic dishes with innovative recipes. The site also offers products and general advice on Oriental and Pan Asian cooking.
The Blue Dragon label is owned by Associated British Foods. Blue Dragon Thai Red Curry Paste can be purchased for $2.29 per 3.8oz at most major grocery stores, or from this website: http://store.dereuzegourmetmarket.com/.
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TAI PEI FROZEN MICROWAVE CHINESE ENTRÉE
Have you ever been so busy that you run out of time to go get something to eat because most of the world has shut down for the day? Well, it happened to me not so many weeks ago. Opening a brand new hotel took much more energy and time than I could have anticipated. You may be wondering what all this has to do with Asian food?
This week, it is about the convenience of frozen microwave entrée’s available anytime of the day, even at 2 am.
I went down to the local grocery store to stock up on a few frozen entrees to set myself up for emergency hungry nights. Being Asian, I have to admit that the shelves of frozen pizza just do not have the same appeal to my appetite. Then a row of colorful Chinese take-out cartons caught my eye.
TAI PEI Frozen Chinese Entrée! It looks authentic and the instructions were simple. Microwave in container, stir and enjoy! SOLD! I picked out Chicken Fried Rice and Spicy Szechuan Style Chicken. Each was about $4.95.
At about midnight that night, I put them to the test. It was easy to break the plastic seal around the container, pop the whole thing into the microwave, heat, stir and viola, it was ready. The portion at 14.2 oz was just a little less than a take-out order but more than the typical frozen entrée. The taste was good, and the consistency of the texture from a frozen meal was fairly fresh. For my personal taste, I added a little touch of hot sauce into the fried rice but as far as frozen food goes, I recommend it.
After doing some research I was surprised to find out that TAI PEI was launched back in 1996, and yet this is the first time I have seen it in my local supermarket. Perhaps people’s taste profile and flavor preferences are expanding or maybe they are getting bored with the same frozen pizza and pasta. It is good to have Asian frozen foods more readily available.
For more information about TAI PEI visit: www.vipfoods.com/tai_pei.html
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Big Train introduces new line of Asian-inspired exotic beverages
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Big Train
