Saturday, May 11, 2013
Product Review - Tai Pei General Tso's Chicken
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| Tai Pei General Tso's Chicken Carton |
Tai Pei - Asian Gardens - Spicy General Tso’s Chicken
This is an impromptu product evaluation. It all started when
I was going to make a small batch of fried rice to use up some leftover
chicken. A bit before the wife said she was going to have some other left over
for dinner just to clean out the fridge. When she found out I was going to make
fried rice she decided that she wanted fried rice too. Fried rice is popular at
our house. It is a great catch-all for leftovers and it tastes really good not
to mention that it is quite simple to make in its simplest form. When I plan to
make it ahead of time as a main dish it can be quite elaborate; seasoned rice,
lots of fresh chopped vegetables and loads of the selected meat, be it chicken,
beef, pork or shrimp.
This batch of fried rice was not going to be as elaborate. I
was missing a few of the veggies I like to use, notably scallions but I was
going to use chives fresh from the garden instead. There was just a small dab
of chicken so I only cooked a cup of rice ahead of time. That would have made
an adequate dish for one but when I found out it was being split two ways I
knew someone was going to be really hungry after dinner, mainly me.
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| Serving 1 - The yellow rice in the back is the fried rice. |
I was thinking it would be a good time to go to the local
Chinese take-out and pick up a side dish to go with the rice. It was a bit
early to start preparing dinner and we needed a few things from the store. So
we decided instead to get something from the frozen food section to go along
with the rice. Some time back we had picked up a box of General Tso’s Chicken
at the local Sam’s Club. It was typical a typical Sam’s Club mega-pack with
bags of breaded and fried chicken morsels and packs of sauce. That particular
offering was just the meat and sauce, no vegetables, not a hint of broccoli.
But they did taste good; a nice spicy sauce over large pieces of mostly white
chicken meat. The memory of a good experience with that product prompted us to
seek out a similar one at the local super market.
It was slim pickings at the super market. There was a large
bag with vegetables and sauce mix (you add your own chicken) that would have
made a main dish all by itself for almost $9 not counting the chicken. I kept
looking for something smaller, less elaborate, something tasty and easy to
share… About the only other thing I could
find in the oriental vein was a line of Tai Pei products in various flavors
including General Tso’s chicken. It was pint-sized container of General Tso’s
Chicken with some vegetables and sauce over rice. At almost $4 it was only
slightly less expensive as a pint of take out from the local Chinese place. I
wasn’t too happy about the rice that was included but it was getting close to
dinner time and we took home our prize.
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| Serving 2 - 1/2 of the carton. The yellow rice in the background is fried rice |
I suppose if I had read the label including all of the very
fine print I would have known better. And, what I wanted and expected was not
the product that Tai Pei provided. What I expected was a pint serving of
General Tso’s Chicken with some rice added; an entrée dish. The instructions
were to microwave for several minutes without removing or puncturing the
plastic wrap – apparently to trap steam. After it was cooked I open the package
and looked inside, deep, way down inside. It is amazing how deep the inside of
a pint container can seem when there is little content at the bottom. It didn’t
look too bad, perhaps a bit “oversteamed,”it had a nice aroma and it tasted
good. At first I was concerned that I perhaps had gotten a defective, under-filled
package. Looking at the container I saw the words that I should have heeded at
the supermarket. There is a small illustration showing the levels as frozen and
after cooking; from three quarters to one half and the caveat, “Settling may
occur.” It also said that the contents were sold by weight and not by volume.
The 11 ounce by weight contents fall way short of filling the 16 fluid ounce
container. As for the settling after cooking, it was all there hiding in the
bottom third of the container, a serving spoon dollop apiece was our share.
In the future I will stock up on a couple of the Sam’s Club
offerings to have in the freezer for the wisp of the moment, conger up
something good to eat moments. And, if I ever need to augment again, I will
stop in at the local Chinese take-out. Compared to the Tai Pei offering, a
third of a carton of cooked food, at $4, for $5or even $6 at the local take-out
they will provide me with a full pint container of good tasting food, hot and ready
to serve; three times the food for only a dollar or two more.
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| Read the label before you buy. |
As I mentioned, if I had been more careful in reading the
menu at the super market I would have probably passed on this product. It wasn’t what I really wanted. I wanted a pint
of Chinese take-out from the grocer’s freezer. That is not what it is. It is a
snack-sized portion of Chinese style food in an oversized Chinese take-out
container. If a snack-sized serving is what you want, available in just 5
minutes from the freezer, either at home or work, this may be just right for
you. Although the cooking directions seem to result in a bit of over-cooking ,
it doesn’t look too bad, has a nice aroma and tastes very good. It is mostly
rice with some vegetables and a bit of chicken. I just have trouble getting
past the large amount of empty space and rice I purchased at the same rate as a
full, real Chinese take-out.
Labels: broccoli, chicken, Chinese, General, spicy, take-out, Tso's
¶ 9:36 AM
Comments:
Wow! That looks nice. All of their foods look delicious and mouth watering. I want to try them too. Looks very yummy. Anyway, you should also try the best dimsum in Manila. I'm pretty sure you'll love it too.
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Tai Pei frozen foods are pretty good. Not as good as Wanchai Ferry® (which is also much more expensive) but I'd give them about 7 to 7.5 out of 10 stars. The fried rice, beef & broccoli, sweet & sour chicken, etc, are good. (definitely better than Banquet brand) The Lo Mein is not that good. It's like plain spaghetti, w/some veggies & a sauce that is a bit too heavy on the sesame oil. The portions are fine. 1 will not fill a grown man, but 2 & maybe a yogurt, ice cream bar, etc for desert, it's an adequate meal. (though 2 would be a bit high in sodium) Anyway, they say "you get what you pay for". I think you get a little more than that w/Tai Pei frozen foods. Good quality & portion size for $2. Hard to beat that.
Wow! That looks nice. All of their foods look delicious and mouth watering. I want to try them too. Looks very yummy. Anyway, you should also try the best dimsum in Manila. I'm pretty sure you'll love it too.
The original poster needs to shop at a different grocer.....the price for this product in my area near Raleigh NC varies from $2.14 to $2.49.
Also, I have found that adding some citrus flavored Ponzu sauce by Kikkoman enhances the flavor.
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Also, I have found that adding some citrus flavored Ponzu sauce by Kikkoman enhances the flavor.
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