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Costco
Box of J. Scott's Seafood Fest from Costco
J. Scott's Seafood Fest inner packaging
J.Scott's Seafood Fest frozen on tray
J.Scott's Seafood Fest cooked on tray

I first noticed this Seafood Fest when I went to Costco around July and the price was around $36.00. The price then dropped to $25 and dropped again to $19.95 last month so I finally decided to try some. At $19.95, it's about twice the price of the Aquastar Seafood Feast from Fry's/Kroger, but this one from Costco has more meat and no filler corn and potatoes. It came with a decent amount for the two of us: two lobster tails, 8 shrimps, 7 clams, and 9 scallops.

According to the instructions on the box, there are three different ways of cooking the Seafood Fest: boiling it, baking it, or grilling it. You can also thaw it out overnight first, but my boyfriend and I forgot to do that beforehand. So, we pretty much baked it right from frozen in the oven.

First, we melted one stick of butter and added approximately half of the given seasoning packet to the butter (the instructions say to use only half the seasoning if baking). We preheated the oven to 400 degrees F, and strayed from the instructions a little bit: we put all the seafood on a metal baking tray (without any seasoning) in the oven for five minutes to get it to start thawing and poured out the excess water. Then, we quickly poured the butter and seasoning mixture over the seafood using a spoon, and resumed baking it the rest of the way.

1 stick of melted butter
1 stick melted butter
Seafood Fest seasoning mixed with butter
Seasoning mixed with butter
Butter mixture poured over seafood
Butter mixture on seafood

It took about 25 minutes to bake the lobster tails (possibly because they were towards the back of the oven), and it took about 30 minutes for everything else.

It turned out pretty well! Nothing was rubbery, and everything had a crisp feel to it. The seasoning had a kind of salty, savory taste... sort of like a saltier Old Bay seasoning. If I ever had these again, I might do less than the half packet of seasoning because the seasoning started to seem saltier and more tiring the longer I ate.

However, the seasoning combined with everything still had a good taste, except for the clams. The clams had the strongest taste, and they started out tasting OK, but they tasted a little sour to both of us... like burnt egg yolk or something. I've never had clams before so I'm not sure what clams are supposed to taste like, but I ended up not liking the taste of these. I still ended up eating the majority of them since my boyfriend disliked them even more than I did.

Everything else was pretty good. Shelling the shrimps and lobster tails was a little time-consuming, but at least they had good meat on them. My favorite were the scallops, which had a nice sweet taste and complemented the seasoning well.

My boyfriend and I finished the entire Seafood Fest in one sitting, except for one last clam, which we just threw away. Overall, it was a fairly filling and satisfying seafood meal.

Finished plate with empty shells
My finished plate with empty shells + 1 clam no one wanted
Overall Rating:
Good
Food: J. Scott Foods: Seafood Feast (with lobster, scallops, shrimp & clams) (Frozen)
Source: Costco, Tucson, AZ
Rating (lobster): Good
Rating (scallops): Delicious
Rating (shrimp): Good
Rating (clams): OK
Rating (overall): Good

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Box of Bibigo Chicken & Vegetable Steamed Dumplings
Bibigo Chicken & Vegetable Steamed Dumplings, microwaved

After trying the Bibigo mini wontons from Costco, we tried some of these Bibigo steamed dumplings. According to the instructions, the only way you should cook them is using the microwave. The dumplings came in a little tray that gets microwaved for two minutes.

Like with the wontons, some spots on the dumplings were a little dry after microwaving, however, the steamed dumplings also came with a sauce. The taste of dumplings was very similar to Bibigo's wontons, just in a dumpling wrapper instead of a wonton one. It still had a Korean mandu taste with a dominant green onion flavor. Sometimes when you bite into one, water squirts out... so make sure you have a plate.. or at least a paper towel.

If you add the sauce, it adds a nice light, sweet flavor to it, which I liked. On their own, they were just OK, but the addition of the sauce definitely made these better for me.

Update (Nov. 2016): I had this rating at "good" intially, but the more I have these, the more tiring they get. I still have trays sitting in the freezer that are not seeming appealing to eat, so I'm lowering this rating to "ok".

Overall Rating:
OK
Food: Bibigo Steamed Dumplings, Chicken & Vegetable (Frozen)
Source: Costco, Tucson, AZ
Rating: OK (without added sauce)
Rating: OK~Good (with sauce)

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Bag of Bibigo Chicken & Cilantro Mini Wontons
Bibigo Chicken & Cilantro Mini Wontons, microwaved

My boyfriend and I tried some of these frozen Bibigo mini wontons from Costco. We tried cooking a few the easiest way first -- using the microwave. Of course, you can also pan fry, boil, or add it to a soup! We microwaved 6 of them wrapped in a wet paper towel for about a minute (The instructions state to microwave 12 for 1-2 minutes). They came out alright with the exception of a few spots that were a little dry.

The wontons weren't tiny, but they were mini (maybe about 2 in x 1 in). They taste just like wontons with a more dominant green onion taste. They also taste similar to the taste of Korean Mandu (dumpling). The texture was good -- although it can be a little dry microwaved, if your wet paper towel doesn't fully cover them.

We also tried some of the wontons with a spicy noodle soup. The noodle soup was microwaved, and when there was ~two minutes left, we added 6 wontons to it. It turned out very nice!

Bibigo Mini Wontons in a spicy noodle soup
Bibigo Mini Wontons in a noodle soup

My boyfriend preferred the wontons in the soup rather than microwaved on their own, while I enjoyed them both ways. We both liked the taste, and it was a pretty good snack!

Overall Rating:
Good
Food: Fully Cooked Bibigo Mini Wontons, Chicken & Cilantro (Frozen)
Source: Costco, Tucson, AZ
Rating: Good

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