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REVIEW – Ajinomoto Tokyo Style Chicken Shoyu Ramen (Frozen)

Category: Costco

March 12, 2016 | 20 Comments






 



 

We tried some of Ajinomoto's frozen Chicken Shoyu (soy sauce) Ramen from Costco. 

The box of ramen contained four frozen noodle bowls, individually packaged…  which is nice because it means one less thing to be washed in the dishwasher. 😛 

Following the instructions, a frozen ramen bowl was super easy to prepare… just fill water up to the fill line in the bowl and microwave it for 5-6 minutes. The only thing of note is to spread out the water a little bit when pouring it over the noodles or the noodles might end up getting clumped. 

The ramen broth tasted pretty good; it had a light soy sauce and chicken broth flavor. The corn was also sweet, and the noodles were a little bit al dente. 

The picture of the bowl on the box was actually somewhat accurate (in terms of the count of each item) -- the ramen soup came with exactly one piece of broccoli, five-ish pieces of chicken, two red peppers, and a little bit of corn and carrot, along with the noodles. 

Even though it all tasted good, there wasn't enough for a whole meal for me; I was still hungry afterward.  The soup could have used more of everything -- chicken, vegetables, and noodles.

And it probably isn't a good idea to drink all the broth, either.  Even though the broth tasted good and didn't taste too salty to me,  one bowl of it contains 96% of your USRDA of sodium.

Overall Rating:



Food: Ajinomoto Tokyo Style Chicken Shoyu Ramen 

Source: Costco, Tucson, AZ

Rating: Good

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REVIEW – Trader Joe’s Chicken Chow Mein (Frozen)

Category: Trader Joe's

February 10, 2016 | Post a Comment












 

We tried Trader Joe's Chicken Chow Mein as a side to Trader Joe's Spicy Beef & Broccoli. For cooking the chicken chow mein, we followed the microwave instructions on the back of the bag. The instructions state that it's optional to add 1-2 tablespoons of water for moister chow mein so we added 1 tablespoon of water to it. We also used only half of the chicken chow mein sauce.  

The diced chicken was OK, but it was a little dry on the inside. The noodles were a little on the chewy side, but both the chicken and noodles went well with the sauce. The sauce tasted like a sweet garlic-y soy sauce, and as usual, I think it would have been too sweet (and garlic-y) if we had used the entire sauce packet. The vegetables were pretty good and had a nice crunch, given that they were frozen and microwaved. Overall, it was a pretty decent frozen chow mein.

Overall Rating:



Food: Trader Joe's Frozen Low Fat Chicken Chow Mein

Source: Trader Joe's, Tucson, AZ

Rating: Good


from Trader Joes

REVIEW – Trader Ming’s: Spicy Beef & Broccoli from Trader Joe’s (Frozen)

Category: Trader Joe's

February 10, 2016 | 3 Comments















 

Since Trader Joe's Kung Pao Chicken was better than a lot of other frozen Kung Pao chickens I've had, my boyfriend and I decided to try some of Trader Joe's Szechuan Style Spicy Beef & Broccoli. Unfortunately, we didn't read the instructions fully before buying it and assumed it was microwavable, like their Kung Pao chicken. However, the beef & broccoli ended up being mostly cooked on the stovetop. The only part that was microwavable was the bag of broccoli.

The spicy beef & broccoli came in three separate packets: beef, broccoli, and sauce. The bag of broccoli also came stuck to the outer bag.



Bag of frozen broccoli stuck to outer packaging


We cooked it all following the instructions on the back of the bag, except we only used half of the sauce. It took us a total of about 15-20 minutes to make.

The beef wasn't great. A few of the beef bits were grisly, and beef wasn't very crispy because of the sauce. Although the beef bits had a slightly crispy exterior, the inside of the beef was very mushy, which I didn't like at all. The sauce was sweet and a little tangy, but I didn't care for it. I'm glad we only used half the sauce or it would have been too sweet. The only part I did like about the beef was its spiciness. The broccoli was also OK, but it didn't really add anything to the beef.

Refrigerating the beef didn't do the beef any favors, either. We had it as leftovers the next day; it tasted worse. The beef was even mushier, and I couldn't eat the three pieces I put on my plate.

Overall Rating:



Food: Trader Ming's: Frozen Szechuan Style Spicy Beef & Broccoli

Source: Trader Joe's, Tucson, AZ

Rating: Blegh

Rating (as leftovers): Disgusting

from Trader Joes