Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Food Review: Tai Pei brand Chicken


I bough Tai Pei's General Tso's Chicken on sale for $2.50.

The nutrition information looked good.

140 calories for the whole big tub.

3 grams of fat for the whole tub.

No Saturated Fat. No Trans Fat. Very low Cholesterol.

Somewhat low in protein for something claiming to be a chicken dish. Only 6 grams or about 11% DR. More on that later...

With no rice this item is pretty low carb. Only 10 Grams about 3% of your DR.

Only the sodium was high around 580 grams about 24% of your daily recommended intake.

Has corn syrup in it but NOT HFCS. Uses Sucralose sweetener instead.

Note that this ACTUALLY had vitamins in it. 180% of Vitamin A, 90% vitamin C 8% calcium and 8% iron. (It's pretty much all vegetables.)

When I opened the container after microwaving it I was disappointed that it wasn't even half full of stuff. When frozen this item seems to be a solid quart of food. It is NOT.

There is a laughably small amount of chicken in there. Literally a few shreds. The very low fat content on the label should have clued me in.

The vegetables were very nice (this is made in California and you can tell from the good quality of the snap peas) and the sauce was good and spicy.

The sauce is nice and I suppose you could just add your own chicken to it for a quick meal. I was left with a half inch of sauce on the bottom of the box. Adding extra chicken so the box is actually more than a quarter full might be a great idea.

I suppose you could justify this purchase for a convience meal. It is quality stuff.

I however, cannot justify the price point for this item. Unless it's on sale or you get a really good coupon you would be better off buying your own vegetables and chicken cooking them into something.

A- (Great quality of vegetables and sauce do not quite make up for lack of chicken and high price)

5 comments:

Ben said...

I haven't tried the General Tso's yet, but I have tried their Chicken Fried Rice, Sweet & Sour chicken, and the Pepper Beef. These have been on sale at WalMart for $2, and I think it's a great deal. For the price, they are pretty good as far as taste, and in my opinion, filling enough. When you cook these in the microwave for 6 min's, afterward, give it a good shake, then put it back in for another minute. This is the best way of making sure it all comes out hot and ready. The Chicken Fried Rice is a little bland for my taste, but I add some soy sauce and it makes it much better.

Anonymous said...

so I lietterally spent like $12 on these, 6 of them , * 1 each of : pork egg rolls, shrimp fried rice, chicken fried rice, pepper steak and orange chicken, oh and the beef and broccli *

THEY SUCK.

SUCK DOESNT EVEN DESCRIBE HOW MUCH THEY SUCK.

i thought these would feed me and my fiancee , along with our roommate .. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

theres so little meat - i mean were these designed for a four year old ethiopain child smoking crack? its mostly rice and even thought he veggies are good most were over saucy.

Anonymous said...

nicolette +1

Anonymous said...

The taste is absolutely horrible. I purchased 6 boxes for a small lunch with my friends and I, and no one finished even half of their own box. Maybe it's because one of my friends often cooks us authentic Chinese food? Even for an "Americanized" Chinese food, this is absolutely horrible. We threw all 6 of the boxes away and had Panda Express instead. And in my opinion, Panda Express isn't even that great when it comes to American Chinese Cuisine.

Anonymous said...

This product is garbage. If you read the label, serving size is 1 cup, and servings per container about 2.5. The reason they make such a tiny container 2.5 servings becasue the tans fat. Acording to the FDA law, ""0 grams trans fat per serving" is a factual statement, not a defined nutrient content claim. Factual statements have always been allowed on labels provided the information is truthful and not misleading. "0 grams trans fat per serving” is truthful as long as the food contains less than 0.5 gram (1/2 g) of trans fat per serving. "0 grams trans fat" without qualification (i.e., "per serving") is an incomplete factual statement and should not be used on labels, unless the product is in a single-serve container. " and the sodium will be 13% x 2.5. This is garbage, if you care about yourself, stop eating it.