Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Thai Kitchen Rice Noodle Cart Pad Thai

Imported By:  Simply Asia Foods, LLC [Product of China]
Required to Prepare:  2 tbsp Water, Microwave
460 calories per package

Tonight, my usually-not-noodle-loving sweetie told me she wasn't all that hungry, and asked if we could have instant noodles for dinner!  I had something in the Noodle Stash for just such an occasion--two packages of these Pad Thai noodles from Thai Kitchen.  They were perfect not only because I actually had two, but because I know my sweetie prefers this type of dish over noodle soups.  Dinner is decided upon, so it's time to cook, eat, and review!

The package consists of a shrink-wrapped plastic container inside the paperboard overwrap; inside this container is a packet of "fresh" rice noodles, some sauce, and foil packs of dried veggies and peanut topping.  We open the noodles and dried veggies into the container, pour the sauce over the noodles and add 2 tablespoons of water, cover loosely with the lid, and microwave for two minutes.  After stirring things up, we top with the peanuts.  I cooked each meal individually, due to the short cook time, so after repeating all of the above, dinner is ready to go!

The texture of the noodles is actually pretty good; they are not sticky and are pleasantly firm.  Unfortunately, that's pretty much the only good thing for me to say about it.  The flavor of the sauce is a bit strange; it's overly tangy and sweet, and tastes much more like a not-very-good hoisin sauce than anything resembling an authentic Pad Thai sauce.  I ended up wishing I had left the peanut topping off; despite the product being in date, the peanuts were quite stale and actually tasted a bit rancid.  Overall, it just didn't seem like a quality product.  And it wasn't just my package; before I mentioned my impressions, my sweetie independently critiqued both the flavor of the sauce and the freshness of the nut topping.

The consensus of the Ramen Butterfly household, then, is that we were a bit disappointed in this one. :\