Blue Dragon Restaurant

Wow, wow wow. As a nut-allergy babe who loved Asian food, when I heard that Ming Tsai had a nut-free Chinese resto in Boston, Boston became like, my dream city. And I never got to go to that resto because now it is closed!!!!!! But I went to his new place, which is almost as cool because it's also nut free. I went with my boyf and my great friend, so that was also very fun. The food was great, but sharing it was hard. They were good about allergies of course, including fish and peas! :)

I/we got:

Pork and Scallion Wontons: Honestly I didn't love this -- it was super spicy (??) or made me tear up somehow, even though it obviously wasn't an allergy. Just not what I loved. 5/10

Spicy Chicken Rangoons: This was amazing, it tasted very good but I only got one of them. Crispy and like, uh, Asian food??? I love this. 9/10

Chinese Broccoli: Not the same as American brocco, but basically chili-powdered oily green broc stoccs. I liked it and didn't find it spicy at all, but my cohort thought it was very spicy and didn't love it. I thought "This is fine." 6/10

Chow Fun: This was fun, but I wanted like a lo mein noodle and this was very thick bois. The veg were great and the flavor was great, but I would try a different noodle next time. 8/10

Cookie: OH GOD! THE COOKIE! Got it without the soy caramel just in case. It was so warm and crunchy and good and I love the cookie and ice cream. Cookie. 9/10

Blue Samoan Cocktail: They were out of the beer I ordered, and thank god because this was amazing. Creamy and sweet and refreshing and bright blue and came with an umbrella. I stan (as they say). 9/10

Wine: Wine is fine, I got this. 7/10

Overall, I think our waiter might have hated us and the table was a bit cramped, but the food was great and the service was good and everything was a fun and good experience. Would 100% go back.

Overall

Cost: 5/10 (About 120$ for 3)

Taste: 9/10

InnovAsian General Tso’s Chicken Rice Bowl

Dude, I love this. It's perfect. Tiny, but tastes just like the big General Tso's, with bonus rice and broccoli and red pepper. Can't go wrong!

Overall
Cost: 5/10 [3.50 a bit high for the quantity]
Taste: 9/10

InnovAsian Beef & Broccoli Rice Bowl

OK, I love the big family-size (aka me size) Innovasian meals, but they don't come with rice and are also like 1400 calories. So this meal for one is cheaper, healthier, and faster, plus it's the same amount of delicious. It was really good, just like all their stuff - but small. Like 3 pieces of meat. But the meat and sauce are good. Veg are just "OK". I love this and wish my local grocery carried it, instead I gotta hit up the Wal-Mart by my parents' house 2 hours away!



Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 8/10

P.F. Chang's Home Menu - Dan Dan Noodles

Since I'd already had real PF Chang's, I thought I might as well give this new product at my grocery store a try. I'm always looking for a nice asian noodle, but this didn't quite fit the bill. As always, it was too liquidy, and really this didn't taste anything like anything I'd had before. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it wasn't what I hoped for. It was a decent portion, but not super big, considering the 500+ calorie count! The noodles were good, and the sauce was salty and a bit spicy (despite the 1 pepper spice indicator on the front). There were lots of little sausage-looking pork curds, which were also salty but otherwise fine. Also some mushrooms and onion or chive bits. It was OK, but I don't think I'll get it again, I don't look back in adoration on it.

Overall
Cost: 4/10 (About 5$ at my store, though it IS new)
Taste: 6/10

Lee Kum Kee Plum Sauce

I tagged this as Chinese, but to be totally honest, I'm not totally sure what kind of cuisine this sauce is associated with. Unlike their tasty beef teriyaki sauce, this didn't taste like any dish I'd had in my youth. So, I wasn't sure what to expect with this or even really what to do with it, since I don't eat egg rolls and I never used the packets of duck sauce (which I imagine is similar?) I got as a kid with chinese food.
I decided to just put it on some grilled chicken (is grilled even the word? pan-cooked chicken), over rice. So, one breast of chicken, a little less than half the jar of sauce, one econo portion of rice. When cooked, it was quite sweet, a little vinegary, and not especially spicy. I didn't love it or hate it. I was very glad that I cooked it though - I think spending 3-4 minutes cooking the sauce onto the chicken makes the flavor much better, sweeter, more chinese-y, something. Just plain out of the jar the flavor was pretty strong, in a not great way. I might try repeating this but adding a bit of soy sauce to it? I'm not sure, it's already salty, but I didn't LOVE what I did with this so i don't know if I want to just repeat it, though I might. I also considered adding this to veg but I don't think that'd be good, but with chicken or I guess duck this seems like a fair accompaniment.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

P.F. Chang's

Chinese restaurant? On THIS blog? It's more likely than you think! I love Chinese food, and I've tried pretty much every frozen option I can, most of which are gross. Sadly that includes the PF Chang frozen meals. But I've heard from various allergy blogs and websites that P.F. Changs the resto is actually good about nut allergies, keeps the nuts segregated and only puts on at the end, and will use separate pans and stuff. So I found my lil courage and went to check it out (Epi-Pen in hand of course). It was true: I led with my allergies, and the waiter gave me a print out of everything without tree nuts & peanuts in it (which was a decently big selection). I'm not sure how much he told the chef or if that info is automatically transferred to the order, but I felt pretty safe. Also they have a big drink menu and I got a drink to calm me down, hehe. So, we ordered a few things:

Sangria: This was the drink, it was small and quite alcoholic, but with a cherry and strawberry and orange slice and it was good. 8/10

Sweet and Sour Chicken: This was OK, I don't LOVE breaded chicken but I wanted to mix it up. The sauce was good, the chicken itself was good, the pineapple and peppers were OK. 7/10

White rice: a normal side of white rice. Good to have. 6/10

Beef and Broccoli: I'd rather have chicken and broc, but this was better than I thought it would be. The beef tasted almost like BBQ spare ribs, it was a little sweet/spicy and the texture was nice and tender. Broc was fine. 8/10

Pork fried rice: Really nice, although not quite like my platonic ideal of fried rice. There was egg in it, which was cool, and the pork bits were big but good. Also a strong ginger taste, some carrot and some bean sprouts. Overall nice. 7/10

I will definitely go back if I find a willing partner! I love Chinese food and I know this isn't "authentic" (and it definitely isn't as good as my little girlhood chinese takeout past) but it was really great to have those flavors in a restaurant setting. I hope I can get some carrot/mushroom/bamboo/baby corn/sauce type entree and maybe lo mein with no peas in the future. :)

Overall
Cost: 5/10 (Pricy but not CRAZY)
Taste: 8/10
Fear factor: 6/10

Q says: It was pretty good, 7/10

Bird's Eye Voila! Selects Beef Lo Mein

It looks like family size in the bag, but we made this a lunch-for-one, even though it makes a very heaping bowlfull. Just pop this in a pan and wait 10 minutes for...some mediocre "lo mein". I was worried it would be oversauced, but actually there isn't much sauce once it's done. Which is better than too much sauce, but it still wasn't great. There isn't a lot of flavor, just some mild soy/sesame/saltiness on what are more like linguine than lo-mein noodles. The veg are basically a non-entity, with just some carrots, onions, and maybe 1 bok choy bit. I wish there were no onions (what lo mein has onions?!) but the carrots are fine. The beef is tender, but very "frozen meal beef" flavored. It's decent and not too many calories, and I think it's better than microwave chow mein type meals due to the lower sauce ratio -- but definitely not great, and not very Chinese-y.



Overall
Cost: 5/10 (About 5$ at Giant)
Taste: 6/10

InnovAsian General Tso's Chicken

This is really good. It's basically the chicken from their chicken with broccoli meal, but with none of the filler broccoli (although you could make some on your own for that healthy touch!). You need to make some white rice to go with this and then you're a happy camper. The only downside is that it's about 1600 calories without rice, and even though I only use about half the sauce packet, that's not great. I want to eat it all myself, but splitting it into 2 meals is really the best approach. The sauce, by the way, smells not great, but once it's cooked and mixed in, it's very nice, just a little hot/spicy with a light sweetness. The chicken pieces are super processed, like chicken nuggets, but in the sauce they taste good enough that you don't notice. For someone with very few premade Chinese food options, this is the best of those options (other than the chicken and broc from this company).

Overall
Cost: 4/10 (About 5$ at Wal-Mart, 7-8$ elsewhere)
Taste: 8/10

Marie Callender's Sweet & Sour Chicken

This really has no right to be 500+ calories, because it's not especially big! Sheesh!

This is certainly better than the Tai Pei Sweet and Sour Chicken, but not as good as Innovasian or any non-frozen attempt. I like that it comes with pineapple and rice and there isn't way too much sauce (in fact, there's maybe a tiny bit not enough!). The carrot/pepper/onion bits in it aren't good, but they aren't objectionable like they are in some cases. Overall the chicken pieces are good and the sauce is good, so it's a decent meal. The "veg" side of 6 carrots and 2 small broccos is totally flavorless and doesn't really go with the meal, so I'm not sure what it's doing there, but I guess I'm glad to be consuming free veg. It's OK if it's on sale and you're very hungry.

Overall
Cost: 7/10 (2.50)
Taste: 6/10

Pagoda Pork Potstickers

Whether you call them potstickers or dumplings, I'm generally a fan. However, this frozen meal was not doing it for me (and it's not because it was frozen, I enjoy the Tai Pei frozen potstickers a lot more). Maybe I don't like pork in general, but these made me a little itchy and the taste wasn't great, just like processed lump meat. The sauce is also weird and orange and not soy sauce, which is what I really want. They also hardly give you any of it! 😛 The noodle outside is fine, standard noodle, but the sauce is bad and inside is bad. One perk is that this comes in 2 individual 5 potsticker bags with separate sauce packets, and the cooking is very quick and easy. If only they tasted great it would be perfect!

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 5/10

Tai Pei Orange Chicken

Another Tai Pei disappointment in a cute package! OK, disappointment may be a bit harsh, but I still haven't found what I'm looking for, you know? Honestly, this was a lot like the new General Tso chicken. Contains chicken, rice, veg, and sauce. Again, unfortunately the sauce soaks way more into the rice than in the chicken! I want the chicken and veg to have way more sauce, and the rice to have way less, but I can't control this! Anyway, the sauce itself is good, a little spicy, and the veg are fine too (although I prefer the carrots in Tso's to the waterchestnuts here, since the waterchestnuts are just crispy things with no flavor. It's a good amount of food, about 500cals, and it feels filling. Alas, it is not chinese-craving-fulfilling, though. If it's on sale I might rebuy.

Overall
Cost: 6/10 (about 3$)
Taste: 6/10

Tai Pei General Tso's Spicy Chicken

I had previously reviewed the Tai Pei General Tso meal, but this new-container version is quite different, I think. (Sadly, I'm not sure that it's better). One great change is that there are no longer peapods, so I have no allergy issues here at all! However, this meal, though decent, is far from delicious. It could use more sauce, which is rare for a frozen meal, but there was hardly any sauce here, and the sauce was more in the rice than on the chicken, despite my best efforts. The veggies were nice and crunchy; the carrots felt like real Chinese food carrots and not terrible frozen meal carrots, which was probably the highlight. The chicken and broccoli were tasty too. The rice was clumpy and salty, perhaps a bit too saucy/salty for my taste. I would probably buy this again, but it isn't the Chinese food I'm looking for (sniff sniff).

Overall
Cost: 6/10 (around 3$)
Taste: 6/10

Tai Pei Sweet and Sour Chicken

I want to like this, but I really feel like it would taste so much better without the peppers and carrots and onions. Maybe I'm not cut out for sweet and sour chicken in a frozen meal. Anyway, the chicken is fine, some nice little chunks in there, and a few tasty pineapples too. The sauce is maybe a little too sweet, even though there isn't super much of it. The rice is fine, moist and clumpy and fairly nondescript. I feel that the "veggies" just bring it down a lot, though. They muddle the sweet-and-sour flavor with a strong "frozen pepper and onion" flavor instead. Plus it's almost 500 calories for a fairly small portion! Hoping the other Tai Pei meals are better.

Overall
Cost: 6/10 (about 3$)
Taste: 4/10

Tai Pei Chicken Chow Mein

First off, these new containers are great. Saves me a dish AND I can eat these at school etc. Anyway, I 'm a big proponent of Tai Pei, even though I don't currently love any of their offerings, because I love the potential! They're cheap, easy, mostly fish-and-nut free, and they used to have an amazing Chicken and Brox. Sadly all of their rice dishes have peas, which I can't have, but they're always adding and changing things, so I remain subscribed to their newsletter, so to speak. (Also literally).

This one is exciting because it's noodles! Maybe it will taste like lo mein! Sadly, I've never had real chow mein so I can't really compare it to the real thing, but I will say that at minimum this doesn't taste much like lo mein. It tastes like noodles with a low-sodium soy sauce, a little sesame sauce, some very healthy-tasting chunks of chicken, and carrots/peppers/broc. So it's OK, but it's basically what I can make at home. Definitely not the Chinese food of my dreams, but honestly still a convenient, filling, decently healthy meal. As long as I ignore what could have been, I can accept this as the fine, decent, OK product that it is.

Overall
Cost: 7/10 (about 3$)
Taste: 7/10

Lee Kum Kee Panda Brand Ready Sauce for Korean BBQ Stir-Fry

Dude. Dude. Dude. OK, so if you've read this blog or know me in person, you probably know that since the age of 12 or so, when I got seriously diagnosed with NUT ALLERGY BAD NUT ALLERGY, I've been on the quest for nut-free Chinese food. And not crap Chinese food, but stuff that actually tastes like the (takeout) Chinese food of my youth. However, I have been mostly unsuccessful (mild success came with Yoshinoya Beef Bowl's fried rice (RIP West coast life) and this frozen Innovasian chicken and broccoli meal, but after many attempts, I've generally come up short. Since I am usually in search of (Chinese) lo mein or fried rice or chicken and broc, I never would have thought to try this packet of Korean BBQ stir fry sauce on my own. However, blessedly, it was sent in my monthly Degustabox (fun food sub box). First downer: I have to buy meat, onions, and veg if I want veg. So this is a commitment. Then I need to marinate the meat for two hours. Whew. And they say to buy "flank steak", and I'm not very familiar with cuts of beef, being a mostly poultry-only girl left to my own devices. The only flank steak is over 10 bucks a pound at my store! Good lord! But, since the only potential alternative (London Broil Top Cut) looked really different, I bit the bullet and spent the 10 bucks for this meat, then came home and made rice and cut veg and marinated it up and stir fried the heck outta this thing! (The cooking itself took less than 10 min, which was crazy, and I don't have a meat thermometer so I was a little scared and did it on the longer side, like 8min total). And...and....it tastes EXACTLY like the beef teriyaki I used to get as a kiddo! Chewy beef pieces skewered with a wooden stick. Now as a kid this wasn't my favorite Chinese dish, my parents always ordered it, but damn if it didn't bring tears to my eyes to taste a so similar thing!!! I think it must be partially the cut of meat (damn you, beautiful chewy 10 dollar meat), but the sauce is also a really similar flavor, and it's just really great to have this. Ahhh. I think it came out well; even though I used a little less meat than called for and so I had a fairly saucy dish, when it's over rice it isn't too overwhelming or too sweet or anything like that at all. Just great. What a fun surprise! I might have to buy this again, even given the expense, maybe to make for my loved ones (i.e. parents and bf (separately)) to get their reaction. Woo! Cooking success high! :)

Overall
Cost: 3/10 (about 3$ for the sauce, which is OK, but see my meat stress above -- though I'm sure you can use other meats or veg or something instead)
Taste: 9/10 (as a meal, the sauce on its own didn't wow me, although it is good)
Nostalgia: 10/10

InnovAsian Chicken & Broccoli

Wow! As you may know, the quest for nut-free Chinese food is among my most difficult and desired. So whenever I go to a new grocery store, I check to see if there is anything which might fulfill this craving. Enter Wal-Mart, and enter this delicious meal which is also so easy to prepare. You microwave the chicken and broccoli and pour some sauce over it. I thought "this is probably going to be gross" and then when I smelled the sauce, which was gingery and sweet, I thought "oh no...". But I was wrong! I was very wrong! This is filling and delicious and actually tastes pretty similar to (not great) takeout Chinese!! It IS a little bit sweet and spicy, kind of like General Tso's, and the chicken is breaded, but it's really good tasting chicken and the sauce is really nice. The broccoli is fine; nothing to rave about, but the chicken is really good. I only used about half of the sauce and this seemed to be the right amount. Glory hallelujah!

Overall
Cost: 4/10 (I don't remember but I think it was about 7$ -- not so great for 1 nice meal)
Taste: 9/10 !

Tai Pei General Tso's Chicken

This is the new and improved! version, by the way.

This meal is decent - it has peapods in it, but they're pretty easy to pick out. It's kind of sweet/spicy, maybe even too spicy at times. The rice and chicken and broccoli is good, the onions and peppers are 'eh'. It's decently filling and tastes decently "chinese", but it's nothing amazingly impressive so I probably won't buy it too many more times. It is OK though.


Overall
Taste: 6/10
Price: 7/10

Tai Pei Teriyaki Chicken

So the quest for delicious packaged chinese food remains! This wasn't very good, and it also made me pretty itchy, despite having no apparent peas/beans/nuts/fish in the ingredients. The chicken in it is very good, but the rice is a little too tough/grainy and the sauce is way too sweet and prevalent. I didn't even eat it all! However, this is a significant portion size, so if you really like the sauce or something then this is a good bargain! It tastes like red pepper/orange juice sauce and it's kind of thick.

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 4/10

Sun Bird Beef & Broccoli Seasoning Mix

hmm. i ate the whole thing so I guess it must have been alright. My biggest issues were 1. the beef was too tough, which had nothing to do with the seasoning packet and all to do with my buying cheap beef and then possibly overcooking it, and 2. it was very sweet and gingery and liquidy. I did follow the instructions to a T - I used .75 lbs of meat, some broccoli and onions (I actually threw in some mushrooms and carrots too, but I don't think that affected my feelings much) and the precise amount of water and soy sauce. I also made some rice to go along with it. Anyway, at first taste I thought "ugh! this is way too cloying (gingery?) and saucy!" But I let it sit and cool and thicken up for a few minutes and then I started to get into it. The sauce/broccoli combo was OK, but I still think there was too much sauce and it was too...sugary. Nonetheless I might make this again, because it was a pretty simple yet satisfying meal.

Cost: 8/10
Taste: 6/10

Tai Pei Beef & Broccoli +EDITED

Yum! This is one of my favorite frozen meals, after the (possibly discontinued) chicken and broccoli one. It doesn't have any nuts, peas, or seafood in it! Perfect for allergy-havers. It's also fairly healthy and fairly delicious! You can get these at Wal-Mart and apparently also at local grocery stores sometimes. The container is about half full, but it makes a decent quantity - about one normal bowl full. Lots of rice, but plenty of beef and broccoli as well. Good flavor. Sometimes I need to cook it a bit extra if it's frozen in the middle, but otherwise good texture. I really love the broccolis and the sauce. It's the closest to genuine chinese food I've found without allergens! :)


Overall:
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 8/10

UPDATE: "new and improved recipe"???? more like "new and bland and watery recipe". ugh. so disappointing. maybe if I had this for the first time I'd think "it's ok", but after the great thing it once was, this meal is now almost inedible. I don't think I'll buy it anymore. It tastes like nothing at all. It rice is spongy. The meal is watery. Boo.
taste: 4/10