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

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

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