Curry Classics Chicken Pad Thai

April 25, 2006 | Reviewer: Abi

Price: $3.99 ($3.50 on sale)
Serving: 1 Tray, 9 oz.
Calories: 480
Fat: 28%, 18g
Sodium: 38%, 920mg

Curry Classics says: Chicken breast and rice noodles prepared with spices, tamarind and ground peanuts.

Abi says: The microwave version of a food is never as good as the food would be in a restaurant. You know it won’t be very good. You accept this because it is so cheap. You make your peace with eating a mediocre lunch. You tell yourself ‘It was just $3.50 and I got airline miles on my credit card.’

Chicken Pad Thai from Curry Classics is one such lunch. It doesn’t live up to the vegetarian succulence of the meals from sister company Green Guru. Sure, the pad thai is fragrant and attracts coworkers with an aroma of tamarind, coriander, and lemon. In fact, the reaction I experienced today was opposite the dreaded soy noodle repellent of yesterday.

Unfortunately, the cooking directions imply that leaving this meal in the microwave for 4 minutes on high will yield thai deliciousness. This is not true. You should stop and stir halfway through cooking otherwise you will lose 1/4 of the noodles to overcooking. While ‘Crunchy Thai Noodles’ calls to mind snacks from a British crisp maker, it does not make for a great lunch.

Vegetables in this dish consisted of two spiced carrots, a few transluscent slivers of onion, and the occasional chopped scallion. Other worrisome elements included very rare (few, not uncooked) chicken pieces and an unusually lumped chunk of chicken. Further exploration revealed the lump to be a glob of chopped peanuts. The lump is visible in the photo.

Will I eat this meal again? Probably not. In fact, it is becoming harder to purchase meals at the grocer because I already know what’s good. If you’re after frozen Indian or Thai, stick with the Green Guru vegetarian offerings. Perhaps dal will be on tomorrow’s menu.