Michelina’s Yu Sing Shrimp Fried Rice

December 12, 2008 | Reviewer: Guest Reviewers

Photo of Michelina’s Yu Sing Shrimp Fried Rice Price: $1.00 (on sale)
Serving: 1 box, 8 oz.
Calories: 400 per serving
Fat: 17%, 11g
Cholesterol: 18%, 55mg
Sodium: 41% (ouch!), 980mg
Protein: 11g
Carbohydrates: 22%, 65g
Fiber: 8%, 2g
Sugar: 2g
Weight Watchers Points: 9 Points

Michelina’s says: At $1 a box, we don’t really “do” product blurbs. Look at the picture on the box. Read the product name. Buy.

Mel says: I have faith in Michelina’s products, I really do. Being that they are on sale for $1 almost 365 days of the year at one of the 3 prominent grocery chains in my area makes me feel that the world is an OK place and my stomach will always be in an OK place as well. I also have a penchant for frozen Asian-inspired dishes, as they often live up to, and sometimes exceed, my expectations. I think rice is just an all-over better cooked-to-frozen-to-cooked carb than pasta. Also, rice-heavy frozen dishes made by reputable companies such as Trader Joe’s and Amy’s have previously been successfully enjoyed by my stomach so all-in-all, I had high hopes. Plus, if I could get yummy fried rice goodness in 3 minutes for less than a 20oz vending machine soda, WHY NOT? Unfortunately, this dish did not live up to my expectations, though I would say that it lived up to the expectations of George Washington’s smirk as he left my wallet and paid for this bland, yet edible item.

Michelina’s Shrimp Fried Rice claims it’s 8 oz, although its sordid contents tell another tale. I find it hard pressed to believe it’s over 7 oz and although I am used to frozen contents shrinking slightly in size when nuked, this one seemed to decrease two-fold. The picture on the front of the box clearly shows 5.5 pieces of smallish pink shrimp, 4 pieces of apparent egg and an abundance of shaved carrot, peas and what looks like diced red pepper (TBD). The first thing I noticed when removing the dish from the microwave was that it basically just looked like rice with bits of green and orange limply lying around. I double-checked the box to make sure that this was “Shrimp Fried Rice” and not “Plain Fried Rice with Colored Bits”, but alas, it was that of shrimp, and I trudged on. I guess you really can’t expect many shrimp bites for $1, but I literally counted only 3 pieces (as well as 3 pieces of egg), which was very disappointing, especially considering shrimp is the second ingredient on the ingredients list. Listen: for about $3, I can get a box of Chicken Helper Fried Rice (always on sale somewhere for $1), a bag of frozen Ocean Jewel Frozen Cooked Salad Shrimp (almost always $1 on sale) and a few eggs and make a shrimp fried rice that would be the Benihana to Michelina’s Panda Express (did that even make sense? Moving on…). Seriously though, this site is about buying and reviewing easy, reheatable products, not about how to survive college on a $5/week food budget, so I’ll continue describing the dish.

The shrimp had the distinct brine-like, frozen aftertaste that most frozen shrimp I’ve eaten has, so I wasn’t expecting anything more. Though the amount of shrimp was extremely small, I was satisfied with the actual size of the shrimp, which was that of your typical cooked-frozen shrimp variety (about nickel-size). I was also impressed by the amount of shaved carrot; once I stirred the dish around a bit, it added a nice touch of color if not a tiny amount of carrot crunch (note: tiny). The most disappointing aspect of this dish, however, is the overall lack of flavor. There really isn’t ANY flavor to it and that “non-flavor” is spread over the entire dish, making it a pile of nothing, really. Although the ingredients list such tantalizing flavor-improvers such as soy sauce (listed twice, actually), butter flavor, peanut oil and liquid pepper extract, no such flavors were detected. I could only make it through about 5 bites before I added some soy sauce and crushed red pepper flakes, to which the dish vastly improved (bumping it up from one star to two).

All-in-all, this dish is edible, if not utterly boring and lackluster. I would purchase it again, but only if all the other decent Michelina meals were sold out and if it was still on sale for $1 or less (which it seems it is, indefinitely). I must admit that if I didn’t have any condiments to dress up the taste of this meal, I probably would have stopped eating the meal and dug into my half-empty bag of oyster crackers. Bottom-line: $1-worthy, but there are better $1 meals that are worthier.

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comments

12 Responses to “Michelina’s Yu Sing Shrimp Fried Rice”

Al Hunter on December 12th, 2008

As I mentioned in regard to truncated feeds, you have to grab the reader with the truncated text. Did you look at this post truncated? All I see are the official nutritional information and some of Michelina’s promo material. Why would I click through? It provides no feel for the review. At least give me a teaser about the content.
Abi Jones on December 12th, 2008

Thanks for the comment Al. I’ll be updating posts to include the excerpt, that way folks with RSS feeds can get a taste for the content, not just the nutritional info.
cybele on December 12th, 2008

I used to live on Michelina’s. I think it was the fetuccini with clam sauce and turkey in some sort of cream sauce over pasta. I haven’t bought it in years though, partly because of the sodium but mostly because I just don’t eat frozen foods much any longer. And will be eating them less now that Trader Joe’s has discontinued the tamales.
rob on December 12th, 2008

It tastes better when you are falling down drunk.
KindredSmile on December 12th, 2008

In college, I was a Michelina girl all the way, although I now cringe when I think about all of that sodium. I’d take a cup of Ramen over this entree anyday.
Kat on December 12th, 2008

Go to Joystiq.com. Subscribe to their feed, just for a minute – you can delete it later. Look at the bottom of every one of their posts. Can’t you put in a box like that, which says where the post originated? There are many wordpress plugins that can do this.
Hunterkate on December 12th, 2008

cybele, no more Trader Joe tamales? *cries*

I loved those!
Rose on December 13th, 2008

I still eat Michelina’s meals..a lot. but I had the stir fry rice recently and it made me literally sick, ew.

that being said, the fettuccine alfredo with or without chicken or broccoli is pretty delicious. and even the meatloaf is more edible than banquet.
Rose on December 13th, 2008

P.S;
why is this filed under freschetta pizza reviews?
Red Icculus on December 14th, 2008

When starting my computer business, meals like Michelina’s were staples in my diet. I still remember the odd texture of the mac and cheese.

Although I wouldn’t pick up something like this unless there wasn’t any food in the house, their vegetarian line still looks good:
http://www.michelinas.com/Ingredient_Vegetarian.aspx
Julie A. on December 14th, 2008

Just about anything’s better then Banquet ew.
Amber on December 16th, 2008

Have you ever tried their Buffalo Chicken pockets? They are very good and you get a lot of them!!! Delicious when dipped into ranch dressing!