Asian Inspired?

I really feel like a new food critic now. This weekend I went to a couple of grocery stores to get things for the house, but not with out stopping at the frozen food section each time to see if there was any standout items there. While perusing the different selections at my local Wal-Mart I noticed the freezer end-cap had NEW! Marie Callendar's Asian Recipes that had the same packaging as their Al Dente meals and it really caught my eye. It was another meal that promises to deliver on its steam basket packaging. Having such good luck with the last meal that promised the same thing I was sure that this would follow in its footsteps. To be exact it promises "steam fresh taste" which sounds great if you ask me.

I grabbed a couple of the new selections that were in the case, and today I tried the Chicken Stir-Fry with vegetables. The "stir-fry" had all of the elements of a great stir fry: chicken, white rice, carrots, onions, mushrooms, green peppers, and water chestnuts in a soy garlic sauce. I really like the variety of vegetables that they used for the meal, they added a lot of flavor to the meal as a whole. The problem as a whole was that it was anything but Asian to me in my eyes, it was pretty good, but certainly not Asian or even Asian fusion. I was really expecting more flavor to the meal that made the meal compliment each other as a whole, for example a Terriaki flavor would have been appreciated. Instead I get this bland sort of illusion of what Asian food is supposed to be. I was eating the meal and picked up the packaging re-reading the cover. I had to make sure I didn't skip a step…

1. Remove contents from package (ok, I got that one)
   




2. Microve on high 4 1/2 minutes… yada yada yada
   




3. Carefully take out of microwave..something something something
   
   

Nope, there isnt a line that says "add Asian flavor" as I was hoping that I was missing something. Then as I looked over the package again I saw it in little print on the back of the package… "Asian Inspired"… "Oh my god! I have been duped!" They pulled a fast one on me, this isnt even close to an Asian flavor in my mind and then I read their subconscience disclaimer to avoid comsumer complaints. This asian meal is as asian as Chef Boyardee is Italian.

I really feel like they just dropped the ball with their sauce choice, it is good don't get me wrong, but it isnt really asian. I don't know if doing asian food in a steamer basket is a good idea anyway so maybe in that is the core of the problem. I make some Asian fusion foods for my wonderful wife all the time (she loves it when I mention her) and the best part… no, the make or break part, is always getting the sauces just right. I don't know if it is the lack of quality ingredeants or just for lack of trying, but a wise man once told me that you cant make chicken salad out of chicken shit. I don't think I will be trying any more "asian inspired" meals anymore, outside of the ones that I have already purchased. I will make sure that I point out anyone of them that stand out as good, but for now I will stick with my final say on this matter.

In a word, my meal was not as delightful as I hoped.

Cooking Time: 4:30 Minutes

Stand Time: None Listed

Nutrional Information for this and all other Marie Callendar meals can be found on the ConAgra website.

How Italian is this? About as Italian as this meal was Asian.