Trader Ming’s Kung Pao Noodle Box
Item Purchased: Trader Ming’s Kung Pao Noodle Box
Location Purchased: Trader Joe’s / 1840 N. Clybourn Ave. / Chicago, IL
Price: $1.99 + tax
Purchased on: 04/14/07
Review: I love to cook things from scratch. Since my girlfriend is Vegetarian, most of what I tend to cook is sans animal muscle. Time has been tight lately, however, so I have been on the lookout for healthy convenience foods to take to work. One thing I’ve noticed during my dips into vegetarianism, is that there is not a whole lot of this kind of food aimed at the meatless.
Well, Trader Joe’s blows that out of the water by drafting three Asian convenience dishes that are not only vegetarian, but vegan!… And they taste fantastic!
The construction of these dishes is simple. Open sealed noodle pack… dump into box that looks like a Chinese take-out box with a design team. Open sealed sauce pack… dump in same box. Put box into magic nuclear heating box and turn it on for two minutes. Open. Eat. Reel in amazement of how good it tastes.
I’m not going to lie, the noodles are a bit greasy and turn annoyingly crisply depending on how powerful your microwave is and the dish doesn’t taste exactly like a kung pao dish you would get in Chinatown (though the box claims that it does taste like a kung pao dish you would get from a streetcar in China), but it is spicy enough to make you run a fire drill. Additionally, that standard taste that most microwave meals contain is nowhere to be found in this noodle box.
I really hate relying on convenience foods for lunch, but these simple noodle boxes beat most restaurants in the area and cost far less too.
Rating: 4.5 / 5
July 21st, 2007 at 12:56 pm
I wholeheartedly agree with this review. I’ve had both the Trader Ming’s (Trader Joe’s) kung pao and satay boxes. I find the satay more to my liking but would gladly eat either one if they were in the house. 4.5 chopsticks!
April 15th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
how do I go about ordering off line
April 24th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Oh, god yes. This afternoon we fumbled for about a half an hour being indecisive over what to eat for lunch, and I had stock-piled a bunch of stuff like this because I’m often on the run. But I never get around to actually trying it, because I’d always rather eat leftovers or throw together a quick salad than eat microwavable food.
But MOTHER OF THE LORD - having a relaxed meal with these noodles was fantastic. Most damn yummy thing I’ve enjoyed in quite awhile.
May 18th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
I feel like they put an addicting chemical in this to make you come back for more.
January 11th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Ha! Believing chinese products are vegan? Nice try.
Go visit a farm in China. Everything touches meat.
March 19th, 2009 at 6:10 am
I have never been a fan of microwave meals, but these little boxes of noodles are different, they are really tasty, I actually like them
April 17th, 2009 at 10:46 am
They taste great but 510 cal later..