These "Sensations" are....MEH. (Asian Sensation Egg Rolls & Lean Cuisine Jumbo Rigatoni)

Well, it’s been a depressing week here at the Icebox Diner in Freezerville. We’ve had a whole lot of “meh” going on, without much WOW.

First, a “call-out” to Kim at her new blog – http://averageladyofthehouse.blogspot.com, who has been kind enough to drop by and say hello. Kim’s blog is new, so please give her a visit and some comments to let her know she’s not typing into the Black Hole of Blogger.

Back to Work…

Our first “meh” product this week is Pagoda’s Asian Sensations White Meat Chicken Egg Rolls. Man, WHAT a disappointment these turned out to be! Truthfully, I’d been skeptical that anyone could produce a good frozen egg roll, and I was right to be dubious.

The “full-size” egg rolls (Pagoda carries a selection of “mini” egg and spring rolls, as well) are decent sized, although not generous – each one is just under 3 ounces. The rolls are about 1½” in diameter, and about 3½-4” in length. I prepared them in the oven, assuming that microwaving them would render them inedible by making the egg roll wrapper too chewy, and not crisp. The cooking instructions are simple; heat the oven to 425º F, place the egg rolls on a baking tray on the top oven rack, and cook for 18-20 minutes until crisp. I did so, baking them for just about 20 minutes, and the wrappers did indeed crisp.

The taste, however, was seriously lacking. The egg roll wrapper is too thick in texture, so that while the outside is crisp, the inside portion of the wrapper is chewy and tastes of raw dough. The interior veggies and chicken – the latter of which was in short supply – were all uniformly diced into squares, which was a little disconcerting when you’re expecting teeny-weeny little shreds of vegetables and chunks of chicken. The filling was also strangely bland and peppery at the same time, which I can only explain by assuming that Pagoda tried to compensate for the lack of flavor in the overwhelmingly-cabbage filled interior by adding plain old black pepper, which did nothing for me and less for the overall flavor, leaving an unpleasant tang aftertaste. The package costs $3.59, which averages out to $0.90 USD +/- a roll. All in all, I can’t rate these more than a 2 out of 5, and I do not recommend them. There are plenty of frozen appetizer brands out there that provide much better value and enjoyment than these.


My second flirtation with disappointment this week comes from Stouffer’s Lean Cuisine Dinnertime Selects “Jumbo Rigatoni with Meatballs.” Normally, Lean Cuisine’s Dinnertime Selects line is nothing short of excellent, giving good value and great taste for very few calories – and many of the Dinnertime Selects meals include healthy and tasty dessert, which is always a plus for dieters. Sad to say, the Jumbo Rigatoni with Meatballs dinner is not one I’ll ever be buying again.

I’ll say this for it – you get a good amount of food for your money, which is $3.99 for the 15-⅜ths ounce package. A little over half an ounce shy of one pound of food, the total calorie count is only 390 calories, 8 grams of total fat, 56 grams of carbohydrate (including 7 grams of fiber) and 23 grams of protein. The problem with this dish isn’t that the serving size is too scanty.

However, I’m one of those transplanted “New Yawkuhs” that just cannot abide a “sweet-ish” tomato-based pasta sauce. I know that this type of sauce is fairly popular in the Midwest, and if you are one of those people that like a sweet tomato-based sauce, you might genuinely enjoy this dinner. The sauce includes carrots, yellow carrots, onions and red peppers (although it’s hard to find the peppers) as well as the requisite chunks of “fire-toasted” tomatoes. The meatballs are smallish – about an inch in diameter – and there are only five of them, but they’re moderately good flavored. It’s just that nasty sweet sauce that I find so repugnant that ruined this dinner for me. It wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t actually eat it (unlike that memorable Michelina’s Penne dinner about which I told you six months or so ago); but I shan’t be buying it again. I’ll rank it a three – primarily because it does provide a lot of food for less than 400 calories – and because I know that there are indeed people who actually prefer a sweeter pasta sauce who might find this dinner enjoyable.

That’s all for this week – it’s been chaos around here!! Enjoy, and don’t forget to write and let us know how you like our picks and pans.