I live an Undisclosed Very Small Distance from a locally-popular takeout Thai food place. Only being Undisclosed Very Small Distance from it, naturally, my roommates eat there a lot. I would, but, alas, it's not for my city's rather sizeable vegetarian population, because they make everything using fish oil. So when I found this at Meijer, I was quite excited and set aside my recent unpleasant experience in order to find out what the fuss was all about, or at least approximate it a little.
Here it is sitting on top of one gallon of Kiehl's Creme de Corps body lotion. One-gallon bottles do not seem to be available for sale, but a one-liter bottle can be purchased many places for $70.00. 3.79*70.00 = an approximate retail value of $265.30!
Here it is also close up (guest-starring Triscuits) because clearly a close up picture is always necessary:
I feel that I have covered the packaging on this one more thoroughly, so I will be skipping that portion today. However, what should be noted is that the instructions on this one are most helpful! They're mostly generic (water to fill line, microwave for 1 minute 45 seconds, let sit 6 minutes [which is actually a pretty long time!]) but there's one big thing: it doesn't just say "re cover" and leave it at that like some others I've griped about in the past, but it says "Close lid and cover with spoon." POINTS.
It does lose some for the fill line only being printed on the outside, but those are negligible.
Moving on! I followed the instructions and let it sit covered with a spoon, etc. Moment of truth!
(More like moment of truth FOR MY COUNTER because that weird orange stain TOTALLY doesn't show up except with a high flash. WHAT.)
Smell: It smelled good! Very rich, like the good kind of fake meat. And not at all like fish!
Taste: Similar, but less rich! It was actually passable. I ate the whole thing, which is rare for me in ramen-reviewing mode lately. I wish I could compare it to actual pad thai, but that might just be minus points for me.
Texture: This is where I had my biggest gripes. The instructions don't say anything about stirring, but it's probably something that should be done, as the (rice?) noodles stuck together in clumps, leading to stiff noodly centers. Not pleasant. Also, the carrots had a weird mismatchy rough texture-- they were the kind you normally find in ramen, half-orange and half-inexplicably white. Additionally, take note of the rectangular yellow things; they were tofu, but too soft to be okay.
Long story short, it tasted pretty good, but wasn't the greatest due to the textures. I'd eat it again, but I wouldn't go out of my way to actually obtain it.
