Jump to content

Recommended Posts

General Mills UK Ltd under the trademark Wanchai Ferry has recently launched three Chinese Recipe Kits: Bo Luo Pork, Kung Pao Chicken and Xiang Gu Chicken.


Each kit is packed in an impressively large and colourful box that retails for up to ?3.49 each.


Each box contains a packet of noodles (150g) and three sachets: marinade powder, sauce and a ?key? ingredient for each recipe - pineapple pieces, dried shitake mushrooms or roasted peanuts, respectively.


In the case of the Bo Lou Pork kit, for example:

The active ingredients in the marinade are salt, sugar and black pepper (20g).

The ?Cantonese? sauce is a mixture of tomato paste, sugar, citric acid and water with a little ginger (125g).

The ?key? ingredient is pineapple pieces in syrup (200g).


The buyer has to supply the pork (or chicken) along with three of the following vegetables: carrot, onion, leek, mangetout or red pepper, depending on the recipe.


Preparation is straightforward - it's basically a stir-fry with noodles. Each kit makes two small to medium size servings. As for taste, the list of ingredients contains far too many preservatives, stabilisers and anonymous flavourings for me to actually eat this stuff - I'd be interested to hear what others think of these kits, though.


The individual ingredients in each kit can be purchased separately for less than ?1.00!


More at: http://www.wanchaiferry.co.uk

The individual ingredients in each kit can be purchased separately for less than ?1.00!



But what about the anonymous flavourings?


And HAL, have you ever bought any kind of pre-prepared food before? A jar of Dolmio versus a home made sauce for instance - 9 times out of 10 it's going to be way cheaper to make it yourself (exception being where you don't have the requisite spices in the cupboard and have to start from scratch). Buying convenience is all it is.

RosieH Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> But what about the anonymous flavourings?


Choose your preferred 'flavourings' and I'll price them in to the equation, although I doubt they will add more than a penny to my pound.


> Buying convenience is all it is.


Buying convenience is one thing, being ripped-off like a mug is something else.


It so happens that General Mills' Asian division manufactures the sachets and packaging in China and then its Swiss division assembles the product for the European market whereupon a division in Ireland licences local distribution to its UK division!


The massive mark-up, unnecessary trans-continental shipping and convoluted chain of pass the parcel is worthy of a sophisticated tax scam or money laundering operation rather than a legitimate food distribution venture - but, hey, what do I know?

Or how about the new shampoo to repel headlice from our little munchkins? The only problem being that it relies on "active ingredients" Tea tree oil and lemon eucalyptus to deter the pests, and neither of these ingredients are shown to be of any use at all.


I carried out a full search of the current journals and literature, and as a matter of fact, neither ingredient is a proven deterrant, and one study from Australia claims that tea tree oil, used for this purpose, is toxic to children. Mayonaise and wet combing is more effective. Do they think we are idiots? Just because tea tree oil is a trendy mild anti-bacterial preparation, it does not follow that it can repel head lice. No doubt their research, which claims "8 out of ten children" were protected when using it is based on asking questions such as "did your child catch head lice when using this shampoo?"


How incredibly scientific!


There is another brand I shall avoid at all costs from now on.

HAL9000 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> The massive mark-up, unnecessary trans-continental

> shipping and convoluted chain of pass the parcel

> is worthy of a sophisticated tax scam or money

> laundering operation rather than a legitimate food

> distribution venture - but, hey, what do I know?



I don't disagree - just wondering why single out Wanchai as opposed to any other processed food on the market. I very much doubt they're any worse...

RosieH Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Lummy - someone's got to drop you off something

> better to read than your cooking boxes!

_____________________________________________


No stick with it & sweat it out HAL


In the morning there's always the "Cereal Packets" to read and dissect


Wheat-a Bix . Contains 100% real wheat



Go on, you can't wait ?




W**F

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • In what way? Maybe it just felt more intelligent and considered coming directly after Question Time, which was a barely watchable bun fight.
    • Yes, all this. Totally Sephiroth. The electorate wants to see transformation overnight. That's not possible. But what is possible is leading with the right comms strategy, which isn't cutting through. As I've said before, messaging matters more now than policy, that's the only way to bring the electorate with you. And I worry that that's how Reform's going to get into power.  And the media LOVES Reform. 
    • “There was an excellent discussion on Newscast last night between the BBC Political Editor, the director of the IFS and the director of More In Common - all highly intelligent people with no party political agenda ” I would call this “generous”   Labour should never have made that tax promise because, as with - duh - Brexit, it’s pretending the real world doesn’t exist now. I blame Labour in no small part for this delusion. But the electorate need to cop on as well.  They think they can have everything they want without responsibilities, costs or attachments. The media encourage this  Labour do need to raise taxes. The country needs it.  Now, exactly how it’s done remains to be seen. But if people are just going to go around going “la la laffer curve. Liars! String em up! Vote someone else” then they just aren’t serious people reckoning with the problem yes Labour are more than a year into their term, but after 14 years of what the Tories  did? Whoever takes over, has a major problem 
    • Messaging, messaging, messaging. That's all it boils down to. There are only so many fiscal policies out there, and they're there for the taking, no matter which party you're in. I hate to say it, but Farage gets it right every time. Even when Reform reneges on fiscal policy, it does it with enough confidence and candidness that no one is wringing their hands. Instead, they're quietly admired for their pragmatism. Strangely, it's exactly the same as Labour has done, with its manifesto reverse on income tax, but it's going to bomb.  Blaming the Tories / Brexit / Covid / Putin ... none of it washes with the public anymore  - it wants to be sold a vision of the future, not reminded of the disasters of the past. Labour put itself on the back foot with its 'the tories fucked it all up' stance right at the beginning of its tenure.  All Lammy had to do (as with Reeves and Raynor etc) was say 'mea culpa. We've made a mistake, we'll fix it. Sorry guys, we're on it'. But instead it's 'nothing to see here / it's someone else's fault / I was buying a suit / hadn't been briefed yet'.  And, of course, the press smells blood, which never helps.  Oh! And Reeve's speech on Wednesday was so drab and predictable that even the journalists at the press conference couldn't really be arsed to come up with any challenging questions. 
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...