Wanchai Ferry Chinese Meal Kits - Review

[HAL9000]

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

[Huguenot]

I don't like to see Wan Chai getting a pasting [sic], but...... that is rubbish isn't it?

[RosieH]

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.

[HAL9000]

RosieH Wrote:

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> 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?

[dulwichmum]

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.

[Narnia]

Well I'm not fond of shit ache mushrooms and I'm a vegetarian so it's not for me. What do you know Hal? A hell of a lot more than me it seems!

[RosieH]

HAL9000 Wrote:

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> 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...

[HAL9000]

I have flu so couldn't go to the drinks - abject boredom got the better of me, I'm afraid.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Ginger wine is the way to go Hal.

[RosieH]

Lummy - someone's got to drop you off something better to read than your cooking boxes!

[woofmarkthedog]

RosieH Wrote:

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

> better to read than your cooking boxes!

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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

[HonaloochieB]

Why bother with this stuff when Poundland in Brixton is selling the proper original Vesta instant meals for, yes a pound.

[Jeremy]

The "meal kit" sounds grim.

Did you seriously buy one of these?

[HAL9000]

I bought the product because I'm interested in General Mills. It's fairly big in the USA. I'm not impressed with its Wanchai Ferry kits, but its share price has done fairly well this year, in fact, it's just made a new all time high: Chart