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SCMP Reporter

FOR every food fad, there is a frozen dinner to match. Organic macaroni, soya cheese, lean-cuisine lasagne, low-fat, no cholesterol, lactose-free . . . all you need is a microwave and a few minutes.

  The truth is that the fatter the promises the leaner the appeal, as our tasting panel discovered.

  The mission was to sample the Internet generation's version of the TV dinner, with all its modern catch-phrases, packaging tricks and marketing gimmicks.

  The panel included Mandarin Oriental executive chef Jurg Munch, the hotel's food and beverage manager Danny Lai, the Continental's Andrea Stedman, Koh-i-Noor boss Bob Mehta, and Asian Restaurant & Entertainment Services' Richard Feldman.

  The Mandarin provided a room, a microwave oven and posh silver cutlery that none of the frozen meals could be expected to live up to.

  Not all of them fell short by the expected mile. Judged on their own terms they were quick, easy and inexpensive.

  But it quickly became clear that for every Rolls-Royce among them, there was also a mangled wreck.

  Marks & Spencer's St Michael's Chicken Korma ($59.90), although not entirely authentic, went down well, especially since the chicken was tender and the sauce tasty. It also had no artificial colour or added preservatives. But it does not come with rice, which means doing it yourself - or doing without. One of the range of M&S's frozen Indian meals - which also includes the best-selling chicken tikka masala and chicken balti - the korma had an unexpected, slight flavour of garlic, according to Bob Mehta.

  'We would do it in a different way,' he said. 'We would fry the onions, the spices and the meat separately. This looks like it has all been cooked together. But the taste isn't bad.'   'That chicken,' said Danny Lai pointing to the tasting's worst dish, the ginger chicken Hunan, 'is like the bark of a tree. This chicken [the korma] is tender.'   The love-it-or-loathe-it dish of the tasting was Patio's $16 bean & cheese burrito. It was an instant hit with Feldman - 'Great. This is exactly what junk Mexican should be. And it's vegetarian.'   'But it's so salty,' the others replied. Feldman was not swayed, although he did admit his favourite was heavy in sodium.

  If they could not reach agreement on the burrito, there was no dissent among the panel about the sleeper hit of the tasting - the unattractively packaged Stouffer's homestyle meatloaf in gravy & whipped potatoes ($50).

  'It reminds me of faggots in Birmingham,' said the 'Brummie' lad helping South China Morning Post photographer, David Thorpe, while the food panel gave it high marks for the beef ('it tastes like beef,' said Lai) and for the potato ('not bad at all,' said Munch).

  The smallish portion drew one comment: 'I would need much more than one of those for dinner,' Stedman insisted.

  The presentation was TV-dinner style: the beef and gravy and the potato came in separate compartments. 'The real thing looks better than the picture on the box,' Feldman said.

  The exact opposite was true of Healthy Choice's Ginger Chicken Hunan, which has more to do with Hades than with Hunan. The best that can be said of the dinner is it is $40.50 worth of dried chicken, with soggy broccoli, a chemical taste and a gooey texture. 'And it looks dirty,' said Mandarin Oriental public relations manager Sarah Johnson.

  'The saddest thing about it,' said Feldman of the made-in-the-US frozen meal, 'is that people are going to eat this and think it is Asian food.'    A much better impression would be left by Njinomoto's eel on rice ($30), which was the most aromatic of the frozen meals. Although full of flavour, the eel was too soft (a hazard of the freezing process) and the Japanese rice a bit hard around the edges. It would not be any of the panel's first choice, but overall, it would not be last either.

  Another middle-of-the roader was Stouffer's Lean Cuisine zucchini lasagna. Although it looked tantalising, the middle was still frozen even after a few seconds longer in the microwave than recommended.

  'I'm eating one frozen piece and one boiling hot piece,' Stedman said. 'Too many dried herbs,' was Mehta's verdict. But no one could overlook the dish's good qualities - low fat, low cholesterol and only 240 calories for the entire serving.

  At the bottom of the shopping bag - apart from the ginger chicken Hunan - the tasting's loser was The Budget Gourmet cheese tortellini. 'Has the date expired on this,' asked Lai with considerable distaste. 'It has no flavour and the texture is uneven,' added Mehta.

  'It makes the macaroni taste good,' said Stedman, referring to an earlier dish which was given the thumbs down - Amy's Macaroni & Soy Cheeze ($35). The no-cholesterol, lactose-free organic dish appears so pure it has to be on its way to culinary heaven. Maybe someone there will eat it, because down here there cannot be many takers, especially since it makes up in salt what it lacks elsewhere.

  Our panel rejected it outright, although admittedly there was no one present with a lactose intolerance. 'It looks over cooked and it tastes under cooked,' said Bob Mehta.

  With its six to seven-minute microwave time, 'it takes the same time as it does to make a fresh macaroni and cheese. Why eat a frozen one?' asked Danny Lai. A computer junkie may not even notice the difference.



Eating in cyberspace