Taste Drive: Magic Pandas Heat and Eat Meals

I love Wonton soup and am often disappointed with the ones served in Chinese Fast Food joints here. So when I saw Magic Pandas Heat & Eat Wonton Soup in the freezer of our local Asian grocery, I could not resist buying one to try. It’s wonderful and true to instruction, you just heat and eat (in practice- of course, you have to wait until it’s cool down a bit so it does not scorch you tongue).

I have been a big fan of this Magic Pandas' little bowl of soup for sometimes and I thought I should explore their other Heat & Eat meals so I bought Frozen Chick Noodles and BBQ Pork Fried Rice to try. The following is my verdict:

Wonton Soup
As I said early on, this is my favourite. You just loosen the lid and pop the bowl in the microwave for 7-8 minutes as instructed and voila – you get a beautiful bowl of Wonton soup.

I heat mine for 7 minutes. I put the plastic bowl in my ceramic bowl so that it is easy to get the soup out from the oven. The plastic bowl tends to soften and you might burn yourself if not careful.. The flavor is quite right but some people might like to add 2 tablespoons of water to the soup.

Don’t worry about 2 or 3 thin pieces of BBQ pork, each wonton is packed full with yummy pork filling. Very good value for money at around $5 (prices vary between stores).

Chicken Fried Noodles
The instruction says 4-5 minutes in the microwave, stir and then heat for another 1-2 minutes.

You will find it very difficult to stir the noodles in a tightly packed bowl. What I suggest is to transfer the whole frozen content into a bigger bowl and cover with microwave lid or cling film and you might need more than 2 or 3 minutes after stirring and turning because it’s chicken – it needs to be piping hot.

Although it is a bit more expensive than the soup, it is loaded with chicken. This one is also good although it’s not my ‘go to’ dish.

BBQ Pork Fried Rice
I had very high expectation for this dish – what could go wrong with fried rice. What a disappointment! It is too salty and the rice does not hold its grain. You will need to transfer the content to bigger container as well to heat and will also need a little bit more time heating. I don’t know what to say more about this dish. Maybe rice would do better in a pouch so the moisture could be retained when heated.

All of the above are available from Asian groceries and Pak n Save.