First Impressions
I'm going to be completely honest and let it be known that my very first impression of this item was "What the fandango is Pad Thai?".
Seriously, what is it? It doesn't look that different to any other rice noodle dish I've tried so.... wha...?
But anyway, enough of that. I chose it anyway, because it had chilli prawns in it. I love prawns, but I've always found ready meals incredibly hit and miss when it comes to a good one, so I thought I'd give this one a try as there was always the chicken to fall back on if the prawns weren't up to taste.
The packaging, much like the new Count on Us packets, is very simple, and you can see pretty much the whole meal through the film, so it was easy to guess what I was going to get. It was all very well presented, but had a more sophisticated appearance than the Count on Us product yesterday did. It looked and felt a whole lot more expensive, and priced at 50% more than the Ragu, my wallet certainly felt it. But, Fuller Longer is marketed as one of our better healthy meals, so I guess that's to be expected.
The whole concept of Fuller Longer is that you don't feel hungry between meals. As such, I decided to forego the accompaniment tonight, in order to test the theory of being fuller, for longer. And as I don't eat breakfast in the mornings anyway (I can't eat before 7am, it gives me a tummy-ache), this will certainly be a test of the endurance of the product!
This product is microwaveable; there are no instructions for oven cooking. This makes it incredibly quick to prepare, which is convenient if you have a hectic lifestyle. I personally don't, but I can still see the appeal in a healthy meal that you can prepare in less than three minutes. And, the clear plastic has a handy little tab on it to make opening easier! No faffing with this meal, it was so quick and simple to open I almost jumped for joy (as I was pretty much starving by then!)!
Taste Test
I didn't bother decanting this product. I didn't see the point, as the bowl was pretty handy and didn't detract from the food at all, so I just left it.
Now, first things first. The prawns. I tasted one. And I was surprised at how good they were! Plump and juicy, they tasted almost exactly like the prawns we've cooked for ourselves from scratch! I couldn't fault them. I was only sad that there were not more of them. Second, the chicken. That too was fabulous; tender and moist with no stringy or fatty bits to ruin the texture. A perfect chicken breast.
Now the noodles. The noodles to me were just noodles; they weren't prepared in any particularly special way, but to be honest, I don't think that causes too much of a problem here. With all the flavour from the chilli prawns, bland noodles seemed to mix well with the dish, as they didn't overpower anything.
Sometimes, I find that you can easily ruin a dish by having too much flavour, or too many things happening at once on your plate. It's like an inflatable dingy; too little air and the dingy sinks with you in it, but too much and it pops, possibly giving you lacerations from the violent ejection of the stopper. I'm sorry, I have clearly been watching too much CSI. A dish that's too busy is hard to eat as you can't really appreciate the combinations of flavours. But by including noodles which are quite bland, M&S have managed to keep the balance of flavour fairly even.
However, I did find the cabbage a little difficult to eat regardless. Mainly because, I HATE cabbage. But, I wanted to try Pad Thai, so I braved the cabbage anyway. What actually made the cabbage easier to eat was the dressing. It was mildly spicy and very flavoursome with added zing that covered the cabbage taste so well. It also brought out the chilli flavour on the prawns too, and gave the chicken that little extra bite. I like bite.
Also, this meal was a good size, so I don't think it needed an accompaniment. Unless I was really hungry, in which case, maybe a bit of prawn toast?
Overall Rating
4 Stars (out of 5)
Sadly it was the overzealous addition of cabbage that spoiled it for me. If it had been something like spinach, I think it would've been much better, but as I am not an expert in Pad Thai, I don't know whether cabbage is a set inclusion or not. However, the rest of the meal was delicious, and I would recommend it to anyone. So long as you like cabbage. And aren't allergic to peanuts.
On another note: I don't know if it was the fault of the Pad Thai, but shortly after finishing this meal, I had a very strange craving for Red Bull. I'm just throwing that one out there for you.
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