Food Review: Tai Pei Combination Fried Rice

Another new item that I just had to try. I don't eat a lot of Chinese food but when I do I don't want to be overcharged for it so when I saw Tai Pei I decided to try. I was desperately searching for pork fried rice but I couldn't find it. That tends to be my go-to whenever I do go for Chinese like once a year. Unfortunately I didn't find it. I ended up with the Combination rice which consisted of white chicken, pork, peas and carrots with oyster-flavored sauce.

Here's the thing. When I think fried rice I think that the rice is fried, not just 100% white rice that is sauteed for a few moments and then tossed with additions. That's what I got with this. I was extremely shocked at how low quality this dish was. I could have made rice-a-roni, tossed it with a little chopped up chicken and pork and threw some frozen veggies in and it and tossed it with some soy sauce and it would have been much better than what was in that box. Not to mention I think a lot of the Chinese flavor we all love comes from some form of soy sauce. By this dish actually using oyster sauce (which does't really come out in flavor, it was too delicate of a flavor to marry the Chinese taste with the white rice) you lose the other half of the Chinese flavor, the first half being actual fried rice.

Preparation was not too difficult. I placed it in the microwave for 5 minutes and it heated beautifully. The package says to leave the plastic on and intact (i.e no punctures, slits, etc) but what they don't tell you is to make sure you use pot holders to take the container out of the microwave because the container is super hot. Definite possibility of burning yourself so if you must try, keep that in mind.

Overall I would say that if you don't really like Chinese food all that much then this is perfect because in spite of what the package says this is not Chinese food, it's white rice with stuff in it and a flavorless pointless sauce mixed in it. If you want a more Chinese-American authentic flavor I would go to the store, get a box or two of rice-a-roni, get some skinless-boneless chicken, get a little bit of pork from the deli, find some subtle frozen veggies, and a bottle of soy sauce and throw this together in your wok at home because I, personally, think that would be so much better.

Rating: 1.5 out of 10