Wanchai Ferry Beef & Broccoli Frozen Stir-Fry Review and Giveaway

Through My Blog Spark sponsored by Wanchai Ferry I was able to review Wanchai's newest flavor from their Chinese Meal for Two line, beef & broccoli.

The beef & broccoli flavor comes with beef strips, broccoli, red peppers, and water chestnuts. The brown sauce includes the flavors of soy and garlic. I felt that there was a decent amount of each main ingredients, which I look for in a frozen meal like this since usually they skimp on the pricier ingredients by loading up on cheaper ingredients. If you're a big meat fan, you probably would feel that there wasn't enough beef strips.

To complete your stay in-take out experience, the meal comes with a packet of pre-cooked jasmine rice that just needs a brief 3 minutes of microwave cooking as the stir fry finishes up. After resting for a minute, the rice comes out fluffy, tender, and ready to go. I've seen instructions for freezing your own pre-cooked rice that I haven't tried, but after this I'll probably start packing up portions of rice for future meals.

Since the entire meal takes just about 15 minutes to make, including the rice, you won't have to wait long to eat. Place the vegetables and meat in a nonstick skillet with 1/3 cup water (I accidentally used 2/3 cup), and any other thinly sliced vegetables, like onions, carrot strips (which I used), or snow peas, etc., to add to the mix. The instructions then say to cook on high for 6-8 minutes, though I felt that the vegetables only needed about 4 minutes because they were starting to overcook and wilt just a bit instead of staying vibrant. Since the contents of the sauce packets are added and allowed to cook on medium for an additional 3 minutes, I found it was plenty of time to allow the ingredients to cook thoroughly if the heat was previously at a constant boil before.
Because I accidentally thinned the sauce out too much, the flavor, while still present and therefore a sign to the quality of flavor, was a bit weak. Overall, though, I thought the flavor of the sauce was pretty good in comparison to a standard Chinese buffet, and other Chinese frozen meals. I did add 1/2 a tablespoon oyster sauce and a bit of sriracha sauce.

So overall the flavor of the sauce and the vegetables tasted really good together, and although I never used to care for water chestnuts, I liked the addition here. If I had cooked the vegetables a bit less it would have come out more fresh-like than what's typical of a frozen meal. The beef strips were good, though those were definitely the tell of it being frozen. I also appreciated that the rice was included since it really sped up the entire process instead of having to cook your own.

A few notes: While there's no added MSG, except what occurs naturally, this would be a plus for those of you staying away from it. However, the sodium content per serving rivals a burrito from a place I won't mention in this post, so in many ways it's comparable to take out, except the flavor is a bit fresher and it's definitely not as greasy.

Also, as no Chinese meal is complete without tea, included are two tea cups, tea balls, and containers of organic green tea leaves to enhance your stay in-take out experience!

---

Giveaway Info

Wanchai Ferry and My Blog Spark has also given me the opportunity to host a giveaway for your own packet of stir fry meal for two, a VIP coupon, and two tea sets. You can enter three times to improve your chances of winning, details below (giveaway open to US residents only):

1. Leave a comment telling me you'd like to enter


2. Blog about this giveaway, with a link back to this post, on your blog. Please comment again with a link to your post.


3. Follow me on Twitter if you don't already and twit this giveaway, and comment again with a link to your tweet

Giveaway ends on Saturday, June 6th, and the winner will be announced the following Monday. Good luck!

In the meantime, anyone can print a coupon for $1.60 off a pack of Wanchai Ferry Frozen Stir-Fry.