Things that irritate me about Cafe Spice’s pre-prepared Chicken Vindaloo with Lemon Rice:
1. The instructions say to ‘peel off the film over the entree portion,’ but the film does not peel, it sticks and tears, so that one must resort to a sharp knife to open it. If I’d taken this to work, I wouldn’t have had a sharp knife available. Scissors would have worked, but still.
2. The container is not re-sealable, and you’re clearly meant to eat it all in one sitting, but the calorie count on the back is 250 / portion, for 2 portions. How is it two portions, if I have no reasonable way to only eat half of it? You can’t even heat only half of it — you have to heat the whole thing, and the store the unused portion in a different container, cooling it down again.
3. You can’t see this easily because of the way the package is designed, but when you open it up, it turns out to be two-thirds rice to one-third entree. Rice is super-cheap, and also less bang for my buck, calorie-wise. I feel cheated. (Yes, this ratio is also how we would’ve eaten back in the home country, but you’re selling this product in America, and as an American, I don’t want a tiny bit of curry sitting on a big bed of rice.) There are a few pieces of lentil in with the rice, but still.
4. It bills itself as ‘chicken vindaloo,’ but there is at least as much potato as chicken. I like potato as much as the next girl, but see #3 above re: filler.
5. The lemon rice does not taste notably of lemon. If you promise me lemon, I want lemon, dammit.
Aside from all that, the flavors were tasty and authentic, so I wouldn’t even say not to buy it. When you’re jonesing for Indian food and don’t have time / energy / etc. to make it for yourself, this is not a terrible option. But I don’t like to be irritated in five different ways before breakfast*, so I doubt I’ll be picking this up again.
*Yes, I realize most people don’t open a package of Indian food for breakfast, but that’s what sounded good this morning, so there you go.