Monday, August 6, 2012

Pagoda Express

While shopping in Wal-Mart, I spied these intriguing Chinese appetizers.  Chinese in the freezer section is not unusual.  What caught my eye was that they offered cheese wontons.  It has been my experience that most wontons have crab meat in them.**  Ever since discovering the cheese wontons at Authentic China Wok and College Buffet in State College, PA, I have been trying to find that same item here in Myrtle Beach.  This was my first glimmer of hope in quite some time.  In my excitement, I also purchased the Pagoda Express potstickers.

Both dishes score high in the ease of preparation category.  Each gave a simple and quick cooking method, as well as a more authentic options.  The wontons ended up in the oven, while we pan fried the potstickers.  Both dishes proved easy to prepare.

After about twenty minutes, Mark served our appetizers.  The wontons come with a sauce that I didn't use.  While they weren't bad, they weren't what I was used to having.  The ones I originally had have a very thin outer shell.  These were a bit heaver.  A lot of the cheese also escaped, leaving the inside pretty empty.  That being said, they're the best*** substitute I have found so far.

Mark assures me that the potstickers were pretty good.  I only tried one, but I dipped it in the included sauce.  It was so salty that I couldn't eat any more of them.  For whatever reason, Mark had no aversion to the sauce and ate most of them.

In the future, if I was really craving cheese wontons, I might pick up another package.  I may even try the potstickers again, just with a different sauce.  Since we have pretty much ceased going out to eat, I was planning on turning to the freezer aisle for items such as these.  Maybe it's time I learn to make them from at home, from scratch.

*That was almost my review, but it would have turned into a rant.

**Yuck.

***Can they really be the best when they're the only ones competing?  I won a photo competition when I was a kid that way.  In case you didn't know, I'm pretty special.


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