Tuesday, December 21, 2004
MTR Ready to Eat
At Gregory's house I saw a sort of "Instant" Indian meal, and asked him about it. He said he'd told everybody but me, because he knew I hate Indian food (an utter lie—I'm just burned out on South Indian food). Basically, there's a grocery near (the IU) campus that has a lot of these Indian meals; I asked my wife Julie to pick some up on her trip home from work.
The meals are (I think) by a company called MTR. (I say "I think" because the packaging makes it hard to tell—shouldn't there be some marketing rule about making your company name a clear part of your package? ;-). Ah—there's an email address: feedback
The food is inexpensive and precooked and doesn't need refrigeration. You can heat it by putting the foil pouch in boiling water for 5 minutes, or by pouring the contents of the pouch into a microwavable bowl and cooking on High for 2 minutes. I did the latter.
The first dish I tried, Paneer Butter Masala, is really very good. I'd rate it 4 out of 5. It's not as good as the food at the excellent (north) Indian restaurants in Indianapolis, but it's not 60 miles / 100km / 1 hour's drive away, either. And it's quite inexpensive as well.
Since I use this blog for keeping notes of things I want to remember, I think I'll just keep a list of the dishes I try and what I think of them. So, to start out:
Chana Masala ("Wholesome chick peas cooked in a tangy, piquant sauce") 4/5
Paneer Butter Masala ("Mild spiced gravy with cottage cheese") 4.1/5
Rajma Masala ("Red Kidney beans in spiced gravy") 3.9/5 (reminds me a bit too much of Tex-Mex chili without meat).
The meals are (I think) by a company called MTR. (I say "I think" because the packaging makes it hard to tell—shouldn't there be some marketing rule about making your company name a clear part of your package? ;-). Ah—there's an email address: feedback
@mtrwonderkitchen.com . Visiting that domain in my browser turns up "Welcome to MTR FOODS LIMITED" and "This website under construction. Please visit us later!" The company name is in a <blink> tag (or equivalent). Are these people trying not to get my business? ;-)
The food is inexpensive and precooked and doesn't need refrigeration. You can heat it by putting the foil pouch in boiling water for 5 minutes, or by pouring the contents of the pouch into a microwavable bowl and cooking on High for 2 minutes. I did the latter.
The first dish I tried, Paneer Butter Masala, is really very good. I'd rate it 4 out of 5. It's not as good as the food at the excellent (north) Indian restaurants in Indianapolis, but it's not 60 miles / 100km / 1 hour's drive away, either. And it's quite inexpensive as well.
Since I use this blog for keeping notes of things I want to remember, I think I'll just keep a list of the dishes I try and what I think of them. So, to start out:
Chana Masala ("Wholesome chick peas cooked in a tangy, piquant sauce") 4/5
Paneer Butter Masala ("Mild spiced gravy with cottage cheese") 4.1/5
Rajma Masala ("Red Kidney beans in spiced gravy") 3.9/5 (reminds me a bit too much of Tex-Mex chili without meat).
