Flippantly Vague Musings of a Quirky Vegan

Szechwan Hot and Sour Soup


I am, admittedly, not well-rounded in the food arts from Asia. I wish I were. I am trying, though. So, when I came upon this product in my neighborhood grocery store, I figured this would be a good way to get started. And look! it says it is vegan in red letters on the back, so I was thrilled to not have to stare at the ingredient list for half an hour! Yippee!

I popped this into the microwave after pouring all the ingredients (minus the crispy shallot topping) into their convenient plastic bowl, and waited the required two minutes for heating. I even got out my super cool blue and green glass bowl to make the hot and sour event just that much more memorable. I am very classy, dontchaknow.

Well....it was...eh, just okay. Not too hot or too sour, but also not really hot or sour enough, if that makes any sense. Kinda bland, with a little kick of spiciness in the back of my throat, just to let me know that some kind of chili is actually in there. The tiny tofu chunks were weird and a little too chewy for my taste. I ate about 1/3 of the bowl, which I guess is good now that I look at the caloric content (480 calories per bowl). The OMNI gave it a bite and was not enthused either. Nothing special. My super picky 7-year old actually asked to try this, which is odd because she rarely asks to try anything new at all, let alone something soupy and noodly. She immediately spit her bite out in the trashcan, but I think that was more for dramatic appeal rather than actual revulsion.

On the bright side, I did make some mini blueberry pies, inspired by a recipe in this blog. They were extra yummy, and even though they were vegan, the OMNI was impressed. But of course, I forgot to take pictures of the pies before we devoured them whole and licked up all the crumbs.

Brooke-o-meter:
4 peas, out of 10

Picky eater meter:
0 peas, for inducing the need for trashcan spittage

Meat-eater-meter (OMNI):
2.5 peas. Outlook not so good.