Fresh & Easy is like a Trader Joe's crossed with a 7-Eleven. They only have locations in California, Nevada, and Arizona so you may never had heard of it. One of the neat things they have is cheap frozen Indian cuisine including this
Chicken Tikka Masala entree.
It cost me only
$1.99 for a 10-ounce box featuring roasted white chicken, a spicy curry masala sauce with a side of basmati rice mixed with spinach and carrots.
The box photo shows a yellowish sauce, but the masala sauce inside was a deep red and they are not kidding about the "spicy" bit. It's a tomato-based sauce with a lot of flavor to it. It's not particularly complex, but it's still pretty good.
The rice with carrots and spinach mixed in was interesting. I've never had anything other than plain basmati rice served at Indian restaurants. It's not as dry as some of the basmati rice I've had at some India restaurants. The spinach flavor in particular was quite prominent.
The chicken was the most tender chicken I've ever had out of a frozen dinner. It was really tender like it had been braised for a good amount of time, but not to the point where it was falling apart. There were about 5 or so good-sized chunks.
Overall, I was quite impressed by Fresh & Easy's Chicken Tikka Masala frozen dinner, especially considering the low price and general lack of frozen Indian cuisine available at the supermarket. I had pretty hit-or-miss experiences with the chain's brand items, but this one was really nice. They're a British company so I imagine they know their Indian food.
Nutritional Info - Fresh & Easy Chicken Tikka Masala (284g)
Calories - 360 (from Fat - 140)
Fat - 15g (Saturated Fat - 5g)
Sodium - 770mg
Carbs - 41g (Sugar - 5g)
Protein - 15g
I love Fresh & Easy for various reasons. The self checkout thing is nice because you can usually get in and out of there very quickly. They do have a nice selection of unique food, usually at pretty reasonable prices. I'll have to try this frozen meal sometime, it looks pretty good.
ReplyDeleteAlso, for those who like light Mexican beer, they are exclusive importers of a beer from El Salvador called Taurino. It's very cheap and pretty similar to something like Tecate. I think they have a decent wine selection too, but I'm not a big wine aficionado.
I love their fresh baked bread! Their 99 cent Italian loaf blows all other supermarket 99 cent loaves out of the water.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, I've had their Italian bread too! I'll have to pick some up again sometime.
ReplyDeleteSome living expenses in the bizarre state of "nowherevill" aka Missouri are lower to MUCH lower than other areas such as my ex-home-state of California.
ReplyDeleteBut.... food is quite expensive hereabouts and the choices are scant.
We might be at the end of the line of food distribution systems.
Our produce choices are also minimal and VERY expensive.
Even the budget stores are expensive!!!!
Maybe that's why the hillbillies love their road kill dinners so much.
The Fresh & Easy stores are from UK supermarket chain Tesco, which operates stores around the world.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresh_%26_Easy
I already knew that, but what's your point? I like the store. A friend of mine hates them because he works in the industry and they're a threat... but to be fair, it seems like they're a decent subsidiary of Tesco.
ReplyDeleteUnless you were simply being informative, my bad i read your comment very quickly
ReplyDeleteYes, I was merely trying to add some information. While many haven't yet seen a Fresh & Easy store, they may have heard of Tesco (perhaps from a British reference somewhere).
ReplyDelete