Frozen Friday: Tai Pei - Pepper Beef

Tai Pei's frozen Pepper Beef entree features beef and vegetables in a black pepper sauce with steamed rice.

I bought a 14.2-oz box for $1.88 on sale.

These come in a box made to look like a Chinese take-out container. You actually cook it just as it's packaged; just toss it in the microwave, plastic wrap and all.

Most of the flavor comes from the black pepper sauce, which wasn't so great. There's a vague, slightly sweet soy sauce quality to it that had me struggling to locate the black pepper notes. I kind of just wanted to dump some black pepper and sesame oil onto it to give it some zing.

The beef was tender but perhaps overly so, as it was missing some of that sinewy texture. There wasn't much of it to go around and quite a few of my bites were just rice, veggies, and sauce (which might have been more palatable with a less-blah sauce).

The vegetables consisted of a combination of carrots, broccoli, green peas, and celery. There was a decent flavor to them and a bit of firmness to avoid that dreaded full-on mushiness. The peas were an interesting add that I usually only see in fried rice as far as Chinese food is concerned.

The rice was parboiled with that characteristic firmness. It's a different texture than the freshly-steamed rice you might get at an Asian place but it's not bad.

Overall, Tai Pei Pepper Beef was a bit short on both meat and veggies, with more than the usual amount of rice to fill you up. It would still be okay if the sauce offered up at least a little more flavor.

Nutritional Info - Tai Pei Pepper Beef (403g)
Calories - 480 (from Fat - 110)
Fat - 12g (Saturated Fat - 2g)
Sodium - 1280mg
Carbs - 75g (Sugar - 17g)
Protein - 19g