Judging pre-prepared/pre-mixed Indian food

[Guest guest]

There is really no substitute to food prepared fresh from

scratch. I wish you all many, many hot meals lovingly prepared.

 

However, sometimes we don't have time and it is really convenient

to eat some pre-prepared (frozen, pouch or can) or something that

can be quickly prepared (ground mixes like those made by Gits).

 

Some of these time-saving items are quite food, others may be OK to

eat if you are really hungary. In the past the choice was rather

limited, but lately quite a few " dishes " from several venders have

become available.

 

I have been trying to develop a scheme to " grade " the dishes. After

some thought, here is a grading scheme I have come up with.

 

There are some components of the pleasures of a meal that we

wouldn't consider here. The affection by which the cook has prepared

and served the meal for you is one. Other is the ambience of the

place.

 

Pre-prepared/pre-mixed food should be judged by comparing it with

the fresh-made counterpart ( " traditionality " ). I came up with four

categories.

 

25%: appearance: traditionality, visual color and visual texture.

25%: flavor: traditionality, freshness, balance, distinctiveness

25%: taste: traditionality, expected degree of

spiceness/sweetness/saltiness, freshness, balance, distinctiveness

25% texture: traditionality, expected degree of firmness/cookedness,

presense of chewing texture if applicable.

 

 

Note that flavor and taste are related. However I think it is

appropriate to assign them 50% of the score.

 

For each award a score:

 

+1: significantly better than average

0: average

-1: significantly worse than average

 

The total score will range between +4 to -4. The score is converted

to stars using this:

 

 

***** +4 comparable to prepared from scratch

**** +3,+2 close to fresh, like to eat often

*** +1, 0 satisfies taste and hunger

** -1,-2 would like to eat occasionally

* -3,-4 eat if really hungary

 

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For example let me grade " Ashoka Dudhi Halwa " which comes in pouches.

Here is what I would give:

 

appearance: +1

flavor: +1

taste: +1

texture: +1

 

which would give it *****.

 

I expected it to be sweet and rich. If you prefer a lighter taste,

you would give it 0 (average) for taste and perhaps 0 for texture,

and that would make the score = 2, which would be ****.

 

Can the members of this list share their " reviews " of pre-prepared

or pre-mixed Indian vegetarian dishes? Perhaps that will lead to

better choices for all of us.

 

Navin