With red lanterns swaying from the trees of many of our towns and cities, the Chinese New Year has arrived. This year’s festivities fall on Wednesday, January 29, so it’s no surprise that supermarket aisles are brimming with traditional Chinese delicacies.
Marks and Spencer is among those embracing the occasion, launching a tempting meal deal that includes two mains and two sides for a mere £15.
The Dine In range offers lots of choices, featuring everything from prawn toast and Miso mushroom bao buns to special fried rice, spare ribs, crispy lemon chicken, and more, reports the Manchester Evening News.
A visit to my local branch showed some sparse shelves, indicating the popularity of the offer. However, I managed to snag a variety of items to sample.
Given my children’s selective palates, I opted for meat dishes and familiar flavours, including the main course of Sticky Chilli Chicken, described as ‘battered chicken breasts with an aromatic sweet chilli dipping sauce’.
This dish was a hit, with the ‘medium heat’ of the sauce providing a pleasant warmth without being too intense.
The Vegetable Spring Rolls were a delight, taking the longest to cook at 25 minutes, but certainly worth the patience. Packed with beansprouts, edamame soybeans, carrots, water chestnuts, red pepper and rice noodles, all encased in crispy pastry layers, they’re a mirror image of what you’d find at your local Chinese restaurant or takeaway, albeit slightly smaller.
The Egg Fried Rice was another gem – light, fluffy rice enhanced with scrambled egg, green peas and leeks – an ideal side dish to the meat and sticky sauce.
However, the Crispy Chilli Beef was the showstopper we simply couldn’t resist – tender slices of British beef in the lightest, crispiest batter, smothered in a mouth-watering sweet chilli sauce. It’s a culinary delight that deserves a place at your dinner table, regardless of whether you’re marking the Year of the Snake or not.
The £15 Chinese meal deal is up for grabs in MandS stores now.
