Into the freezer Some three years ago General Mills introduced the boxed just-add-chicken Wanchai Ferry brand Chinese dinner kits that now carry a "Restaurant Favorites" tag. Each (after you add the chicken) produces something like six servings. A year later, they added Wanchai Ferry brand frozen chicken-or-shrimp-already-in-there meals for two, at a considerably higher shelf price -- and a per-serving price way higher than that of the boxed kit, even after you add the chicken.
Not long after that, General Mills introduced boxed just-add-chicken Romano's Macaroni Grill brand "Restaurant Favorites" dinner kits that (after you add the chicken) produce something like five servings. And now they've added new Romano's Macaroni Grill brand frozen chicken-or-shrimp already-in-there meals for two, at a considerably higher shelf price -- and a per-serving price way higher than that of the boxed kit, even after you add the chicken.
A little while ago, General Mills introduced boxed just-add-chicken-or-shrimp Good Earth brand "Restaurant Favorites" dinner kits that (after you add the chicken or shrimp) produce something like five servings. Any takers on what's next?
What price rice? There are lots of other meat-already-in-there frozen dinners for two. Several of them, like those above, carry the name of a restaurant chain. There are a number from T.G.I. Friday's (from Heinz), for example, and now we have P.F. Chang's (from Unilever).
All these bags contain 22 to 24 ounces, and except for the new P.F. Chang meals, they all contain rice or pasta or tortillas. That there's no starchy item in the P. F. Chang's bag means two things: You might want to zap some rice, too; and the bag contains more of the meat, vegetables and sauce that you pictured when you paid $8 or $9 for a frozen meal for two.
In remembrance Dear friends: Tomorrow it will have been 21 years since my son Joe died in a seven-story fall from his college dorm room in Madison, Wis. He had taken LSD; he was 18.
Hug your kids.
AL SICHERMAN
