Nate's Notes: Post updated. New pic and paragraph below.
This Asian dish comes frozen and it thaws in 2-3 minutes in the microwave. The packaging recommends serving it hot or cold while Koreans who know the dish say it should be served at room temperature. I found hot or room temperature worked great while chilling the kimbap in the fridge made the mouthfeel a little funky.
Still, the taste and texture are remarkable considering it comes frozen solid. There's an unexpected sweetness to the dish—akin to sesame sauce—plus all the rich veggie flavors you get from tofu, burdock root, carrot, radish, spinach, and seaweed. It's filling, satisfying, convenient, and reasonably priced at $3.99 for nine big sushi-roll-esque discs.
Update: we purchased this product again just so we could try it pan fried. With this preparation method, you only microwave for one minute from frozen. Then apply egg wash and fry on each side 2-3 minutes. The result is absolutely scrumptious. The product is more structurally stable this way and packs even more savory flavors. See pic below.
Product of Korea. The packaging and traderjoes.com only specify that it's vegetarian, but there's nothing in the ingredients that wouldn't be vegan, and other actual vegans out in cyberspace have declared that it is, in fact, vegan. I give Trader Joe's Kimbap eight out of ten stars while the beautiful wifey will go with nine out of ten.
Bottom line: 8.5 out of 10.
I tried these twice, and just couldn't make them taste good. The last bit I threw into a stirfry - I should have just tossed them. The pickled sweetness was a bad combo for me.
ReplyDeleteThis is literally the first negative comment I've ever read about these. Nevertheless, I appreciate your thoughts. Should have gotten a refund if you really didn't like them.
DeleteI pan fried mine in sesame oil but you're right these are delicious either way. I'll have to try the egg wash next time.
ReplyDeleteAnd we will have to try the sesame oil. Sounds good 👍🏻
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