Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 26, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba Read the Spring 2024 issue at winnipegfreepress.com/fp-features SUMMER 2024 ISSUE Available in your Free Press (subscribers) on July 6th and at Manitoba Liquor Marts - while supplies last! C O M I N G J U L Y 6 T H WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM ● C3 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2024 ARTS ● LIFE I FOOD Chefs Plate WEEKLY SUBSCRIPTION: $59.94 (plus $4.99 shipping) PRICE PER MEAL: $9.99 MENU OPTIONS: 26 CHEFS Plate is the budget brand of HelloFresh. While the latter boasts food waste reduction as its main selling point, the former promotes cost savings. Living under the HelloFresh umbrella also means Chefs Plate suffers from the same shortcomings. The online experience is near iden- tical, as is the packaging. Both boxes come with water ice packs, which you can empty in the drain; and recyclable or compostable insulation. While the components for each meal are packed in paper bags, most of the individual ingredients are packed in plastic. The meatball mac and cheese was a home run, the black bean burrito bowls were fine and the “larb-inspired” pork salad was a cloyingly sweet, western- ized fever dream of the Laotian staple. The ingredient ratios also seemed way off for the latter, with far too much salad dressing and too many carrots. The Chefs Plate menu options seemed less exciting overall when compared with the other kits. At the same time, the meals were generally easier to prepare, with fewer steps and less equipment needed. MAIN TAKEAWAYS: Chefs Plate is the cheapest option, but the menu is the most basic and the recipes are the least inventive. Goodfood WEEKLY SUBSCRIPTION: $92.94 (plus $9.99 shipping) PRICE PER MEAL: $15.49 MENU OPTIONS: 67 GOODFOOD is a Canadian meal kit company with distribution cen- tres in Quebec, Ontario, Alber- ta and British Columbia. While it’s the priciest of the national delivery services, the portions are larger and the food is the most interesting by leaps and bounds. The company touts “restaurant quality” recipes and regularly part- ners with prominent chefs and food influencers to create new menu items. When choosing a meal plan, there are more options to drill down on prefer- ences, such as cooking style and spice tolerance. Our order included a cheese-stuffed beef burger with buttery brioche bun, grilled tilapia with a creamy green goddess sauce and a tofu farfalle pasta dish. The produce was high quality, aside from some middling green beans. The mains tasted great but the sides often felt like an afterthought — the burger, for example, was served with a salad consisting of lettuce, carrots and apple slices dressed in oil, vinegar and the same spices in the patty. Très boring. Restaurant-quality can also be code for complicated. That pasta dish was the most complex meal we made and the instructions don’t always follow a logical progression. Goodfood loses points for its pack- aging. Everything is bagged in plastic with liquids and condiments packed in various-sized hard plastic screw-top containers. After only three meals we had accumulated nearly a dozen little receptacles. The company also sends too many emails. While all of the large meal kit makers engage in intense email marketing, Goodfood’s efforts are next level. And not in a good way. MAIN TAKEAWAYS: Goodfood offers the most substantial portion sizes and the highest-calibre meal options, but the quality comes with a hefty price tag and a side of eco-anxiety. Prairie Box WEEKLY SUBSCRIPTION: $47.96 to $71.96 for four meals (plus $8 shipping) PRICE PER MEAL: $11.99 to $17.99 MENU OPTIONS: 24 THERE’S no cooking with Prairie Box. The Winnipeg-owned meal delivery service and its sister company, 204 Meal Prep, offer pre-pre- pared dishes designed to be reheated in the microwave or oven. Orders can be picked up or delivered from the company’s King Edward Street hub. While it was by far the most conve- nient option of the bunch with the least packaging waste, the food left some- thing to be desired. The menu has decent variety, but doesn’t appear to change as often as the larger meal kit providers. We ordered the vegetarian buddha bowl, Filipino-style barbecue pork, chicken shawarma and butter chicken. The flavours were fine, if a little bland, and the portions were OK, if a little small. My main gripe is with the one-size- fits-all reheating instructions, which don’t account for ingredient variations between dishes. Several meals came with side sauces or fresh vegetables that either had to be removed prior to microwaving or eaten hot — steamed cucumbers are no bueno. Prairie Box doesn’t have a set week- ly subscription price. Rather, subscrib- ers are charged based on the price of their individual meal selections and receive a discount that grows relative to the number of dishes in their order. There’s also a one-time purchase op- tion for occasional users and cheaper meals for seniors. The company’s marketing is far less spammy than the big three. MAIN TAKEAWAYS: Prairie Box is ideal for those with very limited time and/or cooking facilities. Meals are prepared and delivered locally with minimal packaging, making this the most eco-friendly choice. eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com X: @evawasney ● FROM C1 EVA WASNEY PHOTO Tilapia with rice, beans and green goddess sauce from Goodfood EVA WASNEY PHOTO The larb-inspired salad from Chefs Plate was a cloyingly sweet westernized version of the Laotian staple. ;