Uncle Ben's Microwaveable Rice

Uncle Ben's Express Microwaveable Rice:
(I felt compelled to write this review after seeing glowing recommendations of this product - I can't quite believe they've been eating the same rice....)

This is the simplest quickest "meal" you'll ever "make".
Simply tear a small (2cm) gash in the top of the pack and nuke it on full power for 2 minutes.

As someone who wants her dinner the minute she decides she's hungry, I was super excited to find this product. And in the time stakes, it does score full marks.

However, even an ever impatient dust-bin such as me has other criteria for her food. I want it to be filling, and I want it to taste good!

Well yes, it's fairly filling. But I'd be shocked if it wasn't, it's RICE - that staple foodstuff of half the world. Whole empires have been built on rice. Of course it's going to keep hunger at bay.

So what does it taste of?
Well, there's quite a range of flavours : Mushroom, Chinese-style, Mexican, Tomato & Basil, Vegetable Pilau, Egg-fried, and probably another one or two my kwik save doesn't stock.

Really though, don't spend hours deliberating which flavour to get. They all taste exactly the same. And that taste is a curious fusion of cardboard, fibrous-ness and good old nothing.
Yup. They have no taste. None at all. Zip. Nada.

And as for texture.... woah. Upon opening your steaming lil packet and tipping out the contents, you'll see it looks extraordinarily wet. But what's this... it's retaining the exact shape of the packet! The "corners" are fused together. You're looking at a bowl of damp damp rice with four hard clumpy chunks where it overcooked.
(I've tried nuking it lesser and longer, to absolutely no avail)

It's fairly good value. Each pack is meal sized (for me at least, and I'm not someone who pushes lettuce leaves around a plate). Kwik Save are doing 2 packs for 1.50, and Sainsburys 3 for 3.00 (I saw these offers, bought loads - that's how come I've tried all these flavours, each progessively worse...)

Nutrition wise, it's fairly low fat, and low-calorie.

In short. This rice is rubbish. I live with two flatmates, both of whom thought it was their lucky day when I offloaded my remaining packs (and they are jolly attractive packs) onto them. Ha! Barely had they tasted this mush, they were spooning it into the bin...