These packets are actually a complete rip-off
Some seasoning mixes and meal kits are really starting to veer into total nonsense. Buy a packet to make boerenomelet, and it tells you on the packet that you also need eggs and vegetables. Huh? So what’s actually in the packaging?
Some packets and sachets are incredibly convenient. Of course, you can gather the spices for nasi or bami yourself, but an envelope containing everything in the right quantities is pretty handy. Making rendang yourself is great fun, but a ready-made boemboe from the supermarket saves you a trip to the toko looking for candlenuts and fresh lemongrass, just to name a few things.
But some packets go too far.
Add: eggs
What about a sachet for boerenomelet? On the back, it says what else you need to add: vegetables and eggs. Hang on: that’s pretty much all the ingredients for a boerenomelet, isn’t it? So what’s actually in that sachet—a little salt, pepper and dried parsley?
Chicken skillet, without chicken or a skillet
It gets even stranger: a packet for a chicken-leek-mushroom skillet. Add the chicken, leek and mushrooms yourself, and then cook it in your own skillet. So you’re basically buying a very expensive packet of sauce, because you have to buy most of the groceries yourself. The strangest packet of all: meringue mix. What you still need to add: egg whites. So it’s basically a sachet of… sugar? And that for almost three euros—isn’t that ridiculous?
0.5 percent asparagus
These examples come from fervent anti-packet cook Karin Luijten, of the Koken met Karin website. She writes in the newspaper about popular sachets and packets, and how easy it is to make those dishes yourself. Something else Karin is baffled by: a packet of asparagus soup containing 0.5 percent asparagus, that sort of thing.
She investigated what’s in all those sachets: starch, salt, pepper and sugar. And then one negligible pinch of something or other, but usually not the ingredients you would expect. ‘What’s Thai about “Thai Chicken Siam” when distinctive Thai flavourings such as lemongrass, fish sauce, chillies, coconut milk, coriander and lime are conspicuously absent?’ she wonders. Point to Karin!
Ripping people off
I think it’s high time these nonsensical packets disappeared. A little help in the kitchen can’t hurt, but fleecing unsuspecting kitchen beginners for this kind of rubbish is simply dishonest. Can we make a sticker saying: ‘Contains: 100% nonsense’ and stick it on products like these? Or: ‘Now with EXTRA bullshit!’? Let’s see who notices. Certainly not the people hurriedly looking for something to eat tonight.
Alles op tafel
That consumer deception is also exposed in the new TV programme Alles op tafel, from the makers of Keuringsdienst van waarde. It uncovers the reality behind the food we eat every day. That should be a feast!
Also read:
- 19 times you’re seriously being ripped off at the supermarket
- Don’t let your chocolate packaging fool you
- That wasabi with your sushi is completely fake
