Y'know how boxed dinners (hamburger helper etc) are always ridiculously tame? They're very underspiced, sometimes bland, definitely never enough of whatever flavor they claim to have. Even with many recipes, I have the same issue.

BUT.

PSA: Wanchai Ferry boxed dinners? NOT THE CASE. I picked up a Kung Pao Chicken box earlier this week, which I finally got around to making tonight. Was just a little light on the amount of rice provided (just shy of a cup and a half dry; I bumped it up to two cups), but a surprisingly (and happily) large sauce packet, as well as peanuts and, red chili peppers. <3

So there's a note on the box, CAUTION peppers are extremely hot, and may be difficult to eat whole.

I'm like, pssssht, Tom chows down pepperocini like most people eat potato chips. No issue there.

Also on the box, it says that if you would like it extra-hot, smush up the peppers in their package a bit, to let the seeds get loose so they'll spread through the sauce. Given my usual experience with boxed dinners, I do so, only leaving one intact so Tom can be entertained if he so chooses.

I tried a bit of the sauce just before putting it over the rice. It was a bit spicy. So I made sure Tom and I each had a glass of water to go with our dinner, when I brought it all upstairs (he was in midst of a gaming session, and I wanted to relax a bit and watch something on my iPod).

Tom took a bite.

His eyes went wide.

He flung the glass of water down his throat in one go. "Get me some bread!!!"

...he's still carefully working his way through it, almost an hour later. (Granted, he had more sauce than I did, and also I like to mix my sauce in the with rice more than he does, that helped dull it some.)

So uh, be warned. ^^;; (But also note, this stuff tasted fantaaaastic, I'm really happy with the results.)