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Pretty much the first thing I do after I get back to my apartment in New Taipei, after dropping off my luggage, is head to the 7-Eleven downstairs to pickup some supplies. This would usually be drinks, junk food, and maybe breakfast for the next morning. This time around Foursheets noticed a big poster in the window of our local 7-Eleven with the face of Olivier Elzer in a prominent position, along with smaller pictures of a bunch of products.
Apparently Olivier - who opened Seasons by olivier e. at the W Taipei last year, has created a series of ready-to-eat meals exclusively with 7-Eleven Taiwan. Olivier is being introduced as a "27 Michelin star chef", and now you can get a taste of his "star rated cuisine (星級饗宴)" at an estimated 7,000 outlets on the island.
Foursheets and I were initially curious, and figured we could try the grilled cheese with smoked bacon sandwich (法式起司燻培根厚土司) first. This was basically a croque monsieur.
We heated it up in mom's toaster oven for an afternoon snack, and honestly, it wasn't bad at all! We loved the cheese gratin on top of the bread, and it did taste similar to a croque monsieur. At 387 kcals per sandwich, it's a pretty much the same as McDonald's Sausage McMuffin with Egg, but it certainly tastes more gourmet. I'm pretty happy with it at TWD 79 a pop. In fact, we ended up eating three of these over a few days. One of these was enjoyed over two days by dad, who used half of it to supplement his usual fruit-and-yogurt breakfast.
A couple of days later when mom couldn't think of what to cook for lunch, I suggested that we go buy the other offerings from Olivier so we could try them out the whole range. One of these may become an option for dad on days when he needs a simple lunch and mom's not inspired to cook up something for him.
French roast chicken and roasted vegetables (法式烤雞佐時蔬) - a lighter option with veggies at just 137 kcals, priced at TWD 89.
We initially made the mistake of just reheating the 3 slices of chicken, treating this as a "chicken salad". Later we realized that people would be reheating the entire package and the raw cabbage would get cooked. That definitely tasted better. The chicken tasted fine, as did the cooked pumpkin. The broccoli was flabby as expected, the way it would be on a regular inflight meal. I thought the eringi mushroom had too much seasoning and was too spicy.
French herb roasted chicken wings (法式香草烤雞翅) - priced at TWD 59 for 3 pieces of wings, this was just a tad more expensive than the 2-piece McWings.
OK la... not surprised to find it seasoned with rosemary.
Cream sauce burrito with French grilled chicken and original Dijon mustard (法式烤雞佐芥末籽白醬飯卷) - I didn't pay much attention at first and thought it was a chicken wrap with veggies inside. Turns out it's a burrito. This was TWD 69 and comes in at 423 kcals.
It wasn't until I cut the burrito open that I saw there was rice inside with the chicken. This was actually pretty tasty thanks to the cream sauce, and fairly satisfying.
French roasted chicken with porcini risotto (法式烤雞佐牛肝菌燉飯) - this is the product featured in the TV commercial, and the one that Olivier recommended that I try. Coming in at 629 kcals, this is just a tad heavier than a Big Mac. The regular retail price is TWD 119, but as the "best before" expiry was in a few hours when I bought it, I got it for 35% off.
This was OK. I always wondered whether the locals would accept "soggy rice", and while some of the rice that had no sauce seemed OK, part of the rice soaked in sauce may indeed be too soggy for the Taiwanese palate. The chicken was fine, but we probably should have nuked this thing a little longer and mixed the cheese into the rice a little better. We definitely tasted MSG here... and in fact it's listed as one of the ingredients.
Bourguignon spagetti (紅酒燉牛肉義大利麵) - this was the most expensive item in the range at TWD 129, and comes in at 497 kcals.
Not only did they spell "spaghetti" wrong, the noodles I got weren't even spaghetti! It was actually fettucine! Anyway, the beef shank was very, very tender with a nice, springy texture. The sauce for the bœuf bourguignon was pretty decent and tasty. For me, this was the best of the bunch.
Caramel éclair (焦糖閃電泡芙) - last but not least, we have an éclair priced at TWD 55 and coming in at 126 kcals.
The caramel filling inside was decent, and we've got some pop rocks on top.
This was undoubtedly Olivier's first experience at creating "affordable French food" on such a scale, and he did say that they conducted 53 tastings with the production factory. Honestly, I thought the results were pretty decent. The only downside was that, not surprisingly, mom started reacting to the MSG and inevitable chemical additives needed to create something that was refridgeration-stable for a few days. For the vast majority of people likely to consume this stuff, that definitely would not be a problem.
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