Master Pasto

I was recently approached to try out some pasta and I am very excited to share this experience and review with you because it is a good one! If you have chinese food fatigue from all the chinese new year food (Happy Chinese New Year everyone) this is a good one to try out!

What do I mean by good one? Not only is the product, easy to prepare and convenient, it is most importantly tasty! But before I get ahead of myself, let's talk about the branding.

This is the Master Pasto pasta which is made by Lioco Food Industries Sdn Bhd. It is actually a Ready to Eat Meal, which is made in Penang, Malaysia. 

There are 3 different flavours of pasta. You can choose from Carbonara, Aglio Olio and Bolognese. All products are spaghetti and sauce, which come in 2 different packages. 

So how do you go about heating it up? First off, the food is already pre-cooked, so you are only heating it up because hot pasta is always more delicious! You are not actually cooking the food at this point. So you will be pleased to hear that it only takes a maximum of 3 minutes!

You can actually choose to heat up the packages in a pot for 3 minutes, which I have tried, in my attempt to shun the microwave; or you can pour out the package contents onto your plate (make sure it is a microwave safe plate) and then heat it up for a minute! So if you are in a rush, or if you have brought this to the office, the microwave method is clearly faster and more convenient! You can watch the heating up methods HERE. 

This instant meal is super convenient, although not the most environmentally friendly. It is good when you need a ready meal quickly. 

A lot of people think preservatives or MSG when they think of instant meals. How is this instant pasta different? First off, the product contains no preservatives and no MSG. So you may be surprised to hear that you do not even need to keep this refrigerated but it is true! The best by date is clearly printed on the box and on the package, so you do not need to worry.

The product is also good for most people - it contains chicken, so is not suitable for vegetarians or vegans, but is HALAL certified. 

When I tried these 3 flavours, the first thing that jumped out to me was how delicious the Spaghetti Bolognese is. I typically do not enjoy traditional Bolognese due to the intense meaty flavour but this has a good balance between tomato and chicken.

My personal favourite is the Spaghetti Carbonara, whereas my parents both prefer the Spaghetti Aglio Olio.

A word of warning, the Aglio Olio is heavy on the spice so if you are not good with spicy food, you may want to give it a miss, but most Malaysians will really love the extra "kick".

I did find all 3 flavours to be on the saltier side, which my parents agreed as well. However, it was not overwhelmingly salty, and was very delicious. One box costs RM5.90 and is sufficient for a meal. If you are a big eater you will definitely need 2 boxes to be full. I found that one box was just nice for lunch and sufficient for dinner as well.

I personally love that this Instant Spaghetti is made right here in Malaysia and that the flavours have been tweaked to suit the Malaysian crowd. This 3 minute wonder is definitely going on my "buy to stash" list because we all have those days where we are too lazy to cook a proper meal. Instead of grabbing a maggi mee, now I will have the option for instant pasta locally made.

If you require more information, you can go to their main website HERE or even their facebook page HERE.