USEFUL AS A REPLACEMENT FRISBEE? (Tesco Garlic Pizza Bread)

Member Name: Wee_Jackie_163

Product:	Tesco Garlic Pizza Bread
Date:	28/04/09 (173 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: NONE FOR US

Disadvantages: EXPENSIVE, HORRIBLE APPEARANCE

My partner and I were hosting a bit of a family get-together recently, and had arranged a bit of a spread for those who were visiting us. We opted to buy several ready-made items as well as doing a bit of home-cooking, and spread it all out in a buffet style, so that our guests could help themselves to whatever they fancied at their leisure.

We had a variety of breads and pizzas which were purchased from two different supermarkets, one of which was our local Tesco store. Whilst in the store to buy some of the assorted products for our buffet, we noticed the "Tesco Garlic Pizza Bread" which was in the chilled food section, in one of the large fridges.

We both agreed that it looked lovely and tasty from the picture on the box and concluded that it might be nice with some of the other food that we were planning to serve. With that, our minds were duly made up and we popped the pizza bread into the trolley.

The following day was the day of the buffet-lunch and I eagerly set about making preparations in the kitchen and doing some light cooking whilst my other half helped with the cold section: pork pies, salads, coleslaw, that type of thing. We decided that it would probably be best to wait until our guests had arrived before we put the oven on and set about heating/cooking the few items we had that required it. One of these items was of course, the Tesco Garlic Pizza bread.

Once everybody had arrived and had been given the drink of their choice, we set about heating up our breads and sausage rolls and things. The back of the Garlic pizza bread box stated that it didn't need long (if I recall, it was approximately 12 minutes) so I popped it in towards the end of our cooking 'cycle', as some of our other items required longer than that in the oven.

Whilst I was waiting, I prepared the Garlic pizza bread, and was pleased to note from the instructions on the reverse of the box that it could be placed simply onto the oven shelf for cooking; it didn't require to be placed on a baking tray or similar, which was just as well as we had used them all for other items! There was a polystyrene disc underneath the pizza bread and this was to be discarded along with the rest of the packaging before cooking.

The smell that came wafting from the oven whilst the pizza bread was in was very appetising; well, obviously only if you like the smell of garlic! A couple of our guests actually commented on the delicious garlic smells coming from our kitchen, which we can only assume was down to the pizza bread as nothing else in the oven was even remotely garlic related!

I decided to check on the pizza bread a little before the cooking time was up, and boy am I glad I did! I couldn't believe that it appeared that it was actually overdone; it hadn't had its full cooking time in the oven yet, and the oven wasn't too high. I deliberately checked the oven settings upon seeing the overly crisp pizza bread staring back at me from the depths of the oven.

Removing the extremely crisp-looking pizza bread from the oven, I noted that the back half was very brown - a few minutes longer and it would probably be that almost-black colour that we all know from experience! The whole pizza bread appeared to be extremely crisp, which was proven when we attempted to cut it into slices; it was literally bouncing all over the chopping board.

The picture on the outside of the box that had contained the pizza bread appeared to have a light sprinkling of grated cheese on top of it, but this was hardly noticeable from the crisp-looking disc we had removed from the oven. I think there was probably a teaspoon-sized sprinkling of cheese over the top, and I'm probably being overly-generous in my estimations at that.

I cut up the best part of the pizza bread (the part that was not overly-brown) and placed it with our otherwise lovely looking buffet. Most of this portion of the bread was eaten, and myself and my partner both had a small piece, but I certainly didn't hear lots of ooohs and aaaahs over the bread, and in fact nobody commented on it at all. This was noted by me because the rest of the buffet was complimented and fussed-over in comparison.

And what about the taste? Well that, in a word was........... Disappointing! It was indeed garlicy, but that's about all I can really say in its favour. I found it to be a bit salty and rather uninspiring.

The bread wasn't soft and gooey and delicious which is what I'd been hoping and expecting! The texture is indeed what let this product down the most, but I have to be honest and say that the taste was nothing special either. I'd have been better off buying some ready-made garlic baguettes for a fraction of the price of what the garlic pizza bread cost, because at least they would have been a bit more palatable and not half as disappointing as this was!

The cost of the pizza bread was in the region of £1.50. I think you have probably worked out by now that I most certainly would NOT recommend it, and I am only awarding it one star. And even then, it is only getting that because I can't give minus points or stars!

If you are tempted to purchase this pizza bread for yourself, then please do NOT be fooled by the lovely picture on the front of the packaging - I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it is clearly a photograph of an entirely different product altogether!

A very, very dissapointing product indeed, Mr Tesco! >:-o

Summary: Don't waste your money! >:-o