Honey Walnut Shrimp, Never Again - The Grape Report
Please understand. I don’t always make great decisions. Panda Express’s Honey Walnut Shrimp is one of those decisions. I like, or did like, its Orange Chicken, but after my shrimp experience, I’m rethinking my palate.
If you’re planning a Lenten meal outing, consider McDonald’s before Panda Express.
Sugar was the main flavor. The honey coating was so sweet it stuck to my teeth and lingered after each bite. If there was real honey, it didn’t stand out. The glaze tasted more like high-fructose corn syrup with a fancy label. Maybe there are rules about how much honey a product needs to use the name, but this sauce seemed designed to barely meet that requirement.
As for the shrimp, it was hard to find. Each piece was covered in a thick tempura batter that served as a receptacle for the honey/sugar coating. When you bite in, you mostly taste crunch, sugar, and oil. Not much shrimp. The batter hid what seemed like a shrimp, but it was tough to tell by taste. Once, I bit into something extra crunchy. It wasn’t a walnut, since those were rare. Maybe it was part of the shrimp’s shell, which didn’t make me feel any better.
The walnuts, when I found them, were fine: lightly candied and a bit toasty. The real issue was that there just weren’t enough. They seemed more like a garnish than a real part of the dish, just there to match the name.
The fried rice was the most dependable part of the bowl. It wasn’t amazing, but it was good enough. It tasted just like typical fast-casual fried rice: savory, mildly seasoned, and filling. Here, it also gave a nice break from all the sweetness.
Overall, the Honey Walnut Shrimp Bowl was too sweet and unbalanced, with the shrimp hidden under batter and glaze. If you want shrimp, this probably won’t hit the spot. But if you’re in the mood for dessert pretending to be dinner, this might be for you.
The Green Grape Report
Food Review by Gary Gardiner
Market District - North State Street
Price – $2.49 a pound.
PLU Code – 3452
The Review
My normal quest for grapes is usually decided by price. This week is different.
At Market District, the green seedless option is labeled August Crisp, though the PLU code 3452 points to Sugarthirtyfive. Two names, one bag. The price is $2.49 a pound, almost matching other grocery stores’ prices.
The grapes were grown in Peru by Agrícola Chapi, a family-owned exporter based in the Ica region, one of the country’s major grape-producing areas. Chapi is a large-scale grower with significant acreage in table grapes and avocados, supplying major international retailers. The Sugarthirtyfive grape is a proprietary variety developed by Sun World International, part of that company’s portfolio of licensed cultivars grown under agreement.
Chapi has been identified in trade reporting as a Sun World licensee, meaning it produces these protected varieties for export markets. These are not anonymous commodity grapes. They come from a coordinated breeding and export system built around premium fruit.
The label says August Crisp. The PLU says Sugarthirtyfive. Retailers use a name that sounds good on a sign. In this case, both lead to the same place. A modern green seedless grape bred for size, crunch, and elevated sugar.
And size is the first thing you notice.
Ten grapes weighed 5.4 ounces, or 153 grams. That is more than a third of a pound in just ten pieces. The average berry measured 32mm by 36mm. These are not the smaller, casual handful grapes often sold under PLU 4022, the catch-all code for standard green seedless varieties.
Because of that size and density, there are fewer grapes in a one-pound bag. The math is unavoidable. Bigger fruit means fewer pieces per pound. If the bag looks sparse compared with the usual 4022 selection, you are not being shorted. You are buying mass.
Texture is where the name earns its keep. The skin snaps cleanly. The flesh is firm and tight, almost apple-like at the center. There is little give. Each grape feels substantial.
Sugar content measured 23.1 percent. For table grapes, anything over 20 percent is solidly sweet. At 23.1, this is unmistakably dessert-level fruit. The sweetness is direct and clean, without a syrupy finish. No muskiness, no bitterness near the skin. Just straightforward sugar supported by crunch.
August Crisp, or Sugarthirtyfive if you prefer the PLU, is not the everyday green grape. It is larger, denser, and sweeter than the standard offering. At $2.49 a pound, it delivers a premium eating experience at a standard price.
This week, price mattered less. Structure, sugar, and curiosity carried the day.
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