Feel Good Foods General Tso's Chicken bowl with white rice

When I was a kid, I would go smell the spices in the kitchen.  Most of them smelled like the food they would make someday, or like the food that they has been used in before.  Nothing was like Vanilla.  Vanilla was the great mystery of the spice rack, because it smelled so good.  It was like every beautiful dessert I'd ever had.  But no matter how many times I smelled it, it never tasted good.  The taste was terrible, harsh, alcohol. Not sweet at all.  It amazed me every time I tried it. One of life's mysteries.

Feel Good Foods General Tso's Chicken is much like vanilla.  Other reviews online said it was awful, that the chicken was mushy and gummy.  Having been obsessed with General Tso's and battered chicken products for most of my life, I had to try it anyway.  As it cooked in the microwave, it unleashed a series of amazing smells.  Savory, Sweet, Wok-Fried, all of these flavors filled the air. It seemed certain that this would be delicious.  At long last, it came out of the microwave.  It tasted like absolutely nothing.  I added soy sauce.  Still nothing.  The chicken bits weren't gnarled in my bowl, just bland.  I knew the batter wouldn't be crispy because this would require a crisping sleeve - why this isn't offered with most microwave foods, I don't know, but it seems like Lean Cuisine Pizzas and Hot Pockets have the market cornered on that crisping sleeve technology.
I walked upstairs with my bowl of disappointment.  My spouse sits up in the bed.  "What are you eating?  It smells delicious".
"It's not."  I told him.  "It only smells that way".  Like the elusive vanilla, the flavor is entirely in the smell.  Chicken, broccoli, and rice haven't been this bland since school lunch.

Of course, it looks nothing like the picture.  But did it have to taste like nothing?

Rating: 1.5/5 stars.  It's nutritious, made with vegetables, rice, and meat.  A fine feast for the nose.  But where is the flavor?  I can do better for $6.