The Trader Joe's Product Discussion Thread (S/D)

Die a Ree Ahyh?

Has anyone else found the TJ's meat to be weird? I've gotten their *high-end* steak a few times and more recently their pork loin and pork roast, and it all has the same unnatural consistency, where the meat almost tastes like it was injected with something to make it moist, and the fat feels like it's glued on.

chicken is fine, never got any other meat there. actually seems to be the only place you can get inexpensive chicken breast that is not so enormous you can't cook it properly.

i got 3 kinds of jerky (buffalo, beef, and turkey) this week and i have already eaten them all. i always think their coffee sucks whenever i make the mistake of buying it.

Yeah the chicken is totally fine and decent. It's just the steak and pork I've had problems with.

pineapple juice is bomb as fuck.

I like the buffalo jerky but there are like 3 pieces per bag and it's, what, $5.99 or something? Yikes.
Has anyone seen the flower pepper at their local TJs? I'm afraid that it's gone ;_;

Was kind of weirded out to see there are TJ's boiled eggs in a bag. Or any boiled eggs in a bag for that matter.

It's kind of disturbing to see them in bunch out of the normal context like that. It reminds me of David Sedaris saying that in France, he bought peanut butter in a tin can, which made it unappealing for him. I've worked at restaurants where they came in 5 gallon buckets, packed in water, which was very strange and off-putting, but not reasonably so.

man, that might rival precooked bacon in the laziness department

I'm too lazy to go find lex's post about failing at boiling eggs, but it exposes the privilege behind your judgment.

his well-known kitchen acumen

I'm just saying, would you deny him an egg?

Seriously though, I know consumers of pre-peeled eggs and the like are easy targets, but I'm not ashamed to say that I've bought pre-cooked bacon, frozen pre-cooked rice, etc. Sometimes I want to use my time doing things besides peeling eggs, and there ain't no shame in that game.

Sorry, not trying to be confrontational w/ you, mh. I'm being a little defensive b/c there probably is a little shame in my game!

I buy pre-cooked food for camping! (That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.)

Oh, I buy pre-cooked things all the time but usually at a grocery store with a deli where they presumably boil their eggs on-site and so on.

The tj beef does have an odd taste
My wife can't stand it so I usually stick with chicken and sausage
Pork and lamb tasted ok

I've never noticed anything odd about TJ's beef.

Steaks ime don't know about hamburger meat/roasts

I've bought those pre-cooked (heat and eat) rice bags before, which is silly because you're probably paying like 4x as much per oz, but they're kind of convenient for work or for nights where you say "oh shit, forgot to start the rice"

I do homemade pre-cooked, frozen rice. It's nice having rice at the ready any time, with no cookware to clean up. The only time I eat rice that I just made is when I'm fixing a big batch to freeze. Now that I'm thinking about it, virtually all of the cooking I do these days is making my own convenience foods. Or doctoring up store-bought convenience foods.

you're our very own sandra lee!

actual laughs

tell us about yr tablescapes

The cats sit on it and leave their asshole stamps, nothing fancy.

Lime fruit floes are p great, but not as good as carribean. Guy at store told me they discontinued chili mango for good :-/

No flower pepper OR smoked salt at the uptown TJ's I went to on Monday. Bought the pink salt instead but my hopes are not so high.

OH GOD

they have these little shortbread cookies with the stella d'oro style chocolate button in the center. yowza they're good.

listen y'all
i am desperate for flower pepper
if any of you see it at your TJs, i will buy it from you (and compensate you for shipping) OR send you something in return (if you desire)

lately i've been wondering what flower pepper would taste like on vanilla ice cream but i have like 2 tablespoons left and don't want to waste it

I will keep an eye out

This tomato basil marinara is not that great!

I will keep an eye out
:D thank you!!

"This tomato basil marinara is not that great!"

which do you guys think is the best out of the $1.99 class of TJ sauces?

That's a good question. I remember not loving the roasted garlic either. They just taste like cheap jarred sauce

i've never really liked any of the sauces i've had from there except the spicy one w/ some name i can't remember... it starts with an "a". it's kinda chunky, very good.

arriabata

yes

i was thinking ariancata but i knew that wasn't it

I liked the garlic sauce but I am also a disgusting savage who likes sweet tomato sauces

The one by me now sells these "heirloom tomato" boxes that might be a local thing, b/c it says the tomatoes are from pennsylvania. Anyway, they're really good - you get a wide variety of large and small tomatoes of various varieties and the quality is comparable to what you get at my farmers market. But the weird thing is that they're kind of stuffed into this box, and the box has openings, so it's really easy to just take tomatoes from other box and add them to your box if there's room (it's one price per box). At first I felt like this was wrong somehow, but then I thought "Wait, how do I know someone didn't already take tomatoes out of MY box? Maybe I'm getting gypped!"

Oh btw in re sauces the best one is the Robusto, but I don't know if they still have it. Protip for buying tomato sauces: pick the one with the lowest sugar content.

;_;

Was going to correct you about "gypped" but felt like I could be walking into a racist Roma (tomato) situation

I usually go with the highest fat content; will also try low sugar!

Their new 'coconut chips' are perfect
the ultimate sweet toothin' it snack for me
otoh it's $2 for a little bag I'll inhale in 10 mins
maybe a quarterly treat

thumbs down on the Wild Arugula salad bags, they go bad waay before the date

thumbs up on Banana Bread mix, light and banana-y not too sweet

I'm intrigued re: flower pepper now

btw TJ's is recalling all its Valencia peanut/almond butters: http://www.traderjoes.com/about/customer-updates-responses.asp?i=86

I bought like 5 PBs during the peanut shortage last year so I am preparing myself for some serious sideeye when I return them all

Argh, that's my peanut butter!

I have an open one in the fridge right now and another two in the cabinet. Guess I'm not sick yet, at least.

A friend claims to have been sick all year, mysteriously, and is willing to pin it on the peanut butter. I wouldn't take my chances, personally.