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

it's hard to go wrong with chocolate-covered fruit products - raspberry sticks are my fave after the milk chocolate covered pretzels.

jaymc, i had a nightmare about astronomical sodium levels last night, thanks to you

Haha, sorry.

the TJ's in berkeley is going to be like three blocks from my house so Yes to that (although I don't see how anyone is going to park, maybe they're doing underground parking or something). This is the former location of the supermarket immortalized in that Ginsburg poem, incidentally.

^^ really? For some reason I thought it was the Safeway in the Marina in SF.

no.

also, yeah, there are a lot of supermarkets in berkeley, but not as many as lots of other places, and anyway, andronicos and whole foods are prohibitively expensive for lots of people these day, and north berkeley safeway is fucking gross (though i shop there all the time)

anyway now I saw somewhere else that it was about something on college, but the daily planet in berkeley had an article a while back that stated it was about a supermarket that used to be on that lot. Gisburg lived on Milvia, right down from where I live now, which is where Howl was written.

ok here it is: http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2008-05-22/article/30062?headline=Reader-Report-Requiem-for-a-Berkeley-Strip-Mall

the ginsberg thing... wow, weird.

i hung out one night with a guy who worked at trader joe's. he was friends with a dodgy ex-roommate of mine. at one point he was like, "oh i'm going outside for a second to smoke some crack". i thought he was joking but he was totally and completely serious. it was kind of horrifying. such a nice young man, too...

I thought it was the Trader Joe's parking lot in Berkeley that Delroy Lindo got into an altercation at, but it looks like it was Whole Foods. (I think Adamrl mentioned this a while ago.)

there is no trader joe's in berkeley yet so it must have been, if it wasn't berkeley bowl

the berkeley bowl parking lot probably has more altercations than any Berkeley supermarket.

berkeley bowl is an overrated pain the ass. it'll be good when they open the new one, but seriously, it is just groceries, and not even cheap groceries.

^^ agreed.

go shop at grocery outlet for some real entertainment though

I saw a lesbian furry couple at Whole Foods a couple weeks back. Okay, only one of them was wearing a tail, the other had a fake fur animal print jacket. I saw them again the other day, not in furry garb.

i realized after a trip to fairway the other day that their products are like 10x plus awesome than trader joe's.

I don't even know what fairway is, but I know that's a lie

In NYC I think it's a limit on the number of liquor sale licenses in a geographical area. The Brooklyn one has beer but not wine or liquor

Wine and liquor can't be sold at grocery stores in New York State (and food can't be sold at liquor stores, I think), although there has been talk to allow wine to be sold.

Fairway is pretty great. I wish it weren't all the way down in Red Hook.

i went to the 72nd street one!

Since this is such an East Bay flavored thread I'll give a shoutout to the TJ's on Concord Ave in Concord. It doesn't get too crowded and there's never stuff out of stock. You need a car though.

I've noticed that cereal can be really cheap at Trader Joes. My favorite cereal, Nature's Path Organic Heritage, costs about half as much there as it does at the nearby Lucky.

boo outer east bay

2 Andronicos, 1 Berkeley Bowl, 2 Safeways, 1 Whole Foods, and 1 Trader Joes

+ another berkeley bowl soon

the chilis are real yum

beef, chicken, veggie, WHATEVEr

fairway is incredible. i miss it (both locations).

the red hook location is cool because you can go out back and have a lovely waterfront view while you enjoy a coffee and bagel.

Fairway is better, but they're slightly different concepts. TJ's is really no-frills and cheap -- emphasis is basically on lowest prices possible without completely giving up a few little yuppie pleasures. Fairway is more of a bargain gourmet store (although their staples are very reasonable) -- cheese counter, fresh fish, fantastic store-brand olive oil, etc.

my mom is a total stan for the lox at fairway

i got these mini spinach pizzas from TJ's last week - they didn't taste too bad but MY GOD THE SMELL. i just couldn't bring myself to eat them.

then how do you know they didn't taste too bad?

i managed a few bites, smarty-pants

these trader joe's avocados i bought are the worst avocados i've ever had :(

their wheat thins equivalent is godlike

trader joes produce = sketchy, at best

trader joes produce = sketchy, at best

uh huh. the way they treat their apples is criminal. it is not really the emphasis, i guess, and the cherry tomatoes are o k enough and cheap enough to be useful. i am feverishly ploughing through their bread range, still; all the variations of the panes that have like, pumpkin seeds or honey or poppy seeds etc are terrific.

i've gotten some decent tj's avocados, but avocados here generally suck anyway so maybe they weren't really that great?

their mexican blackberries are awesome. never had a problem with their avocados, either. or at least no problem i haven't had with avocados from anywhere.

Struck out for the first time with Trader Joe's indian food. The palak paneer is horrid. When people say, "I hate indian food," this is what they're talking about. Super stinky, extra runny, much too dark, really a nightmare. I'm having a cup of miso just to get the taste out of my mouth. I'm drinking to forget.

Chocolate covered pretzels: Like CRACK, I tell you!

ny avocado bashing = ??
you just have to spend time choosing them. there's a place near my house that regularly has SPECIAL OFFER $1 AVOCADO offers because they've forgotten about a box and you can almost run them through your fingers like sand they're so soft. but i think they're easy enough to find. i saw an avocado tree for $75 in california recently though and ... that's probably the way to do it.

Tempting Trail Mix: aptly named

The TJ's Punjab Cholley is one of the better Indian foods I've tried from there.

And I'll go on record as loving the frozen cheese and potato Pierogi (they spell it Perogi). One of these days when I do the pan frying step, I'm going to use the fat left over from frying the cubed Pancetta that they sell (or maybe some ordinary bacon fat) rather than the olive oil I usually use.

i saw an avocado tree for $75 in california recently though and ... that's probably the way to do it.

my grandparents have had an avocado tree for over twenty years. total avocado yield, approximately 15, half of which were gnawed by roof rats. commercial avocados are all grafted, though, and if your tree isn't you may get practically inedible fruit.

you could feed me bad avocados non stop and it still wouldn't displace the story i heard about someone with an avocado tree, pulling them free and spreading them like butter.

im not gonna lie i mostly eat frozen TJs food for everything

good: mini chicken tacos
four-cheese pizza
pesto flatbread
jo-jos of any sort
gorgonzola gnocchi
gnocchi florentina (what i just ate LOLOLOMG)
chicken vindaloo
lil pistachio cookies

medium: kung pao chicken
punjab spinach sauce

bad: taquitos horrible eww

the chicken/udon noodle stirfry is damn good

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/192/502236593_f944cd9cc1.jpg