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

got genuinely excited yesterday when i saw that puff pastry is back
it's the only puff pastry i can find that is packaged flat

now i can make little goat chz and onion galettes for a weeknight dinner (no tedious dough-making) and gazillions of other delicious warm flaky things

The location of the TJ on Lincoln in Chicago has always been something of a mystery to me. I'm never in the area and every time I am, I feel like it's like spotting a ghost ship. I'm looking forward to a new one opening on my walk home.

that's the one I go to like 3x a week. It's three blocks from my house.

ITS LOCATION IS A MYSTERY

to jesse

I drove there without looking at a map first so it can't be hard to find.

It's like the Island on LOST to me.

FOUND IT!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41894171796@N01/4991054943/

I was riding down Lincoln tonight and there it was.

Wound up going to the one on Clybourn b/c it was closer to where I was going. The Masala Lentil Dip is great! Despite having lost all sense of smell, and therefore most sense of taste, this dip tastes great and it has a weird effect on my tongue. Probably the hot spices, but it feels different from just plain hot.

grrr stupid new Flickr

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4084/4991054943_7838668723.jpg
photo.JPG by Jesse1, on Flickr

the chili mango slices and peanut butter cups are their tastiest treats yet! and they have the best overpriced almond butter in town

They were out of chili mango slices (they had pineapple) so I bought the "juicy" dried mango slices and put cayenne on them and it was wonderful.

xp

ya the stuff with flaxseeds is amazing. and i assume you mean overpriced in general and not overpriced in comparison to other almond butter prices, cus 5 dollars for a 16 oz jar is probably as cheap as ive ever seen it

I like the for real mozzarella cheese sticks. A+

loved this place when i lived in california... we only have some indie-ish places and whole foods here in denver. whole foods blows beyond belief.

I love the almond butter/peanut butters with flax.

I've been liking the Dunkelweizen a lot lately (I think it says Josef Brau on it but it looks identical to the beers that say Trader Joes).

We're sort of addicted to the sliced goat cheese that comes in the blue pack.

Today I tried their newer frozen spinach lasagna and it actually had like a lot of spinach in it, which is good.

This Paneer Tikka Pasala with spinach basmati rice is pretty great. Can't complain about the $3 Red Oval, either.

*Masala

I noticed the Red Oval had been renamed to Name Tag in my TJs last month. Same graphics but a different name (the brewery name also changed). I assume they didn't get permission to use the older name.

i noticed that the tuna curries were back! i have a few boxes in the kitchen that i can hardly wait to dive into.

I got the TJ vegetable gyoza and they were OK, but the inside was sort of gummy. The ingredients list shows a couple kinds of flour and a couple kinds of starch, so I guess that's why. Overall OK, but could do without the paste.

http://vietworldkitchen.com/.a/6a00d8341ef22f53ef01156ff232b4970c-500pi

vegetable ones are so-so, i like the chicken ones

Lol at the Cafe Gratitude stuff upthread. I miss Berkeley!

tj's has an awesome sweet potato gnocchi w/ sage and brown butter. i wasn't expecting it to be this good.

and the kennebunkport pumpkin ale is decent if a little sweet for my taste.

Chile spiced pineapple may be better than chili spiced mango.

Best to buy both and eat at the same time.

So Red Oval Lager has now become Name Tag Lager. Anyone know why they changed the name? I have a feeling it has something to do with the name/logo being very similar to Red Stripe and the Red Stripe folks weren't very happy about it.

But the logo is still similar. I assumed whoever owned the original Red Oval hadn't actually given them permission to resurrect it. It was an existing brand some decades ago, I thought.

OIC I didn't know Red Oval had a history to it...

used their bolivian coffee to make turkish coffee this afternoon. i like! not too acidic, has kind of a desserty flavor.

i've been drinking joe's dark bc it was cheaper but i think i really have to go back to bolivian.

Wheat Berry Salad was kinda good. Not everything with a sweet component needs bleuueue or goat cheese to "balance" it, though.

i made the chicken egg rolls with dinner -- i can't get them as crispy as i want them, but i did get them tasting great by finishing them off in a skillet with oil, soy sauce, turmeric, and black pepper.

I had the frozen Chicken Tikka Masala today and it was not bad at all. Probably about on the level of an average indian buffet.

Bolivian coffee is the best one I've had so far too, although I can't say I'm thrilled with it. My last purchase I spent $12/lb on some Crop to Cup Ethiopian and it was hugely better. I'll still probably mostly drink the TJ's to save cash.

Oh, btw the brown rice blend with daikon radish = YUM.

suddenly addicted to their "spicy chai latte" powder

meanwhile i've had to wean myself off the chicken tikka masala boxes, since i don't have a microwave anymore

I just bought a box of JOE's Os (instead of Cheerios) - test-drive tomorrow AM

did i get excited about the return of their puff pastry yet? because i am excited about this. SO MANY POSSIBILITIES.

Adult Gummy Multivitamin Dietary Supplement is the bee's knees.

thumbs up on the cha siu bao (pork buns). would buy again!

I am big into their bags of freeze dried bananas or starwberries. I never got over my childhood idea that food they eat in space is probably the most glamorous food.

thumbs aloft on TJ's frozen edamame

wasabi peas, what's up?

One thing I have to say, pretty much all their frozen stuff has WAY too much sodium, and I always get this weird tingling on my tongue after I eat one (is that sodium or MSG) and feel a little crappy.

I mean maybe that's just the only way to make a frozen thing taste good, but still I think they could go a little easier.

Ran in and grabbed a caprese salad today for lunch - these are pretty good: mozzarella fresca, cherry tomatoes, giant pile of arugula, basil vinaigrette. When I got back to the office to eat it, I noticed something odd about the mozzarella. At first I thought it was moldy around the edges, but no: it had somehow turned a pale purple-gray where it was touching the arugula.

That post was short, but it was still a roller-coaster ride of skepticism, appreciation, and disgust, then relief.

Have I mentioned that their pre-made sushi is profoundly horrible, even by the low standards of grocery store sushi? The rice is mealy and mushy.

I made the sushi mistake one time only. Not worth it even in sushi desparation.