I like a lot of Trader Joe’s frozen pastas, but this one was a failure. The dish is pretty much what it sounds like: linguine with pesto and tomatoes – but the pesto just wasn’t very tasty, there wasn’t much of it, and I was thoroughly unimpressed. Adding Parmesan helped but not enough. I wouldn’t get it again
Shawarma, in both its lamb and chicken varieties, has become quite common in the US, as Arab/Middle Eastern/Mediterranean food trucks and restaurants have become popular. And putting foods traditionally wrapped in tortillas or breads into bowls has been a thing here for quite a while. It’s thus not surprising that Trader Joe’s would offer a frozen Chicken Shawarma Bowl. What is surprising is how flavorless it is. The bowl has rice, spiced chicken, red peppers, tiny pieces of spinach and pickled onions and is supposed to have a spicy garlic sauce. There is some spice into the dish, but very, very little flavor either in the individual ingredients or in the dish as a whole. It’s edible, but I definitely would not get it again.
Trader Joe’s has been carrying these frozen Pork Shu Mai Dumplings for a long time, so they must be quite successful. That’s not surprising because they are very good. The shells are soft and chewy, and work well microwaved. The filling is very flavorful, without the chewy, annoying texture of shrimp which I so hate. It has a fragrant lemongrass flavor which I really like. The dumplings did scream to be dipped in some soy sauce, however.
They were $4 for a 9-oz box.
Posted in Food Items
Tagged appetizers, dumplings, frozen food, reviews, Trader Joe's
I’m a fan of fried Mozzarella, but mostly in theory. In practice, it often has too much breading, it’s too oily and the breading competes with the cheese for flavor. These Breaded Cheddar Cheese Curds from Trader Joe’s suffered from exactly the same ailment. Though I air fried them without adding any additional oil, there was enough of it in the breading that they tasted and felt oily. And the breading was too thick. Cheese curds have an even more subtle flavor than Mozzarella, so they really couldn’t stand up to the breading, and at times I forgot that I was eating cheese in the first place.
After eating a small batch several days ago, I haven’t felt compelled to eating any more and I’m afraid I’ll actually throw out the rest of the bag.
These were $5, which is not cheap.
I hate to say it, but these Panzerotti Pizza Bites were a disappointment. These pastries consist of pizza dough filled with a mixture of tomato sauce and cheese. The first problem was the dough: it tasted of old oil. It actually reminded me of the 50-cent fruit pies I used to get at the supermarket during college because it was all I could afford. As I heated them up in the microwave, the texture was different – bready and somewhat chewy. Unfortunately, there was also too much dough and not enough filling – and the filling had too much sauce and not enough cheese, making it unpleasantly acidic.
They are $4 and made in Italy, but not worth your while.
Hummus has been associated with Trader Joe’s for at least as long as I remember shopping there – and that’s about three decades. It was one of the first places to carry it and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was instrumental in popularizing it. That said, I rarely buy hummus at Trader Joe’s as my trips to TJ are sporadic, and hummus is more of a staple at our house.
Still, hummus is surprisingly expensive in he US, so when I saw this 16-oz tub of Mediterranean Style Hummus for just $4, less than the price of the 8-oz tubs at the supermarket, I had to get it. Alas, I’m not a fan.
The couscous came with pine nuts and dried parsley on top. The latter was just too bitter and didn’t add a good flavor to the hummus. The pine nuts add crunch, but that’s not what I’m looking for in hummus. the hummus itself was too sour and it’s borderline bitter, it just has too much lemon juice. It’s almost to the point of burning my throat. For that reason, I wouldn’t get it again.
Aplenty is one of Amazon Fresh’s private label brands – I got these a couple of weeks ago when I ordered from Amazon Fresh for the first time. I got the chips to eat with hummus, but the flavor is too strong for hummus or anything else to stand up to it.
The flavor of these Aplenty Parmesan Garlic and Herbs Pita Chips is hard to describe. At first, it just tastes and feels like fake butter – the type used on popcorn. The ingredients say it’s high oleic sunflower oil, which is supposed to have a neutral flavor. Later, the intense flavor of the cheese and the seasoning explodes. One of the ingredients is citric acid, and the chips are surprisingly sour.
In all, I don’t really like them and I don’t think I’d get them again.
The 8oz package of chips is $2.90
Over the last decade I’ve learned to appreciate the single serve salads available at supermarkets. Like many people, I spent many years buying bags of mixed greens and bottles of salad dressing, only to have them go unused. Not only are members of my family very particular about the salads they like, but very particular as to when they want a salad. And it’s never the same salad at the same time.
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to order from Amazon Fresh for the first time, and ordered a salad for myself to see what I thought of it. It was OK, but I wasn’t overly impressed.
The Fresh Apple Walnut Salad had mixed greens, large slices of carrots (which I removed, as I don’t like carrots), a thick apple slice, and came with blue cheese, candied walnuts and dried cranberries, cubed chicken and an onion vinaigrette.
Despite Apple being the first ingredient in the name of the salad, it included a single apple slice. The slice was fresh, crisp and juicy but it was large enough that it had to be eaten by itself and it didn’t add anything to the rest of the salad. The chicken had a processed flavor, and while it was not bad per se, it detracted from the freshness you want in a salad. The few caramelized walnuts tasted great, but there weren’t enough of them. The salad dressing was pretty good, it stayed in the background and wasn’t too acidic.
All in all, I felt this salad was too processed, but might get it again if I was ordering from Amazon Fresh and it was on sale. The regular price is $3.80, I paid $3.50 for it but it’s currently on sale for $2.70
The Father’s Table is a company based in Florida which makes commercial cheesecakes and roll cakes for sale at Safeway and other supermarkets. Their 6″, 1lb cheesecake sampler goes on Friday sale at Safeway every few weeks for $5 (from an $11 regular price), along with their Signature Select cheesecake sampler, and I often get it then. Safeway makes many of their products at home, but given the similar packaging, pricing and taste of this cheesecake with the Safeway Brand, I’m betting Safeway’s cheesecake sampler is manufactured by The Father’s Table as well.
This is an OK, but not great, cheesecake. First, the cake is too thick and too dry. This particularly variety has a chocolate flavored cake, which is somewhat better than the graham one, but still not a winner.
The cheesecake itself is competent but not wonderful. It’s a little on the firm side, and with so many additional flavors, its not always easy to detect that of the cheesecake itself. Still, as an occasional treat it’s not bad. Particularly for $5.
I was excited when I saw these Carne Asada Burritos at Trader Joe’s. I love all-meat burritos and these ones seemed to be just that. Indeed, all they have is chopped meat cooked with chilis and cilantro. Unfortunately, I wasn’t thrilled with either the taste or the consistency.
I heated them up in the microwave according to instructions, wrapping them in a moistened paper towel and heating them for 2 minutes. The tortilla wrapping was hard in parts and not as chewy and elastic as I want flour tortillas to be. Also, as the burritos are rather small, they were wrapped two or three times around the filling, making them too thick.
The filling itself was too spicy and too wet for my taste. It had some nice smokiness, but it was otherwise under seasoned. All in all, I wouldn’t get them again.
The 14oz package with 2 burritos costs $5.
See other reviews of food items at Trader Joe’s.
