Grocery Outlet is selling a branded tin that includes a 20-teabag package of Twinings tea (Lady Gray or English Breakfast) for $3. This is actually /not/ a good deal – as you can often get said package for $2.50 on sale at the supermarket – but I ran out of tea so I bought it. I think I can use the tin for crafts (or to hold craft supplies), so it may be worth those extra 50 cents I paid for it. But I’m not at all surprised that that particular item didn’t sell well at regular stores.
I also got Kellogs Cocoa-peanut butter puffs for $1 for a box, Haagen Dazs Hawaiian Lehua Honey & Sweet cream ice cream and Zambeedo Creme de chocolat ice cream. Both are $1.50, I think. I actually liked the sweet cream ice cream quite a bit. It has an amazingly creamy texture, and a nice, light flavor. There isn’t much honey to speak of, but when you get some mixed in with your ice cream, it’s quite nice. I’d buy it again. The same cannot be said about the Zambeedo ice cream, which leaves *much* to be desired. First of all, it was melted and re-frozen (a not unusual problem with frozen products at Grocery Outlet), and second, it had a very, very light flavor, not at all chocolaty. Again, it’s no wonder this product ended up here.
Finally, I got a 2-oz bottle of McCormick Pure Vanilla Extract for $3 (it sells for $11.50 at Safeway). Alas, once I got home I realized that it contains corn syrup (?!!), so I won’t be buying it again. Maybe that’s why it’s not selling well at the regular stores?
And that’s about it for now.
Category: Grocery Outlet (Page 8 of 9)
Here you will find reviews of the products I’ve been able to find at our local Grocery Outlet in San Leandro. It’s very close to my house and I go quite a bit. I love how affordable the prices are (though beware, not everything is a bargain), and how I can come across new products of all kinds.
Grocery Outlet is selling a 1qt carton of Land o lakes heavy whipped cream for $1.50. Safeway usually sells their 1 qt carton of Lucerne regular whipping cream for about $4.50 – 5.50, so this is quite a bargain. HOWEVER, the expiration date on the cream is 9/22 – which means that it’s only good for the next 10 days or so. But if you want it for something right away, it’s a good deal. As for myself, I’m making strawberry ice cream now, and I’ll figure out what else this weekend.
I love Grocery Outlet, you never know what you’ll find there. Today I found, of all things, Tortuga Caribbean Rum Cakes. I had never heard of it until a few weeks ago when I started researching my upcoming Cayman menu. Apparently, these cakes are a very famous Cayman product, known throughout the Caribbean. I was planning on making a rum cake myself (from this recipe), but I’m thrilled at finding the real thing. And at Grocery Outlet, no less!
Of course, the price is also unbeatable – $1.50 for the 4oz cake. Not cheap in the abstract, but Amazon sells the 16-Ounce cake
Today and until it runs out, they have Ben & Jerry’s chubby hubby (one of my favorites), strawberry cheesecake and ginger snap ice cream for $1.50 for the regular-size package.
I bought this wine at Grocery Outlet a few weeks back, mostly because it was Argentinian. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s not a big enough reason to try a wine, but I’d been wanting to give Grocery Outlet wines a chance for a while. Baaaaad Idea. I’ve drank a lot of bad wine in my life, but this one seemed to be spoiled. It tasted sour and well, spoiled. I don’t know if Grocery Outlet will take it back (I’ll check next time I go), but I will take this as a warning against buying wines at Grocery Outlet.
While looking for a picture of Royale Center Cut Naturally Smoked Bacon, or at least a link to the manufacturer’s website, I came across bacon tasting from the SF Chronicle in which Royale Bacon came at the bottom. The bottom bottom, getting only 24 out of 100 points. The winner, Tyson (really, Tyson), got 80 points.
I have to say that I don’t agree with the tasters. Royale may not have the best bacon, but I actually think it’s pretty good. It has a slightly sweet flavor that I like. Is it the best bacon I’ve ever had? Probably not, but it’s great in my spaghetti carbonara.
I bought it at Grocery Outlet, which carries several Tyson products, so I will look for the Tyson bacon and give it a try.
Grocery Outlet had these cookies for sale last week in a variety of flavors. Some of the no-name products have actually turned out to be quite good, so I decided to give the chocolate walnut cookies a try. Well, they were so bad that my 7-year old daughter, not the pickiest of gourmands, stated that these “must be the worst cookies ever”. Mike also commented as to how bad they are.
Alas, I have to agree, they have no chocolate flavor whatsoever and nothing that could be identified as a walnut. They just suck. Perhaps other flavors are better, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Hollywood Peanut Oil, 24-Ounce
Ben and Jerry’s line of organic ice cream flavors (introduced in 2003), has not been doing very well. I haven’t really seen them in supermarkets, and this week they made an appearance at my neighborhood’s Grocery Outlet – for $1.50 each! I tried their organic vanilla and organic strawberry and they were both fine, not spectacular. These are not flavors I usually get, so I can’t say how they compare to the originals.
It’s another matter with Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream, which is one of my favorite B&J’s flavors. Alas, I’ll have to continue eating the regular version (usually $3 on sale at Safeway), as the organic version just doesn’t do it. The problem starts with the flavor of the ice cream, the chocolate is just not deep enough, it lacks that almost bitter richness of the original. In a blind test, I would not guess it was Ben & Jerry’s. The lack of flavor continues in the brownie – which is also dry (how do they manage to make a brownie that is sitting in ice cream dry?) and non-chewy. Not a brownie you’d pay to eat. In other words – there is a reason why this ice cream is being sold at Grocery Outlet.
It’s unlikely you’ll find anything if you look for “Hart Authentic Orange Chicken” online – at least I didn’t find anything when I looked. It seems that this frozen entree is made by Hart Food Products from Lakewood, CA. I bought it at Grocery Outlet, and I imagine they are their only distributor. Actually, given Hart’s pathetic website, it’s difficult to believe they are any sort of serious company. Which really tells you something about where Grocery Outlet sources its products. And indeed, orange chicken seems to be one of only three or four products Hart offers .
Anyway, I was in Grocery Outlet yesterday and thought I’d take a look at the frozen stuff they had, as I’ve been feeling less and less like cooking lately. This orange chicken product didn’t seem too bad – at least in comparison to the brand-name frozen food products. Yeah, it has a lot of salt, corn syrup and a myriad of preservatives, but so do all the brand name products. At least it had chicken as its main ingredient 🙂
It’s not obvious from the picture in the package, but this is really popcorn chicken – which is annoying as that means it has much more breading than you would like. It’s uncooked so you need to bake it for 20 minutes, pan fry it for 10 to 15 minutes, or deep fry it for 6 minutes. Then you mix it with the orange sauce which comes in 3 packages. You can’t microwave it.
As for the taste, it met our very low expectations. Mike found it too bland, while I thought the chicken had a subtle “off” flavor. The sauce was OK, somewhat orangy and not too sweet.
I’m unlikely to buy it again.
** UPDATE July 2012**
The owner of Hart Chicken e-mailed me a few weeks ago and told me they’d made changes to their product and to give it another try. I was reluctant, because one of the changes involved getting a different supplier of chicken pieces that produced more uniform – but smaller – pieces. I figured one of the major problems was the size of the pieces, so this wouldn’t help. But I figured I would give the product another try (though it would have been nice if he’d sent me a coupon rather than I having to buy it myself) and I was happier than the time before.
The pieces are still small (they need to be in order to be ready within a reasonably period of time, given that they are not pre-cooked), but this time I went into the meal experience thinking of it as popcorn chicken. So I wasn’t disappointed by their size.
I also used much less oil than the instructions called for, which you can do if you stir fry the chicken.
The sauce was supposed to have an improved flavor, and I think it did. It was just the right amount to coat all the chicken – though a bit more would have been welcomed for any rice or veggies you might want to throw in. I did note this time that the sauce takes on a full 10 oz of the 32 oz of the package, which is quite a lot.
Anyway, Hart Orange Chicken is still not for me, though as you can see below it has many lovers (and haters).
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