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.
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.
When I grew up in Argentina, ice cream was a special occasion treat. It was a time when home freezer weren’t good enough to keep it frozen, so commercial brands specialized in cones and bars that you’d buy and eat as you went. When we wanted ice cream, we had to go to the ice-cream store. And it was (and is!) expensive – a treat we’d only get after we got our report cards (fortunately they came every two months during the school year).
I’d always order a cone with dulce de leche granizado ice cream and either pineapple or strawberry sorbet. I’ve been chasing those memories of those amazing sorbets ever since – nothing can ever match those childhood memories.
It’s thus not surprising that Trader Joe’s Super Strawberry Sorbet didn’t come close either. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, with bright, intense strawberry flavor. But it’s a tad too sweet, a tad too creamy, and a tad too processed. On the plus side, I didn’t like it enough to feel compel to eat more than few spoons of it.
What turned me off more than anything was the texture. I think the weird creaminess comes from the maltodextrin, a high glycemic index carb which acts as a binder and adds a gummy texture.
The pint package was $4, which is cheaper than supermarket brands at regular price (but I only buy ice cream when it’s on sale).
I’m a huge fan of guacamole but not of either the price or having to make it myself – so, on occasion, I buy commercial guacamole. Mostly I’m disappointed by the processed flavor, so little unlike real guacamole. Target’s Good & Gather classic guacamole suffers from exactly that fault: it tastes just like all those other commercial products. Given that it’s made from only avocados and distilled vinegar (with less than 2% of water, jalapeños, salt, dehydrated onions and granulated garlic), I’m guessing that the offensive flavor comes from the vinegar. That makes sense as home made, fresh guacamole is made with lemon juice, but vinegar is cheaper and probably helps preserve the guacamole for longer.
Preservation is an issue with guacamole, which is why I got the singles this time – as once you open the package, the guacamole is likely to oxidize quite quickly.
Good & Gather also makes a homestyle guacamole, which has lime juice instead of vinegar. I might try this one next time – but it doesn’t come in individual packages.
The package of six 2-oz cups of guacamole was $4, the 10-oz tub is the same price (so you get 2 extra ounces for the same price if you buy the singles).
Trader Joe’s makes these crisps in several flavors: fig & olive, strawberry & jalapeño, stollen – a raisin & lemon and orange peel holiday flavor – and raisin rosemary. I tried the latter and I’m a fan.
These bready looking crackers are very, very crispy – though buttermilk is their first ingredient. They probably need a bit more salt, though I imagine that’s supposed to be provided by whatever you dip them in. I very much liked the hints of rosemary flavor and the sweetness of the flavor.
I ate them with hummus, which wasn’t the best combination, as the flavors didn’t really meld, but I think they’d be great with cheese. I’ll definitely get them again.
They were $4 at our Trader Joe’s.
Ingredients are buttermilk, wheat flour, cane sugar, sunflower seeds, raisins, flax seeds, millet, sesame seeds, baking soda, salt, dried rosemary and black pepper. They have 90 calories per 11 crackers, with 16 g carbohydrates, 6 g sugar, 125 mg sodium, 2.5 g of fat and 3 g of protein. They’re made in Canada.
I wasn’t a huge hummus fan back when I first tried it, during my year abroad in Egypt. I much preferred tahini by itself. Over the years, however, hummus has grown on me, and I often have it as a snack. I’ve tried a lot of different brands, and I can’t say that any of them stand out. Then again, why would they? Hummus is just a mixture of chickpeas, tahini (sesame paste) and oil, with some salt, lemon juice and garlic for flavor. There are, of course, a wide array of flavored hummuses – but I prefer the traditional.
Organics is one of the home brands for Safeway/Vons supermarkets (currently owned by Albertsons, slated to be sold to Kroeger’s). This O Organics traditional hummus was pretty good, though not special. It’s smoother and has a less chalky consistency than other commercial hummus, and a it features a brighter lemon juice flavor – even though lemon was listed as the next to last ingredient. It also does contain citric acid. The flavor was smooth, and it seemed to have a good ratio of chickpeas to tahini. It uses canola oil, which is not the best, however.
At $6 for the 10-oz tub it’s on par with other supermarket hummuses (which have become quite expensive lately), but I bought it on sale for $4. I’ll get it again when it’s on sale, but I wouldn’t pay full price for it (or for hummus in general – there is usually a brand on sale, or I can just get it at cheaper stores).
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