Best Trader Joes Items?

[ControlD]

I never leave Trader Joe's without a couple of jars of Almond Butter. They also have very good coffee at even better prices.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Their chocolate ice cream is great.

 

[bigrash]

Just had some apple pie from them that was delicious!

 

[Kyle]

closest one is about 15 mins away but after reading this thread I think I need to head out there- I have a few fairly close to me but never really got much besides alcohol and the occasional food item but really haven't tried much.

 

[Chiropteran]

The white wine version of this stuff-
http://www.traderjoes.com/fearless-flyer/article.asp?article_id=370

My favorite wine and it's like $5 a bottle. If you hate sweeter wines you might not like it, but it's not as sweet as a dessert wine.

 

[db]

Organic Blue corn tortilla chips
Cilantro Jalapeño Hummus
Almond Butter
PoundPlus 72% dark chocolate (hard core)

 

[rsutoratosu]

1lb baby brussell sprouts @ 1.19 (my trader joe prices)

1lb of food for 1.19, add some bacon from above link, makes great meal, im having it now

 

[GagHalfrunt]

1lb baby brussell sprouts @ 1.19 (my trader joe prices)

1lb of food for 1.19, add some bacon from above link, makes great meal, im having it now

A pound of cabbage is .39 cents. Fry that with some onions and bacon, serve it with noodles, yum.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Oh my goodness. They are sooooooooooo good. Also around Christmas time, they have oreo knockoffs called Joe joes. Except it has peppermint in them

These are WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY better than the mint oreos too. So AMAZING. They also make chocolate covered ones. *spooge*

And I'm positive the standard peppermint joe joe's are only seasonal. Sometimes they show up as early as a couple weeks before thanksgiving.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

This probably is the best grocery store bacon I've ever had.

 

[Triumph]

Oh yeah. Way More Chocolate Chip Cookies. Please buy them. You'll hate me for it, they're ridiculously good.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I am not 100% sure but I don't think they will be selling any beer. I know for sure no wine will be sold.

Really? They sell beer, wine and even hard liquor at Trader Joe's in CA.

 

[Perknose]

Their chocolate ice cream is great.

Word. I got turned on to this in a previous OT ice cream thread. It was a while until I made it over to TJ's though. The stuff is GRRREEAAAT.

My favorite chocolate ice cream has always been Bryers. There's just something about the taste of it that hits my sweet spot. In general, no other chocolate ice cream comes close, even more expensive brands, with the exception of . . . wait for it . . . Baskin Robbins dark chocolate (flame away, you know you want to.)

But Bryers' quality has been going down for years now.

Anyway, I was able to do repeated, on the spot, A-B tests with Bryers and TJ's, since both were in my freezer. And guess what? TJ's tastes EXACTLY like Bryers!

So . . . I now get the taste I can't replace with in a quality confection = gustatory heaven. ()

One other thing I keep forgetting to mention. While over at TJ's (months and months ago now) I also picked up some Huy Fong Sriracha Sauce nearby. Mighty fine!

Last but not least, a personal shout-out to vi edit who had kindly and generously offered to buy some and ship it to me back when it was still difficult to find around my parts (it no longer is.) :thumbsup:

 

[TheSiege]

Really? They sell beer, wine and even hard liquor at Trader Joe's in CA.

Wine and liquor can only be bought in state owned liquor stores. Beer at 3.2% or below can be sold in store, anything higher than that has to be bought at the state liquor store.

 

[KeithP]

In CA they had this great blue cheese pecan dip but they didn't have it in Seattle so I don't know if it is available everywhere. Also, triple orange muffins.

-Keith

 

[KillerCharlie]

Pizza dough!

 

[tcG]

Their 70/85% cacao dark chocolate bars are some of the best.

 

[Yongsta]

Microwavable Bibimbap Bowl

 

[Zap]

Only problems I have with Trader Joe's is that the closest one is 45 min away, and they (all of them) often run out of stock on popular items. Here are my favorites:

Marinated fish in the freezer section with other frozen fish. They've had some salmon stuff, but most of what I can find is cod. Soy ginger marinated cod, with simple cooking instructions. Great served over brown rice with some steamed broccoli seasoned with powdered garlic. Yum! Often out of stock.

Ice cream. My flavor of choice is coffee bean. Cheaper than the super premium stuff in your normal supermarket, but just as good.

Almond butter. Closest one is ALWAYS out of stock. One I've been to in SoCal always has them in stock.

Sublime Ice Cream Sandwiches. If you like the premium Chipwich-style ice cream sandwiches, IMO the Sublime at TJs is the best. Hands down. $4 for a 4 pack. Not cheap and packed with calories, but the best.

Chocolate croissants. They are in the freezer section with the other desserts. You set them out on your baking sheet overnight (9 hours, we use parchment paper) so that they defrost and rise. In the morning they will be huge! Bake at 400ºF for 20 minutes. Fresh croissants with melted chocolate in the middle! They are "real" croissants and not anything like the crappy ones in the biscuit pop tins.

Nuts. They have a big selection and you can get your favorites or a mix. They also offer raw as well as unsalted. Most supermarket stuff can't be had in those ways.

Fresh tangerine juice. I've seen it in SoCal stores, but not Midwest. Nicely tart and fresh, and also works as a mixer.

Hard liquor. Yes, limited areas, but in SoCal I was able to buy Carolans Irish Cream for $9.99 and Cazadores Reposado for $25.99, both way cheaper than anywhere else for the same size bottles.

Flowers! You can buy really little bouquets for just a couple bucks ($3.99?) and they are usually fresh and well selected, plus sometimes oddball stuff you can't find elsewhere. Great for bringing as a gift when visiting mom/GF/mistress/whatever.

 

[vailr]

Packaged pistachio nuts $5.99/lb.
Multigrain Bread (purple label)
canned: Organic Baked Beans $1.49
Multigrain Crackers (round, similar size as Ritz brand)
Organic Hummus
"Just Mango Slices" (dried mango)
SnapPea Crisps $1.49

 

[The Boston Dangler]

the dried fruit / trail mix / nuts are yummy too, but i find them too pricey to bother with. unfortunately, my very favorite cookies have been discontinued - i'll never forget you, peanut butter goodies.

 

[RossMAN]

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/another-trader-joes-recall-8212-trend-193200588.html

Another Trader Joe's Recall—Is This a Trend?

By Valerie Isakova, Shine Parenting Editor | Healthy Living – 7 hours ago

Trader Joe's announced yet another recall last week, at least the sixth this year, affecting dozens of stores. This time it's a frozen Trader Joe's brand Butter Chicken with Basmati Rice entree, 4,865 pounds of which are being recalled because they may be contaminated with Listeria, a bacteria food safety experts describe as "scary."

The meals had already been distributed to Trader Joe's stores on the East Coast. Earlier recalls in 2012 were of Sunland peanut butter products stocked at Trader Joe's, Trader Joe's BBQ Chicken Salad, Trader Joe's Mild Salsa and Balela, the brand's deli and prepared foods involving onions, and Trader Joe's Butternut Squash, Red Quinoa and Wheatberry salad, according to the website US Food Safety, whose owner Susan Reef spoke with Yahoo! Shine.

Shoppers, understandably, are paranoid that there's something wrong either at Trader Joe's or with our food supply in general.

And it turns out that they may be right to be concerned. Trader Joe's is on par with other large retailers like Wegmans and Whole Foods when it comes to number of recalls, food safety experts Yahoo! Shine spoke with agreed. Anyone selling lots of packaged food is at risk, Reef said, because "the more human hands that are on a food and the more machinery that have come in contact with a food, the more likely it is to be recalled. We see more manufactured product recalls than we do in the fruit and vegetable arena." Still, she pointed out that 18 people died from eating cantaloupe in 2011.

Overall recall numbers are hard to obtain, because food regulation in the U.S. involves two non-collaborating government agencies and a supply of imported food, but it's clear that there are many recalls a week, with a total of 3,640 recall events in 2011 and 2,781 in 2009, according to statistics provided by the FDA to Yahoo! Shine. Mike Rozembajgier, president of Stericycle Expert RECALL, a company that handles recalls for large corporations, told The MetroWest Daily News that the number has been higher than usual in 2012.

"It's hard to know if there are actually more recalls or if there's just a perception that there are more," said Sarah Klein, a senior staff attorney for the Food Safety Program at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "What we do know is that there are more recalls than we'd like to see, and there are some unusual pathogen/food combinations, and there are some recalls that are more troubling than others because of the nature of the food/pathogen pair."

The most recent Trader Joe's recall involves just such a pair, Klein explains. Listeria is the classic "deli-counter bacteria" which can cause mild flu-like symptom for the mother, but be deadly for the unborn child. When it's found in a frozen food, it means the longevity of the threat is indefinite, and that the product might long outlast the public awareness of the recall.

Trader Joe's representatives did not return calls for comment. A manager reached at a New York City store claimed that the brand is "really good about it" when recalls happen. "We posted notices around the store, at all the registers and in the frozen food aisle, and destroyed everything we have in stock," the manager, who asked not to be named, said. "We throw it in the trash, just to make sure it isn't donated. If you've bought any, you can bring it back and get a refund. We have a 100 percent returns policy anyway, if you buy something and aren't satisfied."

Unfortunately, one of the problems with Listeria, Klein says, is that it can survive indefinitely on metal and plastic surfaces. If the bacteria is on the outside of a package of contaminated food, and you had that food in your freezer, throwing it away or returning it won't help.

What can consumers do when any product, fresh or frozen, might be contaminated? One answer is demand more regulation. In fact, two years ago congress passed the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which would increase scrutiny on food suppliers regulated by the FDA. Advocates complain that the law has been held up ever since in the federal Office of Management and Budget, and that it will be much longer until consumers see the increased protections. But increased regulation wouldn't have made a difference in the case of the Butter Chicken. Meat and poultry is overseen by a different organization, the Food Safety and Inspection Service, which already has more stringent regulations in place. And moreover, the Trader Joe's meal was made in Canada, which has its own set of rules.

In the end, Klein says, the problem is up to the retailers to solve. "They have the market power to say, 'If you want to sell to us, there are things you have to do to show us that food safety is top priority'," she says. She adds that there are some chains, like Costco, that have made food safety "a real and public priority," and we can all hope that more follow suit.