Thread: Trader Joe's
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merryb merryb is offline
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Default Trader Joe's


Kate Connally wrote:
> Hooray!!! At last Pittsburgh has a Trader Joe's.
>
> I'm especially excited about it because I lived in
> So. Calif. for 13 years and shopped at TJ's a lot.
> I really missed it when I moved back to Pittsburgh.
>
> So, I went after work on Friday. As it was opening
> day it was a madhouse with checkout lines backed up
> down the aisles, making it difficult to browse all
> items on all the shelves.
>
> I picked up a few goodies that struck my fancy.
> I got a small container of couscous salad with pinenuts,
> red pepper, raisins, and peas. I also picked up a 1-qt.
> box of their Tomato and Red Pepper Soup and a loaf of
> their Asiago and Pepper sourdough bread. I had these
> items for dinner on Sat. and Sun. evenings. Quite tasty,
> although the bread was a little too salty for my taste.
> (I should have guessed as I don't care for the Asiago
> Bagels at Panera for the same reason. I guess Asiago
> cheese is just really salty and therefore it's impossible
> to use it in anything and not have it be too salty for
> me. I've never liked a lot of salt.) Anyway, the soup
> was excellent and so was the couscous salad.
>
> I also bought a bottle of McIntosh apple juice, made with
> all McIntosh apples. It's okay but slightly disappointing
> in that it seems to lack a strong McIntoch apple flavor.
> When I go to Vermont I always buy cider that is made from
> mostly McIntosh apples (shoot, I'd go to VT just to get that
> cider if I could afford it) and it always tasty very McIntoshy.
> But this juice was not particularly McIntoshy in flavor. The
> only difference I noted from regular apple juice was that it
> had slightly more tartness, but not a lot. Oh, well. Sounded
> good.
>
> I also was disappointed in the tortilla chips I bought.
> I got some plain blue corn tortilla chips that had a
> slightly less than crisp texture. I also was intrigued
> by some Sweet Mole Tortilla Chips. I thought they would
> be fairly flavorful. Turns out they taste pretty much
> like plain yellow corn tortilla chips with a vague hint
> of mole flavor. Oh, well. Sounded good.
>
> I picked up one of their brochures at the checkout and
> have marked many items in it to try the next time I go.
> And I noticed they have a mole sauce that I'd like to
> try. (I made mole from scratch once. It had about 35
> ingredients and took 2 days to make what with toasting
> various spices and seeds and grinding stuff, etc. And
> it didn't turn out very good. I had about a gallon of
> it and I ended up throwing a lot of it out as I didn't
> like it enough to bother saving it to use later. If I
> throw out food, especially something I slaved over, then
> you know it's really bad.) So, in the hopes of finding
> a good mole sauce I don't have to make myself I'm planning
> to give it a try.
>
> Can't wait to go back to TJ's on a less crowded day
> and really check out everything.
>
> It's just too bad I am living in PA now. Out in CA
> they had wines at TJ's and you could get some really
> nice inexpensive wines there. But I live in the
> Fascist state of PA where we have to buy from the
> state monopoly at outrageous prices. Sigh.
>
> Kate
>
> --
> Kate Connally
> "If I were as old as I feel, I'd be dead already."
> Goldfish: "The wholesome snack that smiles back,
> Until you bite their heads off."
> What if the hokey pokey really *is* what it's all about?
>

Ever try their Margharita pizza? The best frozen pizza I have ever
tried, altho I haven't tried many to begin with.