Day 106 - Gorgonzola Chicken

From the description on the box, this meal sounds like a HOME RUN – white chicken meat, bowtie pasta, asparagus and peas in a Gorgonzola cheese sauce.  Each of those items is high on our list of “delicious foods” (no, we do not have an actual physical list titled” Delicious Foods”, but you know what I mean, our theoretical list…).  Anyway, it sounded delicious, so we were psyched to try it.

Doesn't the description sound good?

And a reasonable price for 2 whole servings, too

Sadly, we were a wee bit disappointed.  I cooked it using the microwave method, because it is packaged like a microwaveable meal (there was another cooking method listed, too, which I have not tried).  And it smelled really nice as it cooked!  The Gorgonzola scent filled our kitchen – yum!  But the TASTE was a bit dull.  Somehow the SMELL was stronger than the TASTE.  Sure, all the things listed on the package were IN there, but they tasted so dull.  I am not even sure how in the world GORGONZOLA can taste dull, but it did.  Even salt and pepper didn’t jazz the dinner up enough to make it worth purchasing again.

I am not sure why David looks so skeptical about it in the store, but turns out he was right!

Gorgonzola Chicken in action - I served it with baby broccoli (reviewed on day 55 of this blog)

So, while this particular meal won’t be on our shopping list again, the Trader Joe’s we bought it at WILL BE!  We went to the U Street Trader Joe’s in Washington DC (1914 14^th St NW) and were very happy with the experience!  It was a Friday night, and not just any Friday night, a Friday night when WASHINGTON DC CHERRY BLOSSOMS were in PEAK bloom!  So we knew the U St corridor would be crazy busy, and indeed it was.  We wondered how in the world we would find a parking spot, then were happy to see that Trader Joe’s has an underground parking garage with FREE PARKING!!  And boy did they have a FANTASTIC parking lot attendant!  He danced a bit and JOGGED around telling cars to “wait” or “go”.  He was super fun, friendly, and efficient.  I mean, if you can make parking in a crowded underground lot exciting, you have MAD SKILLZ.  Trader Joe’s in La Jolla, CA needs to come study this man and clone him for their insane, headache inducing parking lot.

Parking lot guy - he ROCKS!  Here David takes a little jog with him

And the U St store is great!  Right off the bat I noticed how friendly the shoppers were.  I got into a conversation about kale with people in the produce section and ended up telling them how amazing kale sprouts are (reviewed on day 36 of this blog).  They put a bag of regular kale and kale sprouts in their cart and off they went! 

This store has the best artwork of any Trader Joe’s that I have seen – check it out:

Isn't this GREAT???  So fun and inviting

Isn’t it amazing?  I am guessing it is by a local artist, but I do not know for sure.  If someone from the U St location reads this can you tell me in the comments section?  I love that piece!!

I was also very impressed by this sign near the check-outs:

This kind of community action makes me happy to give Trader Joe's my business

It is concrete actions like THIS that make me even happier to shop at Trader Joe’s.  I bet lots of TJ’s stores donate food – I wish they all had clear signs like this telling everyone about it. 

More reviews coming from items purchased during our visit to the U St Trader Joe’s coming!

Price – $5.99

Rating – 3.25