Day 232 - Authentic Greek Feta in Brine

 I’ve said it before and I will say it again – I am not ashamed.

I LOVE ME SOME FETA.

I am home alone – I had to come home and work a few days and leave my main man in Indianapolis.  So tonight I decided to splurge and treat myself with some really nice feta.

Here is the packaging for this fancy feta

At least, what I presumed would be nice feta.  I fell for the “it’s expensive so it must be good” trick (I like to think I do not usually fall for that…).  The feta we normally purchase at Trader Joe’s is $2.99 for 8 oz.  This feta was $6.49 for 10.5 oz – see – comparatively it was PRICEY!  (You can see the review of our normal TJ’s feta on day 105 of this blog.)

What the hell- put it on a credit card!

So this afternoon I was craving feta.  I neeeeeeeeeeeeded feta.  And really, as far as cravings go, if you are going to crave something, I think FETA is a mighty healthy craving, don’t you?  So I went straight to Trader Joe’s in Clarendon, VA to hook myself up!

Now, earlier in the day I was stuck in traffic.  Like, BAD Washington DC traffic.  So I had time to hear the news on NPR not once but two or three times.  So I kept hearing about the Prime Minister of Greece resigning today.  And you know, Greece is in a boat load of financial trouble.  That poor country is a messy mess!  So I guess what I am saying is, yes, I splurged and spent way more on feta than a girl needs to spend, but it was AUTHENTIC GREEK FETA from GREEEEEEEECE for heaven’s sake!  And if anyone needs my money, it is Greece, right?  So there.  Not only did I satisfy my craving, I helped out an entire economy with my purchase.  (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)

David taking the plunge in Koufonisia, Greece (2007)

Me swimming in Koufonisia, Greece - isn't the water beautiful???

So, was my splurge on this feta worth it?

Uh-huh.

This cheese is amazing!  It is a kick ass feta.  It comes in brine, which seems to ensure it is not dry and blecky like some fetas are.  However, the brine also means it can be MESSY, as evidenced by when I tried to pick it up after “closing” it (oops, it was not closed) to read the bottom of the container…  I splashed brine all over the counter. 

It has 2 chunks of feta in it - here I stood them up for you to see

This is what it is like when you open the tub

The thing I need to ding the rating on a bit for this product is the packaging.  It is super hard to OPEN.  You pull off a little hard plastic bit, then theoretically you can pull the lid off.  Maybe it is because I currently have long nails and need to cut them, but I had a really hard time getting the lid off.  I resorted to jamming a fork around until I could squeeze it open a bit.  And of course the whole time I was trying to rip the lid off, I was afraid the lid would POP off and give me a brine shower.

This totally satisfied my craving for feta.  Ahhhhh....  

I am glad I splurged.  Greece needs our help – go buy this feta.  J  Just be really careful opening and closing it. 

Price - $6.49

Rating – 4.75

Day 224 - Lamb Koftas

So, David and I split almost ALL of our food.  I mean, when we got out to eat at a restaurant, we order one appetizer, one salad, and one meal.  That is PLENTY for the both of us.  And when we shop for groceries, we buy food that both of us likes, cuz we cook one meal.

One result of this arrangement is that poor David never gets to at LAMB.  The reason for THAT is my moratorium on eating what I classify as “cute meat”.  Cute meat is anything that, when living, would be adorable.  Things in the cute meat category are lamb, veal, fish that you have seen while snorkeling the same day in Hawaii, deer (aka venison I think), bison (I know, I know, they are not cute, but yuck I won’t eat bison…), rabbits, frogs, and probably more than I cannot think of right now.  And DO NOT, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY, do not reply to this blog post and tell me that chickens are cute.  Or pigs are cute.  Or cows…  Cuz if you do it will limit my meat intake even more.  I am fine with my current “limitations” but do not want to add to them at this point, thank you very much.

Anyway, I sometimes feel guilty that my dislike of lamb means David never gets to eat it.  So when I see an opportunity for him to have it, I encourage him.  Like recently at Trader Joe’s when they were sampling these Lamb Kofta!  I made sure he knew they were serving them so he could get a taste.  He liked them, so when I left town for a professional conference, he bought himself a bag. 

So now, without further ado, may I present the first ever review fully written by a guest author!  (The other reviews that have guest opinions (including David’s) I transcribe as people say them.  This one he WROTE while I was in workshops in New Orleans all day!)

This is the only photo he took.  And he has an old, crappy phone so it was hard for him to send it to me.  Thanks David!  You did it!  I appreciate it.  :)

“These are delightful little meatballs, easy and quick to prepare (they’re frozen but fully cooked), and because of the lamb, more flavorful than regular meatballs.  Plus, they come with a pour-over or cook-in sauce that is smooth, rich, and a bit zingy to boot.  I was hooked in to these by a tasting at our local TJ’s, when it was offered with a dollop of cilantro-and-chive yoghurt dip, and the combination was great – the spicy Kofta and sauce, with the cooling yoghurt dip. 

For a quick meal just add rice or potatoes to compliment, and perhaps a green vegetable or salad.  Like any meatball, it’s not going to have a spectacular taste note of its own, but it is very satisfying as a comfort-food.  For ease of preparation, meatiness, and unusual flavor profile, I give this a 4.5.”

Price – $4.99 (2 servings)

Rating – (David’s, not mine, since I have never tasted these suckers) – 4.5

Day 212 - 5 Cheese Greek Spiral

We bought this one night when we were shopping while hungry, which we always tell ourselves we should never do.  If you go to the grocery store, any grocery store, on an empty tummy you will always walk away with heavier bags than if you shopped after dinner.  But when you eat dinner after 10:00 PM every night and Trader Joe’s closes at 9:00, well, you see our problem…

Anyway, we grabbed this one night when we were strolling down the frozen food aisle.  When we got home I unpacked groceries and put it in the freezer (we got a new fridge this year and it has a bottom freezer, which is amazing!) and promptly forgot about it.

Here is our new fridge - IN OUR ENTRY WAY!  They carried it through the dining room and living room to get it to our kitchen.  Anyway, here there are no doors on it, so see how big the bottom freezer is?  Holds lots of TJ stuff!

So it nice a nice discovery in the freezer the other night!  “Hey, we got this cool Greek thing, let’s have it!” I said.  It was really easy to cook – just popped it in the oven.  It is a cool looking spirally thing – a bit snail-ish (and, for the immature among us, the end of it looks a bit, well, poop-ish…). 

Here is what it looks like on the front of the packaging

And here is what it looks like in real life after you cook it.  See how the end is, well, a bit, umm...

But it doesn’t taste poop-ish!  It is good.  The flakey filo bits are oh so flakey and the cheese is super cheesey.  In other words, all parts do their jobs very well.  Here is what the package tells us are the cheeses you will find inside this dish: “gouda, kasseri, kefalotyri, semi-hard cheese, (huh?  Isn’t “semi-hard” an adjective describing a cheese – like, don’t we need an actual NAME of a cheese?), and blue cheese”.  The mix of cheeses is quite good.  It tastes like you are on a Greek island, but without the cost of airfare and without having to try and read menus in Greek… 

This is not a MENU, but this is what it looked like when I tried to read Greek when we went to Greece is 2007....

This would be fun to serve at a dinner party as an appetizer.  It is a little messy to cut into – flakes fly – but it’s cool.  It is something a bit unusual and fun.

Bonus photo of GREECE - has nothing to do with the 5 Cheese Greek Spiral but here is David jumping into the blue water of Greece!!  Isn't is gorgeous?

Price – $3.99

Rating - 4

Day 192 - Greek Kalamata Olives (Jumbo Pitted)

As clearly explained earlier in this blog, WE LOVE OLIVES.  Love them in an unnatural, unhealthy way perhaps.  Love them so much so that we have several special dishes to display olives at parties, even though we rarely have parties…  Olives.  Ahhhhh olives…  We eat them on their own – naked little olives devoured piece by piece.  We eat them over pasta – ahhhh pasta with olives.  We eat them in salads.

The point is – WE LIKE OLIVES, ok?

And, if you have read the previous Trader Joe’s olive reviews here (days 32 and 76), we have not found an olive we are happy with at TJ’s yet.  But did we give up??  No we did not.  We got BACK ON THE HORSE and invested in yet another jar of TJ’s olives – this time Greek Jumbo Pitted Kalamatas.

This is the jar - attempt number 3 to find a palatable Trader Joe's olive....

We had them in a salad.  Four olives for me, four for David.  It was a delicate little salad – mixed greens, tiny baby carrots, the kalamatas, balsamic vinegar, EVOO, and freshly ground salt.  Seems like a fair way to judge this olive, no?

Here are the olives presented in a salad.

And the verdict is in.

This is the best Trader Joe’s olive we have had.  Not the best OLIVE we have had, mind you, but the best one from TJ’s.  Although we both said something like, “It is a KALAMATA, how badly can it be screwed up???”, we had to give it a thumbs up.

First impressions – too mushy.  But then again, it is PITTED.  We normally eat olives with PITS.  I feel like if TJ’s just left these pits in, this would be a better olive.  I know, I know, it is probably some liability thing and a lawyer in California told them it is too dangerous to have pits – someone might break a tooth or choke.  I say ADD A DISCLAIMER TO THE PACKAGE, leaves those pits in, and serve up better olives!

But despite the mush factor, the taste is pretty good.  It is meaty, it is salty, it is kalamata.

So overall – will this be our olive of choice???  No. But is it worth keeping a jar in the fridge in case we run out of olives from the olive bar (of another grocery store)??  YES.

Price- I believe these were $2.99

Rating - 4

Day 129 - Tzatziki

My friend Heidi turned me on to this product.  She said they get it a lot at Trader Joe’s.  And if Heidi likes it, chances are I will like it!  And I do.

Tzatziki, if you have never had it before, is, as the lid says, a “Creamy Garlic Cucumber Dip”.  It is a Greek sauce and when you eat it, if you close your eyes, you can imagine you are on a small Greek Island enjoying the sea breeze!!! 

Hard to spell, but easy to eat

We had it with our falafel (reviewed yesterday) and I also had it with Pita Bite Crackers (reviewed on day 127).  It is really tasty – adds some zip to what you eat it with.  The chunks of cucumber are a nice size.  It says it is “low fat”, which would normally be a bit of a turn off for me, but it didn’t TASTE low fat, if  you know what I mean.  It IS runny, which means it can get messy, but licking it off your fingers is totally acceptable (at least at our house it is).

Reasonably priced

This is a good summer food.  Enjoy it in warm weather and dream of Greece.

Price – $3.49

Rating – 4.25