Namaste from INDIA!

Namaste from Kerala, southern India!!

We are on a vacation, celebrating my 50th birthday (which actually doesn't come until mid-June, but it never hurts to celebrate early, eh??).  We have never been to India before and have been amazed at the sights, sounds, tastes, and colors that surround us here.  We traveled through a few northern cities and have now come down south to finish out the holiday.

One thing we love to do when traveling is, you guessed it, SEE THE LOCAL GROCERY STORE!!  Here in India we have been fortunate to see some MARKETS, which are absolutely amazing.  We even went to one, Crawford Market, where they MAKE SPICES.  By that, I mean they take the spice blends that the women bring (yes, it seemed to be all women ordering them), roast them, then GRIND THEM into the types of spices you and I would expect to see in a jar on a Trader Joe's shelf.  I was fascinated and could have easily stayed at that stall for hours observing and smelling.  Heaven!

Spices, having just been roasted, now resting on a burlap bag in the sun waiting for their turn to be ground

A long queue of spices on a Sunday at the spice market, all waiting to be ground

A grinder!  These large pistons slam down very loudly onto the spices, grinding them very finely

Most people here seem to shop at markets, but I also wanted to see an Indian GROCERY STORE.  Locals never understand my desire to check out the groceries, but I really think it is a great way to learn something about a culture!!  What cookies do they eat??  What drinks?  What CONDIMENTS???  There is a lot to learn in a grocery store!!

So we popped into one in Mumbai.  Let's just say, it was NOT a Trader Joe's :).

First off, no air conditioning.  And this is the HOT season here, record highs actually.

Secondly, they have STATUES in their grocery store.  See, here is a Ghandi one!!!!!  Isn't it great?  I have never seen anything like THAT at a TJ's.

Look, a Ghandi bust in aisle 1! 

Thirdly, the sample lady was giving out WHOLE CARTONS of Greek yogurt, not little cups of it.  Oooh-la-la!!  They also took our photo after we tasted it.  David did a funny face where he was spitting some of the yogurt out as if it tasted super disgusting.  I bet they don't use THAT in their marketing campaign.

Fourthly, the snack food section had FAIRY LIGHTS over it!!!  You know the ones, the fancy twinkling Christmas lights!!!  Cuz nothing says EAT SOME CHIPS like FAIRY LIGHTS!  It was pretty fabulous.

Snacks and fairy lights, a great combination!

We were glad we persevered and figured out where the heck the hidden grocery story was.  We crossed some crazy Mumbai streets, dodging traffic, to get there, but it was worth it.

We didn't buy a bottle of "Thums Up" soda  but we probably should have, eh?

Day 338 - Soft and Juicy Mango (dried)

Guys, it is DECEMBER.  December!!!!  That means this is my last month of this project!!  Oh my – the emotions!  The decisions!  What should I review??  What is worthy of LAST MONTH attention?  I find myself in an Elaine (from “Seinfeld”) like situation, trying to determine what is “sponge worthy”…  see a short Seinfeld clip here

I want to review at least a few NON-SEASONAL products, things that are staples at TJ’s and always on the shelves.  Things you can find, buy, eat, and ENJOY long after I am done writing reviews.  J  I have given props to the nut/dried fruit aisle at Trader Joe’s before, but it is worth saying it again:  TRADER JOE’S HAS AN AMAZING SELECTION OF NUTS AND DRIED FRUITS.  If you are new to shopping there, you need to really explore this aisle.  And even if you are an experienced TJ’s shopper, you can often find something new and exciting that you have not tried before in this section of the store.

So I think I should review a staple – SOFT AND JUICY MANGOS.  They are dried and cost $1.99 per bag.  TJ’s dried fruits are cheaper than fancy name brand ones you will find in other stores. 

Aren't they a lovely color??

The other day when we went to a brunch, our hostess (Joan) started grabbing all the Trader Joe’s products she could find in her cupboards and asking me if they had been reviewed.  J  These mangos used to be a go-to item for me, but since I have changed my shopping patterns a bit this year to accommodate this blog, they had slipped off my radar.  So I gladly accepted Joan’s offer to bust them out, and I invited some fellow brunch goers to help me review.  Let’s see what they thought:

Connie (used to live in northern Virginia, has since moved to New Mexico):  “It is indeed SOFT and JUICY.  However, I find mango in general to be super sweet, and Trader Joe’s putting SUGAR on this mango I think was not called for.  It adds something – it is sort of like gilding the lily.  I think it is over the top.  I think I would give these just a 2 because the sugar makes it way too sweet for me.”

Snap - Connie gave these a TWO!  Ouch.

Stan (the sausage man):  “I found these way too sweet and not acidic enough.  I had Zabar’s mangos 2 weeks ago and they had a really good balance between the natural acidity of the mango and the natural sweetness.  (Zabar’s is a cool New York grocery store, you can see it here:  Zabars.)  I will give it a 2 also.”  (David inserted a lovely Zabar’s joke here, saying that what Stan meant is that, “The mangos at Zabar’s had more Hasidic-ty…”)  (I don't have a photo of Stan, sorry.)

 Judy (this brunch was the first time I met her, I think Judy and I would get along swimmingly, she was fun):  “I think these are FINE, I get good mango flavor.  But they are too sweet.  I give them a 3.” 

Here's Judy, mixing mango with coffee or tea.

Doug (Connie’s husband):  “I think these are toooo sweet.  When I think of mango – this is not a natural sweetness.  It tastes like an artificial sugary sweetness.  I give them a 2.”  (Oops, no photo of Doug, either...  I was too busy eating cinnamon buns to take pictures...)

Chris (our nephew, senior in high school, currently debating which college to attend): “I thought these were very nice!  The way the sweetness and the natural flavor of the mango mixed together made a nice taste.  The aftertaste was fairly good.   I would give these a solid 3.”

Chris, looking like a mango-eating Zombie...

Me:  I like these.  I used to eat them all the time.  They are very MANGO-Y.  These are a good dried fruit – more interesting than your “normal” dried fruit like apple (not that there is anything wrong with dried apple!).  I can imagine these chopped in pieces and put on top of Greek yogurt.  TJ’s has a few different variations of dried mango and this is the most simple, classic one.  I would give these a 3.75.

Look guys, it says LIGHTLY SWEET on the sign...  

Price - $1.99

Rating (average of 6 raters) – 2.75 (I am a bit disappointed they got this low of a score, but I am taking into account several people’s opinions, so perhaps this is what they deserve)

Day 283 - Dark Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Seeds

Last night I was sitting in front of the tv (watching “Survivor” if you must know…) and a friend sent me a Facebook message with a link to a reviews of ten dark chocolate covered things from Trader Joe’s.  Guess what I was munching on at the same exact moment she sent met the link??  DARK CHOCOLATE COVERED POMEGRANATE SEEDS!

I will review those today, but first here is the link to the cool review and ranking of the 10 dark chocolate products that she shared: Spoon University Ranking of Top 10 Dark Chocolate Covered Trader Joe's products here

Of the products reviewed at that link, I have reviewed:

-          Chocolate coconut almonds:  review here 

      Their review was MIXED, mine (way back on day 7 of this year long project) was full on in support of these babies.

-          Dark chocolate covered espresso beans: review here 

      Our reviews matched – we both think these are great.

-          Dark chocolate almonds: review here

      This one got a coveted 5 stars on my blog and ranked the highest in the other people’s ranking, too!  Obviously this one is a clear cut WINNER and you need some.

-          And now I will review the product that allllmost made it to the top of their list – Dark Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Seeds.

Pretty packaging for a delicious treat

I like these little things!  They are really a good combination of the little seed and a little bit of chocolate.  The chocolate on them is amazing and the seeds just “balances” so well with it.  It sounds very simple – a pomegranate seed and some dark chocolate.  But somehow the blend of those two tastes winds up being COMPLEX.  They are a very unique treat.

I have found them to be a really good dessert.  The last few nights when I have finished dinner I just popped open this little plastic carton and ate a few of them!  The package says a serving size is ¼ cup but to me that is WAY too many for one sitting.  Maybe I just have super willpower J, but a 10 – 12 of these little treats really satisfies me.  I can’t imagine eating a whole box in one sitting – they are just too rich to do that.

Check out the artwork!!!  This DC location has some signs with PRESIDENTS on them.  Super cool.  The ugly price tag STICKERS covering up the real TJ's sign though, not cool...  More about those below.

I think these pomegranate seeds would be really nice in Greek yogurt, too.  And that, of course, would allow you to eat them for breakfast…  When you have them for dessert may I recommend pairing with a nice red wine.  David doesn’t like pomegranate as much as I do so I have not subjected him to this product.  I am keeping them all for myself.

Artwork inside this Trader Joe's - no matter what age you are, you have to admit that FOGGY BOTTOM is a funny name for a part of town.  :)  It is also a metro stop here in DC.

A note about where I bought this snack:  this store, at on 25 St NW in Washington, DC is sadly on the bottom of my list of favorite Trader Joe’s.  We have been to 20 different locations on this adventure and this one just didn’t make the cut. This is a store close to my home yet this was the first time we visited it.  We went on a busy Saturday afternoon. The store was just, oh, how do I say it and not sound cranky, it was not FRIENDLY.  It didn’t seem VIBRANT.  There were no employees to smile at you or ask if you needed help.  When we DID need help we searched someone out, and he was good at finding us what we needed.  But it just didn’t seem like the regular “Trader Joe’s” experience.  The line was super long, which is to be expected on a Saturday afternoon.  They had almost every single register open and the line moved along very efficiently, but none of the employees seemed happy to be there like they usually do at other stores.  I did think it was cool to listen to two employees talk while they stocked some produce – they were talking in a way you would only hear in DC, about the effectiveness of internships they were doing outside of work – it was all very wonky and cool. 

Before we went in...  See - everything was all happy OUTSIDE...

And the SIGNAGE in the store is the worst I have seen in all of the stores we have visited.  There is some local DC regulation I guess that makes the store have to put official stickers on their signs.  At all of the other TJ’s we have been to the signage has been one of the most fun things to explore, but at this store the signs looked much more like a traditional grocery store, a Safeway or Von’s, than a creative TJ’s.  The writing on most signs was not great and those ugly stickers took up lots of space.  I am sure they HAVE to put the stickers, but I wonder if they could make their own signs bigger somehow to showcase the artwork instead of the industrial looking stickers.  They did have some fun DC themes going on in some departments – candy had politician’s faces on the signs and some departments had DC landmarks.  But overall, the signage was sad.  I did see that they are looking to hire a sign maker, so maybe they know they are lacking in that department and are trying to spruce it up. 

They do have a cool "chill out" area outside the store where people can sit and chill
(and eat dark chocolate covered pomegranate seeds and the like...)

On the plus side - I gave a card for my blog to a guy working in Customer Service (after I asked him about the mysterious stickers littering up their signage) and he said he had heard of my blog.  J  That is fun! 

So, though the store is not my favorite, the Dark Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Seeds ARE GREAT and deserve two thumbs up.

Price – $2.99

Rating – 4.5

Day 274 - Peanut Butter and Jelly with Nonfat Greek Yogurt

Look, I thought this product sounded disgusting.  I wasn’t gonna try it.  I like yogurt.  I like peanut butter.  (OK, I dislike jelly…)  But the thought of those flavors TOGETHER sounds inedible to me!

You have to admit this sounds gross...

I don’t want to purposely buy anything to eat and review during this year long blog that I know I will hate.  That’s not fair.  And I only have 365 reviews in total to do, ya know.  So this was one new Trader Joe’s item I was prepared to leave on the shelf.

Until…

Until one of my Facebook friends, Peter Marino said something like THIS WAS HIS NEWEST FAVORITE FOOD EVER.  I had to ask if he was being sarcastic or serious (cuz with him it is hard to tell sometimes).  He said he was being HONEST, that he adores this stuff.

Not a bad price, but is it a BAD TASTE???

Welllllllllllllllllllll……  If LANCE likes it, I wanna try it!  Lance is Peter’s character in his solo show “Late with Lance”.  We saw it this summer at the Orlando Fringe Festival and it was great.  Cracked.  Us.  Up.  You should really check out his site and watch the preview clip here:  Lance Show Preview   So if Lance is in, I am in baby!  Throw some of that crap, errr, yogurt in my cart!

When I opened the container I was really surprised.  It didn’t look at all like I expected.  Because the name is PEANUT BUTTER and JELLY WITH Greek Yogurt I thought it would be actual real live swirls or chunks of peanut butter and jelly in or on top of the yogurt.  Nope.  It is just a mixed up yogurt that smells like peanut butter. 

Does this look appetizing to you?

When I TASTED it I was disgusted.  Bleck-a-rama!  Lance HOW can that be your favorite food???  Yogurt is good, but this stuff….  Ewwwwww.  The flavors do NOT go together.  I disliked it so much that I realized I needed to do the FIRST EVER Trader Joe’s 365 VIDEO REVIEW and record David tasting it the first time.  Honestly, I thought he would despise it and maybe even spit it out all over the table (which I would find hilarious).  So I grabbed the camera and forced him to eat some.  Here is how it went:

WHAT THE HELL?  HE LIKES IT????  David!!!!  You are on LANCE’S side here???

This is one freaky, gross product.  I can only imagine 7 year old boys liking it.  Well, 7 year old boys and Lance and David.

David gave it a 3.75, I give it a 2.5.  It is not for me – so Lance and David have at it! 

Price – .99

Rating – 3 (average of David’s way over the top rating and my very generous rating, If Lance rated it it would probably have a 5….)

Day 256 - Turkish Honey

We bought this honey in early 2015 in a LaJolla, CA Trader Joe’s.  As sometimes happened early on in this project, we would see a product in another state at a Trader Joe’s and think, “Wait!  We do not have that at our LOCAL Trader Joe’s!”.   We would be envious!!  And we would BUY said product, thinking we had scored a special gem.  Later, upon returning home and going to our local Trader Joe’s, we would inevitably find the same product on the shelf there…  In truth, most Trader Joe’s carry the same products.  There are a few local items at some stores, but 9 times out of 10 you can find the same products in different states.  (Local BEER is an exception, and some local wines as well.) 

La Jolla, CA Trader Joe's signage - cool lettering, eh?

So though we BOUGHT it early on in this project, we only recently got around to opening it.  Yes, we flew with it in a checked suitcase (couldn’t carry it in our carry on, honey is liquid) from California, put it in the cupboard, and waited months to open it.  We do not get through a ton of honey in our household so this one waited for us until another bottle was empty.

It was worth the wait!

Here is the bottle - can you see the pretty color of the honey?

I served it the other morning over Greek yogurt and peaches.  Here is what we thought of it:

David – “GREAT.  HONEY.  Smooth.  Rich.  Sweet, but not overly sweet.  And with the fabulous lingering afater-taste – no, it is really a taste at the “back end” of the experience like a Crème Caramel Brulee.  I have had many honeys, this is my favorite.  (I clarified here- your favorite of ALL THE HONEYS YOU HAVE EVER HAD IN YOUR LIFE, or of the Trader Joe’s honeys you have had, or what??)  Of all the honeys I can REMEMBER, which severely limits the field (this concept cracked us both up, because David, though he has an amaaaazing memory for the physical work in his solo shows, in general has a pretty crappy memory).   It is nice.“

Susan – This honey comes in a larger container than most honeys (1 lb 8 ounces), which worried me because, as I mentioned above, we do not get through a ton of honey.  David eats the majority of honey consumed in our house.  The last year or so I have taken to putting sugar on my yogurt (I know, I know, spreading SUGAR on yogurt immediately negates any and all health impacts the yogurt may have had…).  The “sugar on yogurt-y like food” thing is something I learned in Paris when we used to cover these little Petit Suisses with sugar.  Yummmmmy. 

Isn't is BEAUTIFUL?  Look at it pouring out - ahhhhh....  

Anyway, I was worried the container was too big for our use, but I think we will get through this one.  David loves this one so much he swears he will get through it.  We usually buy the cute little Honey BEARS, you know the ones.  But this honey is muuuuch tastier than those bears.  It is a darker, more golden color, too.  The cheaper honey bear honey is more yellow and see through.

The label says that the honey bees making this honey primarily foraged Rock Rose, Citrus, Wildflowers and Turkish Pines.  Maybe it is the PINES that give it that different taste.  It almost tastes a little bit burnt, but burnt in a GOOD WAY – a warm, nice, toasty way.  It is SWEET, but with a warm, toasty taste. 

Ahhhh- yogurt, fresh peach, and this golden  honey, what a tasty breakfast!

I like this a lot better than other honey we have had.  It is a good product and we think you should try it.

Price – $5.99

Rating - 5

Day 245 - Fage Greek Yogurt

Greek yogurt is the bomb. 

Man, I have been reviewing a lot of GREEK items lately, haven’t I?  I never realized how much Greek food we consume – yogurt, olives, that recent bizarre cheese spiral (reviewed on day 212 

http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/07/day-213-5-cheese-greek-spiral.html ), tzatzaki (reviewed on day 129 http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/05/day-129-tzatziki.html ), and one of my favorite cheeses FETA (reviewed on day 232 http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/08/day-232-authentic-greek-feta-in-brine.html ).

  

Fage Greek Yogurt (2%) (but 100% tasty)

But man, if you like yogurt, you really need to try Fage Greek Yogurt.  It tastes more sitting on an outdoor patio having breakfast in Koufonisia than any other Greek yogurt I have had.

Yummy - Fage toped with loads of pomegranate seeds

I like it with pomegranate seeds (reviewed on day http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/01/day-12-pomegranate-seeds.html but if you are cooler than me you can buy a whole pomegranate and get your own seeds out).  It is also good with peaches or nectargines cut up in it.  And look – here it is with just plain HONEY on it (from a new bottle we just opened that will be reviewed soon!). 

Fage drizzled with honey....

You can also use Greek yogurt in smoothies or recipes.  We buy the one with the most fat we can find (2%) but if you are not into fat you can buy the lower fat one. 

So by this point in the review you must understand that this particular Greek yogurt is really good (you can compare it to my review of Trader Joe’s brand Greek yogurt that came out the very first week of this blog on day 6 - http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/01/day-6-greek-yogurt.html ).  But here is the kicker:

On a shopping price comparison trip FAGE YOGURT WAS A WHOLE BUCK CHEAPER AT TRADER JOE’S THAN A NEARBY SAFEWAY GROCERY STORE.  A dollar!!!  For the exact same product.

Rip Off ALERT - if you want to spend an extra dollar on the same product,
make sure to get it at Safeway instead of Trader Joe's

Either Safeway is royally ripping shoppers off, or Trader Joe’s is being ultra kind.  Either way – you know where I am going to grab my yogurt!

P.S. – the container tells you how to pronounce this brand.  It is pronounced Fa-Yeh! (exclamation point theirs – they obviously are as excited about their yogurt as I am).

Price – $3.59

Rating – 4.75

Bonus photo for anyone who scrolled down this far!  Me snorkeling in Greece in 2007!

Day 183 - Greek Honey Yogurt

I felt a bit PUNKED when I opened up this yogurt.  I thought it was yogurt WITH honey.  I pictured some nice, thick, golden Greek honey swirled around the top.  So when I peeled back the foil and saw NAKED yogurt, I recalculated my imagined picture and thought, “Oh, perhaps the honey is somehow on the BOTTOM of the cup…”.

Would YOU assume it had honey swirls??

Nope.  No swirls (or even blobs) of honey to be found.

Apparently this is honey FLAVORED yogurt, not honey IN/ON it yogurt.  Maybe if I had read the name more carefully I would have understood that?  Not sure.  But it was a disappointment to me.

We normally buy plain Greek yogurt (reviewed waaaaaaaaaaay back on day 6 of this blog).  Sometimes I add things to mine – honey, fruit, nuts, sometimes even (gasp I know) sugar on top (something I learned in France with Petite Suisse). 

So on this honey yogurt today I added pear and blackberries.  And those fruits were better than the actual yogurt.  It has a tart taste to it, not honey-ish at all.  It was not quite white so I am assuming the slight tinge of off-white is the honey mixed in?  It was very, very, smooth – almost too smooth, fake-y smooth.  I was tempted to spread some honey on top after I tasted it and wasn’t all that happy but that seemed like a rip off – why spread HONEY on HONEY YOGURT, right?

Next time I will stick with the Fage yogurt that is on the shelf under this poopy honey one.

This won’t be my choice for any more breakfasts.  I guess if you like flavored (mildly flavored) yogurts you might dig this one, but it’s not for me.

Price – $1.29

Rating – 2.5

Day 6 - Greek Yogurt

This yogurt is a staple in our fridge - we usually have some on hand.  It is just as good if not better than other national brands of Greek yogurt.  It’s creamy, rich, tasty, and very well priced.  I also like that it comes in a bigger container than the small single servings – doesn’t feel like we are contributing quite as much to the landfill (recycling center, but still…). 

Greek Yogurt

We often serve it for breakfast with fruit chopped up on/in it – raspberries, bananas, apples, pears, strawberries, blueberries – whatever you have on hand (often more than one fruit goes in).   David likes to top his with honey.  If you have some walnuts or pecans, chop them up and toss them on top – delicious.   Another serving idea is to use it to make a smoothie in the blender – some Greek yogurt, orange or other juice, and fruit.  Blend it up and DRINK J.

Price - $2.49

Rating – 3.75 stars