I went to a “new to this blog” Trader Joe’s this
week. It was not new to ME, mind you, I had
been there before, but not since I began this blog. It is the one in Tysons Corner, VA (on
Leesburg Pike in Falls Church) – which, to those of you not from the Washington
DC, Northern Virginia, Maryland area – is a suburb of DC basically. J
Anyway, it is right off a busy road, which makes getting
out of the parking lot a bit tricky. One
exit has a stop light and that is the best one to use, but the set up makes it
tough to get in line to get out. The
shopping complex has, among other things, a Peet’s Coffee, so you can grab a
latte to sip while you shop. I think it
is strange that there is a Whole Foods right across the road, too. I am not sure which one came first but they
sure are close to each other.
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| Artwork in the TJ's lobby - Tyson's Corner THEN and NOW. :) |
This store was fine.
Nothing really special about it – no employees smiled at me or greeted
me or asked if I needed help. It was clean. Signs were okay. I saw a stuffed frog wearing a TJ’s nametag
hidden amongst some products, so they must have the program for kids to find
it. That always makes me smile. It seemed like the store might be having an
inspection of some sort when I was there because some people with clip boards
were standing out on the sidewalk lamenting about the lack of lights.
What I found to be the worst about this store was what
appeared to be a distrust of shoppers. Either
they have some really jerky people who shop there, or someone in management thinks
people can’t return carts to the store, because there is no curb cut in front
of the store to roll your cart down to bring your groceries to the car and load
them. Not only that; even if you are
willing to “off-road it” and barrel your cart down a curb, they went to the
trouble of placing BARRIERS all in front of the store that are not wide enough
for a cart to fit through. Look – I am a
responsible, trustworthy citizen. I RETURN
MY SHOPPING CARTS after delivering my goods to the car, people!! And you should, too. (That is a pet peeve of mine – people who
leave shopping carts in parking lots are rude.)
I realize not everyone returns their cart though, and I hate door dings
as much as the next guy. But REALLY, it
feels unwelcoming to be blocked in with my cart and forced to carry heavy bags
to the car. Once I lugged my big bag to
the car I noticed that if a shopper walks quite far down to the next store,
they could bring their cart out into the parking lot THERE, as they have a curb
cut and no barriers.
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| I took this photo before I walked into the store. I didn't even notice this unfriendly curb/barrier combination as I was taking it! |
Enough of my rant.
Onto the review.
Southwest Chicken Poppers. What is FUNNY is that by the time we sat down
to eat these I had somehow convinced myself that TJ’s had named this product
CHICKEN BALLS. Understandably (to me at
least) I found that name very funny. I
worried about the chickens… And as part
of this review I was prepared to explain to Trader Joe’s why a name change was
in order. Only now I look at the box and
see CHICKEN BALLS was only in my mind! The
real name is Southwest Chicken Poppers (but in our house they will continue to
be called Chicken Balls). J
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| Chicken Balls - errr - Poppers... |
These were good. I
like the breading on the outside and the stuff on the inside is really
tasty! I tasted black beans, corn, spices - and I didn’t even
taste the chicken! They are a little
spicy but not hot at all. I dipped mine
in Hatch Valley Salsa (cuz I love that stuff and could eat it all day) (if you STILL haven't read the Hatch Valley Salsa review click
here. )
These took 20 minutes to cook in the oven – not bad at
all. A serving size is 3 which was the
right amount for our 10:00 PM dinner.
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They don't stay together all that well, but they taste good. Here they are served with baby bok choy
(dipping choices of Hatch Valley Salsa and TJ's Cowboy Cavier were off to the side) |
David said the coating on these was nice. The inside was moist but “not so gooey” that
the stuff ran out. He agreed that it
tasted very nice because of the vegetables.
He also didn’t taste the chicken but wanted to be clear that he didn’t REGRET
that. He decided it must be “chicken
paste” that is somehow “infused through the whole thing” because the balls don’t
taste like they lack the ”body that proteins give”. He says it is more like a CROQUETTE.
David, like me, got the giggles over calling these things
chicken balls.
They are easy to prepare.
They would make good appetizers for a party.
Price – $3.99
Rating - 4
