Day 276 - Balsamic Vinegar of Modena

We call this “fancy ass balsamic vinegar”.  Basically cuz the jar looks fancy.

Arty farty shot of fancy ass vinegar.

David says, “It is soooo nice….  “  But when prompted for more details, such as WHAT MAKES IT NICE, he says, “It is balsaaamic.  And it is VINEGAR.”

Yeah – it is that sort of discerning palate and descriptive wording that makes a solid review…

In discussing what exactly MAKES vinegar balsamic vinegar, David supposed that it is fermented and that makes it taste richer and a little bit sweet.  Not one to take his word for it, I Googled it.  

click here to learn what in the world balsamic vinegar really is

And after reading that article I think HOLY SMOKES – I now understand why balsamic vinegar is so expensive!  It takes 12 years to make it, people!  And the barrels it is aged in disintegrate and have to be repeatedly reinforced!!  That’s it – I need to go to Italy and see balsamic vinegar being made.

(Note – after reading this article I checked to see where this TJ’s Balsamic comes from, as the article said TRUE balsamic only comes from two places.  Guess what?  This ain’t some cheap NYC street corner knock-off, it comes from Modena, one of the REAL spots.  Bam.)

Says right on the label and the signage - OF MODENA folks.  Fancy.

As for this particular balsamic, I really like the bottle, it is a cool shape.  The lid tricks me every time – I think it is going to be a CORK when I pull it off, but it is a plastic insert.  It makes a good seal when you put it on.  The bottle is also the right size.  Have you ever had a bottle of balsamic that is too big and it is in your fridge forever??  Or too small and it tips over?  This one is a good size and well shaped.  Or, as David says, “It has a nice flat bottom.”  (You can sense it coming, can’t you??)  “I like my balsamic like I like my women, with a nice, flat bottom.” (Groan.)

This balsamic was a tiny bit more expensive than SOME balsamic you see, but not the cheapest.  It was, in the grand scheme of things, middle of the road priced balsamic (but a cheap road, like St. Charles Place, not like Park Place).  I mean, you can pay a LOT of money for some faaaancy balsamic (if you are into that).  But are the super duper expensive ones any better???  I am sure if you are a chi-chi fancy rich person you might be able to taste the difference.  For us, this one will do just fine thank you very much.

This is the St. Charles Place of balsamic

We mostly use balsamic vinegar for salads.  I guess we should get more creative and cook with it, too.  We use very little of it.  If you want to read Trader Joe’s official description of this product, check out their archived article here .

Salad with balsamic - see it is tasty 

Different salad with balsamic

Price – $3.99 (which, if their article above is accurate, has been the same low price for over 8 years!)

Rating – 4.75

Day 166 - Marinated Celigene Mozzarella Cheese

We recently were at a NEW TO US Trader Joe’s (in Fairfax, VA, a very nice store!).  

Hey!  Fairfax, VA Trader Joe's!

While there we decided to pick up supplies to make a tasty summer appetizer that we had recently at a TJ’s in Florida – tiny tomatoes with mozzarella on them!  We already had balsamic at home (Trader Joe’s, of course, to be reviewed later in this blog), and we hoped the basil we planted would be big enough for us to cut a bit off to top the dish off.   This is the mozzarella we chose:

Marinated Celigene (or is it Ciliegine?) Mozzarella Cheese

Now, there have been two previous mozzarella cheeses reviewed in this blog – one was our our regular one “the chub” reviewed on day 17 (4 stars).  The other one was one that we tried for our big TJ’s dinner party, reviewed on day 125 (which I personally gave a total of 1.75 stars to, but because it was a dinner party review I had to factor in reviews of the other guests and begrudgingly use the average of all reviews which brought it up to a 3…).  Normally we serve mozzarella over TJ’s kumatoes (reviewed on day 5 – 4 stars), and in the summer we serve it over tomatoes we grown in the garden.  But this time our home grown tomatoes were not ready to be eaten yet, and the taste test we did in Florida using the cherry tomato variety was yummy, so we went with what we saw – Marzano Tomatoes (sorry to be so confusing – I will review those small tomatoes soon!).

In any event, this review is about the tiny mozzarella balls!  First off, my partner David is the one who prepared this dish and he reports the container was very, very hard to open.  The size of the balls is good – he is quite obsessive so he cut some in thirds and some in fourths, but I reckon if you wanted to you could simply cut them down the middle and call it a day.  The sign said the cheese is marinating in “salted water” but David swears, “There’s somethin’ oily going on…”.  (The label of the actual product lists canola and Extra Virgin Olive Oil…  Maybe the signage at TJ’s was wrong?  When I look at the photos now I see that the SIGN spelled the cheese Ciliegine and the package spells it Celigene…  Maybe the incorrect sign was placed above these containers but we did not see any other containers nearby?  Who knows…)

The taste is pretty good.  It is not as great as the chub mozzarella, but way better than the stinky day 125 mozzarella.  The biggest problem by FAR with this dish was the inability of the teeny tiny tomatoes and mozzarella to hold enough balsamic vinegar!  There just was not enough surface area.

Isn't it PRETTY?  Turns out we did have enough basil, yippee!!

This cheese is not bad, but the convenience of having the tiny portions does not beat the tastiness of the chub cheese.

Price - $3.49

Rating – 3.5

Day 121 - Greens and Seeds Salad

Color me THRILLED.  Guys - TRADER JOE'S CORPORATE WROTE ME BACK!!  I have sent letters to most of the Trader Joe's stores we have visited this year and told them all about this blog (including BUSINESS CARDS I have had made for it!), but none of the stores has responded.  Then I wrote corporate and I got a great reply!  I was so excited!!!  I will include it here, but will redact the name of the person who wrote it (just in case she/he doesn't want their name publicized).

I know, I know, it is too big to fit on this page.  But I am EXCITED and I want you to read it!

Anyway, I wanted to share that excitement with you!  I will most certainly share my Top 10 Picks with them at the end of the year, and the Worst 10 Clunkers, too!

So, now, on to today's REVIEW:

Maybe I was just really hungry when I ate it, but this salad tasted GREAT!  It had an ingredient I would not ever put on a salad – butternut squash – but boy howdy I should put squash on my salads everyday if it makes them taste this good!  Also featured were GREENS and SEEDS (of the pumpkin and pomegranate varieties) – hence the name, see, GREENS and SEEDS Salad!  (Note:  in store artist at the Clarendon, VA store, there is a “write-o” on the signage, it is missing an “s” after “green”.)

Opps - missing a little s.

Really though, this salad has great ingredients!  There was loads of feta cheese and the balsamic dressing was spot on!  Oh, and there were tons of pumpkin seeds.  Half way through this salad I texted my friend to say, “Hey, if you are anywhere near a Trader Joe’s, swing in and pick yourself up a Greens and Seeds!”.   Yeah, I was THAT excited about it that I had to pause my eating and text.

This is before I mixed everything up!

I would say the only things that could be improved are:  fresher (read – more PLUMP) pomegranate seeds and a dressing container that didn’t get your fingers all oily trying to wrestle it open.  It they could make those two little tiny tweaks, they would be in the running for “best salad of the year” (grocery store category). 

And this is after I ATE evrerything up!!

Price - $3.99

Rating – 4.75