Day 171 - Scallion Pancakes (Pa jeon)

These are some tasty little pancakes!  They are not “pancakes” in the I-Hop sense of the word – they are savory.  Wikipedia tells me that Pa jeon is a Korean green onion (scallion) pancake.  Strangely, the packaging from the Trader Joe’s product does not give me that information. Normally the packaging is good about giving a bit of background of what you are about to eat.  Maybe it is assumed that pa jeon are familiar to most households, but they were not to mine.

Here is the bag - find in the frozen food section

We cooked them using the sauté method on the package – just put a bit of vegetable oil in a skillet, heat to medium heat, and cook pancakes about 3 – 4 minutes, turning half way and pressing with the spatula to make them gold and crispy.  The package has 4 pancakes total and we ate them in two sittings – one a piece each time.  We liked the sauté method so well the first time that we didn’t bother trying the “conventional oven method” listed the second time, we kept with sautéing.

Because of the chunky pancake-ness of the appearance, they reminded us of latke (a potato pancake popular in Jewish households).  And because we thought of them as latke, each time we made them we inadvertently brought latke topping (sour cream) to the table with us, which was never used.  J  The pancakes are perfectly good with no added toppings or dipping. 

Dinner is served!  Pa Jeon and veggies

Verdict – filling, fast, and tasty dinner.  Added a vegetable and starch and you are good to go.  They are chock full of yummy stuff – leek, carrots, mushroom, scallion…   Plus you get the crispy bits, yum!! 

Price – $3.99 (I THINK, I am sorry, this price needs to be verified…)

Rating – 4

Day 128 - Falafel

We had never noticed or purchased falafel from Trader Joe’s before, which is surprising because it is a food we like, and we often peruse the frozen food section, so why we hadn’t happened upon it before it beyond me.  Anyway, we got it and I am glad we did!

It is super easy to prepare – it comes fully cooked and frozen, so you just take out however many falafel you want, put them on a plate, cover them with a moist paper towel, and heat in the microwave for 90 seconds.  Easy peasy. 

Heat and Eat - nice and easy!

We had them for dinner last night and they were tasty.  We served them over rice and with a side of leeks with capers, yum!  We drizzled on Trader Joe’s Tzatziki (to be reviewed tomorrow) and dipped them in Trader Joe’s Mediterranean Hummus (which got a good review on day 78).  It made for a really good dinner!  And of course, being made of chick peas it was healthy, too.

I prettied up the plates with sliced Persian cucumber.  This was a tasty dinner!

While these falafel were GOOD, they of course cannot compare to freshly fried falafel purchased from a street cart or restaurant window open on the sidewalks of Paris.  This frozen version didn’t have quite the “crunch” to the coating as a freshly fried falafel would.  But, when you are a long plane ride from Paris, these will definitely do!

Really good price

Price - $3.99 (there are 12 in a package, recommended serving size is 3, so it comes out to only .33 per falafel, which is much cheaper than in Paris!  J )

Rating – 4.25