Monday, May 3, 2010

Trader Joe's: Fails and Wins

A week or so ago, the Mister and I headed to Trader Joe's, specifically for their wheat pizza dough. We ended up grabbing a few other things, too, and I know you're dying to know what I thought of them.


Peanut Satay Sauce - Meh. It's not exactly what I was looking for - too salty or too much soy sauce. But, I did use a few tablespoons to perfect the already great peanut sauce recipe I've been making.

Trader Giotto's Classic Marinara - Fantastic. Only about $2 per jar, and aperfect accompaniment for things like calzones, stromboli and bread sticks. A little Italian place in Kettering has some of the best red sauce I've ever had, and this is pretty comparable.

Chicken Mai Shu - EW. Just, ew. I fixed up half the box, by the box's microwave-only instructions. The flavor was so-so, but the texture was gnarly. I'm going to try the microwave steam again then toss them in a pan to crisp up and see if the other half turns out better that way.

Pepperoni - I don't remember the brand name, but it was the best pre-packages pepperoni I've tasted. Lean, not greasy, and great flavor.

Wheat Pizza Dough - At only 99 cents a bag, I'm going to go back and clean them out of this stuff. Some wheat dough tends to be too sweet for it's own good, but this was as close to perfect as it's going to get without making it yourself.

3 comments:

Lauren said...

So about 4 Trader Joe's trips ago, the cashier informed me that if you don't like something, you can bring in your receipt and get a refund. I haven't done this yet, mostly because I lost the receipt that had these totally gross pretzel sticks on it, but next time I get something icky there, I am totally going to ask them about it, because that is some mighty fine customer service if it's true.

Christian said...

Did you have any luck rolling the dough out? Michelle and I have never been able to get it evenly flat and anywhere close to resembling pizza shaped. It tastes good, but we've not figured out how to work with it.

Vizz said...

Lauren - good to be reminded of that! Someone had told me that ages ago, but I don't shop there much. I'm sure I've tossed my receipt by now, but I'll keep'em in the future just for that reason.

Chris - I didn't have that much trouble with the dough. Go back and read the stromboli entry - I talked a bit about working with the dough. I only have about 4 sq ft of counter space, so if I can do it, anyone can! Just use the "school bus driver" technique and make sure your utensils are very well floured.

Post a Comment