Reader question: What to get at Trader Joe's?

Reader Dawn wrote us with the following question:

 

Hello to some of my favorite food writers!  I've thoroughly enjoyed your site for some time now.  The blueberry-oatmeal pancakes from Jen's repertoire are beyond awesome (what I had for breakfast in fact!).  We always make a double batch, and freeze them for yummy weekday breakfasts.

 

I write today with a question of the utmost importance.  Trader Joe's is slated to open a location a mere hour from my house on July 15th!  I'm planning on 'visiting relatives' that weekend or the next, and would like recommendations for products we MUST buy.  OK, who am I kidding-the trip is solely a pilgrimage to TJs, with some fun relatives thrown in on the side.  I'm looking for somewhat healthy items, with a few indulgence items thrown in for good measure (chocolate and carb calories are therapeutic in my house).  I hope the entire crew (and the ever fabulous readership) will be able to help me craft a 'Best of TJ' list so I know what is worth elbowing through the massive crowds.

 

Thanks in advance for the assistance!

 

(Pizza salad featuring TJ's frying cheese. YUM.)

Oh, Dawn. We put this to the group at large, and it is without hesitation that I tell you that the best answer seems to be to just buy everything. Buy out the store! Take out a personal loan for thousands of dollars and BUY IT ALL. 

Is that ... impractical, you say? Well, then, be prepared to be simultaneously overwhelmed and excited by our staff picks for favorite Trader Joe's products:

Let's start with Laurie, who had the simplest, yet most specific, advice:

"Please include the vegetable samosas, because there are days I have to go buy them or I start twitching. I eat them with curry powder mixed in apple cider vinegar. It's the most disgusting and delicious food thing I do these days."

Jennie's a fan of the "cheap sparkling wine" (all of them, I suppose), but her husband, Mike, declared the orange juice the best he's ever had.  

Nic is a girl after my own heart, and has a list for you to peruse. A list, by the way, that I wholeheartedly cosign:

100 Calorie Chocolate Bars

Mediterranean Hummus (the one with the oil and pine nuts on top)

GUACAMOLE (ALL CAPS!!!1!!!)

Pineapple Salsa

Frozen pizza and flat bread

Mini chocolate peanut butter cups

Blueberry or cranberry goat cheese

Pastry Bites with Caramelized Onion and Feta

Turkey meatballs AND meatless meatballs

Caitlin, too, has her favorites and must-trys, and adds a few secrets: 

Chocolate covered caramels, and little peppermint pattie/Junior Mint knockoff things.  Frozen veggies

Pot stickers

Coffee ("Cheapish and good!")

Frozen orange chicken ("Tastes like Chinese takeout!")

 

Elissa brought her own list to the table:

Dark chocolate, sea salt and turbinado sugar-covered almonds ("I think they may include crack")
Gold label balsamic vinegar
Frozen chocolate croissants

Sarah had some enthusiastic product-recommendations, too:

Chocolate-covered cashews (mix of dark and milk chocolate)
Three-layer torte thing in the fancy cheese section ("It's got sun-dried tomato spread, pesto spread, and some kind of white cheese spread and it. is. awesome."_
Pizza dough! The garlic pizza dough!

 Katie, a girl after my own heart, had a bunch MORE to say:

Chicken stock concentrate: It comes in a small box, and each box has 12 little pouches of goo.  Each pouch is equivalent to one cup of stock (though I sometimes stretch them further with more water). So good, so much better than canned, so much more space-efficient than boxed. Great for those recipes that call for just a tiny bit of chicken stock, too.

Pretzel slims (regular and dark chocolate covered)

Chocolate cat cookies (also acceptable: ginger)
Dark chocolate mini peanut butter cups
Fruit leathers (so cheap!)

Personally, I am having a hard time deciding what to tell people to buy, because I love so many things. If I had to choose three FINE FOUR, however?

Belgian Butter Thins: ultra-light, thin, buttery cookies covered in dark, milk and white chocolate

Candied (or spicy) pecans: Crunchy, delicious and perfect for topping salads 

Masala simmer sauce: Throw it in a slow cooker with some boneless chicken thighs, a little bit of chicken broth and some yogurt or light cream and you have delicious, delicious chicken tikka masala for half the cost of takeout. 

Canned corn. I know, canned corn, you're thinking? CANNED CORN? But theirs is the sweetest, crispest corn I've ever found outside of a fresh cob. It has ruined me for all corns, frozen or otherwise.

Katie also brings up an excellent point that was met with a hearty, "Hear! Hear!" from the FL staff: 

"TJs is also my go-to place for certain high quality ingredients that can be stupid expensive elsewhere: capers, kalamata olives, parrano cheese, vanilla extract, pine nuts (any kind of nut, really), high-quality honey, applewood smoked bacon, and decent olive oil."

To illustrate her point, you can get a jar -- a BIG jar -- of capers for $2.99 there. The same price will get you a thimbleful elsewhere. 

And finally ... 

Booze

Not all Trader Joe's have liquor licenses (in our state, there are ten or more TJ's, but only two have liquor licenses), but if you're lucky enough to live near one, you'd be a fool not to pick up some cheap wine & beer. At rock-bottom prices, you can afford to take some risks, but here are some staff picks:

Zarafa Sauvignon Blanc  ($3.99!)

Espiral vinho verde (crisp, clean and light, it's effervescence in a bottle!)

Charles Shaw, AKA Three-buck Chuck (any varietal, but I'm telling you, their white zinfandel is something to behold. I find most white zins to be disgusting, cheap-tasting and super-sweet. I am not a drinker of white zin, I promise. Theirs, however, is fresh, crisp, fruity and bright without being syrupy or off-putting. Try it. For $3, why not? Even if you dump it down the drain, that one taste is cheaper than a bottle anywhere else. 

Epicuro Salice Salentino (a gorgeously smooth, drinkable red that is just the right balance of dry without a trace of bitterness)

 

Does this ... help? So sorry, Dawn. I TOLD you. JUST BUY THE WHOLE STORE. 

{Photo credit: Trader Joe's dot com}

Comments

[K]

Love this list. I tend to always buy olive oil (cheap and delicious!) and pizza dough (99 cents!). I also love their coffee... and everything else. If you ever use mascarpone cheese for anything, it is way cheaper at TJ than anywhere else I've been.

[Nothing But Bonfires]

Oh Dawn, YOUR MIND IS ABOUT TO BE BLOWN!

I put together a small list here, and there were some really good comments on it too: http://nothingbutbonfires.com/2010/12/print-out-blog-post-and-take-it-trader-joes

Since then, I have made some new discoveries, and I would now also wholeheartedly endorse:

* the "reduced guilt" whole wheat pita chips
* the multigrain pita bite crackers
* the cranberry-covered log of goat cheese (amazing with the multigrain pita bite crackers)
* the caramelized walnuts (great for salads and so much cheaper than anywhere else)
* the balsamic vinegar called Balsamic Vinegar of Modena in a short bottle with a red label (we don't even use salad dressing anymore, we just pour this balsamic vinegar over our greens instead!)
* the frozen edamame (I buy bags and bags and bags of it)
* the cheesecake (defrost, add strawberries, and pretend you made it!)
* the English toffee (which, as an English person, I have to say is NOT like English toffee at ALL, but is still incredibly delicious in its own right -- kind of like a large Heath bar covered in slivered almonds)
* the Freixenet sparkling wine in the clear bottle -- at $5.99 it's the best cheap "champagne" ever and I buy it every week
* the pesto: so much cheaper than other pesto and so good
* the tub of ginger snap cookies, which are simultaneously chewy and crisp and have tiny little pieces of ginger in them
* the pound bars of chocolate, which are HUGE and will last you a year. They're all made by Callebaut, a really good Belgian make -- as are all of Trader Joe's chocolate chips.
* the buttermilk biscuits in the refrigerated section
* the chocolate croissants in the frozen section, which are as good as any I've had in Paris

I could go on and on and on. Have fun!

[Jessica]

I live in Colorado and we have yet to get one for some crazy reason, I'm sure. I go whenever I leave the state and once I got a friend to play Trader Joe Fairy for me. Since I usually can't take refrigerator foods with me, I have four things I NEED:

Mango Black Tea: perfect with cream/sugar
Cheese Crunchies
Sesame Honey Cashews
Raspberry/Apricot Thumbprint butter cookies

Now that I have a baby, I usually have to sacrifice a bag of Cheese crunchies to him which is a SHAME!

[Kate]

I have to agree with so many of these; TJ's is a staple for us. My top favorite items, if I must narrow it down, are:
-- President's Reserve olive oil (under $6/bottle!)
-- Honey goat cheese (and the entire remaining contents of the cheese case, because SO cheap! and so good!)
-- Frozen asparagus risotto
-- Frozen gnocchi alla sorrentina
-- Dorot frozen garlic puree (I really hate peeling fresh garlic, and this doesn't have the weird taste that the jarred stuff does)
-- Frozen croissants, chocolate or plain
-- Mild italian sausages (surprisingly not bad, and I grew up with the homemade version, so I'm a total snob)
-- Marinated meats (pesto chicken, chipotle flat iron, etc. - just toss on the grill for the easiest summer dinners ever)
-- Tubs of "s'mores" - graham cookies topped with a big marshmallow and coated in chocolate (To. Die.)
-- Butter (weird, yes, but it's rBST-free and so much cheaper than the organic butter in the regular grocery store)
-- Flour (I have no idea why, but baked goods just come out better with their flour)
Pack light, bring coolers, and enjoy!!

[Heather]

Oh, Trader Joes... How I love thee. I think I make a stop at our TJ's every other day for something.

My kids will only eat the TJ's brand vanilla/blueberry whole fat yogurt
freeze dried blueberries, strawberries, & bananas
fruit leathers,
nitrate free, all beef hotdogs (rather good for nitrate free)
pizza dough
pesto
string cheese
marinated mozzarella
frozen ziti for fast emergency meals (cover with pesto)
TJ's mac & cheese - only brand my kids will eat
TJ's tomato sauce in a can
TJ's goopy chicken or beef stock in packets
pomegranate seeds
black bean & rice tortilla chips
quinoa bread
little tiny fingerling potatoes I cut into coins and cook for the kids
frozen Swedish ebeskiver pancake balls
so many more, too many to name!!!

Unfortunately a Wegman's just opened near me and it kind of blows Trader Joe's out of the water, even price wise. Boo.

[april]

One day, one day ... they will bring TJ to Tampa. On that day I shall weep with joy.

[Kat]

I occasionally think of moving out of NYC and on my mental pros cons list is always I can't live without a TJ's. Ok the list:
-Chocolate covered peanut butter pretzals
-Moo Baa cheese goat and cow milk blend so yummy. Actually all cheese
-The chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches
-Frozen turkey patties
-Yogut
-Totally agree on the butter thing
-TJ's brand multi grain crackers in the green box...goes great with the cheese
-COFFEE
-WINE

[Kristina]

Two words: Edamame Hummus. Try it now, thank me later

[Erin]

We love the edamame, the chicken potstickers (such a quick, yummy meal solution!), the chevre (I bought two logs today), the frozen super sweet corn (my daughter and I love it, tonight we couldn't wait and started eating it frozen...before cooking it and tossing it with pasta and chevre). My favorite pasta sauce ever is TJ's marinara in the jar. It makes everything I cook with it (stuffed shells & pizza, mainly) so much better.
The frozen dessert section is also a general win-win. The ice creams are good, the peach push pops are great and the frozen fruit bars taste like summer- and the lime ones taste like margaritas!