Trader Joe's tip

[Jenise]

'Darks' potato chips.

If you, like me, used to especially love the occasional darker chip in the sack, well here's a whole sack of darker chips. The bag says they're from a special potato which, I guess, means higher sugar content as that's what turns dark. Anyway, Bob and I devoured a whole family-sized bag at one sitting, one in which we only intended to just taste them. FANTASTIC!!!

FWIW, I've been making my own potato chips lately. Amazing how much you can get from only one spud.

[Robin Garr]

FWIW, I've been making my own potato chips lately. Amazing how much you can get from only one spud.

I'd love to see a recipe for that, Larry!

Thanks for the potato chip tip Jenise. I have never had their chips but will try these next time I go there. I am addicted to Lays Salt and Vinegar Chips. Don't eat them often but keep a small bag when I want a few, usually with lunch. Trader Joe's has had a lot of products over the years that I have loved, then they simply disappear. They had a boxed Mac and Cheese I tried one time and loved, went back to get it, not there. Israeli Feta cheese was another, best Feta I have ever had, gone. I love their sponges that come deflated in a small package, you put them under water and they rehydrate. So far, I have been able to get them for a very long time. Many seem to love a lot of their sweet treats, but something I try to avoid, so I stay away from that aisle. I also have trouble with their produce. While they always have a great selection, and present it beautifully, I find it does not hold up very well. So, unless it is something I am going to use right away, I am careful there, as well.

[Jenise]

Funny, we talked with friends last night about Trader Joe's. They are in love with a frozen product called Orange Chicken. Dave, our friend, spent his career in retail and has some very strong opinions about how TJ's merchandises the stores. He has apparently learned that each store gets one carton of this product per day, and if you're not there by noon it will sell out. There's even a sign insisting "one per customer". The last time he was at our store he saw the guy unloading at the other end of the aisle. As he got closer, two carts passed him and each had three of them. By the time he got there, only three were left so he took them all.

I was totally unaware of this kind of thing at Trader Joe's. I guess I don't buy any of their ready-mades, or even the snacks (we are not snackers) such that I would run into shortages or even disappearances. I tend to shop the outer perimeter and don't go down the other aisles much except to, as I did yesterday, check to see if they're stocking green olives again (they're not, they disappeared two years ago and haven't come back). I wouldn't know about the potato chips except that my brother told me about them--I'm never in the snack aisle. What keeps me going back are the tortillas (well, and now the dark potato chips).

And yes the produce is generally disappointing. They're gassed for life extension and break down fast when you get them home. An exception, however: I buy tons of their organic broccolini.

There's been a huge difference in TJ's that i've been in this year. DC, Madison, Milwaukee, Upper East Side NYC and all within 4-5 months. Not uniformly present or presentable in all stores I always buy the organic broccolini as well, fennel, organic arugula. I also skip the frozen bins and snack shelves but never miss the seasonings jars. Even though I rarely buy mixes after reading the ingredients and source I have sprung for a few and have been pleasantly surprised. If salt is the first or second or third ingredient I pass. Some have salt as the last or not at all. I'm a sucker for new and unsual. I am persistent in finding ways to use them up and must admit that they can be a convenient hack when in a hurry.

FWIW, I've been making my own potato chips lately. Amazing how much you can get from only one spud.

I'd love to see a recipe for that, Larry!

Boy, is that easy. Slice potatoes very thin on a mandoline, soak the slices in water to get rid of excess starch, dry, deep fry in batches until shade of color you want, drain, salt.

[Robin Garr]

Boy, is that easy. Slice potatoes very thin on a mandoline, soak the slices in water to get rid of excess starch, dry, deep fry in batches until shade of color you want, drain, salt.

Thanks, Larry! I thought maybe you had some obscure secret.

I have made potato chips in the microwave, too. Similar deal but you must coat them with oil, lay on a plate, then Spin and Nuke until done.

[Jenise]

There's been a huge difference in TJ's that i've been in this year. DC, Madison, Milwaukee, Upper East Side NYC and all within 4-5 months. Not uniformly present or presentable in all stores I always buy the organic broccolini as well, fennel, organic arugula. I also skip the frozen bins and snack shelves but never miss the seasonings jars. Even though I rarely buy mixes after reading the ingredients and source I have sprung for a few and have been pleasantly surprised. If salt is the first or second or third ingredient I pass. Some have salt as the last or not at all. I'm a sucker for new and unusual. I am persistent in finding ways to use them up and must admit that they can be a convenient hack when in a hurry.

I've bought the frozen things when travelling--a few in the freezer of our van can provide easy variety when we're camping. I recall grilling shrimp (the Argentine reds from TJ) and adding them to some gorgonzola gnocchi. I know I added some herb, maybe tarragon, but that's really all it took to make a credible and elegant one-pot dish on my little camp stove. Mushroom ravioli was also successful with a little doctoring. But I don't use these at home. Oh, a few weeks ago I did try a frozen "bulgogi fried rice". I saw that while shopping for things to take to my brother (who had Covid). Picture looked awesome--of course. What was in the bag? Not so awesome. The rice was pale, not the rich brown of the photo and the meat had that flavor that beef that's been in your refrigerator one day too long has. I tossed it.

I too buy fennel and arugula there. Those are not treated with citric acid preservative. But some things in bags usually are to unnaturally extend their shelf life: like green beans and fresh peas, NO on that. Flavor's awful.

What oil do you fry your potato chips in? In commercial chips I've found that I prefer cottonseed and sunflower oils. And lard--Utz uses it for Grandma Utz's Kettle-Style chips, which supposedly are very close to the original Utz recipe. I don't like chips fried in canola--no surprise as I don't like the taste of canola or rapeseed oil in anything. I'm not fond of chips made with peanut or corn oil either. A lot of brands say "vegetable oil, one of <list of various oils>". Utz seems to have gone this route with chips that used to use pure cottonseed oil--perhaps a supply chain issue?

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Re Trader Joe's, so I had to go there yesterday. I'm having a party for 60 tonight in one of the neighborhood parks and my shareable edible will be a salad that's about 50% pasta and 50% arugula, shredded lox, and celery seed. Delicious and pretty. All three ingredients available at TJ's, plus a couple other things I needed.

One of which was a refill on dark chocolate and coconut covered almonds, Bob's perennial favorite sweet snack of which there's always a biscuit jar on the counter for him. Behind me, a small family was moaning about the Orange Chicken (apparently, TJ's #1 best seller). I wanted a refill of the Thai Shrimp potstickers, which I should have mentioned is my one and only constant from Trader Joe's frozen food aisle and which are identical in flavor (with a lot of chive flavor) to the shrimp/chive dumplings at Charles Phan's famous Slanted Door in San Francisco.

While searching for those I encountered Philly Cheesesteak Bao and Kahlua Pig and Vegetable Spring Rolls. We didn't have dinner plans and it was 5:00ish already, so I bought both just for fun and we had a pupu platter dinner with raw miniature peppers and a few other vegetables.

Both were surprisingly good. In a blind tasting I'd have never ID'd the bao as cheesesteak, they weren't cheesy or oniony or particularly beefy, but they had a delish harmonious flavor. If there was a fault...

[Jenise]

...sorry, had to go take care of something.

As I was saying, the bao were surprisingly decent. But what we really loved were the spring rolls. Shatteringly flakey like lumpia style wrappers, delicious filling with noticeable bits of pork and shreds of cabbage and carrot that crisp up perfectly in the oven in about 15 minutes. As good as most restaurant spring rolls in fact.

[David M. Bueker]

What oil do you fry your potato chips in? In commercial chips I've found that I prefer cottonseed and sunflower oils. And lard--Utz uses it for Grandma Utz's Kettle-Style chips, which supposedly are very close to the original Utz recipe. I don't like chips fried in canola--no surprise as I don't like the taste of canola or rapeseed oil in anything. I'm not fond of chips made with peanut or corn oil either. A lot of brands say "vegetable oil, one of <list of various oils>". Utz seems to have gone this route with chips that used to use pure cottonseed oil--perhaps a supply chain issue?

-Paul W.

Ask my Maryland-born and bred wife, Utz (a Pennsylvania brand that has been huge in Maryland for decades) switched years ago. It’s not a supply chain issue.

Utz only switched recently on some of its product lines, at least if the ingredients lists are to be believed. Utz's regular and "wavy" potato chips have always listed three ingredients: potatoes, cottonseed oil, and salt. Ditto for Wachusett brand potato chips (originally a local New England company, bought out by Utz). Utz's kettle chips used exclusively peanut oil IIRC. This changed in 2021 (or at least the ingredients list on the packaging changed) to read "one of <list of oils>". The latest list for Utz original chips is cottonseed, corn, or sunflower oil (I checked the bag a few days ago before I bought them). Thankfully doesn't include canola, which I loathe. The chips do taste a bit of corn oil--not my favorite but tolerable.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

And yet another Trader Joe product I like: the heirloom chickens. No antibiotics, no hormones, slow-grown, no Dolly Parton breasts, yellow color to the skin like I remember from childhood, and better (richer) flavor.

Thanks for the tip, Jenise. A local farmstand (Lull Farm) around here has similar-sounding chickens that they've raised themselves.

Note that the yellow skin color that Perdue used to tout for their chickens is due to their feeding the birds marigolds.

-Paul W.