Help me shop

[resonant]

So. We're taking a day trip this weekend, and I just might get an opportunity to go to a Trader Joe's. (Those of you who live near big cities or in California can take a break and laugh at those of us who live in flyover country. Go ahead; I'll wait. Just bear in mind that my morning commute takes seven minutes, and that's if all the traffic lights are red.)

So first of all, I want you people who get to shop at TJ all the time to tell me what kind of stuff to buy!

But here's the thing: I'll be three and a half hours from home. I'll have a cooler in the car, but obviously ice cream and milk are out of the question, and I'm thinking soft cheese and produce are probably dubious.

I know they have terrific dried fruit. I'm thinking things like olive oil and various vinegars and sea salt would be good. Puy lentils and other legumey type things.

What else should I be looking for?

Comments

[selkie]

Dry shelf-stable penne alla vodka, satay noodles, vegetable jambalaya, and biryani. Maple leaf cookies. Palmiers. Cranberry apple butter if they have any. Reduced-guilt white cheddar kettle potato chips. Mango or pineapple dried fruit slabs (near the regular fruit leathers). Mint cream UFOs.

Uh, and our dog really loves the organic brown rice and chicken sticks, but he's yuppie scum.

[resonant]

Cranberry apple butter sounds amazing. And I hope your dog does the cooking.

[minnaway]

They have a fantastic aioli garlic mustard sauce.

[resonant]

Sounds delicious. I rarely buy sauces, but I see I'm going to have to make an exception here.

[sara]

Yeah, TJ's produce is basically ass anyhow.

Olive oil, yes, and sauces; snack food stuff; the organic bread and butter pickles are really good; cereal; if you like vitamins, they have a lot; booze (they have a good cheap sake in right now at our local, which I drink very cold, also the Evenus port from Paso Robles is scrumpy).

I dunno what the liquor laws are like at your destination, but in California TJs can sell hard alcohol, and we used to buy whiskey there. Up here, liquor is only sold at the liquor store. Which gives out lollipops to children, which has led to my children complaining, in public, that I don't take them to the liquor store enough. *sigh* That gets me a few hard looks, I'll tell you.

[resonant]

We can buy hard liquor at the grocery store, but neither of us drinks enough to bother buying drinking-type liquor. If you didn't know that alcohol could be used to cook with, I don't know what you'd make of a house that has vermouth (but no gin), sherry, Kahlua, and Grand Marnier, but nothing else.

[neotoma]

I always buy chocolate-covered ginger, but any of their chocolate confections are tasty. The triple-gingersnaps are *excellent*, and any of the Cat Cookies. Also, Schoolhouse cookies if you like snickerdoodles (in alphabet shapes!)

Dried fruit -- wild blueberries, montmercy cherries, cape gooseberries, black currants

Bread -- Alpine loaf (good for French Onion soup)

Grains -- brown jasmine rice, quinoa

In jars -- Green Thai Curry Sauce, Morroccan olives

[resonant]

Oh, I am going to spend so much money. Moroccan olives! My mouth is watering. (I love your bunny icon.)

[j00j]

They have some really tasty sesame snack thingies. I don't remember what they're called, as I also live in flyoverland. In general, the snack stuff tends to be really tempting. Also jarred sauces for Indian food, I hear.

[resonant]

I like sesame snacks, but I can get them here in Cornville. Indian sauces, not so much.

[theantipam]

My favorite indulgence at TJ's is the chocolate covered fruit jelly sticks. They also have fruit jellies without choco. These are definitely candy, not the dried (nutritional) fruit. You can get choco covered cranberries, blueberries, espresso beans, among other temptations.

They also have good prices on dried spices for your kitchen spice rack. Of course we all aspire to using fresh herbs etc, but sometimes they just aren't available. For instance, I just bought a bottle of dried dill for $1.49 US and the regular grocery store sells it for $6 or more.

I second the vote for the triple ginger snaps, and the cat cookies of any flavor - many are low fat.

Also, if you are looking for reusable shopping bags for shopping at any store, TJ's has a couple styles of sturdy and colorful bags for 99 cents each. I bought a dozen and wrote my name on them - they certainly can be used for any of your shopping and carrying needs. My favorite design is the brightly colored surf boards that say Trader Joe's.

Please let us know what you bought, and what you wish you'd bought more of :)

[resonant]

Oh my god. My shopping list is getting longer and longer.

[heuradys]

I can't live without their dried pomelo anymore. The dried hibiscus flowers are different and nummy, too. And I second Selkie's recommendation of the mango or pineapple dried fruit slabs!

In the legumey type things category, I tend to keep a stock of the Harvest Grains blend on hand all the time; Israeli-style couscous, orzo, baby garbanzos, & red quinoa. And snack-wise, the Crunchy Curls, which are lentil & potato, aren't bad, either.

And their cookies....mmmmm....

[resonant]

Ooh, that grain blend sounds a lot like the stuff I used to buy from the Indian Harvest catalog, which is apparently only selling wholesale now. I've missed that stuff.

[kalena]

The truffle candy bars. YES.

I've heard the peanut butter is outstanding.

[resonant]

My first thought was, "Those probably wouldn't survive a long car trip in August."

My second thought was, "No, but they probably won't even make it across the parking lot."

[aseneth]

I'll add my vote for chocolate cats and the chocolate covered jellies, especially the orange ones. Dark chocolate covered raisins. Chocolate covered just about anything, come to that. Pecan bread. Cheese sourdough bread. Maple syrup (best price on half decent quality syrup I know of). Nuts and trail mix. Everything(?) crackers. English Breakfast teabags. Really, it's hard to go wrong.
And of course, there's the "Two Buck Chuck" wine - a number of varieties for $2.99/bottle, all of which has been at least quite drinkable and some surprisingly good.
I bought a huge ice chest for our treks from Texas to Colorado and we stop by the Trader Joe's in Santa Fe on the way back to stock up on frozen food for the next six months; Mandarin Orange Chicken, frozen vegetables, Tempura chicken, cheesecake...

[azurelunatic]

The best friend had to tell me to lay off the orange sticks after my voice had gone up an octave and doubled in speed.

[azurelunatic]

I adore their orange chicken, which is frozen goods. I like their chocolate orange sticks and their chocolate caramels and the chocolate cherries. They also have some pretty good large blocks of chocolate suitable for melting/dipping type purposes as well as eating purposes. Their juices are tasty.

[resonant]

Chocolate seems to be a theme here. I wonder: If I packed the cooler full of zipper bags of ice, would it make it there and back again cold enough to carry chocolate?

[blacksquirrel]

I am packing some of their jam for my move to the hinterlands. Their blueberry and cherry jams, in particular, are pretty much jars of the whole fruits, loosely filled in with gooey goodness - really, the amount of whole fruit in each jar is astounding.

I also love their candied nuts to sprinkle on salads, and their crystallized ginger is absolutely the best - smooth and creamy like I never knew ginger could be.

[resonant]

Wow -- it would never have occurred to me to buy jam. It sounds lovely, though.

[nestra]

We did the same sort of fly-by in June. I got some white chocolate pistachio cookies that were crack. Utter crack.

[resonant]

Oh, yum.

[metron_ariston]

Peanut butter cuuuupppppps! I don't even like Reese's, or peanut butter in general, but they are amaaazing. (The closest Trader Joe's to me is many hundreds of miles away. I haven't been to one since I was too young to have to buy groceries for myself. But I dream of one opening here in Houston, and base my fantasies of where-to-live-someday on Is There A TJ's?)

[resonant]

Huh. I've always been perfectly happy with Reese's. Well, no, that's not really true; the older I get, the fresher a Reese's has to be to make me happy. It would just figure if TJ's peanut butter cups are so good that I could no longer be happy with any Reese's.

[tao]

I go to a Trader Joe's about three hours away in Las Vegas. It's routinely over 100 there and I buy frozen produce. A cooler with ice works wonders.

They sell European style butter that is wonderful for baking. Their dried fruit and nut selection is amazing, as is their chocolate. They sell Valrona at the best price I've seen, and they have these big bars of various chocolates that are wonderful. And so very yes on the chocolate chips.

[resonant]

That's good to know. They're predicting low 90s -- it's the hottest it's been all summer -- but I'll take a cooler up and buy a bag of ice.

I don't know if I'll dare to buy butter, though. (We can get Plugra in the grocery store. Haven't tried it.) But chocolate and chocolate chips sound like a better bet.

[calligrafiti]

They have sesame crackers that are delicious. If you like wine, they have amazingly cheap prices on, by and large, quite decent wines.

[resonant]

I keep telling people, "Oh, but I don't drink wine." But now I'm thinking: these things keep forever if you don't open them, and every now and then I run out of sherry, or need a bottle of red for stew ...

[movies_michelle]

Their Punjab Spinach Sauce is excellent, as is all their sauces. Their naan is also to die for, and essential if you're getting the Punjab Spinach Sauce, anyway. *g*

I always liked getting their cereals, especially their shredded wheat, and their frozen food (though I know that's not ideal in your situation) because they have none of the extra preservatives, and it's cheaper than almost any other cereal out there. If you are looking for frozen stuff, their pot stickers and goat cheese pizzas are TOO DIE FOR. I was also addicted to their chicken rolled tacos, at one point. They also have excellently priced--and looking--tiger prawns, which they sell in ginormous bags which will last forever.

Their peanut butter, both the old fashioned style and regular, are very good: not overly salty, either. I always liked their produce, though most of their boxed fruit and vegetables tend to be pricey, but they're also all organic, so that makes sense.

For baking, I actually used to get most of my staples there. Someone already mentioned their chocolate chips, but their brown sugar is also excellent.

Man, it's been forever since I went to TJ's; I used to live just a few blocks from one, and now that I've moved, they're all on the other side of town--opposite sides of town. I need to make the trip.

[resonant]

I don't think I'll dare take prawns halfway across the state, even on ice -- but the other stuff sounds great.

Bet if I had one in town I'd never go there, either -- and here I am literally planning an all-day road trip just to go to one! (Well, and to try to buy some jeans at a Lands End outlet. Two birds, one stone.)

[way2busymom]

When we make the trek to a TJ's (like you its a usually a 2-3 hr trip to a city with one), I usually stock up on the fire roasted red peppers & the Mocha Java coffee. And the pita chips. OMG the pita chips. Cinnamon, parmesan, seseme seed. Also, their ready to heat soup in a box is great. The black bean one is particularly tasty! We've had good luck transporting cheeses back home too, especially if you have a cooler.

[resonant]

Soup in a box that's actually good? That could be amazing for work lunches. I do have a cooler, and I've heard wonderful things about the little tiny marbles of mozzarella salata.

[giglet]

Okay, so here's the Thing about TJs. (It's ineffable -- no, wait, that's something else.)

It's a fine place to pick up shelf-stable or frozen luxuries at decent prices (for luxuries). It's a terrible place to pick up fresh produce or staples. (Where you are, the dairy may be luxurious -- but I live near the Cabot collective, so I have an alternative source for really good milk products.)

Chocolate chips, dried fruits, all manner of snacks -- all pretty good, made without artificial dyes, anything that floats your boat will probably be fairly good quality. Definitely plan on getting something for the car ride home.

I get chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruit for baking. I also get (refrigerated) wheat tortillas, and "I don't have to think" lunch and dinner items: jarred sauces, soups, etc. Their frozen french onion soup is quite good.

I know that this may not be your thing, but their wine gets me through New England winters. Their Cab. Sauv. isn't great drinking wine, but it makes really really good mulled wine. (Nuke a mug full with some cinnamon, cloves, and cranapple juice.) Their white wines are (I'm told), good for summer spritzers. $3 for a drinkable bottle of wine is *excellent*.

[resonant]

Sounds a lot like the Fresh Market where my parents live, actually -- except that anything you buy at the Fresh Market is going to cost three times as much as it would if you bought it elsewhere. (I can live with this when it's hormone-free organic milk, but not so much when it's Nabisco vanilla wafers, you know?)

I've been resisting the wine, as neither of us drinks it, but I do cook with it ...

[copperbadge]

Find their store brand garlic aioli mustard. It's often stored above the freezer case or with the mustards. Doesn't need refrigeration until it's opened. It's AWESOME.

Also the thumbprint cookies with the dollops of chocolate in the middle, and the chocolate-covered salted caramels (blue box, lighthouse drawing on it). Good shit!

Their naan is also decent, as are their crumpets. :)

[resonant]

You're the second person to mention that redundantly named but apparently delicious garlic aioli sauce. And salted caramels! Which I hear about in the hinterlands but can't have unless I learn to make them myself!

Their naan is also decent, as are their crumpets

is (1) a sentence that has probably never been typed before in the history of writing and (2) almost iambic pentameter to boot.

[isis]

I join you in solidarity! My nearest Trader Joe's is, apparently, four hours away. (I've never been.)

[resonant]

There was a rumor for a while that the strip mall nearest our house was going to get one, but I never believed it for a minute. If they put one in in Corntown, it would be in one of the big new malls out near Rich Corntown Suburb, not down here with the rent-to-owns and the payday loans.

[mtl]

Most of my favs are covered above, but...

-- Dunkers (choc chip cookies made for dunking)
-- Pretzel Thins
-- ends & pieces dried fruit (not always available; the company that provides the TJs fruit bars takes the ends & pieces and packages them - all very yummy!)
-- dried mango bits (no added sugar!)
-- Trader Jose's chicken taquitos (frozen)
-- crustless quiches (the chorizo one is vegetarian and quite yummy for brekkie) (also frozen)

[resonant]

Unsweetened dried mango is absolutely impossible to find in grocery stores, and I hate to buy something that's allegedly healthy and then discover it's full of sugar (or, worse, high-fructose corn syrup).

[myalexandria]

is there a reason you can't carry a bag or two of non-frozen goods in the backseat or something? If it's in the body of the car with you and the air conditioning, chocolate, yogurt, soft cheeses, and other non-frozen stuff should do totally fine.

[resonant]

Somehow I was remembering that the trunk is cooler than the car when the car is parked, and not recalling that when the car is running, I keep it cool enough for me! That opens up all sorts of possibilities. I've already cleaned the cooler and removed all the miscellanea from the trunk.

[pi]

You've probably already left for the store, but on the off chance that you'll be going again sometime and refer to this post, or something...
their Yogurt Covered Pretzels are to die for. My mother and I can't open a bag without it being gone in the next ten minutes, so delicious.
On the dried fruit count I second the unsweetened mango, also dried pears are delicious.
Honey Sesame Cashews are also a really good, tasty snack.
And finally, I don't know if you can do frozen food, but the Trader Joe's where I am as these shrimp gyoza (vegetable too if you're a vegetarian) they come in yellow and green bags with images of the food on the front and they're fantastic, they get bought out quickly however, because local restaurants will come in and buy them in bulk, but whenever we find them we buy three or four bags.

[resonant]

Nope, I'm leaving early tomorrow morning. Will I like dried pears if I don't like fresh pears? Wasn't I happier not knowing Honey Sesame Cashews existed?

[starfishchick]

WHY do they not have Trader Joe's in flyover land? Or in CANADIA!!!

[resonant]

Because the universe is a cold and unfeeling place?

Because here in Corntown my best friend refers to chicken salad made with Granny Smith apples as "freakshow food" and won't taste it?

[basingstoke]

Grade B maple syrup! So good.

I feel so spoiled, we have one right in town that I never get to. But it's on the OTHER SIDE of town, see...

[auctasinistra]

Yes, I second how good their maple syrup is!