Though at first glance one might assume these vibrant cups to be brimming with chopped melons and strawberries, upon further inspection they are actually pieces of pitahaya, or, as it's more commonly known stateside, dragon fruit.
Described as tart-sweet crosses between everything from kiwis to melons to pears, varieties of dragon fruit can range in color from pale to hot pink. Most frequently eaten chilled and chopped -- or scooped directly out of the skin, the fruit is also often used as flavoring for drinks and pastries. Native to Central and South America, the cacti-grown fruit provides fiber and copious amounts of vitamin C, and lowers blood glucose levels. Red-fleshed fruits even contain lycopene, a natural antioxidant known to fight cancer and other diseases.
According to popular legend in Asia, the fruit was purported to have been created by fire-breathing dragons, who would produce the fruit instantly at the end of their fire-breathing bouts. The fruit -- fit for a king -- was gifted to the emperor as a treasured item and sign of victory.
Though by no means a household name yet, the fruit is becoming increasingly available in the United States, from fresh bulbs at farmers' markets in Los Angeles and elsewhere, to dried varieties at Trader Joe's and other specialty-food stores.
Have you tried dragon fruit? Tell us in the comments where -- and in what forms -- you've encountered it.
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I was born in Los Angeles, in the waning months of the seventies. This means that I grew up with easy access to avocados, a Meyer lemon tree in my grandmother's backyard and a Trader Joe's just down the street. Some of my earliest memories of life are intertwined with the Trader Joe's on Colorado Blvd. (in Eagle Rock).
Back in the early days, Trader Joe's was more of a full-service grocery store and had a deli counter where you could order sliced meats and cheeses, as well as made-to-order sandwiches. My father was a huge fan of those sandwiches, and somehow managed to always include reference to Trader Joe's sandwiches in the bedtime stories he told to my sister and me. After my family moved to Portland (before TJ's expanded northward), we'd drive to California at least once a year to visit relative and stock up on precious snacks, juices and dog food from Trader Joe's.
The last two paragraphs were all to say, I love Trader Joe's. My life is inextricably intertwined with the Hawaiian-themed grocery store and so it's no wonder that I was totally charmed by the above video.
Californians, I'm sorry to say this, but it looks like soon you're going to have to pay more for your Two-Buck Chuck. It already costs between $3 and $4 dollars in many of the other states where it's available (sadly, you can't get it for love or money here in Pennsylvania, where the Liquor Control Board regulates our booze purchases with puritanical zeal) and in light of the proposed tax increases in CA, soon there won't be a bottle of red to be hand for just a couple of singles.
For those of you not in the know, Two-Buck Chuck is a wine that is officially known as Charles Shaw and is sold exclusively at Trader Joe's stores. It's surprisingly drinkable for something so inexpensive and has become the tipple of choice for all your better college potlucks and backyard pitchers of sangria.
The price will only rise if a newly proposed tax hike, charging $.05 per drink in the state of California, goes into effect. The state calculates that there are approximately six servings of wine (at five ounces per serving) in a 750 mL bottle of wine. This would increase the state tax per bottle from $.04 to nearly $.30. Two-Buck Chuck works with a very narrow profit margin and this increase would effectly eliminate it.
The good news is that the wine would still remain fairly cheap and the state of California might be able to stave off impending budgetary catatrosphy.
When it comes to assembling the bar for your holiday party, there's a certain list of basics you must have on hand--vodka, gin, whiskey, cola, tonic, etc. Such a bar will certainly serve to make a decent drink and satisfy most customers, but won't add anything special to the festivities. The easiest--and cheapest--way to add a little magic is with unusual mixers. Here's five that will add a twist to your cocktail menu.
1. Canada Dry Sparkling Green Tea Ginger Ale It mixes equally well with bourbon, vodka and light rum and works nicely in a punch. The antioxidants listed on the bottle may come in handy when battling the holidays' excesses, but the large amount of sugar won't help with that Christmas waistline.
2. Sence Rose Petal Nectar If you wish to offer chick drinks that are more Deneuve/Dietrich than Carrie Bradshaw, rose petal nectar can come in handy. Try the elegant American Beauty--not the brandy version, but one made with vanilla vodka, lemon juice and rose petal nectar.
First off, I should probably admit that I'm a huge fan of Trader Joe's. Like many people, I go there every week or two; unlike many people, my pilgrimages involve two 45-minute subway rides and about a mile of walking with armloads of groceries. Even these struggles, however, are worth it, as the great TJs can usually be counted upon to serve up first-rate food at prices that are often half of what I pay in my neighborhood. Better yet, their heavy tendency toward organic (or at least HFCS-free) food has gained them my unending loyalty.
Every time I go to the store, I try to pick up one or two things that I haven't tried before. Recently, I tried out a few of their foil-packed Indian dishes, including their palak paneer. While the food was fresh, the seasoning seemed to be inspired by Campbell's, not Calcutta. They were bland, mainstream, and borderline unpalatable.
This was particularly disappointing, given the fairly high bar that I've set for Indian convenience foods. Years ago, when my wife and I were trying to cut back on our meal expenditures, we started bringing home Gits foil-packed convenience foods from our local international grocery store. The dishes weren't quite as good as the fresh-made food we could get at our local Indian restaurant or the dishes that we made from scratch, but they also retailed for under $2 per pack, which meant that we could eat three dishes and have leftovers for about $6. Moreover, they blew away pretty much any American convience food maker, both in terms of price and quality.
As of now, it's Pomegranate located in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. The 20,000 square feet of shopping space includes aisles full kosher gourmet foods. An article from New York magazine calls Pomegranate a "kosher gourmet megastore." The supermarket seems to be a cross between Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.
Unlike other specialty markets, Pomegranate caters to the thousands of Orthodox Jewish families living in New York City. The store has three kitchens: dairy, meat, and parve (fish, vegetables, fruit and grains). Each has its own on-duty full-time rabbi. Customers can choose from a rich selection of freshly baked challah and homemade cheeses to aged prime beef-rib steaks to an olive bar and sushi bar. The gourmet food market is an obvious business trend. Is the kosher version of Whole Foods the new trend?
I live in Brooklyn, not far from Pomegranate, and I see several smaller gourmet kosher markets on Kings Highway. The prices are not cheap. So, I do not think that Pomegranate will have a hard time competing with existing stores. You can now visit the supermarket that's located on Coney Island Avenue at the corner of Avenue L.
First, let me apologize to every foodie who reads this blog. I deeply regret making this admission: I do sometimes consume microwavable food.
The new obsession is making me do it.
Black bean and jack cheese burritos from Trader Joe's.
I buy three. Over the course of a week, I eat three. I hide them from my kids. They're perfect for lunch. I work from home, blogging, blogging, blogging, and often waiting until my blood sugar is so low I can barely make it down the stairs into the kitchen. With great effort, I reach into the fridge, pull out a burrito, rip open the wrapper and slap it in the microwave. Two minutes later, I'm shoveling cheesy, beany-goodness into my pate.
I normally turn my nose up at such processed food, but (and I speak here as a native Los Angeleno and lifelong burrito lover), these taste pretty darn good. The cheese melts, the beans taste fresh, the tortilla is firm yet moist....it's the next best thing to running out and buying a fresh burrito. And God knows I'm not taking the time to do that.
Give it a try. Keep a couple of these babies in your fridge for when you need a quick bite. You'll be grateful. And let me know what you think.
I grew up in a household that was nearly devoid of junk food. My sister and I each got a single box of sugar cereal each year (on our birthdays), Halloween candy was strictly rationed and bread was dark and made from whole wheat. Potato chips were very definitely a special, once-in-a-very-great-while kind of treat.
Because of the chip control that went on during my childhood, the moments when they did appear on the scene remain present in my memory, even 20+ years later. They became especially associated with roadtrips for me, as my dad would insist that we have some "car snacks" and my mom, who actually loves potato chips, would cave to the special occasion energy.
We'd make a stop at Trader Joe's or some other local natural foods store for thick-cut, kettle cooked potato chips (Kettle Chips play a prominent role in my memories, but the TJ's Hawaiian-style chips also showed up fairly regularly). Handfuls would be carefully doled out to my sister and me in the back seat of the station wagon and we'd slowly crunch our way through our portions. Raina would suck all the salt off the chips before eating, where I'd nibble along the edges, trying to make the treat last as long as possible. We'd ask for seconds and would get them, until my mom determined that we'd all had enough (typically determined by her own salt/grease satiation level), and folded up the bag, tucking it down by her feet for safekeeping.
These days, I occasionally buy a bag of Kettle Chips (I had a salt and vinegar phase during college) but I am untrustworthy around open bags of potato chips. They call to me until I surrender and crunch my way through the entire bag. However, while I do enjoy them, potato chips now are never quite as delightful as those measured handfuls of chips that we'd eat while criss-crossing the highways of the west coast.
Trader Joe's is looking for recipes that are HiiP (Highly Innovative Ingredient Pairings). The requirements are that recipes use up to four Trader Joe's products, no alcohol, and take 20 minutes or less to prepare and cook.
I'm left wondering just how innovative of a recipe they are looking for. Do they want recipes like those featured in the blog event Things that Go Really Well Together that have pairings as unique as white chocolate and caviar, or are they looking for something a bit more mainstream? I'll be very interested to see the results.
If you are in need of inspiration, check out the foodpairing site. Click any food and it will tell you what it best pairs with chemically. Read the rest of the contest details on the Trader Joe's site and enter by May 15th. Good luck!
When I was growing up in Los Angeles, we lived down the street from one of the very first Trader Joe's (Eagle Rock). My family moved up to Portland when I was nine and one of the things that we all missed most was Trader Joe's. My parents, sister and I were all thrilled when the expanded north to Portland. These days I am lucky to live three blocks from the Center City Philly Trader Joe's and do more than half of my grocery shopping there.
I know that there are many folks out there who practically live at their local Trader Joe's and now there's a cookbook expressly for them. Written by Dana Gunn and Wona Miniati, Cooking with all Things Trader Joe's, offers more than 250 pages of recipes and photos in which all the dishes are made with ingredients from TJ's. Their theory is that we could all cook tasty and beautiful meals, if only we hand someone to help with the prep. Trader Joe's becomes your sous chef and these recipes makes it possible to create an array of dishes using just a few things straight off the shelves.
It's a fun book, with lots of big, colorful pictures and easy to understand recipes. It would make a great gift for a new cook or someone who doesn't have a whole lot of time to cook (most of the recipes come together really quickly). For those of you who are thinking about getting yourself a copy, the authors have a special deal to offer Slashfood readers. If you buy it from their website, you can get $5 off if you input the code SLASH5 when you're checking out (this offer is good through April 31st).
Like the folks over at The Grub Report, I've never been a big fan of squash. My sister always makes it on Thanksgiving and Christmas, and after the one person who eats squash has some, it just sits there in its sad little bowl, lonely, getting all cold and runny.
However, I might try this recipe for Butternut Squash-Tossed Pasta. I think it has enough other ingredients where the flavor of the squash will be lessened a bit. It also uses Butternut Squash from Trader Joe's, though I'm going to assume you can use any brand (the Trader Joe's Gorgonzola-Walnut Tortellini is something I'd definitely use, however).
After far, far too long a time with their slow-loading yet content-less website, Trader Joe's has upgraded to something worth visiting. The site now offers a complete look at the history and values of the privately-owned company, as well as the same information on new locations and copies of their latest "Fearless Flyer" newsletter.
The best thing about the site is that they now have a great display of their new items. Once you select your location from the drop-down menu, a page with pictures and descriptions of some of the new products in your area comes up. I already found that Cheddar with Mango, Chile & Lime is a new type of cheese ("one of the most unique cheeses (ever!)") currently being offered, a product I might not have noticed simply stocked on the shelves. They also have a useful FAQ that answers some questions about labels and nutrition, in addition to clearing up the ever-present concern of whether Trader Joe's products will turn you "into a superhero, a professional athlete or one of the great brainiacs of humankind."
Great job with the website overhaul, TJs. We love having a site that we can use!
A banana chip is a thin, deep-fried slice of banana. Once fried, the slightly sweet chips are crisp (often bordering on rock-hard) and oily. Because they look like fruit, some people mistake these for a healthy snack, but they are far from good for you. A one ounce serving has about 150 calories and 9.5 grams of fat, almost all of it saturated.
On Trader Joe's top 100 list, they included something called banana crisps. I only tried them recently, since nearby Trader Joe's seemed to be perpetually sold out of them. Unlike the traditional deep-fried diet disasters, these chips are baked. They are ultra-thin and akin to an ordinary potato chip in both looks and flavor, and actually make a great substitute for regular potato chips because they don't taste very banana-like at all, though they are slightly sweet rather than salty. Best of all, each one ounce (2/3 cup) serving has only 40 calories and 1 gram of fat.
Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Mint Creams tempted me from their plastic containers, stacked appealingly close to me as I stood in line with my other purchases at Trader Joe's over the weekend. After a moment of hesitation, I gave in a tossed a box into my cart. And I am so glad that I did. These little candies are about an inch in diameter and are slightly domed. They taste like a cross between a junior mint and a York peppermint patty, with a filling that is creamy, but with a little bit of texture to it. The difference between those other candies and these is that the TJs dark chocolate shell is much thicker, providing the perfect compliment to the filling and a noticeable chocolate flavor. They're really good when chilled and end up tasting like a minty, bite-sized ice cream treat, which makes them incredibly refreshing (not to mention that it keeps them from melting) on a hot day.
First, let me apologize to every foodie who reads this blog. I deeply regret making this admission: I do sometimes consume microwavable food.
I grew up in a household that was nearly devoid of junk food. My sister and I each got a single box of sugar cereal each year (on our birthdays), Halloween candy was strictly rationed and bread was dark and made from whole wheat. Potato chips were very definitely a special, once-in-a-very-great-while kind of treat. 
After far, far too long a time with their slow-loading yet content-less website, 
A 
Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Mint Creams tempted me from their plastic containers, stacked appealingly close to me as I stood in line with my other purchases at Trader Joe's over the weekend. After a moment of hesitation, I gave in a tossed a box into my cart. And I am so glad that I did. These little candies are about an inch in diameter and are slightly domed. They taste like a cross between a junior mint and a York peppermint patty, with a filling that is creamy, but with a little bit of texture to it. The difference between those other candies and these is that the TJs dark chocolate shell is much thicker, providing the perfect compliment to the filling and a noticeable chocolate flavor. They're really good when chilled and end up tasting like a minty, bite-sized ice cream treat, which makes them incredibly refreshing (not to mention that it keeps them from melting) on a hot day. 
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