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Category: Food Items (Page 5 of 26)

Father’s Table Variety Cheesecake review

August 8, 2024 / / 0 Comments

OK when it’s on sale

The Father’s Table is a company based in Florida which makes commercial cheesecakes and roll cakes for sale at Safeway and other supermarkets. Their 6″, 1lb cheesecake sampler goes on Friday sale at Safeway every few weeks for $5 (from an $11 regular price), along with their Signature Select cheesecake sampler, and I often get it then. Safeway makes many of their products at home, but given the similar packaging, pricing and taste of this cheesecake with the Safeway Brand, I’m betting Safeway’s cheesecake sampler is manufactured by The Father’s Table as well.

This is an OK, but not great, cheesecake. First, the cake is too thick and too dry. This particularly variety has a chocolate flavored cake, which is somewhat better than the graham one, but still not a winner.

The cheesecake itself is competent but not wonderful. It’s a little on the firm side, and with so many additional flavors, its not always easy to detect that of the cheesecake itself. Still, as an occasional treat it’s not bad. Particularly for $5.

Trader Joe’s Carne Asada Burritos Review

August 6, 2024 / / 2 Comments

These al-beef burritos miss the mark

I was excited when I saw these Carne Asada Burritos at Trader Joe’s. I love all-meat burritos and these ones seemed to be just that. Indeed, all they have is chopped meat cooked with chilis and cilantro. Unfortunately, I wasn’t thrilled with either the taste or the consistency.

I heated them up in the microwave according to instructions, wrapping them in a moistened paper towel and heating them for 2 minutes. The tortilla wrapping was hard in parts and not as chewy and elastic as I want flour tortillas to be. Also, as the burritos are rather small, they were wrapped two or three times around the filling, making them too thick.

The filling itself was too spicy and too wet for my taste. It had some nice smokiness, but it was otherwise under seasoned. All in all, I wouldn’t get them again.

The 14oz package with 2 burritos costs $5.



See other reviews of food items at Trader Joe’s.

Trader Joe’s Super Strawberry Sorbet Review

August 6, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Good but Generic

When I grew up in Argentina, ice cream was a special occasion treat. It was a time when home freezer weren’t good enough to keep it frozen, so commercial brands specialized in cones and bars that you’d buy and eat as you went. When we wanted ice cream, we had to go to the ice-cream store. And it was (and is!) expensive – a treat we’d only get after we got our report cards (fortunately they came every two months during the school year).

I’d always order a cone with dulce de leche granizado ice cream and either pineapple or strawberry sorbet. I’ve been chasing those memories of those amazing sorbets ever since – nothing can ever match those childhood memories.

It’s thus not surprising that Trader Joe’s Super Strawberry Sorbet didn’t come close either. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, with bright, intense strawberry flavor. But it’s a tad too sweet, a tad too creamy, and a tad too processed. On the plus side, I didn’t like it enough to feel compel to eat more than few spoons of it.

What turned me off more than anything was the texture. I think the weird creaminess comes from the maltodextrin, a high glycemic index carb which acts as a binder and adds a gummy texture.

The pint package was $4, which is cheaper than supermarket brands at regular price (but I only buy ice cream when it’s on sale).

Good & Gather Classic Guacamole Review

August 6, 2024 / / 0 Comments

This Target product is completely generic

I’m a huge fan of guacamole but not of either the price or having to make it myself – so, on occasion, I buy commercial guacamole. Mostly I’m disappointed by the processed flavor, so little unlike real guacamole. Target’s Good & Gather classic guacamole suffers from exactly that fault: it tastes just like all those other commercial products. Given that it’s made from only avocados and distilled vinegar (with less than 2% of water, jalapeños, salt, dehydrated onions and granulated garlic), I’m guessing that the offensive flavor comes from the vinegar. That makes sense as home made, fresh guacamole is made with lemon juice, but vinegar is cheaper and probably helps preserve the guacamole for longer.

Preservation is an issue with guacamole, which is why I got the singles this time – as once you open the package, the guacamole is likely to oxidize quite quickly.

Good & Gather also makes a homestyle guacamole, which has lime juice instead of vinegar. I might try this one next time – but it doesn’t come in individual packages.

The package of six 2-oz cups of guacamole was $4, the 10-oz tub is the same price (so you get 2 extra ounces for the same price if you buy the singles).

Trader Joe’s Raisin Rosemary Crisps Review

August 6, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Trader Joe’s makes these crisps in several flavors: fig & olive, strawberry & jalapeño, stollen – a raisin & lemon and orange peel holiday flavor – and raisin rosemary. I tried the latter and I’m a fan.

These bready looking crackers are very, very crispy – though buttermilk is their first ingredient. They probably need a bit more salt, though I imagine that’s supposed to be provided by whatever you dip them in. I very much liked the hints of rosemary flavor and the sweetness of the flavor.

I ate them with hummus, which wasn’t the best combination, as the flavors didn’t really meld, but I think they’d be great with cheese. I’ll definitely get them again.

They were $4 at our Trader Joe’s.

Ingredients are buttermilk, wheat flour, cane sugar, sunflower seeds, raisins, flax seeds, millet, sesame seeds, baking soda, salt, dried rosemary and black pepper. They have 90 calories per 11 crackers, with 16 g carbohydrates, 6 g sugar, 125 mg sodium, 2.5 g of fat and 3 g of protein. They’re made in Canada.

See reviews for other Trader Joe’s products.

O Organics Traditional Hummus Review

August 5, 2024 / / 0 Comments

A good, solid hummus

I wasn’t a huge hummus fan back when I first tried it, during my year abroad in Egypt. I much preferred tahini by itself. Over the years, however, hummus has grown on me, and I often have it as a snack. I’ve tried a lot of different brands, and I can’t say that any of them stand out. Then again, why would they? Hummus is just a mixture of chickpeas, tahini (sesame paste) and oil, with some salt, lemon juice and garlic for flavor. There are, of course, a wide array of flavored hummuses – but I prefer the traditional.

Organics is one of the home brands for Safeway/Vons supermarkets (currently owned by Albertsons, slated to be sold to Kroeger’s). This O Organics traditional hummus was pretty good, though not special. It’s smoother and has a less chalky consistency than other commercial hummus, and a it features a brighter lemon juice flavor – even though lemon was listed as the next to last ingredient. It also does contain citric acid. The flavor was smooth, and it seemed to have a good ratio of chickpeas to tahini. It uses canola oil, which is not the best, however.

At $6 for the 10-oz tub it’s on par with other supermarket hummuses (which have become quite expensive lately), but I bought it on sale for $4. I’ll get it again when it’s on sale, but I wouldn’t pay full price for it (or for hummus in general – there is usually a brand on sale, or I can just get it at cheaper stores).


Trader Joe’s Gnocchi alla Sorrentina Review

August 5, 2024 / / 2 Comments

A family favorite for twenty years

Update 9/24. The last batch of these gnocchi we bought – and it was several packages – was a failure. The gnocchi themselves were dense and crumbly. It felt as if they had used too much flour, or perhaps changed the quality of the ingredients. I hope it was just a bad batch, as they are close to inedible in the present iteration. I’ll probably wait a while before buying more, to make sure I don’t get more from the same batch.

Trader Giotto’s Gnocchi alla Sorrentina has been a favorite in my family for almost twenty years. My mother introduced me to these gnocchi when my oldest daughter was a toddler, and we have all enjoyed them over the years. We don’t go to Trader Joe’s frequently (parking is a pain), but when we do, we bring back many bags of this gnocchi.


The gnocchi are made in Italy and come in packages of plain gnocchi and pats of frozen sauce and cheese. When these melt, on the stove or in the microwave, they cover the gnocchi with the sauce.

They’re really as good as home made. Indeed I was surprised, when I finally made the home made version, how similar it was to the packaged ones. At $3 per package, they are probably just as cheap as making them yourself.

The gnocchi can be dense if you cook them uncovered in the microwave, so cover them or heat them on the stove. The sauce has a bright, tomato flavoring and just enough cheese – I actually wonder if less than in the past. It’s just good.

Trader Joe’s Lemon Baton Wafer Cookies Review

August 4, 2024 / / 1 Comment

Delicious!

Trader Joe’s Lemon Baton Wafer Cookies are special treat. If you are restricting sugar or calories, or simply watching your wallet, just one cookie provides such a burst of flavor – in addition to a satisfying crunch, to satisfy a craving for sweets. While the lemon flavor is very intense, it’s neither overly sweet or sour, just perfectly lemony.

They come in a very well sealed tube. At $2.30 for the tube, they’re pretty affordable – as long as you don’t eat them all in one sitting (which I’m proud to say, I didn’t).

Trader Joe’s Mini Cheese Sandwich Crackers Review

August 4, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Close but no cigar

I’m a huge fan of Ritz bits cheese crackers, so when I saw these Mini Cheese sandwich crackers at Trader Joe’s, I thought I’d give them a try.

They are OK. The cheese is a bit saltier and more bitter, with a somewhat unpleasant after taste.

They’re still quite addictive, however.

At $3.30 for the 7.5 oz box, they’re 1/3 cheaper than Ritz bits, which sell for at Safeway for $5.80 for the 8.8 oz box (so 44c/oz vs 66c/oz) – though last time I got them at Safeway they were on sale for under $2.

Trader Joe’s Gnocchi al Gorgonzola review

August 3, 2024 / / 0 Comments

A favorite for over twenty years

I discovered Trader Giotto’s Gnocchi al Gorgonzola twenty years ago, when my oldest was a toddler. She loved them then and still loves now. And so do I.

Pasta often has problems surviving the freezing and heating up process, and Trader Joe’s solved this by freezing the pasta in little slices, which it then intermixes with the gnocchi. As they defrost, the melted sauce coats them.

This dish, as you can imagine, is on the heavy side, but the sauce is delicious. It doesn’t have a very strong Gorgonzola flavor – otherwise my kids wouldn’t like it – just enough to brighten the sauce. It’s ridiculously caloric, so something to eat only once in a while. It sells for $3.50

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