I eat!
My daughter loves Trader Joe’s Mandarin Orange Chicken, which she eats on rice, so I thought she might enjoy this Mandarin Style Orange Chicken Bowl as well, and save herself the trouble of having to heat up the chicken and the rice separately. Alas, she didn’t. She didn’t explain why she didn’t like it – but I’m noting it here so I know not to buy it for her again.
Safeway has these cinnamon rolls with cream cheese icing on sale for $2.50 every few Fridays (regular $6), and I got them several weeks ago. They are very good – as long as you microwave them first. They are semi-freshly made, so they don’t have the annoying, metallic preservative taste of the ones that come in a can and you need to bake yourself. They are obviously not as good as home made ones, but they don’t require the work either.
I love cream cheese frosting, so I loved this, but it is ridiculously sweet, so I can’t eat more than a bite. Still, it’s a very good bite.
Every Friday, Safeway has a bunch of items for $5 – among them, a bakery item. They usually rotate among a half a dozen of choices, but I was happy to find a new item this week: cube cakes. These are large, 13 oz, square portions of tall layered cakes in several flavors. They usually sell for $8. Obviously, they are large enough to share.
My closest Safeway didn’t actually have any of these available on Friday, so I had to get them from the larger Safeway a few miles away. It was worth it. The Tuxedo Truffle Cube Cake, at least, was absolutely delicious. You’d be happy to get it as a dessert at any restaurant.
The cake included layers of moist white and chocolate (I think) cake, and chocolate and cream cheese mousses. The chocolate ganache layer on top was absolutely delicious, it tasted of a deep chocolate fudge, but the strong flavor was mellowed by the rest of the lawyers. The cake was lighter than it looked and just tasty.
My daughters love Madelines. I started getting them for them when they were very little and we’d stop at Zocalo coffeehouse for a snack and play. The little cookies/cakes were the ideal size for toddler and preschoolers and even elementary age kids. Plus being small, they weren’t too expensive.
For quite a while now, Safeway has been selling these overjoyed/Safeway Select madelines boxes, baked by Sugar Bowl Bakery. I buy them for my daughter when they go on sale for $5, which happens every few Fridays. She loves them. They taste very much like the ones she remembers from her childhood. They are like a dryer, denser sponge cake, hard enough to withstand dipping but soft enough to eat on their own. Flavor wise, they are better and much cheaper than the ones we got at Trader Joe’s.
I first tried almond croissants at the Berkeley store of the now defunct La Petit Boulangerie chain when I was in college. As a starving student, these were a special treat which I’d allow myself once in a great while, but I absolutely loved them. Since then, almond croissants have had a special place in my heart, though I seldom get them.
I came across these Almond Croissants at Trader Joe’s during a recentish trip and picked them up without much thought. When I finally went to make them, I realized that it wasn’t a simple endeavor. I had to let them defrost overnight and only then I could bake them. I was frustrated, so I took them out from the freezer and put them in the fridge and waited a couple of days before touching them. As I looked at the instructions more carefully, I realized that I had to actually let them rise at room temperature, on a pan, separated from each other, for nine hours before this baking process – which I did swearing I’d never buy these again. Alas, after making them, I changed my mind.
These croissants tastes exactly like the real thing. Maybe not as good as my memories of the ones from La Petit Boulangerie, but similar to other almond croissants I’ve had since. The dough was very light with a bit of a bready taste, but one that grew on me. The almond filling was very tasty. I’ll definitely get them again next time I go to Trader Joe’s.
Trader Joe’s reviews
Every time I go to Trader Joe’s, I pick up one desert to try, and in one of my trips it was the frozen Chocolate Lava cakes. It must be one of Trader Joe’s worst desserts. The cakes were dry, with very little chocolate flavor. On the plus side, I did save calories by not eating more than couple of bites. I made one first according to the instructions, and then a second one with less time, but both were failures.
They sell for $3.80 for 2 individual cakes.
Trader Joe’s Reviews
A few weeks ago, I decided to give Amazon Fresh a try and order groceries to be delivered at home. I was particularly interested in trying their house brands, to see how they measured against others. In general, I was disappointed – and this was particularly true with the Aplenty Gnocchi with Tomato & Mozzarella frozen entree.
Much has been written about how Amazon is trying to compete with Trader Joe’s by copying its most successful products – something which it does with products that third-party vendors sell through its site. This particular item, seems to be a knockoff of Trader Joe’s Gnocchi alla Sorrentina, which has been a favorite of mine for almost twenty years. Alas, it does not succeed.
Unlike Trader Joe’s gnocchi, this one comes with tomatoes instead of tomato sauce. This means that there isn’t enough moisture in the dish to help the gnocchi plump up and lighten. Instead, they are heavy and dense. Moreover, the tomatoes don’t do much to flavor the gnocchi, and neither does the cheese, which remains in clumps. The result is a heavy, not very tasty dish. I would not get it again.
It sells for $3.80, so it’s even about 20% more expensive than the gnocchi at Trader Joe’s.
Port Salut is a semi-soft cow’s milk cheese developed by monks from the Port-du-Salut Abbey in the 19th century. It is now produced commercially.
While the cheese is not as soft as brie and the like, it is spreadable enough. It has a stronger flavor than brie, a bit more “rotten,” but it was quite enjoyable. In all, I think I prefer the consistency of brie, however.
A few weeks ago, Safeway had On the Rocks Cocktails on sale for $5 for the 375 ml (12 oz) bottle. I’m not much of a cocktail drinker – I don’t like the taste of alcohol – but I figure it was worth trying a few. I got the Cosmopolitan, the espresso martini, the Margarita and the jalapeño pineapple Margarita – the latter two for my husband.
A cosmopolitan is a simple cocktail of sweetened cranberry juice, lime juice, vodka and orange liqueur. It was the favorite cocktail of Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City, and that’s probably why I finally tried it some years ago. And I liked it. If you’re lucky, the sweetness masks the alcohol and makes it easy to drink.
In that sense, On the Rock’s cosmopolitan is initially successful. The alcoholic taste is pretty well masked by the sweetness and acidity in the drink. It does, however, burn a little going down the throat. That makes it feel unbalanced. Still, I’ll buy it again if I see it on sale again.
The 375ml bottles are usually $13 at Safeway and $11 at Target.
Chi’s Chinese Cuisine is my nephews’ favorite Chinese restaurant – or maybe, their favorite restaurant ever – so that’s what they requested we get one evening during my family trip to LA. I couldn’t think of anything better, so I ordered from there. It was a simple enough process and pretty quick.
First, I got a Dim Sum Sampler ($15) which came with Har Gow, Siu Mai, Steamed Chicken Dumplings and Char Siu Bao. I had the mini steamed chicken dumplings and they were quite good, though, as usual, with too little filling. My husband had the rest of the dumplings and he found them unremarkable.
My nephews’ favorite dish is the sweet and pungent chicken ($18) described as “lightly breaded white meat chicken with a sweet sauce. and just a touch of spice.” We ordered both a regular and a spicy version, but they all tasted the same – as described. Spicy enough to thrill a seven year old, but not to scare him. Beyond that, the favor was similar to a sweet and sour chicken, a but more sour and less sweet. I could stand a few pieces, but the breading becomes overwhelming beyond that.
I ordered the roasted duck ($22), and I’d say it was OK. It wasn’t as dry as I feared, but it was super moist either. The flavor was pretty standard, with the amount fat you’d expect. I don’t know, I just wasn’t into it. Neither was Mike. Maybe I’ve upgrown this dish.
Mike ordered the cashew chicken ($13.50) and substituted the vegetables for extra chicken ($3). It was good but pretty standard. There was a good amount of cashews and the sauce was flavorful.
My BIL had the Mongolian beef ($15.55). This was probably my favorite dish of the night. The beef was tender and the sauce was very flavorful. I’d order this one again.
Finally, my sister ordered the vegetable chow mein ($14.25). It was just OK – it lacked flavor.
In all, I felt that the food at Chi’s was pretty standard but was surprised at how expensive it is for the amount and flavor of the food. Perhaps they use higher quality ingredients or pay their workers better. Without knowing that, though, I just felt I overpaid.
Chi's Chinese Cuisine
9635 Reseda Blvd, Northridge
(818) 886-6928
W - M 11 AM - 9:30 PM
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