Clearly there's a core of afficionados of the finer things. I've subscribed to the maxum that life is too short to swill the cheap sh¡t and If you can't afford the good stuff you shouldn't be kicking back until you can anyway. So, Bacchus and gods of Meade have smiled upon many in the form of Trader Joe's. TJs provides interesting food and drink at very good prices. They sell Fat Tire for instance. They also sell "off label" items like Admiral Joe's Gin. They can't tell you who makes it for them ($8/750ml) due to marketing agreements but they caution that too much could leave you "bombed at the bay." Wink wink. Personally, as we consume about 2gal/day of non-fat or 1% milk their policy of no rBST dairy means my girls get to remain girls for their entire childhoods with no hormone ingested early menarche. Two Buck Chuck is kinda lame but Peter's Brand beer is top notch and half the grocery store prices. Blue corn tortilla chips with Califonia mild cheddar melted on top... mmmm. Hey, we can't be all hate all the time. Say something positive.
58 comments:
"Hey, we can't be all hate all the time. Say something positive."
. . . 0 Comments. We're not that pessimistic, are we?
Case of Fat Tire can be had a Costco also. :)
That's positive comment, right?
I am positive the coming crash will be lots of fun! And I mean that most sincerely!
There's a Trader Joe's in the city I live in and also in the city I work in so I stop in every so often to get some of my favorite things: Trader Joe's Hummus (so fucking good), Flax Tortilla Chips (yum), and their Cashew/Cranberry Trail mix. They also carry a really good Shampoo/Condish but I can't remember the name of it.
I heart Trader Joe's.
I’m also quite fond of TJ’s, but I really wish they delivered. The agoraphobia-inducing one in my area is constantly crowded and full of pushy people who will happily push me aside with their shopping cart as they grab the last case of TJ’s Natural Mountain Spring water (with the handy sports cap).
Trader Joe’s: If you’re reading, please start an online home delivery service.
Thanks
I LOVE Trader Joe's. I go out of my way to shop there quite frequently just for their fresh mozzarella and other delicious nummy treats.
Nice wine selection too.
One time I stopped at the Paso Robles brewery. Thay had huge stacks of Jumping Cow and Fat Toad, brewed under contract. Has since changed hands, but still is a good stop over if in the Paso/SLO area.
http://www.firestonewalker.com/sections/drink_firestone/pasorobles_taproom.html
And something more current...
http://www.thebrewsite.com/2005/07/19/trader_joes_beer.php
They just opened a Trader Joe's here in Pittsburgh. I gotta say, though, I wasn't too impressed. Their selection is kind of small. I prefer Whole Foods, although WF is much more expensive so I don't go there as often. Since I'm in PA, we can't buy beer or wine at grocery stores. I'd probably like TJ's much better if that was possible.
Mix lb of orzo, with 4 tubs of tomato bisk soup from Trader Joes, & 2 containers of Lime seasoned chicken strips (cut up in small pieces) from Trader Joes, & you have delicious orzo pasta wonderflly seasoned meals that will last you a week....
PS
San Luis Obisbo has a transit system called SLO Transit.
Just don't drive behind any busses belonging to the Area Rapid Transit in Port Hueneme.
The joke is that Camarillo Area Transit is just past South Coast Area Transit. CAT & SCAT.
Anyone recognize "Rick" on IAFF; comment #45?
He nailed the SOB.
If one happens to live somewhere that isn’t chock-full of obnoxious a$$hats, perhaps a trip to TJ’s isn’t such a nightmarish experience. Any suggestions where that might be?
K, I guess I’m not being very positive. I love the Indian dinners in the silver pouch. That stuff last forever. I’ve eaten perfectly decent Daal that was 5 years past the expiration date.
Rob,
Looks as if Nigel is mad at you.
#
70. Nigel Swaby
March 15th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
#41 “Rob Dawg”
nigel involved in the wrap?
Rob Dawg my dear, mortgage brokers don’t do wraps as there is no new institutional lender involved. Only real estate agents use wraps since they get paid their commissions. Only a title company/property attorney can actually execute a wrap.
Just like you, I did not know Casey until I ran across his blog. Until last week, I had never even met him.
Your question is a red herring meant only to cast doubt on me. You know the truth. Here is my answer for this board to see.
Nigel
"It has been said before but, we aren’t here to learn from you or even to consider your opinions, we’re here so for the entertainment value."
Spot. Fucking. On.
Bravo.
Turnip Head is now pontificating. Joy. I really need to know what a habitual liar pre-felon thinks about *anything*.
College for me a was a safe environment to devlop my skills and take chances where my income and family were not on the line, it gave me the tools to hit the streets with confidence I could handle what was coming and not curl up in a fetal position the minute there were problems.
Working through college running a dorm building taught me how to juggle and *budget* my time, and to get my shit together working a 24-hour a day on call job AND a full credit load.
Those are lessons Casey will never learn, as he's lazy, a craven coward, and marginally retarded. I've seen disabled young adults accomplish much much more from halfways houses with severe learning disabilities than Murse Boy.
My loathing for him finds new depths daily. I not only want him jailed...I want him HUMBLED.
And failing that, i want to make him cry. I've never wanted to humiliate anyone like this, ever.
@The Original Kevin™
You cook too?
You're damn-near perfect. Can I make a trade-in?
Holy moly, Batman!
I have found common ground with Nigel on something. Good lord!:
#
68. Nigel Swaby
March 15th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Stick with speaking about what you know Casey. One semester in community college doesn’t qualify you as an expert in this arena and it’s insulting to the people who did go to school for four years or more.
Let us know about the unaccounted for Utah payment and possible short sales on your two remaining properties.
Nigel
------------------------
Gasp! He's right though, I was going to post something similar that was going to tell Casey he has no experience to be making judgements about college. Me thinks he is also regretting not going or why else would he pontificate on the matter?
Once your passive income exceeds your earned income then you can retire early (if you want) with true financial security. You will not be dependent on your employer or the government to take care of you. That is a good thing!
Wow, Casey. I'm so thankful for the tip! What a wonderful tidbit of valuable knowledge to use for my life... I can see how well it worked for you!
(that's a positive statement, through and through)
WOW Trader Joes, Jambia Juice, wtf mate, never heard of either.
I am far, far from Trader Joes.
Ah, how I miss it. Thanks for drawing up the image for me.
Just overly trendy places with overpriced 'organic' crap.
I have never heard of Trader Joe's until this very instant. I am, however, located close to one WalMart, two KMarts, several Krogers, and, uh, that's about it. I buy whatever's cheapest, even if it tastes like crap 'cause I just don't care.
Steph J,
The best cooks don't cook they delegate. Start 'em young and specialize their skillz. Oldest can salad and veggie platter. Makes a wicked dill dip in sourdough bread bowl. Middle can core a pineapple and juce anything that doesn't try to slither away. Both can make brownies and fudge. Sent them to 4H where they learned to make frosting flowers and all that. Littlest is still in the boil and slice phase. Unfortunately those little boogers are learning all my tricks like "secret bbq sauce" and "slaving over a hot smokey grill" are total canards. Think Jack Russells with thumbs and access to the internet. Scary. ;-)
My faves at TJs...
Blasmaic glaze - amazing. Yuuuummmmmm!
Dried wild blueberries to sprinkle on my Heart to Heart Kashi cereal
Lemongrass chicken little appetizer things (freezer)
Morbier cheese at 1/2 the price of Whole Wallet
Single serve spinach lasagne - a single gals's dream dinner date
Pink grapefriut Italian soda
bemused guy said...
I am far, far from Trader Joes.
Ah, how I miss it. Thanks for drawing up the image for me.
Until they opened in Boston a few years ago we would send care packages of pesto sauce and basalmic vinegar and blue corn chips to friends "back east." It was fair as they shipped back "Birch Beer" (wintergreen soda) and Marshmallow Fluff in exchange.
Dawg: "Middle can ... juice anything that doesn't try to slither away" - as opposed to Casey who juices and slithers?
Trader Joe's is not a trendy organic food store, that's Whole Foods. TJ's makes original recipe foods usually from local suppliers, and has better prices than Whole Foods or any of the trendy stores. I have one locally and I go often, as they have specialty food that the local Safeway/Costco complex can't deliver.
I enjoy cooking too, and TJ's is a great place to find teh hard to get items and ingredients. Usually a trip to Whole Foods just ends up with me pissed off and disgusted with the patrons of that joint - uptight, arrogant ex-hippies who think, why, yes, my shit does not stink.
You get TJ's, or you don't. I pity those that don't.
Eth Real,
Yes, you got the joke. Good catch.
Anon,
Yes, you either "get" TJs or not. Bowtie rainbow whole wheat pasta in the sausage sauce or chunk vegiies sauce whatever flaots your boat. Ohhh, the frozen lime juice bars. On and on...
Stephanie J™ @ 2:02...
ahah... that recipe, you know, I perfected over yrs & yrs! Finally... finally... after suffering long & hard in the kitchen in the finest chef schools in the land (okay I'm lying), I discovered the magic that is a pot, water & microwave!
Let's not forget the cheesecake. I bring a few for my friends and family located in areas which do not have a store. EVERYBODY loves them...
Unfortunately there's no Trader Joe's near here. I'd crawl over broken glass for a few jars of their bolognese sauce.
You can find better buys on whole bean coffee than Trader Joe's but you'll have to look hard.
Costco and Bevmo generally have better buys on spirits.
Beer at both Trader Joe's and Bevmo is all but always skunked. Californians generally can't tell the difference.
Wine can be a good buy. I used to like to pick up one each of anything under $5 and then go back for a case or two of anything that turned out to be good.
Cheese is often a good buy at TJs, though their selection is pretty middlebrow. Same for chocolate.
For other dairy products, however, milk, cottage cheese, yogurt, etc. TJ's is the go-to place.
Their breads are worth trying. Overrated IMO.
Their Tongol Tuna (get the salted kind in the pale green cans) is really nice stuff at about the price that albacore goes on sale for elsewhere.
Their tomatillo salsa is good.
I also like the prepared salads but they're no great buy. Neither are the frozen french onion soups, but they're another great convenience.
The ices in the fruit shells (lemon, orange, and coconut) are pretty good and people will ooh and ah over them.
Oh c'mon Ogg - pls rewrite our last comment in Cavemanese... give me a laugh....
Ogg, that's the sausage crumble pasta sauce I mentioned right? Or am I missing something?
Oh, and a favorite passtime from 23 years ago. We'd go and buy 2-3 bottles of the cheapest "Meteor Specials" they had. In those days they'd actually say "67 cases in Manhattan Beach" and such. $1.49, $2.19, wow, some $2.49 extravagances. We'd have a meteor party and take a small taste of each. Sometimes this meant sip, spit and por the rest down the sink. Other times we'd finish all the bottles and scheme to go back and get a case before anyone else.
I could eat their vegetable bruschetta topping from the bottle.
I downloaded Fedora Core 6. It's brilliant. I am not sure if I should use KDE or GNOME, though.
Also, The Algebraist, by Iain Banks was a very good book.
Well, thanks EN'ers.
Now, I am going to go EAT something really tasty and have a nice glass of Yellow Tail Shriaz or a smoothie.
TTFN (:
@Rob
Are you subjecting your poor little offspring to child labour?
Steph I just love it when you talk all british...
Penzey's Spices. They're opening more and more retail stores, but they really got going as a mail-order business. I hope they're not expanding too fast, because their stuff is quality and kicks some serious spice/herb butt
Steph J,
Damn straight, child labor. Got the littlest one right now at this very moment tightening the hex bolts on the new cabana. Waited for the tent thingy to go on sale at Target and used a 10% coupon. Now I'm assembling it in between a revised 2005 tax return, a 500Gb linux server config and Win 2k laptop config.
Look the miserable urchins are thrice hobbled by genetics (bad choice of dad), epoch (bubble Amerika) and locational (SoCal ground zero) issues. The least I can do is provide an environment of adversity to to counteract those factors.
Three words:
TWO BUCK CHUCK!!!!
The nearest Trader Joe's is about a four-hour round trip for me. I'm jealous. I can occasionally find stuff that surprises and delights in the International aisle at Meijer, like unique, off-brand salsa or Swedish cookies.
My cooking skills are only slightly more developed than Li'l Dandelion's investment skills, though, so I eat out a lot.
I resolved to eat at no chain restaurants on the road trip I recently took, and am trying to recreate the Cajun butter I had at a restaurant along the way.
Four words:
TWO BUCK CHUCK UP!!!
Har on two buck Chuck. It's really not bad. About par with a decent box wine with the middle-class snob appeal of a cork.
Peter's Beer: is that Peter's Pilsner? The dutch stuff? Back going on 20 years ago it was like, $3 for a 24-can flat at TJ's. I drank a fair amount of it in college : it was a steal at that price. Now they have it for near-premium prices and it hasn't tempted me.
In oz, cheap wine is called plonk.
Just listen while you yank out the cork. I'ts an onomatopoeic thing.
And the YellowTail Cab. is pretty satisfying. Check out some of the other critter wines, (Swan, etc.)
PLONK Wine. From French Vin blanc, white wine, although the expression may also be derived from the firm of Plonques, importers of a particularly reprehensible brand of Algerian red wine.
Tito's vodka at ~18$ is a great buy. Double gold at SF spirits festival.
I've decided to share my guilty (and sometimes not so guilty) pleasures after hearing all about those wonderful nummy things:
The alcoholic kind:
-Inexpensive Australian Shiraz
-Alsatian Whites
-Calvados
-Chilean Cabernet
-The Occasional snip of Chivas
-Duvel; Palm and Bols when it's cold; but all three of those are almost impossible to find here.
-The occasional lemondrop when I'm being girly
Food kind:
-Chocolate
-Smoked salmon with capers
-Fresh oysters with lemon
-Sole just steamed in lemon and white wine
-Mussels steamed in white wine.
-My world-famous fruit tart
-Tillamook Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with a slice of chocolate cake or apple pie
-Kosher Dill Pickles
-Cornichons (a tart little itty bitty pickle)
-Belgian fries with belgian mayonnaise (GOD I MISS THOSE!!!)
Personal activities:
-Pedicures
-Reading through the night.
-Foot massages
-Having my scalp massaged or my hair tugged on.
-Having two liquid-like dogs poured into your lap; sound asleep.
-Puppy bellies and oatmeal breath.
-Driving Jeepie-J up route 26 on a steaming afternoon with the soft top off, and the radio BLARING with Mount Hood glistening in front of me like a diamond in the rough.
-ExUrban Nation
-Young swaggery cops in uniform
-Buffy the Vampire Slayer
-Anything Jane Austen
Okay I'm done ... FOR NOW.
MUA HA HAAAAAAA
Hey Rob... LOL re: the kids. That's evil. Do they wear rags and drag their feet in despair while sorrowful strains of violins keen in the background? "Please sir.. I want some more..."
About 5 years ago, I got really bad food poisoning from a package of ravioli I got at TJs.
It took me years before I was willing to shop there again, and when I do, it's only for stuff like crackers, Luna bars, and wine.
Coolest thing I learned in college is a couple of trips through the brita filter will turn the worst vodka into something that most people can't tell from Grey Goose in a blind taste test.
Trader Joe's is fun, and Aldi is Costco for singles.
stephanie j - glad to hear you like Aussie wine...!
Never had an interest in wine, but beer and ale is always a good thing.
I love you Stephanie like I love Homey. Speak the truth and itz all good.
In addition to a good beer/ale, an excellent vodka isn't so bad either.
Best thing about the Indian Fare packages is I swear they could survive a nuclear war.
Stephanie,
If you want to switch partners I've got a tiresome one I haven't known what to do with for ages. I'd prefer going to Cabella's with you.
I completely agree on these:
-Smoked salmon with capers
-Fresh oysters with lemon
-Sole just steamed in lemon and white wine
-Mussels steamed in white wine.
-Kosher Dill Pickles
-Cornichons (a tart little itty bitty pickle)
-Belgian fries with belgian mayonnaise (GOD I MISS THOSE!!!)
Reading through the night.
-Foot massages
-Having my scalp massaged or my hair tugged on.
-Having two liquid-like dogs poured into your lap; sound asleep.
-Puppy bellies and oatmeal breath.
My beat-up old Stingray getting sideways at some unhealthy speed. Haven't been able to do that in a long long time.
Russian voices.
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