2026 costco yay/nay/meh

Yay for the twice baked almond croissants, although they’re priced at a 1.66 each (in a box of 6) vs 66 cents each (in a box of a dozen) for plain ones that I can fairly easily fill and bake at home as I posted in the baking discussion last October.

I’m a big fan of the Extra Fancy Unsalted Mixed Nuts: cashews, almonds, pecans, and pistachios.

2 Likes

Yay - O’Sole Mio Manicotti, cheese and spinach. Sauce is flavorful and the pasta doesn’t turn to mush. Quick and easy meal for two with leftovers. Add a salad and some garlic bread and three can eat plenty. $10ish.


1 Like

YAY for Norwegian Hot Smoked Salmon Trio. Three flavors: Peppercorn (excellent, very tender and flavorful), maple (very good, just enough maple flavor so you know it’s there but not at all overpowering), “traditional” (kind of boring, a bit denser texturally than the other two, but good). Priced very well at ~$16/lb. Will definitely buy this again.

1 Like

I looked it up, says out of stock. I can’t tell if it’s from wild or farmed salmon.

It doesn’t say wild, so I’d wager a large amount that it’s not.

Edit: found it on the back of the box:

I wonder how easy it is to find WILD smoked salmon.

I’m afraid to buy these because I can get turned off easily by fishy things. I think the last time I had it was in 2012 when I was visiting NYC and took Anthony Bourdain’s advice and had the Nova bagel.

Ate it on the Staten Island Ferry. Memories.

1 Like

Pretty easy. Coscto carries it, so do TJ and whole foods (and most grocery stores). There’s a texture difference between the two.

1 Like

I find wild salmon to often be a bit fishier-tasting than farmed salmon. And definitely a texture difference as mentioned by @Saregama; wild is significantly leaner and can be a bit dryer/less luscious, depending on the species. Unless I can get wild king salmon, I tend to prefer the taste and texture of the farmed stuff in most preps. But cold smoked wild sockeye can be really good. TJ’s has a nice one.

1 Like

I eat mostly wild salmon, but for (cold) smoked and gravlax (homemade), I prefer the texture of farmed: as you said, it’s more luscious and silky.

1 Like

meh on the La Vie portugese tarts, heated in an air fryer, the crust bakes nicely but they’re just too sweet to like. Now what to do with the other 17 :grinning_face:

best,

1 Like

Said everyone who has ever made an impulse purchase at Costco!

You could pull a Chopped move: Scoop out the cores, add some cream, blend, re-freeze into pastel de nata ice cream, top with a crumble made from the shells. Or…just eat the rest with really strong coffee?

2 Likes

lol, before I go full chopped mode, thinking I’ll try a pinch of salt and overbaking.

2 Likes

this actually worked pretty well, added some flaky salt, baked until the top darkened and the pastry crust was just slightly burnt. Not going to rebuy but it is nice to have hot custard in crunchy pastry for breakfy.

best,

3 Likes