YAY for the Spicy Squiggly Knife Cut Noodles, with doctoring.
I’d imagine they are somewhat MEH on their own, but they’re a great base for a quick WFH lunch. I usually add whatever veg are laying around (most often broccoli, but also have used edamame, mushrooms, corn, peppers, etc.) and/or some chopped tofu while the noodles are cooking and then at the end swirl in a spoonful of peanut butter (to boost the included sesame paste), a dollop of hot sauce of choice, and a handful of fresh cilantro.
The fact that they cook in a jiffy has made them a popular addition to our hot pots, but the sauces they come with are pretty uninteresting — tho I’ve only had the soy / sesame noodz.
Yea: Sliced apple cinnamon sourdough bread. I don’t really detect cinnamon, and there’s not a lot of sour to this sourdough, to me (I hail from the land of San Francisco sourdough, though, and am a fan of that strong flavor), but having bread with dried apples is different, and it makes nice toast.
Huh: Crispy dried watermelon slices. I plucked this off the new products shelf purely out of curiosity. It’s basically thin, crisp shards of watermelon with all the moisture sucked out. It’s sweet, it tastes kind of like watermelon, and it’s strangely easy to munch on, but it’ll not be a repeat buy, because watermelon’s freshness and moisture are why I like it.
Agreed on this one. Bought it, enjoyed it, one and done. Same with the passion fruit rounds, which I think were also recently released. I thought they were really tasty, great texture, but the seeds were kind of distracting.
The White truffle chips just showed up in our nearest TJs. They’re pretty good, but I’m starting to get kind of annoyed by the revolving door ‘specialty’ chip thing. My favorite of the last year or so was the blue cheese. Then it disappeared and I kinda got used to the garlic butter. Now it’s white truffle. For me it’s been a down hill slide but I guess it’s just TJs keeping their shelf space fresh. Oh, well….. c’est la vie!
As someone who likes tteokbokki I thought it was pretty decent. Definitely not the best version I’ve had, but the rice cakes’ texture was good if you’re into that sort of thing, and the sauce is fine if a bit boring. (Needs some fish cake, maybe some onion, and it could be spicier.)
You’re certainly not alone in disliking it. I’ve found this dish to be fairly polarizing when going out for Korean food with friends or family who aren’t really into Asian food. And it’s probably not worth cultivating a taste for because it’s basically a massive carb delivery system.
Tried a Trader Joe’s frozen pasta product for dinner tonight: Fiocchetti in Pink Sauce. Little “bags” or purses filled with 3 Italian cheeses (Ricotta, Taleggio, and Mozzarella) with a light tomato-based sauce. $4.79/16 oz bag. They claim “about 3 servings”. Umm…no.
You cook them from frozen in a Tbsp of olive oil and 1/3 cup water, heated in a nonstick skillet. In the 1st picture, the squares are the sauce. I had to cook them about a minute longer than the 6-7 minutes in the instructions, and over a slightly higher heat from medium, as the sauce was still too thin.
Thanks so much for this review. I’ve found more than several of these frozen TJs entrees to sound enticing and end up, no, never again. So I’ll avoid this one!
That’s helpful! I’ve never been tempted to try their frozen pasta dishes, being that pasta is truly one of the simplest dishes to throw together in a jiffy, and your review confirms my assumptions.
I remember a solid frozen penne with spinach & gorgonzola from my Berlin days, but that’s about the only experience I have with that type of convenience food.
A get-this-out-of-my-mouth NAY to the turkey meatballs I got a sample of today. It might have been the prep, but they were as dry as sawdust with about the same flavor.
I had a similar reaction to the party meatballs once, something very off in flavor. Never tried them again so I don’t know if it was an off day or they are just not good (but all these have been stocked forever, so someone must like them).
I tried those a while back and had about the same reaction. I don’t love the taste of turkey and those meatballs absolutely oozed with gamey full-on turkey flavor. Cut right through whatever sauce we put on them. I think my kids didn’t mind them but for me it was one bite and done.
