Trader Joe's

Trader Joe's is one of my favorite grocery stores. In terms of offering quality foods for a great price, Trader Joe's is worth the half-hour drive every time.

What I like most about them is that they offer a lot of products that are hard to find in traditional grocery stores (not counting Whole Foods). For example, their Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar is only $2.99, but is light and delicious on salads. Unlike grocery store-brand salad dressings that often taste processed and unnatural, this Champagne vinegar is extremely refreshing. What's more, Trader Joe's takes pride in their products, often writing brief blurbs on their website describing their products:

Trader Joe's Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar is hand crafted for us by a small company in Northern California that specializes in "gourmet" products made with the abundant produce of the state's "farm belt" and wine country. Try this special vinegar with extra virgin olive oil to create a light dressing for a salad of sliced avocado, jicama and orange segments. Or pair it with sesame oil to make an original dressing for a Chinese Chicken Salad. You could use Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar right out of the bottle as a marinade for chicken or fish. 

Below is a sampling of a few of my favorite TJ's products:

Trader Joe's / Trader Joe's Organic Kale / Trader Joe's / Trader Joe's / Trader Joe's / Trader Joe's / Trader Joe's / Trader Joe's / Trader Joe's


However, my favorite thing to buy from Trader Joe's is their "Mideast Feast" snack box. It contains falafel, tahini, hummus, pita, and tabbouli. It makes a great, light lunch meal that won't weigh me down at the office.

1. Falafel: A fried ball of chickpeas or fava beans (but usually both), flavored with Middle Eastern spices (like garlic and coriander).
2. Tahini: A paste made from ground sesame seeds; often served as an accompaniment to falafel.
3. Hummus: A savory paste made from mashed chickpeas, tahini, and other spices (usually including garlic and olive oil).
4. Tabbouli: A sort of pasta and herb "salad" made from bulgur wheat (or sometimes couscous), mixed with freshly chopped parsley and mint, with olive oil, garlic, and lemon.
5. Pita: An unleavened flatbread made simply from flour, water, yeast, and salt.

Best Supermarket Olive Oils

Finding a high-quality olive oil in a supermarket is certainly a challenge these days. Many labels boast that their oil is "extra virgin", but all too often, that's not the case. (Don't even get me started on Bertolli....)

Extra-virginity refers to the amount of free fatty acids the oil contains. If the olive oil contains more than 0.8 grams of FFAs per 100 grams, it cannot be labeled as "extra virgin". But somehow, supermarkets still stock sub-par olive oils that called themselves extra virgin but are actually extremely defective. And while oils from speciality food stores are usually your best bet, they can be terribly expensive.

So here are my top three supermarket olive oil picks:

1. California Olive Ranch Extra Virgin Olive Oil (can be bought here)
2. Trader Joe's Premium 100% Greek Kalamata Olive Oil
3. Lucini Reserve Premium Select Extra Virgin Olive Oil

California Olive Ranch

Trader Joe's

Lucini

P.S. For pricier (but higher quality) olive oils, I would recommend checking out Williams Sonoma, Dean & DeLuca, and Sur la Table. 

Movie Review: Somm

Last night I watched Somm, a documentary following four experts as they prepared to take the world's most difficult wine knowledge test, and earn their Master Sommelier degree.

There are only 214 Master Sommeliers (or Somms as they are known colloquially) in the world. The test contains three parts: one part on service in restaurants and hotels, one part on theory, and one part in the form of a blind tasting test. Candidates must taste six wines and describe them accurately in less than 25 minutes, including the year it was produced and the region from which it came.

Watching the four men prepare for the test was incredible. From just a sip of the wine, they could tell whether it had traces of oak in it, what possible grapes it could have been made from, and the level of alcohol it contained. It's amazing that they could glean all that information just from one taste.

The four main candidates practicing the tasting portion of the test, supervised by a Master Sommelier

For those of us who are still learning about the various aspects of wine tasting (including myself), this tasting grid from Epicurious is a great way to get started. It's also great for parties!

New Year's Eve: Prosecco Cupcakes

For New Years Eve, I wanted to make a festive dessert that celebrated the holiday. Clearly, that meant Prosecco cupcakes.

As a fan of the Food Network show Cupcake Wars, I had seen the bakers make many Champagne cupcakes in the competition. However, I personally prefer Champagne's sweeter, Italian cousin– Prosecco.

Cupcake Vineyards produces quality wines at great prices. Unlike many other American-based wine manufacturers, they correctly label their sparkling wine based on the region from which the grapes were cultivated. Unfortunately, many American winemakers label their sparkling wines as Champagne, when in fact the grapes were not from the Champagne region in France.

But I digress... The Cupcake Prosecco was suited perfectly for my baking needs. And the name was quite apropos for the situation!

The result: perfectly fluffy cupcakes with just a hint of the grape-y Prosecco. Needless to say, they were a huge hit at the party!


P.S.– A word on the frosting: I hand-piped the frosting using a large Ziploc bag and a piping tip left over from my days as a cake decorator. The steps are really simple:

1. Cut a hole in the bottom corner of the Ziploc bag that's just large enough for the piping tip
2. Stick the piping tip in THEN fill the bag with frosting
3. Go ahead and pipe!