thanks for the sampling tip.

how did you like working there? pay well? why'd you quit? the employees are generally great and happy at every location i've seen.

I really enjoyed it, but it became quite boring after awhile. You're allowed to goof around a bit and talk with customers, which is why everyone's so loose. My co-workers were particularly funny.

Another reason why everyone's so happy is that the pay is relatively good - I started at $10/hr - and everyone has health insurance after three months.

I quit because I finally scored a teaching job after a year of looking in PDX. It became boring because, unless you are in charge of ordering items, you never use your brain.

gnocci alla sorrento is incredible for like $2.50

Just Grilled chicken. It's frozen grilled chicken strips. Great to add to salads or pasta.

In the past I've done the Fettucine alfredo and added the Just Grilled chicken

I get most of my frozen fruit from there and make all fruit smoothies. Strawberries, tropical fruit trio, mango chunks, berry medley. I also add their rasberry or passion fruit sorbet when it's available.

Their chocolate gelato isn't bad

Their best item for me has to be their mini peanut butter cups. Picture half-thimble sized peanut butter cups with no wrapper.

I like their fruit leather too.

Their musroom risotto was also quite good (so my wife said; mushrooms taste like dirt to my uncultured palette)

Oh, and the (sweetened) dried pinapple chunks are pretty cheap too (it's hard to screw up pinapple chunks)

They just started carrying this "uncured pastrami" which is amazing, some of the best pastrami I've ever had, and I've had it from top Jewish delis and whatnot.

Also their new cheap rib eye steaks are very good.

Finally the new "Napa Creek" wines they're doing off-label are an awesome value, very decent (unlike Charles Shaw), good table wine.

More TOPSECRET tidbits about TJs.

1) They will stock no food with preservatives/additives.

2) One bell means: Need reg help, Two bells: Need someone to take some crap out to a customer's car, Three bells: Need a manager.

The more you know...

I've had a number of their frozen things recently, reviews:

eggplant parmesan: this is disgusting, easily the worst thing I have ever had from tj's. dont bother.

black bean and corn enchiladas: these are pretty tasty, and I think only 260 calories. good ratio of sauce to enchiladas

pad thai frozen bowl: ok, but not really comparable to any kind of real pad thai. if you like vaguely sweet, nutty microwavable noodles you would like this, just don't get it expecting passable pad thai.

california frozen vegetable bowl: this is basically brown rice and vegetables, it definitely needs some type of sauce to go with it. not bad if you have some hot sauce on hand.

I'm so happy because I found one of my favorite beers there, Rogue Dead Guy. I've never seen it anywhere outside of the taps at the Yard House restaurants here in SoCal. If you see Rogue Dead Guy at your TJ's, it's worth a taste if you are in any way into slightly darker, but not heavy beers.

One thing to stay away from: the frozen crushed garlic cubes. They seriously added zero flavor to the meal I made. I even tried eating one of the small garlic pieces straight and it had no flavor.

i had that for lunch today. i'm a fan, are you cooking 12 minutes on medium? it has funky directions, and screws up on top temperature.

the worst thing i've had at TJ's, by a mile, is the veggie wrap w/hummus. just awful. especially surprising, considering their other hummus is pretty good.

their bool kogi sesame marinated beef shortribs are fantastic. I think all their pre-seasoned/marinated meat is all good.

did you use a microwave or toaster oven? I cooked it in a microwave, not a toaster oven. I believe it could have potential in a toaster oven, but I followed the microwave instructions and the eggplant part shriveled up and there was about an inch of water in the bottom of the tray.

microwave. i think we might be talking about 2 different eggplant parmesans though, the one i eat is small, 270c, and i don't see how it could produce water.

OMFG, I just got back from shopping at TJ's and the Chocolate Graham Toucan 100 Calorie Packs are awesome (chocolate graham crackers shaped like toucans). 10x better than the Oreo and Chips Ahoy 100 Cal Packs.

I also picked up some Soytzels, cinnamon sugar pita chips, and frozen French onion soup (that on a reco of a friend I ran into at the store) all of which I've never tried. I'll probably give them each a shot this weekend. For now I'm on my 2nd pack of Toucans.

Lunch today:
- Chicken Pad Thai: Mmmm, good. I just love how TJ's frozen foods taste so fresh.
- Cinnamon Sugar Pita Chips: Holy [censored]! These are like little crunchy cinnamon graham crackers. Wow. I need to stop before I eat the whole bag.

Just had the Chicken Masala. It's a self contained frozed meal with a side of brown rice. It's okay to good. The rice is a little gummy and a bit bland. You have to dump it in the sauce. The chicken and sauce have a good flavor but it's a little less pungent than I would have liked.

It's something like 300 calories.

Mandarin Orange Chicken - Not bad but the after taste is kinda of nasty. Burped a few times about an hour of eating and I wanted to puke.

Never been to TJ's before. Planning to go tomorrow, there is one within walking distance.

Trip report to come.

Thank you Astroglide and IHateKeithSmart...

Soytzels - Very good. I would have never tried them in a million years without Astro's suggestion. They taste like [censored] pretzels. What sort of magic soy is TJ's using that doesn't taste like soy?

Soy Crunch Wheat Bread - I'm not sure why crunch is in the name, because this is one of the softer wheat breads. My last loaf before this one was one of the standard multigrain breads and it tasted fine, but had parts with the consitency of gravel. The soy crunch is much softer and tastes great with some TJ's PB&J. A nice quick breakfast. Thanks IHKS.

the bool kogi is easily the best stuff i have gotten from trader joes. while i now shop at new leaf market in santa cruz(similar to TJ's, stocks no trans fats, lots of organics) i used to be a diehard TJ's man. i loved:

-bool kogi obv
-their taquitos, jesus, these are [censored] good. either the beef or the bean and cheese, the chicken ones kinda suck.
-diablo is right about the greek yogurt, its [censored] insane, and yeah, i dont even really like honey much, and the honey flavor owns.
-their fruit flavored lemonades are awesome
-the frozen pizza margarita is the closest thing ive gotten to what i ate almost daily in italy.
-the medium spicy home style salsa is ridiculously good, and their stone ground tortilla chips are close to the best ive had.
-i agree with diablo, i never found a bread i liked from there, i went to the bakery next door.
-i seriously cannot emphasize enough how insanely good the bool kogi is. also, they have hanger steak at the 2 locations here, which is one of my favorite cuts of meat.

rj

Let me preface this by saying that I'm a white dude. However, I work for a Korean company, I've been to Korea, I've eaten a lot of Korean food, I've cooked Korean food several times, and I've been complimented by a Korean that my Korean cooking is pretty good.

I'm assuming bool kogi is what I've known as bulgogi (there's several things spelled differently at several places) which is beef marinated in a sauce that is primarily soy sauce. It is always awesome. Kalbi/Galbi is even awesomer. It's marinated short ribs.

I didn't notice the "bool kogi" when I was at TJ's, but I'll find it and try it and let you know how it stacks up. I am lucky enough though that there also is a Korean grocery store about 5 miles from me where I can get freshly marinaded bulgogi and kalbi at a great price that cooks up easily in about 5-10 minutes. Anyway, I think my point was, if you like meat, try Korean BBQ. Seriously some of the best marinaded meats I have ever had.

the places near my house are all grill-your-own, and the grills are all too small for me to enjoy my meal... i'm tired of cooking before I'm full (this is in a group of like 6-7 people).

these are targeted toward vegans, but actually taste better than regular ice cream sandwiches:

i echo astro on the prig khig spicy beans, i hit those up and tossed in a little ground turkey which I spiced up and it was wicked and felt very healthy.

wasn't crazy about the PB/CHOC pretzels but not a huge choc fan.

LOVED the spicy dried mango.
LOVED,..... I MEAN LOVED the flatbread pizza with guyere, ham, carmelized onions.

Just got back from my first TJ trip. It was a pretty cool store, although it seemed kinda small.

Stuff I bought:

Small cheese pizzas (might be margherita pizzas mentioned earlier)
Mini Peanut Butter cups
Peanut butter pretzels
Ginger Snap cookies
Spiced Tortilla Chips
Chicken/bean/rice burrito
Beef Taquitos
Frozen strawberries and rasperries
Strawberry fruit bars
Sparkling blueberry juice

Basically a lot of the recomendations from this thread. I had a pizza with some blueberry juice for lunch, both were good. The PB cups for desert were AWESOME.

What good stuff am I missing?

I just picked up the Organic Italian Volcano Blood Orange Juice and it makes an awesome vodka drink.

3 parts vodka
1 part triple sec
blood orange juice

It's sweet, but really damn tasty.

Ok, which section of the store is this stuff located?
I looked through the whole store and cant find it every time I am there.

Maybe they dont have it at the location I go to.