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Products Information about kitchen gadgets, design trends, cookware, gift ideas, bakeware, appliances, and gourmet food products.
WTF Trader Joe's?
Pasadena, CA is home to many things, including me, the original Trader Joe’s, and the house they used in the first Batman with Michael Keaton.
As a regular TJ’s shopper (now in San Francisco), I’ve walked past the Pasadena Salad without nostalgic interest many times before, but last night I stopped and picked it up. After scanning the ingredients, memories of my childhood began flooding in. Sesame seeds, dry rice noodles, chopped almonds, slices of chicken, reminded me of a special salad I would get at a restaurant my mom would take me to, which also happened to be in Pasadena, California.
The restaurant, called Green Street, has been serving their signature Dianne Salad for over 20 years. It consists of all the same ingredients as above, (though their lettuce is shredded), is awesomely huge, and always comes with their trademark zucchini bread.
I couldn’t confirm my gut feeling, until the salad ended up in it. The TJs salad was a copycat!
INVESTIGATIVE REPORT
Upon contacting TJ’s corporate, a nervous-sounding spokesperson declined to comment on the salad, other than to say the company named it “Pasadena Salad”, because that’s where the original TJ’s hails from. The manager of Green Street also seemed tense about the situation, confirming that they were aware of the issue, and had been notified by suspicious customers. (However, the manager said, most say they prefer the Dianne Salad.)
Lump me in with them. The Pasadena Salad’s dressing was way too sweet, and the leaves got soggy too quickly.
You should know that I still love you Trader Joe’s, and that I often think of our relationship as being like the infamous scene in When Harry met Sally: We’re sitting in a deli and you’re screaming in orgasmic delight about your salad (with the dressing served on the side) and I don’t even care what the other people in the room think —it’s just you in me. But you’re obviously not screaming about the Pasadena Salad because its honestly not that good…and c’mon baby, just give credit where it’s due.
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Tagged with: trader joe's, pasadena, green street, products
New Finds: Thomas Keller Pimps Out His Fried Chicken Secrets
A special dash of Thomas Keller’s mojo went into every one of these fried chicken kits being sold through Williams-Sonoma. Each linen bag contains lemon-herb brine mix, so you can make your fried chicken really extra moist, and dredging mix for crunchy double coating. If you’re confused about why Mr. Fancy French Laundry dude is selling ingredients for fried chicken, note that Keller also has a casual, family style restaurant called Ad Hoc that is famous for its chicken (read the Chowhound reports here). How cool would this be for a hostess gift?
Ad Hoc Fried Chicken Kit, $14.95
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Tagged with: new finds, products, fried chicken, ad hoc, thomas keller, williams sonoma
WTF 7UP?
Antioxidant-laced soda—seriously?
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Tagged with: products, media, soda, 7up, antioxidants
New Finds: Place Mats for Techie Cooks
Etsy shop girlscantell sells place mats with original, hand-drawn diagrams printed on them. This set of four is machine washable and includes two printed with kitchen tools and two with a stand mixer.
Joy of Cooking Diagram Placemat Set, $24
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Tagged with: new finds, products, design, etsy
Beer Bottles Gone Chic
Chicago-based glassblower Nicholas Paul has figured out a novel and engaging way to recycle beer bottles: He heats them up and opens up the necks in order to create handcrafted drinking glasses. They’re not particularly cheap ($10 to $30 per glass), but they’re eye-catching as hell.
Beer glasses, $10–$30
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Tagged with: beer bottles, glasses, artisan, media, nicholas paul, blown glass, products, design, new finds
New Finds: Pork Cracklin' Americana
Chef Ryan Farr is popular in San Francisco for his chicharrones (a.k.a. pork cracklings): spicy, crunchy, melt-in-your-molars fatty goodness, made from rendered pig skin. They’re sold at bars and shops around town. Outside SF you can’t get them yet, but you can get one of his limited-edition letterpress posters celebrating chicharrones as a pop-culture phenomenon. They’re produced by the venerable Nashville-based Americana poster shop Hatch Show Print (in biz since 1879!). The poster shown here, titled “Porkalicious,” is the first in a three-poster chicharrones series, each hand-printed on heavy paper suitable for framing, numbered, and signed by Farr. They are also individually marked by Farr’s thumbprint, in lard, which just adds to the, well, unique nature of this product.
Porkalicious Poster (email to purchase), $26 plus shipping and handling
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Tagged with: products, design, art, letterpress, chicharrones, ryan farr, new finds, poster art
