These are new products in pouches shelved next to the
canned fish. They are quite cheap, at only $1.49 each.
However, I wouldn't have bought them had I checked how
much sodium they have, about 1500 mg which is more than
half what an adult should have in a day.

I prepared them over rice, and only ate partial portions
because I watch my sodium. They both contain a generous
portion of yellowfin tuna, and it's pretty good when you
consider it comes from a pouch.

The green curry was good, but the sauce is somewhat watery.
The red curry is a spicy, creamy sauce with plenty of
coconut milk. It is outstanding. Wonderful product.

If it weren't for the high sodium content, I'd buy the
red curry often. If you don't worry about sodium, these
products are great values.

On another topic, I've been thinking I've been limiting
myself too much by buying only their California olive oils.
This time, I bought their only Italian (Sicilian, actually)
olive oil. I just tried it a few minutes ago, and I was
not impressed. Maybe I just tried it the wrong way, on
plain white rice. I'll use up the whole bottle, but I'm
not optimistic. They have a Greek olive oil which is a
couple bucks more expensive. I may try that. They also
have a few Spanish olive oils, but I never use Spanish
olive oils due to their history of contaminated oils.
(Italians merely adulterate their oils.) Anyone know
if any of the other Trader Joe's olive oils are better
than what I've tried so far?

Mark Thorson > wrote:

>These are new products in pouches shelved next to the
>canned fish. They are quite cheap, at only $1.49 each.
>However, I wouldn't have bought them had I checked how
>much sodium they have, about 1500 mg which is more than
>half what an adult should have in a day.

>I prepared them over rice, and only ate partial portions
>because I watch my sodium. They both contain a generous
>portion of yellowfin tuna, and it's pretty good when you
>consider it comes from a pouch.

>The green curry was good, but the sauce is somewhat watery.
>The red curry is a spicy, creamy sauce with plenty of
>coconut milk. It is outstanding. Wonderful product.
>
>If it weren't for the high sodium content, I'd buy the
>red curry often. If you don't worry about sodium, these
>products are great values.
>
>On another topic, I've been thinking I've been limiting
>myself too much by buying only their California olive oils.
>This time, I bought their only Italian (Sicilian, actually)
>olive oil. I just tried it a few minutes ago, and I was
>not impressed.

Yes, that's not a particularly good one. What you might want
to try is their so-called "President's Reserve" Italian EVOO
which is a mix of Sicilian and Puglian oil. It's better than
80% of the pricey oils and has a high enough smoke point you
can sautee with it. It's also pretty inexpensive.

Thanks for the tuna report.

Steve

Steve Pope wrote:
>
> Mark Thorson > wrote:
>
> >On another topic, I've been thinking I've been limiting
> >myself too much by buying only their California olive oils.
> >This time, I bought their only Italian (Sicilian, actually)
> >olive oil. I just tried it a few minutes ago, and I was
> >not impressed.
>
> Yes, that's not a particularly good one. What you might want
> to try is their so-called "President's Reserve" Italian EVOO
> which is a mix of Sicilian and Puglian oil. It's better than
> 80% of the pricey oils and has a high enough smoke point you
> can sautee with it. It's also pretty inexpensive.

I'll have to look for that one. Thanks for
the recommendation.

Steve Pope wrote:
>
> Mark Thorson > wrote:
>
> >On another topic, I've been thinking I've been limiting
> >myself too much by buying only their California olive oils.
> >This time, I bought their only Italian (Sicilian, actually)
> >olive oil. I just tried it a few minutes ago, and I was
> >not impressed.
>
> Yes, that's not a particularly good one. What you might want
> to try is their so-called "President's Reserve" Italian EVOO
> which is a mix of Sicilian and Puglian oil. It's better than
> 80% of the pricey oils and has a high enough smoke point you
> can sautee with it. It's also pretty inexpensive.

I tried it again on what I usually use olive oil for.
My mistake was testing it on white rice in the belief
a bland background was best for making an evaluation.
No, the rice I make almost every day, which is brown
rice with chopped green onions, one minced habanero
pepper (when I can get them, otherwise Thai, et al),
Trader Joe's low sodium soy sauce, and the olive oil
is the best background, because I'm familiar with it.
Despite all these strong flavors, I could discern a
difference. It's been over six months since I made
white rice. Substituting the oil in something I make
almost every day is a more sensitive comparison.

The Sicilian oil costs the same as the California oil,
but I think it's better. The best description I could
give is "butteriness". I think it has more of that.

Then, it occurred to me that dissolving a very small
amount of genuine butter in olive oil would greatly
increase the butteriness flavor. I'm not sure I would
find that too objectionable an activity, though it's
certainly illegal if not disclosed on the label.

I don't mean to imply anybody's doing that, but it
seems like a good idea. Maybe I should take the
California oil and see if I can improve it to the
Sicilian level by adding the strongest butter I can
find, like a cultured Irish butter.

Another possibility is the addition of a tiny amount
of diacetyl, the microwave popcorn atom. That is
bioidentical to natural diacetyl which is the main
flavor component in natural butter. It's terribly
overused in movie theater popcorn, but amounts that
are 1000 times lower might greatly improve an
otherwise uninteresting olive oil.

On 1/9/11 12:50 PM, Mark Thorson wrote:
> Anyone know
> if any of the other Trader Joe's olive oils are better
> than what I've tried so far?

I no longer schlep up to where I can get the good stuff at a good price,
but the (from Greece) Kalamata Olive oil, nothing I would have bought
but Accordion Man (who does the shopping) likes trying new things, is
pretty good for the price, IMO.
blacksalt