#anth4001

[allaboutfoodgwu]

THE SAUSAGES OF TRADER JOE’S

I wanted to hate Trader Joe’s, I really did… but I don't, not anymore. Their food is CHEAP! I’m talking $2.99 for a frozen pasta meal or a pound of clementines cheap. Their sausage selection, however, sucks.

I wanted to hate it because their focus on frozen meals has, in my cynical mind, created a generation of people who can't cook. I live to cook. A second date?? spaghetti aglio e olio. Dinner with friends?? Korean fried chicken. A weekend with dad?? ribs, bone marrow, fresh caught trout. All homemade (hopefully in my beloved cast iron) and served fresh. I am obsessed with cooking. You want to know why? I’ll tell you.

When I was young, my wonderful, smart, and busy Mum would give my brother and I orange chicken from Trader Joe’s at least twice a week (I’m sure it was less often but everyone seems to stretch the truth a little to prove a point). It was easy and tasty. It was also limited, and eventually, I couldn't take it. Bourdain, Zimmerman, and The Mayor of Flavortown had introduced me to a new world of food, I had to try it. I had to cook it.

Back to the point… the sausage section at Trader Joe’s sucks. First of all, it’s mostly chicken sausage, which any lover of sausages knows to be inferior to their pork filled peers. It is also right next to the “fully cooked, uncured bacon.” Anthony Bourdain once said a cook doesn't deserve garlic unless they’re willing to peel it. With this rule in mind, I hope he would approve of my following statement: if you can't cook your own bacon, you don't deserve to eat it. Besides that, the section is quite small, but it seems to get the job done (again… only if you like chicken sausage).

Walking through the sliding doors, I was greeted by potted (purchasable) orchids. I don't know a lot about orchids but $6.99 for one seems like a pretty good deal. Following an immediate right and walking past the ready to go food, I found myself standing in front of the refrigerator space dedicated to sausages. It was about 9 sausage packets, or by my rough calculation, 4 ½ feet wide. “CHICKEN SAUSAGE… $3.99” was printed onto a sign at eye level. For that price you could get; sweet apple, smoked andouille, roasted garlic, spicy jalapeño, or sun-dried tomato sausages. Above them were some fully cooked “Bavarian Brats” and “Brooklyn Bangers”. Below the array of chicken sausage was a selection of bacon. “Real” sausage could not be found until one looked to the lowest level of the open-faced refrigeration. This is where the Brats, Italian pork, and raw chicken sausages resided. All the sausages were packed in plastic and covered in bright, bold labels highlighting price and ingredients.

The store itself was lit by stark fluorescent lights. At a glance, it was filled with young adults but upon further inspection, it was a rather eclectic group of shoppers. I believe the free one-hour parking and easy access to non-walkers helped with this. There was a distinct lack of backpacks (as Trader Joe’s is not on G-World, this makes sense). There also seemed to be a lot of younger couples in the frozen foods section.

I still think Trader Joe’s adds to a lack of interest in cooking but being a student, I have a newfound appreciation for cheap food and as I have mentioned, Trader Joe’s delivers. Right now I am more than happy to swipe my G-World at whole foods to purchase my birds-eye chilies, center cut bone marrow, and house-made Italian sausage... but when the time comes for me to move into the real world and spend non-subsidized money, I might be found at Trader Joe’s buying cheap clementines.