Feelings: Growing up in Japan, my mother had some rather strange rules when it comes to food. She was convinced that the following food items would cause cancer or kill brain cells:
-Burnt food
-Frozen food
-Packaged ramen, Cup-A-Noodle
The only time I was allowed to eat frozen food and packaged ramen was when I visited my grandfather, and to this day, I am extremely skeptical when it comes to them. But when I saw Trader Joe San's Rice & Vegetable Bento Box, which was full of shojin food I love, I had to try it immediately.
It is widely known that TJ's makes some of the best frozen food. Their Indian food is always very popular. But shojin food? They might be playing in a dangerous territory. Then, as I had a bite, I knew TJ's would not let me down. The green beans were quite spicy, but the rest of the items was delicately seasoned with great textures. The baked tofu, soba salad with oyster sauce, and eggplant with miso paste were especially tasty, and I appreciated that they kept the authenticity of Japanese flavoring without Americanizing it. Three different brown rice dishes were really unique concept as well, and I know that I will be buying more of this bento. Sorry mom.
If they can conquer frozen shojin food, they can do anything. In fact, they should take over airline food industry!
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5 comments:
I wasn't allowed those things as a child either! But large, flourescent pink candies in the shape of My Melody or Hello Kitty were just fine.
Haha! Same here. Do we have same parents, or what? Is it possible that we are related...!?
Trader Joe's does it again! I love their frozen chinese meals, frozen naan and frozen gnocchi. Their frozen gnocchi is way better than Whole Foods' fresh gnocchi (which is quite grainy and dense in texture).
And I highly agree they should take over the airline industry. But domestic flights don't feed you anymore for free. You have to pay. Maybe TJ could change this too?
woo I must try their gnocchi!
Perhaps TJ can start their own airline... TJAir!
As a fan of traditional Japanese food, I wanted to love this Bento. Unfortunately, I didn’t.
The spicy beans were really good, but the tofu texture was off and the rice dishes used non-Japanese puffed rice (like rice crispies).
Hats off to TJ for the effort....they just are missing the mark a bit on implementation.
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