Crackers are one of those foods that can feel so super fancy and upscale, or they can feel cheap, boring, and sad. Some of the most expensive, high-profile events I've ever been to have featured crackers with toppings as hors d'oeuvres. Likewise, some of the sorriest penny-pinching meals I've ever consumed were crackers topped with peanut butter and jelly, in lieu of real bread.
Granted, the latter event no doubt involved cheap store brand saltines and the former most likely featured something more akin to these multigrain whole wheat and flax seed-laden pita crackers. But my point stands that crackers are indeed ubiquitous and versatile, and in most cases, they largely depend upon some auxiliary flavors and textures to make them stand out as a memorable snack or appetizer.
On their own, Trader Joe's Multigrain Pita Bite Crackers aren't bad at all. Texture-wise, they're crispy, crunchy, and rigid, but not too hard. The flavor is wheaty, for sure, but it's immediately apparent that there's much more complexity underneath the basic grainy taste. There are at least six grains present, flax and sunflower seeds, olive oil, molasses, and honey. While the sweeter elements don't really shine through in any meaningful way by themselves, they temper the earthier flavors and make for a highly noshable snack cracker, particularly when paired with a suitable array of toppings.
We tried ours with multiple types of cheese, hummus, bean salad, tuna salad, grape leaves and quinoa, and they worked beautifully in every case. They paired surprisingly well with cream cheese. I even tried adding some fruit spread to the cream cheese and made some surprisingly palatable dessert crackers with these. I just used the term "dessert crackers" twice in one week. I'm weird like that.
$2.99 for the 6 oz box. I'd buy again. The beautiful wifey likes them even more than I do. Three and a half stars from me. Four stars from Sonia on Trader Joe's Multigrain Pita Bite Crackers.
Bottom line: 7.5 out of 10.
Did you know that shrimp is the fruit of the sea? There's shrimp kabobs, shrimp salad, shrimp gumbo, deep fried, pan fried, stir fried. There's shrimp scampi, pineapple shrimp, coconut shrimp, lemon pepper shrimp, and of course, Trader Joe's Argentinian Red Shrimp with Ginger Garlic Butter & Togarashi Style Seasoning.
How could Bubba have forgotten Trader Joe's Argentinian Red Shrimp with Garlic Butter & Togarashi Style Seasoning??
I suppose it's possible it didn't exist back then. We'll forgive you for this glaring omission from your famous list of shrimp dishes, Mr. Benjamin Buford Blue. But just this once...
Like Bubba, I consider myself a shrimp aficionado. I've been eating the stuff since I was a wee one. So my standards are pretty high and I'm a pretty tough grader as far as final scores are concerned.
My jam was always deep fried jumbo butterfly shrimp. I'd drown those things in cocktail sauce or some kind of remoulade and could smash dozens of them in one sitting. These puppies aren't fried or breaded, so how do they fare against such fierce competition?
Pretty good, honestly. I'm amazed I didn't mess them up when I cooked them, but they came out with a really nice texture, not too chewy or weird in any way. They tasted good, too, although Sonia and I just wish the spices were a little more potent. We definitely tasted ginger and garlic in that buttery sauce, but I think we were both hoping that the togarashi seasoning would bring a little bit more heat to the equation.
Still, for $7.99, this is pretty close to a gourmet quality seafood entree. I counted about 16 or 18 decent sized shrimp in the package. It's supposed to be a single serving, but if served with rice and some sides, this pouch can easily satisfy two people for dinner. Sonia and I give Trader Joe's Argentinian Red Shrimp with Ginger Garlic Butter & Togarashi Style Seasoning two thumbs up and four stars a piece. Would buy again.
Bottom line: 8 out of 10.
