Trader Joe's, how much do I love you? Let me count the ways...

When I first moved to New York, I almost started crying because of the price of food in this city. I remember that, after my first trip to my local Gristedes, I considered (for a few brief seconsds) moving away from the city because I couldn't imagine myself getting by on those prices.

It was a few days after that that I made my first trip (or should I say journey) to Trader Joe's in the city. Trader Joe's is a grocery store chain that sells only its own brand of food. The fresh produce is always great quality, the prepared (frozen, canned, dried) food is always made from solid ingredients (none of that processed stuff), a lot of the food is organic, the staff there is always friendly, and on top of all of this, the prices are great. I used to do almost all my shopping at Trader Joe's when I lived in Boston, but there's only one of them in Manhattan, in Union Square, which isn't exactly right down the block.

Walking in there after the devastating trip to Gristedes a few days prior was like coming home.

The one location they have in Manhattan is a madhouse, with a line curving its way through all of the aisles and tons of people at any given time of the day or night. So not only is it time-consuming to make the trek down there from my apartment on the Upper East Side, it's also time-consuming to be there.

I honestly don't mind, though, since I like the store so much. I end up going about once a month to stock up. I put on some tunes, pack up my reusable grocery bags and make a night out of it. I could spend hours browsing the aisles at Trader Joe's. This Wednesday was one of those nights.
Since I started working steadily, I've been trying to find ways to spice up lunch (which I diligently bring every day) and this past trip helped me out. For $3, you can get a mixed vegetable bruschetta spread, which is absolutely amazing on 7 grain bread with sliced avocados, smoked turkey, and Jarlsberg cheese (the Norwegian in me won't have any other kind). There are so many other spreads and things to choose from at Trader Joe's, that I'm sure I'll never run out of things to try. The past couple of days have been brilliant for lunch.

Trader Joe, you brighten a foodlover's day on the the cheap!