I absolutely love ginger, but I wasn't able to post to this before. I also love ginger flowers and have several types of ginger in my yard now. The blue ginger is blooming right now (see link below), but I also have red and white gingers, none of which are edible, but some of the flowers have very nice fragrances that are quite unique. As for edible ginger, I keep a jar of ginger paste (from an Indian market) that I use in soups, marinades, and stir fries, but not desserts. For desserts, I use ginger that I keep in the freezer. I should probably grow edible ginger. I bought ginger snaps at TJ's last week-end (along with some other more decadent cookies), but I think I should have made them myself. They were good but not quite gingery enough. I don't have any dried ginger. Lars Here is a link that might be useful:

I tried the Chicken Tikka Masala on my last trip and have to say it was pretty darned tasty! I will be stocking up on that next trip. The pumpkin ice cream is really, really good but we bought the decadent chocolate ice cream....*swoon*. I enjoy a lot of their seasonal products and wish some of them would be regulars (that's right....put those truffles out all year round!!). My list of likes at TJ is pretty long (and some of it is on that Chowhound link). I only buy their frozen veggies any more (mostly haricort verts, roasted sweet corn, brocolli) and various frozen stuff (mushroom turnovers!!). There are definately some misses as well but I won't go into that here. Tastes are very personal.

I love TJs....we don't get wine in grocery stores here so I've never had the $$ chuck...but would love to try it some time. I've been addicted at various times to various things at TJs including their meringue cookies and their chocolate nonpareils. While their cookies are very tasty, I don't find any soft and chewy type. Great selection of chocolates from around the world....can use it like wine tasting. We always shop there for crackers as their selection of whole grain and multi grain is the best. Love their edamame crackers. I also get my whole wheat english muffins there. If any of you, like I, have certain issues, try their 100% cranberry juice. I put just a splash in a tall glass of seltzer and it is amazing. So different from the usual sugary water with some cranberry in it. Lately I've been buying their grass fed beef and it is incredibly flavorful, besides not having any pink slime (bleccch). But whenever I'm baking anything that calls for chocolate, I always buy their belgian chocolate. I make a chocolate lava cake using their dark pounder plus and it is A -MAZ -ING! I recently made Awesome Brownies using their chocolate as well. Excellent! I also buy their lightly salted mixed nuts and get other nuts there for baking and eating. But in our area, TJs prices their bananas by the "each" not "lb". Once I bought one of their chicken sausages that was really good, but since then, i can't seem to buy the right one again....they have several. I've been not happy with their frozen foods but based on your recommendations, will have to try some again. I typically don't eat any frozen prepared foods as I make my own.

I'm really not surprised. This is how many people will find TJ to be when they give an unbiased look at it. It's good for some and bad for others as I've said in the other threads. I gotta chuckle at those posts saying a store was dirty one time so they condemn the entire chain! It's hardly fair to condemn an entire chain for a bad experience or two in one store. Every store is going to be dirty at some time or another, it's going to depend on the management as to how often it's that way. I've been to clean Aldi (and BTW, there's no "s" in the name, it's short for Albrecht Distributing) stores and dirty ones. I've had good experiences and bad experiences in most every chain. It's the way it is. Aldi and Trader Joe have the same basic concept and not surprising since they're both owned by the Albrechts family. Aldi was started from one family owned grocery store and two brothers grew it to an international success, then split up when they couldn't agree whether to sell cigarettes. They divided up the world but still worked together for distribution and acquisition benefits. TJ is part of the one brother's Trust. Their joint concept was and is to keep costs low, then sell high volume of a limited number of items. They sell very few brand-name items, usually only if they get a great deal on them, otherwise it's far cheaper to sell your own brand name. They also do limited advertising. TJ is essentially the yuppie version of Aldi. Neither will generally serve all your shopping needs unless perhaps you only eat tv dinners. It's really curious how some people get SO defensive over a store of all things! Or how some can actually worship a store! I'm reminded of when "grouchy" went nuts in another thread about a big chain... LOL Geez people, it's a STORE fer cryin out loud!