Our Favorite Foods at Trader Joe’s

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Caroline Eaton | 6 Comments

If you travel long term you will realize you start to miss the simple things that used to be mundane and routine. In my case grocery shopping, specifically at Trader Joe’s.

We met these really fun couples in the Galapagos, and over dinner Trader Joe’s somehow became the topic of conversation.

galapaogs

The question asked was what are your top 5 go-to Trader Joe’s foods. If you are a Trader Joe’s shopper, and you love the company as much as we do you will be able to rattle off at least 5 of your favorite Trader Joe’s foods you can’t live without.

Here are my top 5… err 10… OK I couldn’t pick just 10. I listed out 12 foods that I suggest you add to your cart during your next grocery run!

1. Pretzel Roll – We’ve only found this in the midwest but check near the baguettes for an awesome $0.99 pretzel roll.

2. Trader Joe’s Vintage Ale – Buy a case every holiday season ($4.99 each) and let them sit and age for up to a year. Then buy the next year’s vintage while you drink last year’s once a month for the next year.

3. Spicy Jalapeño Turkey Sausage – They have a variety of different turkey sausage flavors, jalapeño is by far the best. $3.99 for 5.

4. Frozen Turkey Meatballs – Combine with some Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce and you will be hooked.

5. Jalapeño Hot Sauce – Josh and I love hot sauce…a lot. This doesn’t compare to Valentina or Sriracha…but it might rank in our Top 3.

6. Mediterranean Hummus – The best store-bought hummus we’ve ever had. It’s possible we’ve driven 2 hours to buy this… it’s topped with olive oil and pine nuts and is $3.99.

7. Indian Fare Punjab Choley – A delicious chick pea dish in curry sauce, ignoring the fact that it comes in a packet that you boil on the stove, we love to put this on top of our salads for lunch and at $1.99 we pick up at least 4 boxes each time we go.

8. Trader Joe’s Greek Yogurt – I love plain non-fat greek yogurt and Trader Joe’s offers a cheaper option than Fage and Chobani in the stores. $4.99

9. 99% Fat Free Bean & Rice Burrito – Pick these up in the frozen section. 2 low calorie burritos around $2.99. Top them with some Valentina hot sauce and you’ve got a quick lunch.

10. Mini Peanut Butter Cups – Need I say more? $3.49

11. Joe’s Dark Coffee – I’m also a fan of the dark French Roast and the Dark Sumatra, but their price increases in the last year led me to try the Joe’s Dark for $4.99. If you make it with an Aeropress, you’ve got a pretty nice cup of coffee. One can will make about 25-28 cups.

12. Toscano Cheese with Black Pepper – Amazing. if you like to try different types of cheese and you like them sharp and strong pick this one up and pair it with a delicious glass of red wine. $8 per lb. (worth it)

What do you love at Trader Joe’s? Leave your top 5 best Trader Joe’s foods in the comments!

Hawaii Travel: Fresh Fruit, Fire and Rum

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Caroline Eaton | 1 Comment

You have to wonder how I am going to tie these three items together, fruit, fire and rum. Fruit can be mixed with rum to make a delicious drink…or maybe set the rum on fire to make a yummy dessert. In this instance the fruit was eaten, the fire was being thrown and the rum was drank in sweet Mai Tai goodness. The Kilohana Plantation is an all-day event for those looking to experience a historic and tasty experience on Kauai.

The Fruit

We started at the Plantation Railway which took us past livestock and a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables that are grown on the grounds. We were with Tasting Kauai as part of their farm to fork culinary tour and got to experience half of the railway tour at Kilohana, but got off early to taste some fruit straight from the trees. Most of these fruits and veggies are used in the onsite Gaylord’s restaurant, which is a great example of how local produce is used all over the island.

The Rum

Pepe from Kilohana invited us to come back after the tour for the luau. Since we had some free time after the tour we walked over to the Koloa Rum tasting room (It’s 5 o’clock somewhere). Here we learned how to mix the perfect Mai Tai. We were able to taste the white, dark and spiced rum, mixed into a Mai Tai which was deliciously dangerous. Especially for Josh and Tony who managed to screw up the recipe and ended up just taking straight shots of rum. The tasting was quick and left us wanting more. Luckily for us the spiced rum was one of our favorites and can be found all over the island, including at Costco…

The Fire

After the rum tasting, it was luau time. It started with the pig being taken out of the imu, the underground oven where the pork is slow-cooked all day. Dinner started with some dancing and entertainment while we ~~stuffed our faces with~~ politely and maturely indulged in the kalua pork and drank our fair share from the open bar. After eating, it was time for the fire to come out. The Kilohana Luau had begun. This was a full blown Disney-style production, with a love story, history lesson and of course, fire throwing was involved. I’ve attended a few luaus in the past and this was the most similar to a Broadway show. There were multiple stages, theatre lighting and performers running through the aisles.

We had a great table right next to the main stage, which allowed Meg and I to get up and hula with the luau dancers!

My favorite part of any luau is the fire dancing. I love watching them sling the fire around, sometimes dangerously close to their body, something I could never do. Josh on the other hand loves the luau food. Some of our favorite foods that you must try while at a luau are the Kalua Pork, Taro bread, Lomi Lomi salmon, teriaki chicken and poi (not our favorite but you have to try it).

I won’t ruin the luau ending for you – do the lovers finally find each other? Do they have a baby? Do Meg and Tony fall into a food coma?

Tips for Successfully Crushing a Hawaiian Luau

Come hungry. Plan for a huge meal.
Meet your table. You usually get sat with 4 – 6 additional people and luaus instantly become more fun if your entire table is partying together.
Don’t pass over the poi. Poi is an important food in the Hawaiian history and while you most likely won’t like the taste, when you are at a luau mix a bit with your kalua pork and give it a try!

What’s your favorite part of a Luau?

Thanks to the Kilohana plantation for inviting us to enjoy their luau.

Foto Friday: Pho-tasatic!

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Caroline Eaton | 2 Comments

Pho in vietnam

Pho is hands down one of the best soups in the world (we think!). What are other soups that you have fallen in love with on your travels?

A Traveler’s Guide to Peanut Butter on The Road

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Caroline Eaton | 4 Comments

Peanut Butter, a sugary, high protein, processed treat…yet a highly useful food for any traveler.

travel with peanut butter

The Basic Spoonful - Low on sugar? Dig in! It’s quick, it’s easy and depending on what country you are traveling through its usually relatively cheap. A spoonful of peanut butter is one of the easiest quick fixes to hunger when you are on the road.

Peanut Butter with Bread AKA, the Peanut Butter Sandwich – The classic sandwich that we all grow up on, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich or PB&J. On our traveler’s budget we can’t always splurge on jelly, but a peanut butter sandwich is a staple while traveling.

peanut butter and jelly sandwich Peanut Butter with Apple/Banana/Celery – You can’t always just eat peanut butter and bread, you need your fruit and veggie servings too. We personally suggest adding peanut butter to get extra protein to your apples, bananas and celery during the day.

Peanut Butter Smores – Landing Standing introduced us to this as one of their many delicious hostel recipes. With 4 ingredients, a microwave and a freezer you can easily make a yummy dessert on the road.

frozen smores To Help Cure Hiccups – This isn’t scientifically proven, but a lot of home remedies do suggest swallowing 1 large spoonful to help cure hiccups. The texture of the peanut butter, the stickiness, and the sweetness, helps change the rhythm of your breathing – ideally curing your hiccups!

To Catch a Mouse in your Hostel – Have you ever played the game Mouse Trap? Place a small bit of peanut butter in a make-shift trap. You can use an old box or container and wedge it up with a pencil. Once the mouse goes in to eat the peanut butter the pencil will fall and the mouse will be under the box.

Get Gum Out of Your Hair – Peanut butter massage best explained by Michael Scott himself.

Slip a Crazy Street Dog a Xanax - Your coming home late at night and the same pesky dog in the alley won’t leave you alone. Roll a puppy Xanax in peanut butter and feed it to him before you go out for the night and if all goes well he won’t be bothering you at 3 am when you walk home from the bars.

For Emergency Shaving Cream – The oils in PB are good for the skin! lather on a thin layer of butter and shave away! We aren’t making this up, it’s a thing!

peanut butter love
Leather cleaner – Use this when you drop something on someone else’s furniture while you are couchsurfing. Rub the peanut butter in a circular motion, like you would any other cleaning supply and then blot it away to clean the leather. Be prepared, whatever you are cleaning will smell like peanut butter when you are done so I suggest spraying the peanut butter with a slight bit of perfume to help cut the smell.

We want to hear how peanut butter has helped you in your travels…or other foods that are your travel staples!

Traveling Caffeinated: Coffee Around the World

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Josh Eaton | 12 Comments

As you can probably tell, Caroline and I are coffee fanatics. I get it from my dad, and probably had something to do with Care being obsessed with it. While at home, I use the amazing Aeropress to brew delicious coffee. I’m not too particular about the beans, as long as it’s freshly ground, strong, and prepared well. I didn’t take my Aeropress with me on the trip (something I will definitely do in the future), and ended up trying coffee around the world in all different ways.

Coffee from Pacific Coffee company in Hong Kong on the first morning of our RTW trip! Obviously we weren’t too adventurous with our coffee at this point, but it was a good café americano!

Kopi at Ya Kun Kaya Toast in Singapore. This Malaysian coffee is made in a sock (just go check it out). Stick around and watch how they make it and then enjoy the strong coffee black or with evaporated or condensed milk if you have a sweet tooth. You can also get kaya toast, which is toast with a sweet coconut jam on it. We also loved the kopi and kaya toast at ToastBox!

In Bali, we tried Kopi Luwak (otherwise known as cat poop coffee) at Bali Pulina plantation. It doesn’t taste like cat poop, instead it’s very smooth and much less acidic than other coffees. If you are in Bali definitely don’t miss out!

In Bangkok we enjoyed our morning Thai Coffee, famous for who knows how many types of sugar. It appeared to be made using sugar, simple syrup, and condensed milk. Obviously, it tasted delicious but wasn’t true “coffee” as I normally like it.

I got my order down with the nice guy out front of Lub d Siam Square. The first time I ordered one black coffee (with a couple confirmations that I really wanted it black) and one Thai coffee. Anytime after when I tried to deviate from that order, I’d just get exactly that.

A cappuccino from Elliebum café and guesthouse in Chiang Mai. Really delicious coffee, and maybe even tastier smoothies! When in Chiang Mai we definitely suggest you stop by!

Some Vietnamese coffee in Hoi An, Vietnam. The coffee here was really strong and good, much different from the surrounding countries. It’s made using the pour-over contraption you see on top of the mug. Usually it’s served with it still on top and you wait for the rest of the coffee to brew before drinking. Patience!

On our African safari, it was Nescafé with chicory as that’s all we could find in the supermarket. We woke up every morning and skipped breakfast, but made sure to boil water for the thermos on our morning game drive. An unfortunate aspect of our trip (coffee-wise) was the amount of Nescafé we drank. Through most of our trip, instant coffee was the only thing available. And since we are more than a little dependent on our daily cup of joe, we drank A LOT of instant coffee.

A latte at the Executive Club in the Westin Cape Town. Although there is no cultural significance to the coffee at the Westin, they always made it look pretty.

plett-coffee

A fancy cappuccino at doubleshot coffee in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa. A hip coffee shop owned the sisters responsible for Lairds Lodge (one of our favorites in South Africa). They definitely got an A+ in the skill of cappuccino art.

A café cortado at a café in Barcelona. (Espresso con un poquito de leche) Espresso with small amount of milk. This was possibly my favorite beverage of the entire trip.

Y más cortados en Madrid! I just couldn’t get enough.

Guys, don’t laugh! At the Sao Paolo airport, we got americanos from the McCafé (yes I just put an accent on something involving McDonalds) and they give you this great little piece of chocolate! Honestly, I’m losing all my coffee cred here, but this was the high point of our 13 hour Sao Paolo airport stay.

Me wondering where the rest of my Brazilian espresso is at a sidewalk café in Rio de Janeiro.

A trip to Buenos Aires isn’t complete with a stop at the touristy, but fun Café Tortoni for an espresso. It’s a beautiful café, where the rich history surrounds your experience….and of course the coffee is great too!

Now that I am back traveling in the U.S for awhile, it’s back to my trusty Aeropress!

Where have you had delicious coffee in your travels?

Tasting Kauai: Culinary Tour With The Locals

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Caroline Eaton | 1 Comment

When we signed up to spend 3 weeks in Kauai with our friends Meg and Tony from LandingStanding, we knew there was one thing we would be doing a lot of……..eating.

You already read last month about my personal Hawaiian food tour through my childhood memories from when I was 6 years old. It was filled with a lot of not-so-nutritious and sugary…yet delicious must-try foods. This time we were on Kauai and were looking to experience a real food tour from some locals with Tasting Kauai. We didn’t know what to expect when arriving at the Kilohana Plantation, but knew there would be sweet fruit, Hawaiian style rum, and plenty of locally grown ingredients!

After meeting Marta and Dan from Tasting Kauai, we boarded the Kilohana Plantation’s train and were taken through a sea of fresh fruit, rambutan, pineapple, tangerines, and bananas. All which we got to pick ourselves and taste, and all were unbelievably sweet and delicious!

Meg picking a tangerine

Rambutan

Our guide, Kai, preparing a delicious fruit salad

Apple bananas in the fruit salad

Pineapples growing (it takes 2.5 years)

After a refreshing breakfast we all caravanned over to the Kauai Marriott to experience the famous chef, Guy Higa, who is not only an excellent cook, but a stand up guy. We loved listening to Guy explain the simplicity of the food and all of the local ingredients that go into it. Guy even invited us to tour his home garden where the majority of the herbs came from. The meal was fascinating because we got to see it come to life right in front of us. I’ll stop talking and let the photos speak for themselves!

Guy’s home garden

Fried pork belly appetizer

Fresh green salad with lilikoi (Hawaiian passionfruit) dressing

Fresh homemade pasta

Delicious pacific shrimp with the homemade pasta

Espresso cheesecake with a starfruit garnish

Across the street from the Kauai Marriott is the local and highly recommended pub, The Feral Pig. We were greeted by Jeanne from The Koloa Rum Company for an interactive make your own drink tasting. Dave Power, the owner and bartender extraordinaire showed us how to combine the sweet and sour and liquors to make a tasty drink. We had three mixers to combine with Koloa rum to make our own sours: ginger honey & lemon, lemon lemongrass & fennel frond, and a syrup made from Koloa dark rum.

I added 1 oz of the lemon grass and kept it basic. Josh got fancy and mixed in 1/2 oz of the dark rum and 1/2 oz of the ginger and added some bitters. Both I would order again and were simple enough for me to make at home.

After we had our fun at pretending to bartend, Dave took us to the bar and showed us how it was really done. Within 10 seconds of talking to each person individually and asking us one or two questions he designed a drink that he thoguht we would like. Each of us received a completely different drink, an original mai tai for Care and a whiskey sour for Josh, and all of them were outstanding!

Stuffed, we finally surrendered to our bellies and rolled ourselves home. If we had any room left we would have ordered the famous Feral Burger with home cut french fries. No worries, we went back the next week to do our own tasting!

Thanks to Tasting Kauai for inviting us on their Farm to Fork Culinary Tour.

Hawaiian Food You Can’t Leave Without Tasting

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Caroline Eaton | 5 Comments

When I return to Hawaii my first priority is to satisfy my food cravings from childhood memories. I eat like a 6 year old, because that is how old I was when I lived there so my memories aren’t of the most nutritious foods, but are Hawaiian foods that I love, and yes spam is top on my list. You don’t have to like everything, but I suggest you get out in the beautiful island of Oahu and at least try it all!

In order to fully enjoy all this delicious food, we began every morning at Waikiki Resort Hotel, 1 block away from the famous Waikiki Beach and minutes away from highway H1 to take you all over the island. It was in what we considered one of the best locations in Waikiki surrounded by a mecca of food opportunities!

Spam Musubi - A popular lunch or snack in Hawaii that has a slice of spam, a block of rice all wrapped together in seaweed goodness.

Pineapple – Deliciously sweet and melt in your mouth good! On your way to the North Shore, stop by the Dole Plantation and taste out their Dole whip pineapple soft-serve.

Chinese Rice Cakes – Sweet rice cakes with a gooey, spongey texture near impossible to describe.

Shave Ice – My favorite is Matsumoto’s on the North Shore of Oahu. Shaving creates an insanely fine texture and the variety of delicious tropical syrups make this irresistible.

Loco Moco – A bed of rice topped with a large hamburger patty made from local meat, 2 runny eggs and brown gravy. This is a heavy meal, so come hungry or plan to share.

Plate Lunch – The Hawaiian standard in including 2 scoops of white rice, 1 scoop of macaroni salad and a main entree like Kalua pork or Chicken Katsu. I recommend the Kalua pork.

Giovanni’s Original White Shrimp Truck – If you are spending the day on the North Shore continue heading east past Sunset Beach and Turtle Bay Resort and eventually you will find Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck packed with visitors. We liked the hot and spicy!

Bubble Tea – Fruit teas with large tapioca balls. This isn’t a Hawaiian drink but you can find lots of it at the International Market in Waikiki. Sounds weird but it’s delicious.

Poke – Raw, cubed ahi marinated in sea salt and small amounts of soy sauce and seaweed. Can be served by itself or with rice. A must!

Puka Dog/Hula Dog – 4 years ago it was Puka Dog, now renamed to Hula Dog, but still with the same toasted bread that wraps 365 degrees around your polish sausage. Yeah, that’s right. You get to choose from exotic mustard flavors like Lillikoi, your level of spiciness and we suggest always going with the bacon taro bread for the roll.

If you are traveling to Waikiki – stay in the city! Enjoy the perks that comes along with being able to walk to the beach and explore the markets and local restaurants on foot.

To avoid an overly expensive hotel, sleep 1 or 2 blocks off the beach. We stayed at Waikiki Resort Hotel which has beautiful rooms and an excellent location!

If you’re interested in trying some Korean food, try out their restaurant, Seoul Jung. We were impressed with their authentic menu and variety of flavors. The meats were unbelievably tender and it was by far the best meal we had while in Waikiki.

After the long day we were so glad to return to a comfortable bed with our bellies stuffed, sitting out on our balcony with a glass of wine while we watched the sun set. My idea of a perfect evening!

Tips For Staying at Waikiki Resort Hotel

Book directly on the website, you can get their online package that includes breakfast at their restaurant Ilima.
The WI-FI in the lobby is free.
Book a corner room with a combined ocean and city view – both are beautiful!

Many thanks to Waikiki Resort Hotel for partnering with us while we explored the Island of Oahu.

How to Eat an Argentine Steak for Half Price in Buenos Aires

Posted on December 27, 2012 by Caroline Eaton | 12 Comments

We knew we couldn’t visit Argentina without enjoying one of their world-renowned steaks. After hearing about a can’t-miss deal from Meg and Tony at LandingStanding for a 1/2 price happy hour we made Parilla La Cabrera one of our first stops in Buenos Aires.

We were staying in the Palermo Soho neighborhood, so La Cabrera was only a few blocks away. The deal is if you show up and eat dinner between 7-8PM you get 50% off your entire meal (wine and all). For one of the most expensive parillas in the city, this is a great deal. The thing is, you have to finish your meal by 8PM. We heard the line starts forming around 6:45, so there we were, in line for dinner before 7 in a city that doesn’t start dinner until 10 PM. We were surrounded mostly by tourists and budget travelers who were anxiously waiting to stuff themselves with meat.

400g of Argentine beef (with roquefort cheese on top!)

The doors opened and we were quickly sat and asked to order. Being the chatty group we were, we asked for uno momento to decide. Big Mistake. One minute turned into 15. We had the option to be the first group in the restaurant to order and we ended up being the last.

Tip: Grab a menu while you are in line waiting so you and your group can decide what you want to order prior to sitting down.

We had 4 in our party and each couple decided to split the Bife de chorizo con queso roquefort, a 400 gram steak with a slab of roquefort cheese on top. Not sure how much food was enough, we ordered a caesar salad, an order of french fries and a bottle of wine for the table. We didn’t realize that the meal comes with bread and a whole tray of small but filling options for sides.

The bife de chorizo itself was delicious, especially with the cheese on top. It was a huge slab and 400g was honestly a huge amount of food even for two people to share (Josh probably ate 2/3 of it ) The sides are great, with small salads, pickles and other tiny accompaniments. Since we were chatty and didn’t order on time, our food didn’t come out until around 7:45, which gave us 15 minutes to eat. We scarfed it down, and luckily they let us stay about 15 minutes past 8 while we were paying our bill and we were able to finish the meal. Lesson learned: definitely order the first time around!

As with any other meal in Argentina, it’s not complete without a nice bottle of Malbec, and that’s 1/2 price too! Every day of the week except Monday and Friday La Cabrera offers a flat 50% off the entire menu, wine included. We got out of there for under $40, and enjoyed two of Argentina’s most famous gastronomic accomplishments: steak and Malbec. Next time we would skip the side dishes to save even more and not be as full!

They bring these sides around and you can take as many as you’d like

Thai Food: The Most Mind-Blowing Foods You Will Ever Put In Your Mouth

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Caroline Eaton | 18 Comments

We can’t say enough amazing things about Thai food. It is everything you can ask for in food – meat of all kinds, the spiciest chilis, and the sweetest fruits for all for cheap prices along the streets. We aren’t experts on Thai food, but we know what tastes delicious and leaves us wanting more.

You might go to Thai restaurants back home and think you like Thai food, but if you’ve never gone beyond Pad Thai, you’re in for a treat! We’ve listed out our favorite foods here and encourage you to find and try them all!

Pineapple

Coconut

Mangosteen

Mangosteen fruit

Fruit Smoothies

Bread with butter, sugar and coconut milk

Stir Fry on the street

Thai omelet and rice with chili sauce

Khao Soi (Burmese-influenced rice noodle soup)

Pad Thai

Somtam (Papaya Salad)

Tom Yum Soup

Curries! (Green, Red, Yellow, Penang)

Hainanese Chicken Rice (Not exactly Thai, but you’ll still find it everywhere!)

Ice cream sandwich from a street cart with sticky rice, peanuts and coconut ice cream

Coconut Pancakes

Sweets (water chestnuts, jellies, beans, fruits) in coconut milk with ice

Mango Sticky Rice (The ultimate dessert!)

Mochi and Coconut Balls

Khanom Krok (Coconut rice pudding)

Coconut heaven! Only 20 baht ($0.67)

I’m hungry just writing this post.

What food would get you to hop on a plane tomorrow?

Malbec! 5 Argentine Wines For Under $5

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Caroline Eaton | 2 Comments

We love good wine, and more than that, we love a good cheap wine! In Argentina you can’t go wrong with a Malbec. I had never given Malbec much of a chance before visiting Buenos Aires and I can tell you I am now a changed woman!

(Most) every wine we picked up from the grocery store was delicious. Here are five of our favorites that are all under $5 for you to keep an eye out for while you are in Argentina.

Michael Torino – Malbec