With the in-store coffee roasting gone, has anybody tried the currently available whole bean offerings? Recommendations? Ones to avoid? At a previous job, they sometimes bought the Kirkland canned, ground coffee and it was horrific, even compared to Folgers/Maxwell House...

blipsman wrote:With the in-store coffee roasting gone, has anybody tried the currently available whole bean offerings? Recommendations? Ones to avoid? At a previous job, they sometimes bought the Kirkland canned, ground coffee and it was horrific, even compared to Folgers/Maxwell House...

For everyday, drink-in-the-morning and on-the-way-to-work, we like the Kirkland Columbian "Supremo," the silver bag with the jaguar on it. It's a medium roast, which we prefer. At $13.59 for 3 lbs. it's a bargain.

Spotted an interesting new item at the Clybourn Costco on Saturday:


Click image for larger (albeit slightly blurrier) version



Is anyone familiar with this stuff? I'm not a huge baba ghanouj fan, and "eggplant spread" sounds pretty similar. But for two bucks, I was somewhat tempted to buy a jar just so I could stick a finger in it and give it a taste. In the end, however, I decided to pass.

Khaopaat wrote:Is anyone familiar with this stuff? I'm not a huge baba ghanouj fan, and "eggplant spread" sounds pretty similar. But for two bucks, I was somewhat tempted to buy a jar just so I could stick a finger in it and give it a taste. In the end, however, I decided to pass.

Given the color, it seems more like ajvar than baba.

=R=

Eggplant "caviar" (ikra=caviar, I think). Same company makes ajvar. Not like baba, other than the eggplant spead aspect.

Hi,

I bought this Russian product last week. It is not babaganouj nor is it ajvar. Both have roasted eggplant, baba has tahini or mayonaise and ajvar is eggplant-roasted pepper puree with some oil. Ajvar, the red peppers is so dominate you don't realize the eggplant is there.

The Russian product ingredient label stacks up with eggplant, sunflower oil, red peppers and tomatoes already provides a hint this is different than baba and ajvar. Russians like sunflower oil, which has a different taste. While I don't especially like sunflower oil as-is, it's ok mixed into something. (Just not a cabbage salad with an oil-vinegar dressing. A situation where the sunflower oil dominates.)

Your post prompted me to open it at lunch. I spread some on toast. I can detect sunflower oil flavor in this eggplant product, which you may or may not like. I have had these kinds of eggplant caviar type dishes before, both factory and home made. I can't say I dislike it since I ate half a jar.

This is a situation where a demo-tasting would be helpful. Of course, if you buy a jar to find it not to your liking. You know someone who will take it off your hands.

Regards,

I picked up a lovely 5+ pound lamb shoulder for Easter dinner at the Glenview Costco. I'd already like to go back and buy more lamb to freeze for later. Just wondering, does anyone think they'll lower the price after Sunday, and/or send a lot of it away? Is there any advantage to waiting a few days to buy more?

EvA wrote:

blipsman wrote:With the in-store coffee roasting gone, has anybody tried the currently available whole bean offerings? Recommendations? Ones to avoid? At a previous job, they sometimes bought the Kirkland canned, ground coffee and it was horrific, even compared to Folgers/Maxwell House...

For everyday, drink-in-the-morning and on-the-way-to-work, we like the Kirkland Columbian "Supremo," the silver bag with the jaguar on it. It's a medium roast, which we prefer. At $13.59 for 3 lbs. it's a bargain.

Thanks for the recommendation... I picked some up last week, and opened it the other day when we finished up what we'd been using. Have been enjoying it -- we also prefer a medium roast to the dark roasts. And the price is right, given how much coffee we're going through now that my wife has become a coffee drinker again.

blipsman wrote:

EvA wrote:

blipsman wrote:With the in-store coffee roasting gone, has anybody tried the currently available whole bean offerings? Recommendations? Ones to avoid? At a previous job, they sometimes bought the Kirkland canned, ground coffee and it was horrific, even compared to Folgers/Maxwell House...

For everyday, drink-in-the-morning and on-the-way-to-work, we like the Kirkland Columbian "Supremo," the silver bag with the jaguar on it. It's a medium roast, which we prefer. At $13.59 for 3 lbs. it's a bargain.

Thanks for the recommendation... I picked some up last week, and opened it the other day when we finished up what we'd been using. Have been enjoying it -- we also prefer a medium roast to the dark roasts. And the price is right, given how much coffee we're going through now that my wife has become a coffee drinker again.

We just bought another 3 pounder today. My husband drinks a lot of coffee.... So glad you are enjoying it.

JeffB wrote:Eggplant "caviar" (ikra=caviar, I think). Same company makes ajvar. Not like baba, other than the eggplant spead aspect.

Yes, in Russian, ikra= caviar.

In case it's of interest to anyone, D'Artagnan American Wagyu Whole Roast, Boneless, Prime, 15 lbs. Minimum Weight, for $300, shipping included, one day sale only according to the listing:

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.as ... lang=en-US

Got two things at Costco in Lake Zurich yesterday. One pound carton of Shrimp Ceviche which was shrimp and their mango salsa for 5.99. It was really quite good. And a grilling pizza set for 20$, with a stone, giant spatula, cutter, and a very nice big locking tongs, similar to OXO's only twice as big. The spatula is great for separating the coooked pizza from the parchment paper, it and the tongs are each worth the purchase price.

It put me in the mood for homemade pizza last night, so I made a cheese pizza for the girls, a sausage for me, the wife and my daughter, and a new one for me to make, shrimp, anchovy, and garlic. The latter was the best by far and moves into the number one spot in baking order.

Another ZerGut product spotted at the Clybourn Costco today:


Bulgarian pitted sour cherries, $4.89. Does "ZerGut" translate to "They're Good"? I think I'm going to be sorry I only got two. I'll report back on the pie...

Cheers, Jen

Another thumbs up for the tasty shrimp ceviche. I'm glad I finally tried it.

Pie-love wrote:Another ZerGut product spotted at the Clybourn Costco today:


Bulgarian pitted sour cherries, $4.89. Does "ZerGut" translate to "They're Good"? I think I'm going to be sorry I only got two. I'll report back on the pie...

Cheers, Jen

I guess it must be fashionable in Bulgaria to have a German transliteration name. ZerGut would be similar to 'very good' or 'sehr gut' with the 's' pronounced like our 'z.'

Typically preserved sour cherries from that part of the world are almost always unpitted. These pitted cherries must be for the export market, though they may now be offered for the domestic market, too.

In Iron Curtain times, there was export quality and domestic, which sometimes was day and night in quality. I spent many an evening pitting frozen and jarred sour cherries.

Regards,

Pie-love wrote:Another ZerGut product spotted at the Clybourn Costco today...Bulgarian pitted sour cherries, $4.89...

Bulgarian cherry update! I haven't made the pie yet, but I did make a toasted polenta cake with cherry sauce:


The cherries look a little grotty because the sauce called for pureeing some of the cherries, then straining the puree-- but I was in a hurry, so I skipped the straining. The cherries are very good-- they taste a lot like good frozen sour cherries, but a little watery as extra water is added for the bottling. The "light syrup" is indeed very light-- I had to add a little sugar to make the sauce. For a pie, I think I would (will?) boil down the liquid to concentrate the flavor.

Here's the recipe (paid content alert):
http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/gril ... sauce.aspx

Jen

Costco comes out on top in a Consumer Reports survey.

Katie wrote:Costco comes out on top in a Consumer Reports survey.

I'm kind of surprised to see Macy's and Meijers near the bottom of the heap. But then, you have to take everything CR says with a grain of salt.

Cogito wrote:

Katie wrote:Costco comes out on top in a Consumer Reports survey.

But then, you have to take everything CR says with a grain of salt.

Cogito, please help me understand why you said that. What makes what CR says suspect?

I found some good, inexpensive tequila at Costco. I bought the right-hand bottle at the Oak Brook Costco. We made some drinks, it was tasty, so I bought another bottle (left) at the Chicago Costco on Clybourn.


I think the Oak Brook bottle was about $18 or $19. The Clybourn bottle was definitely $19.99 (plus Cook County tax). It was only after I got home with the second bottle that I noticed that the Oak Brook bottle is 750ml and the Clybourn Bottle is 1 liter-- for nearly (if not exactly) the same price. WTF???? Did I mis-remember the price on the 750 ml bottle??

Jen

ViewsAskew wrote:

Cogito wrote:

Katie wrote:Costco comes out on top in a Consumer Reports survey.

But then, you have to take everything CR says with a grain of salt.

Cogito, please help me understand why you said that. What makes what CR says suspect?

Well, in this case, it's consumer reports' readers, who aren't going to be objective in the same way CR tries to be. If the conventional wisdom is that WalMart is downscale and Target is midrange/upscale, then they might rank them like that even if it's not really the case. Costco gets the highest rating in the survey for value, but Sam's gets merely an average rating, even though the stuff they have in common is priced almost identically. On the other hand, costco and sam's (and every other chain, basically) get merely average "returns" ratings, even though they both have much more generous return policies than, say, JCPenney.

gleam wrote:Well, in this case, it's consumer reports' readers, who aren't going to be objective in the same way CR tries to be. If the conventional wisdom is that WalMart is downscale and Target is midrange/upscale, then they might rank them like that even if it's not really the case.

Kind of like the objectivity of the distinguished authors on the LTH Forum?

ViewsAskew wrote:

Cogito wrote:

Katie wrote:Costco comes out on top in a Consumer Reports survey.

But then, you have to take everything CR says with a grain of salt.

Cogito, please help me understand why you said that. What makes what CR says suspect?

There's a lot of good information at CR, but I have learned that you have to pay attention to the minute details of their ratings and surveys to make sure that they are not skewing the results. I'm not saying they are intentionally misleading; it's just that their priorities are often not the same as mine. For example, on their product ratings, they will routinely give a "not recommended" rating to a car because they feel the hood ornament could hurt a pedestrian if you ran them over. I'm not saying that that is not important, but I would not use it as a sole criterion for determining whether or not to buy a particular car. This philosophy is endemic in most of their product ratings and surveys.

All I'm saying is to make sure you read the questions, etc., before you blindly accept their bottom line conclusions as gospel. They have their own agenda, and I often find it is an odd one.

Cogito wrote:There's a lot of good information at CR, but I have learned that you have to pay attention to the minute details of their ratings and surveys to make sure that they are not skewing the results. I'm not saying they are intentionally misleading; it's just that their priorities are often not the same as mine.

That's my main problem with Consumer Reports. Often times the "best value" is more inportant to them then the "best product". I'm not necessarily looking for value over quality.

Well, in this case, it's consumer reports' readers, who aren't going to be objective in the same way CR tries to be.

They're not supposed to be objective, they're supposed to be subjective, that's why they call it a survey. You can think what you want of their predispositions, but I'd say 33,600 respondents is a decent sample size.

sample size doesn't mean much of anything when it's not a random sample

my point is that this is why it should be taken with a grain of salt -- because it's an aggregation of the completely subjective views of a self-selecting sample.

gleam wrote:sample size doesn't mean much of anything when it's not a random sample

my point is that this is why it should be taken with a grain of salt -- because it's an aggregation of the completely subjective views of a self-selecting sample.

Thanks, for this, Ed.

=R=

Well yeah, sure, they're Consumer Reports members, we know that. It's not the last word, mind you, it's just one group's opinion. I never said it was a random sample, and contrary to your statement, sample size does in fact mean something even when the population is self-selected; it just means something different from what it means when it's not. Clearly you think they are as a group predisposed toward certain views on the subject. I'm not clear on what exactly you think that predisposition is nor why it diminishes the value of their collective opinion, on stores or cars or hotels or vacuum cleaners or anything else.

CR represents the vast middle.

If you know nothing about stereos and want a stereo, they are fine for a recommendation. But if you know something about stereos, and care about X value of a stereo reviewing criterion (bass fidelity, let's say) they will not do for you.

At the Costco in Niles this morning I noticed packages of Rumba chicken in mole poblano priced at 97 cents per two pound package. I figured it must be a mistake, but it scanned at that price at the register. I'll try it out in a few days, hope it's worth the whole 97 cents!