Trader Joe's Ham & Swiss Sandwich

If you're thinking that this doesn't look like the kind of TJ's purchase I usually make, you're right. It was the result of that familiar problem of grocery shopping while hungry. Had I been thinking more clearly, I would have realized:

• I haven't had ham in maybe a year, and really don't want to start again. 
• It is not possible to assemble a sandwich in a factory kitchen somewhere, wrap it in plastic, ship it to grocery stores, have it sit on the shelves for a day or two, and end up with a sandwich that is "fresh," as the label claims. 

The lettuce was wilted. The dijon mustard, while tasty, had soaked into the bread and was all concentrated right in the middle of the sandwich. The ham was weirdly--almost alarmingly--discolored, an unappealing gray. I know there was a slice of Swiss cheese in there, because I partially disassembled the sandwich looking for it, after discovering that its flavor was completely AWOL.

This sandwich was a colossal failure.


Will I buy it again? 

Only if I lose my ever-lovin' mind.

Trader Joe's Cubano Seasoned Wrap

I first had a "Cuban" sandwich at a restaurant in Florida, when Nina and I were there visiting one of her aunts a few years ago. If I had ever heard the term before that, I had not remembered it. I think I've had two since then, at different restaurants.

This morning I saw this item in TJ's prepared-food section while I was looking for something else, and I bought it on impulse. I had it for my lunch today.

I liked it--for a few bites. Then it all felt like too much. In particular, too much meat. As I've mentioned here before, I'm not a committed vegetarian, but I have substantially cut back on the amount of meat I eat compared to five years ago, and I don't miss it. I'm sure my long-term average meat eating is less than twice a week, and probably getting closer to once a week. Even then, it's usually as part of some larger dish, not the main constituent. As an example, I bought a steak at TJ's when the place first opened nearly a year ago, and it's still sitting in my freezer. So this wrap/sandwich thing was kind of an anomaly for me, in that it's stuffed with pork and ham.

I thought the flavors were very good. You get a lot of complexity between the tortilla, the two meats, the cheese, the pickles, and the mustard dressing. But it didn't sit well with me, for reasons that I'm having a hard time articulating and that are definitely personal to me, and not reflective of the food per se. I guess I can't put it more clearly than this: The idea of eating meat still has enough appeal to me that I could yield to a hunger-driven impulse to stick something like this in my shopping basket. But when it comes to actually eating it, I discovered that the appeal went away rapidly--even though every mouthful I took was tasty. Weird, huh?

Will I buy it again? 

It's not very likely. I think I'll remember this experience clearly for a good long time.