For all of you Trader Joe's lovers...(and soon to be tj lovers!)the Gaithersburg Trader Joes will be opening tomorrow on Lost Knife Road (behind Lakeforest mall - next to Marshalls). As many of you know there was a great community effort to get TJ's here in the Kentlands. I'm not sure how successful they will be on Lost Knife but I do plan on shopping there more often now that I don't have to brave the traffic on 355...(Or before that TJ'S opened, stuff my carry on after a trip to Southern California). I would love to know what you think of Trader Joe's once you've tried some of their products. What are some of your favorites and/or have you had any duds?

-- Nannette Horan (nannette_horan@yahoo.com), April 27, 2000

Answers

Nannette: What great news! Thanks for sharing that with the community. We all owe you a debt of gratitude for trying so hard to bring Trader Joe's to our community. As I recall, you contacted the management in California at the time when they were considering expanding to the East Coast and had not yet identified a site in the Washington area. (I believe you learned that they were starting with Boston.)

Many of the discussion topics that have been posted on this public forum get at the question of what can citizens/residents do to impact the quality of life in our community. On some, like how to help kids cross the Rachel Carson parking lot safely (click here to join that discussion), you can see residents raising an issue and it reaching a successful conclusion, spurred by residents. On more complicated issues, like safely crossing Quince Orchard Blvd. -- which requires state intervention to establish a stop light (click here to join that discussion), , or recreational use of the Kentlands lakes -- which involves balancing two competing interests: safety and recreation (click here to join that discussion), or how to make Market Square a commercial success (click here to join that discussion), residents have brought issues to the attention of government officials and developers, who are monitoring the views and concerns that we express.

I hope that you and others take inspiration from the Trader Joe's effort. Even though it did not result in Trader Joe's locating inside our community, as we had wished, I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't a lot closer to Kentlands than would otherwise have been the case. I know for myself that traveling down to Rockville Pike to their location was just too much of a hassle.

Finally, to answer the original question you posted, I love all of their dried fruits, especially the sweet cherries which you can get in a pint package. Also, they have the best prices on olive oil. And I find that if I check out their specials, I usually run across one or two items that I would not have discovered on my own and that I add to my favorites list.

to reading what others post here so that I can learn about other neat food items.

-- Michael Berney (mlberney@aol.com), May 01, 2000.

Here are some of my favorite items: Cranberry Almond Cluster cereal (please don't take the last one) Sesame Thins Roasted Soy Nuts Chocolate Orange Sticks Chocolate Pretzel Cookies

-- Nish Karakashian (nkmamd@erols.com), May 08, 2000.

Results of personal taste tests conducted in the Macdonald household: 1) Trader Joe's Earl Grey Premium Tea in tea bags. Two thumbs down. No comparison with Bigelow's or Twinings' Early Grey and not worth the savings in cost. 2) Trader Joe's Classic Yemen Mocha Whole Bean Coffee. Two very enthusiastic thumbs up. As good as more expensive alternatives at considerable savings in cost. 3) Ghirardelli's thick slabs of chocolate. All digits way, WAY up. This is the first time we've seen this chocolate (available as milk, dark, or white) outside of San Francisco. This is not the thin, wimpy Ghirardelli chocolate bars and squares available in other stores around here, it is the real thing--large, broken chunks from thick, five pound (!) bars sold by weight of the chunk. Chocolate-lover's heaven.

-- Mary and Vic Macdonald (macdonald@his.com), July 15, 2000.

I'm interested in copying Trader Joe's recipe for Sun Dried Tomato and Pesto Torta. It's delicious and addicting. No Trader Joe's where I live, so I've got to make it myself. Can anyone help me find a website that has this info? Thanks

-- Wendy Weise (wweise@mindspring.com), September 20, 2002.

No luck here finding the recipe you're looking for, either. What about writing to Trader Joe's and asking them for it? Otherwise, or in the meantime, Bon Appétit's recipe for Sun-Dried Tomato and Pesto Torta looks like it would be really good (in fact, the online reviews are great). Search for it in "epicurious.com," or go right to: http://www.epicurious.com/run/recipe/view?id=102634. Looks like a great recipe for a party.

-- Mary N. Macdonald (mnmacd@his.com), September 24, 2002.