Category Archives: Technically not nut-free

Apr 16 2016
2 Comments
Chains, Japanese, Places to eat, Snacks, Technically not nut-free

M2M: An affordable Asian market

Salmon

I’ve said before that I’d eat sushi every day if I could afford to do so—but I can’t, nor will I ever be that rich. A more reasonable person might accept this financial limitation and, you know, chill the fuck out, but not me. I spend way too much of my time trying to make sushi affordable—and mostly in vain, at that. Decent restaurants are expensive (and the cheaper ones tend to be less allergy-friendly, anyway), and grocery store sushi is generally inedible…that is, with the exception of M2M’s.

Now: M2M’s sushi is nothing crazy. Everything’s packaged and allowed to sit for hours in a cooler at the back of their stores, after all. But as grocery store sushi goes, it just might be the best I’ve tried—and among the cheapest, too, at between $4 and $10 per box. The fish is usually decent, though everything’s usually way too cold, and the rice (in particular) doesn’t always taste so fresh—but hey, it’s the best of the bad, as far as I’m concerned.

I like to get the salmon combo, which comes with both rolls and nigiri, and which is pretty decent if you manage to catch it at the right time of day (though just when that golden hour starts is anyone’s guess. I certainly have no idea, and I’m starting to think there’s no rhyme or reason to freshness at M2M). I also used to love the shrimp tempura rolls, but for the past year or so, they’ve been—for lack of a better term—really, really, really bad. They’re horrifyingly cold and stale, and the folks at M2M seem to have forgotten how to make the version that didn’t come topped with spicy mayo. Oh well.

Ingredients are, of course, listed on the packaging, though I’m not sure whether M2M would label potential cross-contaminants. Truthfully, I took a risk the first time I ate their sushi—but I eat M2M multiple times per week (as one of their locations is basically on NYU’s campus), and I’ve never had any issues whatsoever. (I should say, though, that I only eat their sushi. They have hot food, too, but in the interest of safety, I tend to steer clear of anything cooked.)

I know—this isn’t the world’s most informative post. But I eat there so often I figured I’d throw the recommendation out there. As always, you should use your own discretion—and if the lack of readily-available information on M2M’s treatment of allergens makes you uncomfortable, you can (and should) speak to an employee—or, of course, take your business elsewhere.

M2M has three locations, though I can only vouch for the sushi at the one in Greenwich Village (19 Waverly Place). Still, the one on 11th and 3rd (55 3rd Avenue) is much larger—and much more pleasant, if you ask me. The third is in Morningside Heights (2935 Broadway), but I’ve never been.

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Apr 13 2016
6 Comments
Brands, Online vendors, Sweets, Technically not nut-free

Tate’s Bake Shop (or, alternatively: The World’s Least Scientific Experiment)

tates

Let me emphasize: Tate’s Bake Shop is not at all nut-free. In fact, they’re probably the least nut-free company I’ve discussed on this blog—but their cookies are (quite literally) irresistible, so I’ve decided to do some research.

Every Tate’s bag clearly states that their cookies are made in a facility that also processes pecans, walnuts, almonds, and macadamia nuts. Trader Joe’s sells a very similar product under their private label—though they only sell the gluten-free chocolate chip and ginger chunk varieties—and theirs are without any sort of nut-related allergen warning (which, at Trader Joe’s, generally means they really are safe). The Trader Joe’s cookies are absolutely delicious, even sans gluten—so I’ve been dying to try the real deal for a while now.

Anyway, I sent an email to Tate’s and received the following reply:

I wanted to reach out to let you know we do use the same equipment to pack nut containing cookies as our non-nut containing cookies. We have specific cleaning procedures in place to ensure that all nut protein is removed from the equipment. We then test the equipment to ensure that all proteins have been removed. This is all documented and signed off by the supervisors. Additionally, we do have statements from our ingredient purveyors indicating there is no nut cross contamination.

Honestly, the above reply was way better than I’d expected. So much better, in fact, that it seemed too good to be true. I decided to call to double-check, and the phone calls that followed were…interesting, to say the least. The first woman I spoke to told me that she couldn’t think of anyone who would be able to answer my questions, but she did give the phone number for the Tate’s warehouse.

I called the warehouse and reiterated my questions to a few different people until I was transferred to someone who essentially repeated verbatim what I’d been told via email. That, combined with the fact that very few people at Tate’s seem to be all that well versed in their allergen policies—and the fact that this particular woman sounded rather annoyed—led me to believe (without about 95% certainty) that I was speaking to the same woman I’d been in contact with via email.

It was a brief and unpleasant conversation, but the fact remained: The manufacturing practices at Tate’s sounded good to me. So given that I don’t really have a history of reacting to products that may contain trace amounts of nuts—and given that I was feeling especially irresponsible on that particular Tuesday—I figured I’d give Tate’s the good old taste test. So I did. And I didn’t react.

Of course, everyone’s allergies are different—so do with that what you will. In fact, please take all of this with an entire shaker of salt. Much like my post on IT’SUGAR, this post doesn’t come with any recommendations; it’s mostly just a recap of my poor decisions and the experiences that came of them.

…All right. Now that we’ve gotten all that out of the way, we can spend a minute talking about the cookies themselves. I only tried the chocolate chip, but they’re absolutely wonderful—by far the best store-bought cookie I’ve ever had (though if we’re counting the Trader Joe’s version as a separate product, those come in a very close second). They’re perfectly crispy, buttery, and salty, with chocolate chips good enough to win me over—and I hate chocolate chips. Seriously: Tate’s are in a league of their own, and if you can eat them…well, you need to.

I’m really looking forward to trying their other flavors, if a little slowly and stressfully. The Chipless, the gingersnap, the vanilla, the Ginger Zinger, the mint chocolate chip, and the oatmeal raisin are all calling me. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Find Tate’s at…most grocery stores, really. Try Whole Foods, Citarella, Stop & Shop, Fairway, Eli’s, Gourmet Garage, or Westside Market.

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Apr 10 2016
4 Comments
Chains, Mexican, Places to eat, Technically not nut-free

Otto’s Tacos

Two carnitas tacos from Ottos' Tacos

Last week, my boyfriend Sam and I made another one of our regular trips to Clinton Hill for tacos from Cochinita, one of NYC’s very, very few truly nut-free restaurants. Or it was, at least. When we got off the train, Cochinita’s sign was gone, its windows covered. We were beside ourselves. With Cochinita off the table, we were left with…well, Big Daddy’s and Duke’s (and only Big Daddy’s and Duke’s!) on the list of restaurants that will actually call themselves nut-free. Which is a shame, given that those two are hardly restaurants to begin with.

Perhaps, then, it’s time for me to start looking (harder) into restaurants—not major chains, but small-scale restaurants—that don’t advertise themselves as nut-free, but that happen not to use any nuts in their facilities. Strictly speaking, these sorts of places aren’t ideal (and they’re a bit risky for those whose allergies are very severe, as they can’t guarantee the absence of cross-contaminants), but they’re definitely the next best thing. So I’ve begun my search.

One of the first places I came across was Otto’s Tacos, a SoCal-style taqueria with a few locations around Manhattan. Their menu didn’t mention any nuts, but as those with food allergies know all too well, that doesn’t mean much, so I sent an email to be sure, and unlike the vast majority of the (many, many) restaurants I’ve emailed, Otto’s actually responded—with an email from none other than Otto Cedeno himself: “We have no nuts in our facilities so all your worries should be negated.”

Always great to hear. But since his email was so brief, I figured I ought to press a little further, asking whether he had any information about his vendors’ facilities or the potential for inadvertent cross-contamination. He replied: “There are certain items we buy that come from other facilities. To those, we cannot speak of.” Fair enough—and not too bad, really. Most days, a nut-free kitchen at the restaurant itself is good enough for me.

Otto’s sounded promising, so I hyped myself up and took Sam with me to their East Village location for lunch between classes. To be extra safe, I did call ahead, too, and the woman who picked up reassured (once again…) that there are no nuts in the Otto’s kitchen. When we showed up and approached the counter to order, I realized that it was the cashier with whom I’d spoken—and she seemed to have realized, too, because she was sure to double-check on whether I had any other food allergies.

Sam and I each ordered a carnitas taco (two pictured above above) and a carne asada taco. The pork in the carnitas taco was absolutely delicious—moist, tender, and well-seasoned, if a bit salty—and the taco as a whole was lovely, too. The onions and cilantro tasted fresh, and the tortilla wasn’t dry in the slightest. Plus, the salsa complemented the pork wonderfully. In all, that thing was near-perfect.

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The carne asada taco was less perfect, though it wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination. There was nothing wrong with it; the salsa was just a bit hotter (but less flavorful), and the steak itself was unimpressive. But it’s not as if it turned us off. It must’ve been all right, at least, because Sam and I ended up deciding that we couldn’t possibly be done yet. So we ordered more: a chicken taco, and a carnitas Gorgon (pictured immediately above—it’s basically an extra-stuffed taco in a deep-fried tortilla, almost like what a Taco Bell Chalupa would be like if it weren’t, you know, abominable).

Anyway. The chicken taco was decent. I preferred it to the carne asada, but I don’t think anything they could have served me would have touched the carnitas. The Gorgon, though…the Gorgon was wild. The deep-fried tortilla was probably my favorite part; it was crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and warm throughout—and it was weirdly creamy, too, which I don’t understand, but which I won’t question. And it was piled high with stuff: lots of pork, salsa, onion, cilantro, guacamole, and serrano cream. I don’t think it’s even possible to take the thing down without a fork. But unruliness notwithstanding, it was straight-up heavenly.

But I ought to stop. Writing this is making me way too hungry, and I can’t quite afford to go back to Otto’s for tonight’s dinner. As if I need to say so, I wholeheartedly recommend this place to anyone who’s (a) in the mood for tacos, or (b) whose heart’s now marred by a hole that only a Cochinita-shaped peg could fill.

Seriously, though. Stop by. Otto’s has three locations: 141 2nd Avenue, between 8th and 9th; 131 7th Avenue South, on the corner 10th street; and 705 9th Avenue, between 48th and 49th. I hear the one on 9th is the biggest, but I can’t confirm. I can say, however, that indoor seating is very limited at the one on 2nd—so go during off-hours, or prepare to sit outside.

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Apr 05 2016
2 Comments
American, Chains, Places to eat, Sandwiches, Technically not nut-free

Chick-fil-A

A chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-A

Another fast food joint that isn’t nut-free—and one that barely exists in NYC, to boot. And it’s owned by bigots. Lovely.

What does Chick-fil-A have going for it, then? The answer is simple: decent-to-good chicken sandwiches that seem to be somewhat safe for the nut-allergic.

According to their allergen reference guide, Chick-fil-A does sell a few products that contain nuts: the oatmeal toppings, the granola, and the roasted nut blend (all three of which come in their own plastic packaging). I reached out to Chick-fil-A with a few questions about how they handle those nut products, and I received the following reply:

We have two pre-packeged products that contain nuts, the nut blend packet that is served with oatmeal, and the superfood side, and the granola that is served with the yogurt. These come in pre-packaged and are served in their package to the customer. We do not open the packages in the kitchen.

It would seem, then, that two of those three nut items are the same thing—and that none of their nuts have much of a chance of coming into contact with anything else in the kitchen. (It’s worth noting, though, that Chick-fil-A fries in peanut oil, though they don’t list peanuts as an allergen because highly-refined oils generally aren’t considered allergenic. Still, something to knowif you have a peanut allergy.)

Anyway, the food. Chick-fil-A has two locations in NYC: one in Herald Square, and one in an NYU food court in Greenwich Village. I’ve only been to NYU’s location, which is actually a Chick-fil-A Express (meaning they don’t offer the full menu), so I haven’t been able to try much beyond the chicken sandwiches, nuggets, and fries. What I have had, though, has been pretty good—especially for fast food.

Fries and chicken nuggets from Chick-fil-A

The classic chicken sandwich (just bun, chicken, and pickles) doesn’t live up to the absurd hype you’ll find online, but it doesn’t quite disappoint, either. It’s sweet and buttery, but (usually) not to the point of being sickening—which is all too rare in the world of fast food. I like to get the pickle-free version and add a little honey or mayonnaise, but it’s good as-is, too. All things considered, it’s a pretty solid sandwich.

The nuggets are about the same: sweet, buttery, and generally solid, if a bit boring. The real stand-outs, though, are the waffle fries: crispy, but never burnt—and nice and soft on the inside, but never, ever soggy (I’m looking at you, Five Guys). These are what I hope for when I buy fries, really. And they’re on my meal plan. Score.

All in all: Bigotry aside, Chick-fil-A is a decent place—and I’m not just saying that because it’s one of the only places I can actually spend the on-campus currency I always seem to end up drowning in, come the end of the semester. It’s fast food–quality, sure—but I’d take a Chick-fil-A sandwich over a Buttermilk Crispy Chicken (McDonald’s) or a Tendercrisp (Burger King) any day.

…Well, most days.

Find Chick-fil-A’s largest location in Herald Square (1000 Avenue of the Americas, between 37th and 38th), or stop by NYU’s Chick-fil-A Express in the Weinstein Food Court (5 University Place, between Waverly and 8th—and yes, it’s open to the public).

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Mar 29 2016
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Chains, Sweets, Technically not nut-free

Trader Joe’s Blondie Bar Baking Mix

Blondies, from Trader Joe's Blondie Bar Baking Mix

Safe baked goods are really, really tough to come by. Tough enough, in fact, that I’ve been trying to get my hands on a good blondie for years now. I have this memory of eating the world’s best blondie at an all-school picnic in the first grade—and while I can’t be sure of whether that actually happened, I can be sure of this: I’ve needed a blondie for a while now.

Two problems, though. I can’t find a good blondie I’m not allergic to, and…I can’t bake a batch of my own. It’s not even that I can’t bake; there are plenty of treats I can make from scratch, but for some reason, blondies aren’t one of them. No matter how closely I follow the recipe, they always come out terribly, and I’ve had no luck in figuring out what I’m doing wrong. I’d started to wonder whether blondies just aren’t as good as I’d hoped (and whether my 6-year-old self was just easily impressed by anything that contained sugar)—that is, until I tried these.

A while ago, in a more general post about Trader Joe’s, I mentioned their boxed blondie mix. Honestly, though, this stuff deserves a post of its own. It’s incredibly easy to work with (it is a mix, after all), and the blondies it makes are delicious. They don’t taste like they’re straight out of a box, and if you look at the mix’s ingredients, you’ll see why (spoiler: there’s no weird shit in it). Honestly, if you told me these blondies were home-made from scratch, I’d believe you.

I like to strain out about half the chocolate chips, but you can, of course, leave them as they are (and add more mix-ins, if that’s your thing). As with most baking mixes, the instructions are absurdly easy to carry out: preheat the oven, grease a pan, combine egg and butter, add mix, bake…and that’s it. I just might be one of the laziest people on this planet—I’ll sleep with the light on rather than getting up and turning it off—but this blondie-making process doesn’t deter me in the slightest.

Best of all, there’s no allergen warning on the box, and at Trader Joe’s, that tends to mean the product is safe. (It isn’t a guarantee—some Trader Joe’s manufacturers don’t label for cross-contamination—but it’s a good sign nonetheless, and I’ve never had any trouble with this mix, nor with any of their others that don’t come with “may contain” warnings.)

Anyway, I highly recommend giving this mix a try, especially if you are a) lazy, b) unable to bake, or c) of the opinion that brownies should be less chocolatey, dammit. Find it at Trader Joe’s.

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Mar 27 2016
7 Comments
American, Build-your-own, Chains, Places to eat, Sandwiches, Technically not nut-free

Let’s Talk Five Guys

Two nut-free Five Guys burgers

First things first: If you have a peanut allergy, Five Guys is not the place for you. There are free peanuts everywhere, and they fry everything in peanut oil. But if tree nuts are your only issue, Five Guys just might be the burger joint for you.

Their burgers aren’t anything to die for, but they’re certainly a few (large) steps above those of the McDonald’s/Burger King/Wendy’s ilk. I actually really like Five Guys—and I’ve never had any sort of allergen-related issues with their food.

For some reason, their allergen chart doesn’t have a column for tree nuts, so I sent an email and received the following reply:

The only nut allergen at our stores would be due to the presence of peanuts. There are no products containing tree nuts in our restaurants, nor are they used in our cooking process in any way. Though please remember that there is always a risk of cross contamination, so definitely use caution. For your convenience the kitchens in all of our restaurants are always kept open so our customers may watch their food be prepared.

I asked for a bit more clarification about the risk of cross-contamination, and this was the reply I received:

It remains correct that we don’t use any tree nut products however we must always assume there is a possibility of cross contamination and advise our customers of this as a precaution. Some of our products may be processed in the same facilities as tree nuts are or as another example, an employee may come into contact with tree nut products during a break, etc. We certainly do our best to stress the importance of food safety with our employees however know there is always a risk.

Not bad, as places that aren’t nut-free go. A lack of intentional nuts and nut products in a restaurant goes a long way toward making me comfortable—and the fact that Five Guys is sensitive enough to acknowledge those risks they can’t quite control is encouraging. For some, though, that isn’t enough—and you should, of course, always decide where to eat based on your own level of comfort. Still, for me, Five Guys works.

Anyway, in case you’ve never been: Five Guys has burgers, fries, hot dogs, a few sandwiches, and (as of a few months ago) shakes. That’s it. They don’t freeze their beef, and they fry only in peanut oil—so already, we’re out of theMcDonald’s territory. (Plus, as I mentioned above, they don’t have any salads or desserts that contain nuts, as most fast food joints tend to.)

Their burgers are definitely decent—I have no complaints there—but I do have a confession to make: I’ve never understood why so many people seem to love their fries. Seriously—Five Guys’ fries have an evangelical following, and I don’t get it. They’re mushy and flavorless—two deal-breakers, in my book—but to each his own, I suppose. (Though to Five Guys’ credit, they do give you a pretty hefty portion. Maybe that’s the appeal.)

My final verdict: If you’re a) comfortable with peanuts and b) a fan of burgers, you should give Five Guys a try. At the very least, it’s nice to have another reliable chain to fall back on when you’re in a bind.

My favorite locations are the one in Greenwich Village (296 Bleecker Street) and the one the one in Brooklyn Heights (138 Montague Street), though that’s probably just because I like the surrounding neighborhoods. There are Five Guys locations all over, and there’s probably no real advantage of one over the other, seeing as part of the appeal of any fast food chain is the fact that they’re all, you know, the same.

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Mar 22 2016
2 Comments
Brands, Snacks, Technically not nut-free

Skippy P.B. Bites: an astonishingly decent snack

Two packages of Skippy P.B. Bites, one pretzel and one peanut butter

Quick post, because a) this is unimportant, b) these aren’t guaranteed to be nut-free, and c) a bunch of you are probably allergic to peanuts anyway. But I’ve finally found these elusive P.B. Bites after looking just about everywhere for weeks, so you’re going to have to hear about them.

Allergen information first. P.B. Bites (obviously) contain peanuts, but as far as I can tell, they don’t contain nuts. The allergen information on Skippy’s product information page is as follows: “Milk ingredients present, Peanuts (groundnuts) ingredients present, Soy ingredients present, Wheat ingredients present, Gluten present.” I reached out to Skippy to make sure their products were free of all traces of tree nuts, but they never got back to me. Anyway, I know this isn’t much of a guarantee—but I’ve been eating Skippy’s peanut butter for my entire life, and I’ve never had any sort of allergic reaction.

[Edit: I ended up hearing back from Skippy a few days after publishing this post. I was told that tree nuts are present in the facility in which P.B. Bites are made, but that they aren’t processed on the same equipment, and that Skippy has a HACCP program in place to prevent cross-contamination. Their actual peanut butter is made in a peanut-only facility, though.]

Anyway, I apparently become extremely impressionable the second any sort of food shows up on my TV. I’m not even that into peanut butter, but for some reason, when I saw the ad for these, my pupils turned to spirals and I figured I just had to have them. I used Skippy’s product locator (well, it’s Hormel’s, but whatever), but none of the stores I went to had the stupid things, so I gave up and ordered some from Walmart. Of course, within a day of stopping my search, I spotted them—on a routine trip to Fairway. Go figure.

The anatomy of the P.B. bite is very simple—it’s just a little ball of either pretzel or peanut butter, covered in a layer of smooth peanut butter. Both varieties are fine, really, though the pretzel may be a bit better, due to the added salt and crunch factors. Honestly, I was expecting both varieties to be terrible (though that didn’t make my search any less urgent), but terrible they are not. In fact, they’re astonishingly decent.

That’s about all I have to say, really. I’m just a sucker for new (junk) food products—especially when I can eat them. And these just happen to be all right.

(I’m not even going to pretend I know where you can get your hands on some P.B. Bites of your very own; Skippy’s product locator was decidedly unhelpful—probably because these things are so new. Amazon has them for an absurd price of $12 per 6-ounce cup, and you can order them from Walmart for $3.13 per cup, though the shipping costs more than the P.B. Bites themselves. If you can find them, though—and if you like peanut butter—they’re worth a try. Good luck.)

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Mar 20 2016
4 Comments
Build-your-own, Chains, Pizza, Places to eat, Sandwiches, Sweets, Technically not nut-free

Domino’s Pizza

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I know, I know—Domino’s is just plain bad. But it’s dependable, and it does the trick when I’m feeling extraordinarily lazy or hungry (or reclusive…or masochistic). And the ability to order from basically any device I’ll ever own is a plus, I guess. Nothing like being able to respond to a “hey, pizzas are half-off this week!” ad by whipping out my phone and ordering one of said terrible pizzas—and some wings and, regrettably, some Cinna Stix—all without ever, you know, budging.

But you know what? If eating Domino’s is the worst decision of my week, I’ve probably had a pretty good week.

My real point, though: In my experience, Domino’s is pretty allergy-friendly. According to their website, they only have one item on the menu that contains nuts (the Chicken Apple Pecan Salad) and one that’s made in a facility that also handles nuts (the Chocolate Lava Crunch Cake). Everything else, though—pizzas, sandwiches, pastas, wings, breadsticks, even the weird-ass “marbled cookie brownie”—seems to be safe.

To be sure, I reached out to Domino’s. I received the following reply:

There are no peanuts or peanut oils or tree nuts in our pizza crusts, pizza sauce, pizza cheese, core pizza toppings (beef, green pepper, ham, mushrooms, black olives, onions, pepperoni, pineapple and italian sausage), chicken kickers, chicken wings, bread side items or salads.  Soybean oil is used in all of our dough formulas. There may, however, be special promotional and/or test products present in the store. Therefore, we cannot ensure that all of the products present are completely free of peanuts/tree nuts.

Their response was about what I expected—though there is a salad on their menu that contains pecans, which informational inconsistency doesn’t exactly leave me inclined to trust them blindly. In my experience, though, their food has been safe. (Obviously, they aren’t a nut-free establishment, and you should, as always, look into what you’re eating and use your own discretion.)

Anyway, as if this post isn’t already embarrassing enough, I suppose I should probably reveal the details of my regular order, which is pictured above. I like to get a hand-tossed with white sauce, triple (yes, triple) pineapple, and light ham—because if I’m going to order bad pizza, I might as well get something shameful, right? (I’m kidding; unfortunately, I just like Hawaiian pizza. And white sauce.) I’ve also been known to gorge myself on their bread bowl pastas—though my strategy for those pretty much ends at clicking on whatever random ingredients sound tolerable at that particular inappropriate hour and hoping for the best. It never ends well—but hey, it shows up.

Seriously, though: Don’t get the Cinna Stix. They’re bad, even by Domino’s standards.

Find Domino’s…everywhere. Oh, and by the way, if can be bothered to forego delivery and carry out (or eat in, I guess), do it. Your meal will probably cost a whole lot less—and that’s not just because you won’t have a delivery guy to tip. For some reason, everything just ends up costing more when you order online. (I happen to think that’s by design, but whatever.)

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Mar 12 2016
1 Comment
Chains, Sweets, Technically not nut-free

It’s Sugar (sorry, IT’SUGAR)

Candy bins at IT'SUGAR

Okay, this is probably (read: definitely) a bad idea—but where else am I going to find such a wide selection of fresh gummy candy? Still, you probably shouldn’t go to IT’SUGAR if your allergies are very severe or sensitive—but if you can generally handle a bit of uncertainty, or if you’re sometimes a bit irresponsible…well, read on.

IT’SUGAR (no idea why they insist on stylizing their name like that; I always read it as “it’s Ugar,” with Ugar being some sort of green, dripping swamp monster) is a rather expensive, tourist-packed bulk candy store—with nut products present in legions. They don’t have any allergen information posted, though they do have ingredients listed for all of their loose candy (and, of course, for their packaged candy—almost all of which comes with some sort of “may contain” statement). Not exactly a safe haven for the food-allergic, but hey. I’m going to write about it anyway—and maybe insist that you not take this post as any sort of suggestion to drop what you’re doing and make your way to the place.

Anyway, the store. It’s made up of a number of platforms I’m going to refer to as islands, each with around 25 bins filled with candy you’re meant to scoop into your little bag, which you’ll be charged (a lot) for by weight. There’s usually a chocolate island and two or three gummy islands—and a bunch of extra candy lining the walls, too. A lot of it is their own brand (which, like I said, is covered with “may contain” warnings), but they have plenty of other candy, too: retro candy, giant candy, novelty candy—and in general, stuff that can be pretty hard to find elsewhere. (For example: They have Charleston Chews, which are kind of awful, but which I decided I absolutely needed to try one night—long after It’s Ugar had closed. Long story short, I didn’t get my Charleston Chew.)

A price-fixed container of candy from IT'SUGAR

I avoid the chocolate island (actually, let’s go with Chocolate Island) like the plague—too many nuts, not enough allergen information, and too high a chance of cross-contamination—but I’ve never had any trouble with the gummies. The employees refill the bins straight out of these sealed plastic bags stored under the islands, and the content of the bins seems to stay pretty consistent (by which I meant that there aren’t almond clusters in a bin one day and gummy bears in it the next).

Still, I haven’t spoken to anyone at It’s Ugar about any of this, nor do I claim to know much at all about the safety of the place. So again: you shouldn’t take this post as any sort of call to action—for now, I’m just sharing my experience.

The reason I keep going back, though, despite It’s Ugar’s apparent allergy-unfriendliness, is simple: the candy is really good, and I’m a sucker for good candy. Staleness is make-or-break with gummies, and theirs are almost never stale. Major points. And the selection is really wide, which is always a plus.

If you do end up going, I have one tip (other than to avoid Chocolate Island): Get the price-fixed takeout container (pictured above, $14.99), and stuff it as full as you can manage. Seriously—really mush those gummy frogs in there. The employees won’t judge you for it; in fact, they’ll probably judge you if you aren’t actively trying to get more for your money, because the place is really, really overpriced. Plus, with the takeout container, you avoid the risk of losing track of the weight of your bag and inadvertently spending like $28 on pineapple gummy bears and red Finnish licorice. (No, I’m not speaking from experience. How dare you?)

Don’t go. Seriously, don’t. But if you do: there are a bunch of locations in the city, but my favorite is the one on Broadway between Bleecker and 3rd—although if you’re looking to avoid the crowds, you might be better off at the smaller location in Brooklyn (210 Joralemon St).

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Mar 05 2016
5 Comments
Bagels, Brands, Chains, Technically not nut-free

Trader Joe’s

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For some reason, I was super late to hop on the Trader Joe’s bandwagon, so I’ll have to make up for that with an absurdly long post. But for real: the place is a game-changer. It’s cheap, convenient, relatively high-quality, and—most importantly!—allergy-conscious.

In case you’ve never been: Trader Joe’s private labels name-brand goods, usually taking out a bunch of the artificial flavorings and preservatives (and lowering the price by a dollar or two) in the process. They do sell some name-brand products, but for the most part, the food they sell is under their private label.

One of the things I love most about them is their approach to allergens and labeling. From their product information page:

As with all health and safety related issues, we take food allergy concerns very seriously. We strive to ensure that all of our Trader Joe’s brand products are labeled with reliable, accurate, and easy to read ingredient statements.

Trader Joe’s strictly adheres to all Federal labeling guidelines. You can be assured that if any of the top eight allergens (milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, wheat and soy) are present in our private label products, they will be clearly labeled in familiar terms in our ingredient statements [e.g. casein (milk)]. You can also be certain that if “natural flavors” or “spices” contain any components that are allergens or are derived from allergens, they will be listed separately within the ingredient statement.

According to the same page, all of their private label manufacturers follow Good Manufacturing Practices to minimize the risk of cross-contamination. Most of those manufacturers also issue voluntary warnings for the allergens that may be present in their products (usually in the form of “may contain” or “shared facility” statements). So while it isn’t the case that each and every Trader Joe’s product is guaranteed to be labeled for potential allergens, it is the case that most are—and if you’re worried, their customer service department (629-599-3700) will be happy to give you specifics, provided you have the product in question on-hand.

But what I really want to talk about is the food itself. There are so many things I like at Trader Joe’s that I can’t possibly list them all, but I’ll mention a few of my allergy-friendly favorites—especially those which are otherwise hard to find without allergen warnings. (Keep in mind that these aren’t products I’ve ever called in to ask about. I—like both allergists I’ve seen—am decidedly in the label-trusting camp. Though advisory labeling isn’t ever mandatory, I’m comfortable going by labels, and I don’t contact companies unless I have some specific cause for concern.)

The freezer section is what first got me hooked on Trader Joe’s. It’s huge, and they have a lot of foods I wouldn’t otherwise be able to eat unless I somehow managed to learn to make them myself (yikes). The frozen meals are actually a little better than you’d expect of a frozen food—nothing shocking, usually, but definitely a step up. Some of my favorites: the Japanese style fried rice; the Mandarin orange chicken; the spicy beef & broccoli; the tarte d’Alsace; and the burrata, proscuitto, & arugula flatbread. (Sorry about the inconsistent links; I’ve linked to Trader Joe’s website when possible, but they don’t have a page for every product.)

They have a lot of dried fruit, too—most of it without any advisory labeling. I don’t actually know of anywhere else to buy safe dried fruit, since it’s almost always processed on equipment that also processes nuts, but a lot of the dried fruit at Trader Joe’s doesn’t seem to be. My favorites are the Turkish apricots and the mandarins, but be warned: the latter are ridiculously sweet.

I love the gluten-free Crispy Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies, too. They don’t taste gluten-free—honestly, I really couldn’t tell. They’re crispy, buttery, and a little salty…kind of like what I imagine Tate’s to taste like. You know, if I could eat them. [Edit: A few weeks after I posted this, Trader Joe’s came out with a new cookie of the Crispy Crunchy variety: Ginger Chunk. They’re incredible—buttery and salty with perfectly-distributed chunks of dried ginger. My new favorite store-bought cookies, by a landslide.)

And while we’re on the topic of store-bought desserts, I should probably mention, too, that the Belgian Chocolate Pudding is great—it’s almost too rich, and it tastes like brownie batter—and the rice pudding is worthwhile, too.

Slightly less store-bought, but low-effort nonetheless: the Blondie Bar Baking Mix. I’m not a great baker, so mixes always tempt me, but the ones I’m not allergic to tend to taste way too artificial for me. This one’s different—the ingredients are simple, and the blondies it makes really do taste homemade. I keep one or two of these mixes on-hand at all times.

As for breads, there are two I’ll buy. First, the kettle-boiled bagels, which are better than I’d expected, but not quite as good as I’d hoped. I’m always on the lookout for allergy-friendly bagels, since good ones really do seem to be impossible to come by. But these, which are hand-rolled, kettle-boiled, and baked fresh daily in NYC, are actually all right. They’re worlds above other supermarket brands, at least.

And then there’s the organic French baguette. Unlike the conventional baguette, the organic version has no “may contain” warning—which is basically a miracle, as allergy-friendly baguettes are almost as hard to find as allergy-friendly bagels. The baguette itself is nothing special, but (like the bagels) it’s much, much better than the other store-bought breads I’ve tried.

…Anyway.

I could go on and on (and on) about Trader Joe’s products, but I’ll leave it at this: Go. Check it out for yourself. They have so many interesting products (and their stock changes so often) that no description of mine can possibly suffice. And if you’re uncomfortable with trusting labels, do consider going with a phone in hand—their customer service department really will be happy to clear things up, jargon-free.

Trader Joe’s has a bunch of locations in and around NYC, but my favorite is the one in Brooklyn Heights (at 130 Court St).

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