Always Read Labels. Really. Always.

A quick seafood lunch; this is a Legal Seafoods® Lobster Bisque from the grocery store served with Trader Joe's® Steamer Clams and Pita Bread. The Lobster Bisque had a metallic taste. STP is sodium tripolyphosphate and STP is often blamed for the metallic taste in seafoods. I do not see STP listed with the ingredients, but I do recognize the metallic taste sometimes present with seafood dishes that include cream. The metallic taste did not stop me from sopping up the bisque on the bottom of the bowl with my bread, but still...I would rather be raving about the flavor of the lobster. Come to think of it the metallic taste might BE the lobster. Lobster is best eaten very recently dispatched. Reheated lobster is just not the same. Reheated lobster does not taste quite right. Is the lobster gaining a metallic flavor as it ages?

This subject warrants further investigation. Are lobsters eating discarded thermometers? Discarded sardine cans at the bottom of the ocean?

Do you know what I mean about the metallic taste?

What do you think? email: chef@brookeok.com

The Steamer Clams in Garlic and Butter Sauce were a hit.

Trader Joe's has new foods all the time and they are all worth a try. Some don't make the cut, but some are remarkable. The Steamer Clams I will buy again. They are not a fresh seafood product. Frozen is frozen, right? But in about ten minutes, you have steamer clams in a butter and garlic sauce. Like the French Onion Soup, I might make a better French Onion Soup than the frozen version at Trader Joe's, but mine takes all day. Trader Joe's takes less than an hour, is delicious, and we don't have all day, do we?

Always read labels. Brooke noticed an area on this box where the manufacturer recommends trying the peanut butter version of these cookie-cakes. Sure enough, re-reading the label revealed that this product was made on equipment that also made products containing peanuts, tree nuts, etc. Good catch Brooke! If a product has a peanut or peanut butter version, be cautious and look for shared equipment warnings on the label. "In a facility" is not the same as "shared equipment." For most peanut allergic people, it does not matter if a grocer sells jarred peanuts next to everything else, but if your ice cream machine just made a batch with nuts, and the next batch is vanilla that is shared equipment with nuts.

Trader Joe's Steamer Clams with Legal Seafoods Lobster Bisque.

This seafood lunch exemplifies the allergen expectations for a heat and eat meal.

Legal Seafoods heat and eat Lobster Bisque contains all kinds of seafood and milk and wheat.

Trader Joe's Steamer Clams contain shellfish and milk.



E, P, N

Contains: Milk , Wheat, Soy, Sesame, Fish, Shellfish.

Also contains SPICES and/or FLAVORINGS.

People with specific allergies to specific allergens require specific labeling.

Key: M,E,W,P,S,N,Se,F,Sh

Milk-free, Egg-free, Wheat-free, Peanut-free, Soy-free, Nut-free, Sesame-free, Fish-free, Shellfish-free

Always Read Labels