Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants)

As a big fan of shrimp, I thought I should check out Trader Joe’s frozen “SHRIMP SEAFOOD BURGERS” to see what they tasted like.

TRADER JOES SAYS: “Trader Joe’s Shrimp Seafood Burgers are made of 70% farm-raised, Pacific White Shrimp and 23% wild-caught Pollock, held together with rice flour and sunflower oil. They are seasoned with garlic powder, dried basil, salt, and black pepper, which makes for juicy and delicious Seafood Burgers-whether you grill, bake, or pan fry them.”

Inside the box are 4 individually wrapped burger pucks. They are fairly small, weighing just a little over 3 oz each. I followed the directions on the package which states to cook them right from frozen (frankly this instruction which I see a lot on Trader Joe’s stuff, just rubs up against everything I know about cooking, oh well…) But I did what they said and pan grilled the frozen pucks for 4-5 minutes or just until they are opaque, which indicates they’re done. I tasted the cooked shrimp burgers just by themselves, with some sauce, and in a pita sandwich with sauce. TJ’s states these burger are 70% shrimp, 30% pollock, plus rice flour and oil to hold them together. Taste-wise I found them to be just OK, certainly nothing special with a distinct shrimp flavor. I found the texture a bit rubbery. Some type of sauce certainly helped these, it needs some kind of sauce* with them. Cooked it makes a fairly small burger, as each one is only a bit over 3 ounces uncooked, and I imagine they shrink up some during cooking. So on a regular bun they will look pretty small. Maybe try them cut in 1/2 on some Aloha buns? A package (12.8 oz) is $6.99. So they are not bad but nothing special enough that I would buy them again. Unlike the Salmon Burgers which I found a bit tastier, in that you know its salmon when you taste it. As far as shrimp goes, I would rather have just grilled shrimp in front of me or even on a bun in a “Shrimp Roll” (the poor man’s lobster roll). Still I see quite a few people on the internet think these TJ Seafood Burgers are good. So if these sound interesting feel free to check them out and make up your own mind. They are not terrible, just not what if I were blindfolded and you put this in my mouth would I answer immediately “oh that’s a shrimp burger”. So personally if I want a real shrimp burger, I would make a REAL ONE: a shrimp burger from chopped up shrimp, egg (or mayo) and bread crumbs as a binder, Southern-style. It’s not very hard, it might take 5 minutes of work and might cost the same thing or a little more but with a way better result and be “shrimpier”!

Ingredients: Shrimp, Pollack, Oil, Rice Flour, Salt, Garlic, Spices. Product of Vietnam which farms a lot of shrimp.

SAUCE RECIPE : *I found these tasted better with ZHOUG/GREEK YOGURT sauce (mix 1/2 and 1/2 of each)