Show 36, July 20, 2013: Customer Service and Speculoos Cookie Butter

SupermarketProducer Andy sounded off about a less than satisfactory customer service story he experienced at his neighborhood chain grocery store. Is it acceptable customer service for a store employee to shrug off a simple customer request when the employee didn’t have a clue where a common item was stocked in his area. Shouldn’t a store employee have enough training and basic initiative to instead go ask  a co-worker who knows instead of giving up?

Next we jumped into the Speculoos Cookie Butter craze playing out at a Trader Joe’s near you.

Speculoos Cookie Butter from Trader Joe'sSpeculoos Cookie Butter is made by a small Danish company and is apparently a Trader Joe’s exclusive in the U.S. It comes in both a smooth and crunchy version. It tastes like the best fresh ginger bread you ever had with a kick. It’s incredible, melted, over ice cream when used like a fudge sauce. People use it like peanut butter but it has a much richer flavor profile.

Surprisingly it’s the number one selling product in all Trader Joe’s right now, and they seemingly can’t keep it on the shelf. The crunch variety is presently out of stock and they aren’t sure when it will be back. The explanation is the manufacturer makes one version at a time. The smooth, when you can find it, is limited to the purchase of two jars per customer.

Crazy but absolutely delicious …!

Show 33, June 29, 2013: Kedric Francis, Executive Editor of Coast Magazine

Kedric Francis of Coast Magazine and the Orange County Register MagazineKedric is back with us in-studio. He is also the co-founding editor of the new Orange County Register Magazine.

The (now available) July issue of Coast is the annual restaurant book. It contains lots of quality info about the vibrant OC restaurant scene.

Kedric’s standout piece is “Foodie Block Party.” “We take a tour of OC’s top destination dining zones and centers of culinary cool to see what’s new and next.”

The profiled culinary districts include Downtown Santa Ana, South Coast Plaza, Old Town Orange, Fashion Island, Laguna Beach, and SoCo in Costa Mesa.

Jet’s favorite piece in the issue is Kedric’s sidebar, “Best Restaurants in The Worst Locations.” For instance, the popular Red Table in Huntington Beach is not even visible from the main auto entrance to the strip center they are in. The restaurant is tucked behind the Trader Joe’s.