I vaguely remember Trader Joe’s making noises about getting rid of all their ethnicized sub brand naming conventions like Trader Ming’s, Trader Jose’s, Trader Giotto’s.
According to this July 2020 eater.com article, bowing to accusations of racism put forth by a change.org petition, Trader Joe’s was gonna rebrand all their international food as just Trader Joe’s. (I would link to the original NY Times article buuuuut paywall.) That article is 10 months old and, at the time, TJ’s spokesperson, Kenya Friend-Daniel said they were already in the process of changing out those names a looong time ago and not as a frantic response to some petition.
Then a few weeks later, TJ’s was like, “Hang on, that change.org petition was started by some white high school kid?? Run it back!!” I don’t have the official minutes from that board meeting, but I’m sure that’s close to verbatim. This massive.com article quotes the store’s statement from July 24, 2020, “We want to be clear: we disagree that any of these labels are racist. We do not make decisions based on petitions.” “Especially by white high school kids,” was left unsaid.
Way to hang Kenya Friend-Daniel out to dry like that, though.
In today’s edition of trying to gin up controversy because I clearly have nothing better to do … Are we good with labeling this Trader Ming’s? Kung Pao is Chinese so that checks out, but tempura is Japanese. Has Trader Joe’s fallen victim to the worn out all-Asians-are-the-same trope and is using Trader Ming’s for all their Asian food? *gasp* (Should I maybe find another hobby besides trolling the aisles of Trader Joe’s? Signs point to “Maybe.”) Well, don’t grab your pitchforks yet ’cause …
Hang on. How come China and Japan are the only Asian countries that get their own label? Filipinos are the third largest Asian population in the US. Plus our food frikkin’ rules. We demand a Trader JoMar’s ™ label! (As I arrogantly advocate for all Filipinos everywhere, not having focus grouped this idea with anyone at all.)
I digress.
Shouldn’t the Kung Pao Tempura Cauliflower be under the Trader Ming San label? Under the Trader Ming’s designation, it saddens me that the tempura part of the dish may feel neglected and disrespected. Will no one think of the tempura??
Listen, I don’t have a problem with combining food from different cultures. That’s what fusion cuisine is, isn’t it? I mean, Trader JoMar’s™ Kare Kare Pad Thai sounds interesting. They’re both peanuty. It could work. (Ok, I’m now invested in this non-existent dish. Someone who is less of a catastrophe in the kitchen please make some vegetarian Kare Kare Pad Thai and lemme know how it goes. I take no responsibility if it lands you on the toilet for a week or the hospital but will take all the credit if it’s a culinary home run.)
It might be problematic when you label that fusion dish under only one culture, though. It’s like when kids take on their father’s last name, like their mother didn’t contribute half their DNA. Filipinos solve this thorny issue by making the middle names of all their kids the mother’s maiden name. True story. Oh, I guess you could hyphenate last names too. There’s that.
Before you decide to boycott Trader Joe’s or write them a sternly worded letter for making you waste your time mulling over whether their labels are racist or not and writing overly long blog posts about this internal conflict, know this: that bag of frozen Kung Pao Tempura Cauliflower? Freakin’ DELICIOUS. My oven is broken (naturally), but it warmed up perfectly fine in my little convection style toaster oven. Some of the pieces came out with lightly toasted edges.
The sauce is on the spicy side, being Kung Pao and all but wasn’t overpowering. Well, what would it even overpower? Cauliflower tastes like air and weight loss. The point is, this was a very tasty dish and fairly healthy. Or at least, not chock full of heart attack inducing ingredients. So, questionable labeling practices aside, this still gets 10/10, would buy again.
I still think Trader JoMar’s ™ is a winner. Contact me, Trader Joe’s!