John was a trapper.
written by Julie R. Neidlinger 9 comments link this postMy friend Naomi is in Chicago right now. She takes the train, and periodically visits her friends.
Someday, I want to go to Chicago on the train. I always go west. Chicago has, I've been told, some good pizza. I'm sure there is good pizza in the west, but I really want to try authentic Chicago pizza.
Where Naomi goes also has a store whose name I, without fail, get wrong at first effort.
"Naomi, if you get a chance when you're in Chicago, will you go to Trapper John's and get me some of those chocolate truffles?"
I mean Trader Joe's, of course.
Such a store as Trader Joe's must be incredibly put-out to be referred to as Trapper John's. Trading is better than trapping, I hear. Less blood and death.
John is the name of my brother-in-law, as well as a euphemism for "bathroom" or "toilet." He's a pretty good guy.
My cousin Patty took me to a Trader Joe's in Seattle, before taking me to the train for my two day journey on the Empire Builder back to Devils Lake and then home. That was the trip I ended up sitting behind a crazy guy who thought everyone was racist and took one of my bottles of water.
I don't know the name of these truffles, but Naomi knows.
She always knows.
The chocolate truffles in question are little more than delectable melt-in-your-mouth chocolate-saturated lard. Very good, and in no way healthy.
One truffle, I discovered, after having eaten four and become curious as to the nutrition content, had about the full day's worth of allowable fat, most of it saturated. Calories...
I try to limit myself to one truffle a day, now. They're pretty good. They have the word "French" in the title, if I remember correctly.
So...French truffles, then. Also, they only come out around Christmas. Perhaps there's some kind of Santa connection, who also only comes out at Christmas, if he actually existed.
"Hey," I said to my nephew Cody on the phone today, as he was telling me what he got for Christmas, which included golf clubs from Santa. "Who is 'Santa' anyway, your mom and dad?"
Cody is old enough to know there's no Santa. My other nephew, however, is not. "You're on speaker phone, auntie," Cody replied.
Oops.
"I got your truffles for you," Naomi informed me in an email yesterday.
I'd recommend them to you, if I knew the name.
Labels: chocolate, family, friends, travel
Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger 1/03/2008 12:08:00 AM
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9 Comments:
It's great.
http://www.giordanos.com/main.php
By 
, at
3/1/08 00:27
Trapper John was also Hawkeye Pierce's sidekick in the movie and early seasons of the TV show MASH. Maybe that's what you were thinking of.
By 
Keith Schooley, at
3/1/08 06:35
Chicago is my kinda town! I have a sister who lives in Monee and I've taken the Amtrack down to visit. I prefer to drive but if you do take the train, it's much more peaceful to grab a seat in the center of the car. Little kids like to play with the doors and it's hard to relax if you grab a seat on one of the ends. Also pack a lunch, any food I've ever gotten in the dining car was either luke warm or cold !
By , at
3/1/08 07:21
Dirty Secret: I've, uh, never really seen a full episode of MASH. It could be I heard the name somewhere, but I don't know how.
Yep, Robbie, I like the train. I've taken a couple of fairly long train trips, one lasting almost five days. Taking a lunch is a good idea.
By Julie R. Neidlinger, at
3/1/08 10:51
They are simply called Trader Joe's Truffles and are imported from France, hence the "French" in the title.
I have a friend who gives them to me for Christmas and my birthday. Thank God that that's the only two times, or my arteries would have shut down by now.
By Rey, at
3/1/08 11:00
Julie:
I agree with Deniro for Chicago Pizza it's Giordanos. For Italian Beef it's Buona Beef or Portillos.
For Chicago Hot Dogs it's Devil Dogs. For Chicago Baseball it's the White Sox.
If you have a FOX affiliate up there in North Dakota, they probably air MASH reruns every night at 1:00 AM. Tape it. If they are showing the episodes from the last 3 seasons without Radar wait a few weeks until they roll over to the first or second seasons. The last couple of years episodes got too preachy.
By , at
3/1/08 12:55
By the way, there is no good pizza out west.
By Rey, at
3/1/08 16:45
Whew.
Good to know, Rey.
Save myself the trip.
Heh.
By Julie R. Neidlinger, at
3/1/08 16:47
The truffles are here.
You are not.
Hmmm....
n.
By , at
5/1/08 13:29
