Trader Joe's Simit Turkish Sesame Bread

I noticed at least one or two members of the Turkish diaspora gave their seal of approval to Trader Joe's Simit Turkish Sesame Bread. It is indeed imported from the nation of Turkey, so we have no reason to doubt its authenticity. Sonia and I picked up a package and have kept it in the freezer for the past couple weeks, looking forward to finally giving it a try.

Hot take: it's GOOD. Imagine the lovechild of a bagel and a pretzel with oodles of sesame seeds baked into the outer layer. And magically, the vast majority of the seeds stay attached even after heating, handling, and eating the simit bread.

It's got such a nutty, seedy taste. Similar to a bagel, the bread is slightly firm and crusty on the outside and it's soft and doughy on the inside. There's definitely a wheaty, yeasty element to the flavor profile, but it's mostly those yummy sesame seeds. As I said in our video review, "if you like sesame seeds, you really can't go wrong with this product."

We tried the simit with cream cheese, Trader Joe's Grecian Style Eggplant, hummus, olives, feta, and honey—not all at once, of course. Each and every thing we tried it with worked remarkably well. I even dipped a piece in ranch dressing, and it was pretty tasty. While this particular shape wouldn't necessarily lend itself to sandwich bread, flavor and texture-wise, it would serve that purpose perfectly.

This is case in point for why we shop at Trader Joe's—to travel the culinary world without leaving the state. I mean, Sonia and I have every intention of actually traveling the world in the future (we've got eight nations collectively under our belt already) and we might put Turkey near the top of the list just to try some true simit street food. Well done, Trader Joe's and whoever your third party Turkish supplier is. Thank you for introducing us to simit. We will buy it again.

$3.49 for four big round hoops of simit, brought to you from halfway around the world. Nine and a half stars from Sonia. I gave it eight and a half on the video review, but after trying it with feta, I might have gone with a nine. Either way, it winds up in the best of the best category here on WG@TJ's.

Bottom line: 9.25 out of 10.