"Salsa macha" is another delightful condiment from our neighbors to the south. It's spicy, nutty, garlicky, and in this case at least, it's quite oily. My mother-in-law (mi suegra) is quite familiar with the sauce, and she's a big fan of this offering from Trader Joe's. We actually decided to pick it up thanks to her recommendation.
From what I've gathered, there are many iterations and varieties of salsa macha—some with peanuts, some with seeds, some with chili peppers, some with vinegar. Most are at least a tad spicy and most have some amount of garlic. Although "macha" is pronounced just like "matcha," as in green tea leaves, to the best of my knowledge nobody puts matcha in their macha.
The nuttiness from three different types of seeds is what makes this product special. If you like the taste of pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and sesame seeds, it's a safe bet you'll enjoy this salsa. It is a bit spicy, but it's not off the charts. There's a nice warm ambient heat that creeps up on you after several bites thanks to "dried pequin chile pepper." Sonia says it's about a 5 out of 10 on her spice-o-meter. The garlic flavor is nice. If anything, I'd ask for more garlic, but I'm kinda weird like that.
The whole thing is floating in a generous pool of oil. TJ's used olive oil this time, which we're very happy about. It's on par with Trader Joe's Chili Onion Crunch and the Chili Cranberry Orange & Onion in terms of overall texture and oil content. It's packaged very similarly, as well.
$4.49 for the 6 oz jar. Product of Mexico. The container says to "store in a cool, dry place" and does not mention refrigerating after opening. Is it as good as Trader Joe's Pepita Salsa? No. No, it's not. But we'd both buy it again just for variety. Seven and a half stars from both Sonia and me for Trader Joe's Crunchy Sesame, Sunflower Seeds & Pepitas Salsa Macha.
Let me start off by saying Sonia and I have both been to Paris independently of one another, and while there, we both sampled some crepes from street vendors. We both remember them being shockingly inexpensive, warm, and delicious. They were one of the few things I perceived to be both uniquely French and also within my price range.
They weren't long and thin like these crepes. They were made with a similar-looking dough and folded into roughly triangular shapes and shuffled into a paper sleeve to be carried off and eaten on the go. I don't remember for sure since it was many years ago, but the crepes were filled with generous amounts of a chocolate spread of some kind—it very well may have been Nutella. It was creamy and full of cocoa flavor. The dough they used was amazing. It was buttery, slightly crispy in places, and it just melted in your mouth.
These are a far cry from those Parisian street crepes. The dough is the most intrusive element. Sonia and I both find it to be chewy—totally lacking that melt-in-the-mouth quality. To be fair, these crepes are pre-packaged and stored at room temperature for a number of weeks and then heated (or not) in the microwave. I guess you can also serve them unheated. I'm tempted to see how they turn out in the air fryer but I fear that they might dry out.
The hazelnut filling is chocolatey enough and tastes decent, but there just isn't enough of it. I remember creamy chocolate oozing out the sides of that delectable street food. That's not the case here. There's way more breading than the hazelnut cocoa filling.
There were some frozen crepes from Trader Joe's quite a few years back. We liked those significantly more than these room temperature dealies. Not sure why they disappeared, but that's pretty much par for the course with TJ's, unfortunately.
At $3.99 for six individually-wrapped servings, the cost isn't much steeper than those very inexpensive crepes from France all those years ago, but the quality isn't even in the same ballpark. Kosher. Would not buy again. Six out of ten stars from both Sonia and me for Trader Joe's Hazelnut & Cocoa Filled Crepes.
