Enjoying frozen calamari from the grocery store requires a bit of an expectation adjustment. If fried calamari from a nice Italian restaurant is a penthouse suite, frozen fried calamari is a perfectly pleasant two-bedroom apartment on the fourth floor of a ten-story building. There’s some potential for a good time but we’re certainly not living the life of luxury over here.
As a fan of the Cheesecake Factory’s fried calamari, I was excited to try the new Trader Joe’s Crispy Battered Calamari. Take a peek in the bag, and the stuff certainly looks good—a nice mix of squiggly pieces of fried squid (both rings and tentacles). I made the calamari in my tiny and trusty air fryer (and, full disclosure, forgot to flip the pieces halfway through as recommended) and they crisped up nicely. An unmistakable aquatic aroma filled my kitchen. The entire batch slid right out of the basket onto my plate. The only way it could have gone better is if I were cranking these out in a kitchen 100 feet from the ocean.
- Trader Joe’s Crispy Battered Calamari
-
Pros: The flavors are outstanding! TJ’s added garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, and chili pepper to the batter, and the spices all work well together. The garlic and onion powders hit you with a blast of flavor on first bite, and then the black pepper and chili peppers shine on the finish. The squid is fairly mild, with just a bit of oceanic essence. The crispy, crunchy, flavorful batter is the perfect complement to the mild squid.
Cons: It’s near impossible to take a bite out of these squid bits without separating the meat from the breading. I know what you’re thinking: Just eat the squid in one bite! In my defense, I was trying to go slow to really relish the experience. But then there’s also the chew factor. In no world do I expect frozen calamari to not be chewy, but this frozen calamari is little chewier than I had anticipated. I’m telling you, you’ll be tempted to bite these in half so you don’t have a mouthful of chewy squid, but then you run into the breading issue. Don’t get me wrong. These aren’t deal-breaking issues. Trader Joe’s calamari is still a worth app for a fancy Italian dinner at home.
