Aldi's- Kosher Items? Suggestions?

[latke]

An Aldi's is opening near me in NYC- is this anything to get excited about? Do they have any interesting kosher items?

[latke]

I was actually dreading going because of the lackluster reviews, but came away pretty happy. Pareve soft baked cookies, oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip, and peanut butter that are great and without preservatives 1.99 for a pound, 3 bean salad for 99 cents, two pounds of grapes for $1.49 (and they're good!), fake ritz pareve crackers for 1.39, Dijon Mustard for 1.19, Hot Cocoa mix for 89 cents 10 envelopes....I was expecting foreign hechshers on the products but found mostly OU's and a couple of no name "k's". Nothing at all like the crazy certifications you see at trader joe's. If you're nearthe store and don't mind off brand names, I think it;s a good stop to make. Unlike Trader Joe's however, things have preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, etc. And don't even think of looking for soy milk- very little in the yuppie food category. . They did have kosher hummus, though with preservatives, yuck. Aldi in all, a decent store.

[queenscook]

I'd hardly call the various hashgachot seen on TJ's products "crazy certifications." If you take a look at the Kashrut magazine's issue on hashgachot, there are over 1000 worldwide, many of which are quite acceptable. The fact that you might only be familiar with the four or five major American ones (OU, OK, Kaf-K, Star-K, probably) doesn't make the rest crazy. As I see it, the greater the availability of kosher food, the better. If you choose not to investigate the unfamiliar ones, that's your prerogative, but for those of us who do, it's more food we have to choose from.

[helou]

I have to agree with Queenscook. It's wonderful to be able to have access to a greater variety and to more exotic foods with reliable hechshers, even if it means doing a little digging to find out about those hechshers.

[Prettypoodle]

Great reply QC, I haoppen to love to see all the unique hectures at TJ's. Some are rather imaginative and it does open up a whole new world of culinary delights. I happend to stumble upon this today: http://www.hechshers.info/index.htm
check out he home page where it shows one VERY kosher product:) I bet it would even make latke haqppy:)

[helou]

A new store just opened here in central NJ and I was very disappointed. It made me think of a supermarket that sells only generic no-frills brands but not in a cool, minimalist way. There was nothing in the way of kosher food that made it at all worthwhile to go to.

[cheesecake17]

It's worth it to go in and take a look if you have time. The kosher products depend on what they actually have in the store... I've bought kosher cooking spray, chips, pretzles, ice cream, bread, yogurt and a few baking items. Sometimes they get brand name items that are very discounted. I always look at the hechsher on something even if I've bought it there before, because sometimes they discontinue items and replace them with similar ones.

If it's convinient for you, they always have great prices on eggs and lettuce.

[ferret]

Aldi has a pretty narrow selection of products and the majority are private label. Kosher certification invariably costs more so I suspect that they don't actively seek it out. They also source a lot from their home base in Europe which is even more hit-or-miss as far as Kashruth goes.

Unlike Aldi's which is an expansion of a European chain, the Aldi-related Trader Joe's has always been a domestic chain and "Kosher" has as much appeal as "Organic" in their more upscale demographic.

[weinstein5]

If it is like the Aldi"s here in Chicago it will not be much -