 What's going on everybody? If you have not heard, Trader Joe's Asian food is trending right now. Their Korean Kimbap is selling out. Everybody talks about how good their Indian dishes are and man, today I'm going to be trying all of Trader Joe's best Chinese dishes. I'm going to be judging them and then I'm going to be trying our brand new Smala chili oil on top of it all guys. Yes, this is the sponsor of the video but this is our product too so we're sponsoring the video we're just sponsoring ourselves but anyways guys as you guys may know Trader Joe's is this grocery store brand based out of Monrovia California but honestly the quality is amazing and I think that the fact that they can do all different types of cuisines, Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Indian, Chinese and a bunch of others they do a lot of Latin cuisines as well they do Italian I think they have some Greek items like the fact that they're able to just do all the ethnic cuisines at a decent level better than other brands is very impressive so I'm excited but I'm going to tell you which of these Chinese items I think is the best the most authentic and we're going to try it with Smala. Let's go. All right looking at the spread we got the Taiwanese green onion pancakes aka your Tongyoping you got their classic famous orange chicken bowl but I got the bowl because it also has fried rice I got your chicken shumai I think it's based off the Japanese shumai instead of the Chinese xiaomai or sumai oh your honey walnut shrimp in Cantonese we call this upto ha classic you got your chicken soup dumplings aka your chicken xiaolongbao which is not actually super traditional but it really works here you got your pork gyoza pot stickers gyoza pot stickers whatever you want to call them your cha chu bao I like how they use the Chinese here trader means and then you got your chow mein but it's so funny when I see chicken chow mein and it's the American version I I constantly say it like the American way like the chow mein anyways that's that's just me being American I guess man if you do not have a steamer at home you really need to get one I like this one because it got that smiley face one of my favorite snacks I just had this idea because I've been watching a lot of the Instagram videos of like Chinese recipes in China I saw this one in Taiwan it's called a show dropping and it's kind of like you take a chung yo being the scallion pancake but you like cook it with like egg or ham I've never really done this before I'm the same one so uh and that is how you turn your chung yo being into a show dropping all right egg on the bottom on the top oh looking like a street food snack let me fold it get up close for that sound I know all the Instagram shots they're doing this now all right first item let's try the Taiwanese green onion pancake it's very comparable to the other brands I've had the the ones from China or Asia guys dip it in my little soy sauce and black vinegar mixture first good time to try my show dropping with some small ah oh awesome guys you get five pancakes for 250 at Trader Joe's I'm not here to say that it's categorically better than the Chinese brands I've had but this one is pretty good and if you don't have an Asian market nearby I think this is a pretty good version out of five honestly I gotta give this a 4.5 out of five this is a pretty high rank for me it's a simple thing to make it's hard to make a home but it's simple for them to serve it because they have to roll up all the scallions and then they flatten it and they roll it you know what I'm saying all right next up we got the orange chicken bowl I decided to get this instead of getting the whole bag of orange chicken it's probably going to be the same um this is only 450 so this is just overall a good bargain deal too the sauce comes separate this one when I rate this one obviously I'm not really going to rate it to a super authentic one I'm just going to rate it compared to like Panda Express and uh other frozen orange chicken brands I've had which I've had a few actually because uh not gonna lie I like it microwaved mandarin orange chicken from Trader Joe's not bad I mean it's a little bit soggy on the outside because it's microwave versus like frying it yourself um but the flavor is there but the the sauce isn't really thick so I would like that but let's try it with some small on which you can get right now at smallasauce.com By the way if you're wondering what's in this it's actually um it's like a chili oil but it has a Sichuan peppercorn it has some truffle mushroom it has some truffle extract it also has a lot of garlic onion a lot of umami and a nice kick it kind of like tingles your mouth so let's be liberal with it oh so what I like what the smalla does is it adds that spicy kick and kind of complements the sweetness that the orange chicken has so I know that Trader Joe's orange chicken is considered one of the best items and if you love orange chicken maybe but I'm gonna give it more like a 3.75 out of five all right everybody we're on to our first steamed items here we got the shumai which is chicken shumai and shumai the way it's spelled is the Japanese way because otherwise if it was in mandarin it'd be Shaomai or in Cantonese it'd be sumai so I think this is based off the Japanese shumai that's my hunch and then you have the pork gyoza uh pot sticker you know waltip but kind of looks more like a gyoza and then your chashu bao here now a lot of people at home they're going to use different methods to cooking it some people have an air fry some people will microwave I don't recommend microwaving at least the bao but definitely get yourself a little steamer man I'm really excited about this chashu bao right here this is the this is the one I got to try man oh man oh man oh man I've never had this one let's try by itself fatty a little peppery sweet soy sauce flavor not bad not a lot of that red coloring though let's try it with some small law there's not a lot of like such one kind of like mala tingly baoza out there so I really like this one honestly though as a chashu bao this one's pretty solid I give this a four out of five all right here we got the shumai I'm not gonna lie I'm not usually a big fan of this dish you just dip it a little bit it basically tastes like a little bit like vegetable chicken meatball wrapped up but I personally think the Japanese shumai is one of the items that the Japanese do not do better than the original Chinese version here's some small law for me personally I love the siu mai from you know dim sum so I'm gonna have to give that like a 2.5 out of 5 all right pork gyoza I actually like these a lot but they remind me definitely more of a gyoza a Japanese style than they do like a Chinese like wartip or like quartier whoo here we go baby small law goes great on dumplings all right these are so much better than the shumai these are got these honestly I give this a 4.5 out of 5 very solid checking on our talline okay not that looking very very American though not super like Chinese style because like the carrots and the bell peppers and obviously the American broccoli I would never expect to see that at an actual Chinese restaurant but this looks like some solid like takeout from your Chinese American spot or honestly more like your non-agent spot doing Chinese food so but I'm gonna cook the rest with small law and see how it does as a cooking oil because I know this is a great finishing oil so let's see how it's cooking all right guys listen every time you look up like Chinese stir-fry noodles or like your typical stir-fry chow mein recipe on allrecipes.com or on google this is probably what it's gonna look like it's gonna look like some version of this westernized style obviously this is not super authentic but chow mein is a real word that's Cantonese um this one I cooked small law with it and I tossed it in at the end and I'm gonna top it off with just a little and you can see it in the chicken it's actually cooked in and then here's the regular version so I'm gonna try the regular version without any of my small modifications let's try this doesn't look bad man this definitely looks like a microwave version but not bad I think the chicken came cooked already so it's a little bit weird it's like double cooked but anyways that's not bad all right here's the one with small ah the sauce was really sweet and really heavy um but actually yeah it can taste the small shine it through man it's pretty good the reason why we put in a squeeze bottle is because it's really easy to use when you're cooking you can just toss it on like that like this one you know and this is just a delicious chili oil man this is my favorite so with the small law I give it a four out of five without the small law 3.5 out of five not bad though not bad for Trader Joe's chow mein next up we got the chicken shallombao aka chicken soup dumplings these are generally higher rated than the pork ones they actually didn't they ran out of the pork ones when I was at uh at Trader Joe's but they usually run out of the chicken if you go so so I cook these two different ways I steamed them steamed some in my steamer and luckily my steamer has a little egg circles which fit the shallombao perfectly actually which is funny these are the perfectly steamed ones these are microwave ones now these these this microwave one got a little bit scorched I think this is actually how it's supposed to look so we'll just represent that one to be fair to Trader Joe's I need the steamed one first a little dippy in my black mini if I have to start calling them Trader Joe's Shanghai these were fire still good especially steamed man microwaved obviously you do it when you can when you have to all right trying the microwave one little dippy it does give you a little bit more of a slightly chewier texture on the outside because there's not a lot of other extra steam from extra water like from the steamer but that's actually still pretty good do it if you have to here now I'm going to smile on them up put it on the plate and then the chili oil just flows down the mountain like little rivers flowing down yeah you put that much you definitely get that kick but smile on man on the Shaolong Bao is incredible I put a little bit a few drops it adds that little truffling flavor a little smile I tingle to your mouth and honestly man Trader Joe's chicken Shaolong Bao you get a five out of five last but not least coming in at a whopping seven dollars we got the walnut shrimp in Cantonese we call it Hap Doha that's how you would say it at the restaurant here and I'm going to tell you this guys one honey walnut shrimp kind of debated because it's like isn't it Chinese American dish it's served at a lot of dim sum Cantonese restaurants I actually my guess is it's a Hong Kong dish because it involves mayo and honey which are more Western items but maybe it wasn't created in America probably came from Hong Kong that's my opinion they came pre-fried they gave you a little mayonnaise sauce packet here looks like condensed milk looks like some heavy cream and uh yeah I guess you're just gonna fry these up these are look partially cooked so my oil is hot I've been using olive oil this whole time let's go oh show haha as I got to say the honey walnut prawn is definitely one of the hypest Chinese American food items as of recent I think it's because Panda Express added it as a premium item also I just feel like more and more people got exposed to it and just saw the uniqueness of like the egg flower batter kind of tempura style shrimp with the sweet mayonnaise and the walnuts it's almost like it doesn't remind you of a lot of other Chinese dishes but yeah all right man guys I plated it I think it looks pretty good um actually what happened is they batter the shrimp and then they flash fry it so the shrimp are not actually fully cooked and then you have to cook them so hopefully I cooked them but let's check it out this is the Trader Joe's honey walnut shrimp I mean consider I just made it in a skillet just now at home really not bad the sauce is a little bit I don't want to say more sour but definitely there could be more egg flavor because that's something I find very distinct about the way they fry the Hap To Ha at the Cantonese restaurant thinking about the score without the small I give it a it's a four out of five it's definitely something you should try let me try it with some small ah mmm small ah Hap To Ha walnut don't sleep on this do not sleep on this at Trader Joe's oh I'm here with Fred Fred you're half Korean half Mexican you just told me you've never actually had the honey walnut shrimp no I've not you've never had it no only had shrimp well because you're out in Jersey where it's mostly you've had a lot of Korean food yeah all right we'll try it man let me know this is Trader Joe I mean it's kind of sad that the first time you eat this dish is Trader Joe's but it's not bad but it's good I think I want more smaller oh more smaller all right boom it's like sweet mayonnaise shrimp now here we go now it's good all right everybody uh before I get to my final ranking you got to check out small this is something we worked on for 14 months we teamed up with a kitchen of greek and italian guys so it's definitely like a cross between the Calabria and chili oil from Italy and the Sichuan Mala chili oil that we all love we did not skimp on the quality of ingredients there is real truffle in there it will ship to your door it's out of the squeeze bottle take it on the go I love this product it's just different I'm not like am I gonna point out oh it's better than this and this chili oil it's different and it goes well on everything especially non-Asian food but anyways guys I got to say something about Trader Joe's Asian food first of all I do think it's very legitimate and that they probably do have ethnic people or ethnic chefs in the back coming up with some of these recipes because they're pretty solid um with that said I do think obviously the food that you're buying to take home to Trader Joe's and cook it is definitely missing a layer or two that you would get at the restaurant which is not crazy to say you know I think that that is pretty fair to say that you're not going to get everything out of the bag that you would get at a restaurant so the muskets definitely the Taiwanese green onion pancake all right Taiwanese they get the credit for popularizing the chung yo being in america and you definitely got to get the chicken shallombao and I would say go ahead get the pork ones too I would say try to steam them though if you can't and then a sleeper one that surprised me was the honey walnut prawns dude to get honey walnut prawns at home shrimp out of the bag pretty good ones that you can skip or ones that I think are solid that you should try are the pot stickers the orange chicken uh not my favorites but solid I'm not mad if I gotta eat them but then these two you could skip unless you're really into particularly the Japanese style shumai which to me is a little bit lighter in flavor and uh I love Japanese food but Japanese food often is kind of light and then uh I would skip the chow mein I don't know I just wasn't it was okay but I wasn't feeling it nothing's really horrible here but anyways guys let me know if you want me to review more Trader Joe's items because they got Thai food Korean food Italian food they have Japanese food uh they have Mexican I saw some Cuban dishes um they have American dishes too I mean just let me know because uh I'm down to review it and put Smala on it so SmalaSauce.com thank you so much for watching please hit that like button and I'm back in the kitchen it's kind of like the old school all right until next time we out peace