May 29 is National Coq au Vin Day! Again.
For some reason, there are a few duplicate food holidays. I don’t get it: with so many great foods left uncelebrated – can you believe there’s no National Ketchup Day, for instance?! – it’s weird that some foods get more than multiple holidays. Especially something so random and specific as National Coq au Vin Day, which is also celebrated on March 22nd. We just encountered this with wine over the weekend, as there is both a National Wine Day and a National Drink Wine Day. It goes without saying that you’re going to drink it, right? What other option do you have, other than inserting an IV tube full of chardonnay into a vein? Which, come to think of it, would save you the trouble of pouring…
Anyway. The only explanation that I can come up with is, one of the Coq au Vin holidays is listed as a “National” day, and the other isn’t. What is especially frustrating is that I busted my ass in March, recreating Julia Childs’ signature dish for the challenge. And equally annoying? March 22nd was also National Water Day, which we chose to skip because, well, how hard is it to pour yourself a glass of water? That was before we realized there was a second National Coq au Vin Day, though.
As delicious as the dish was the first time around – and it was really good, one of our favorite food challenges to date – it was very time-consuming and required a ton of prep work. I just didn’t have it in me to do it again on a weeknight, so I turned to Trader Joe’s for help this time. They’ve got a frozen Coq au Vin that looked decent enough in the picture on the box. And most importantly, required virtually no prep other than preheating the oven and sticking it in there. So, if you want the history of Coq au Vin again, click on my link above.
And the Trader Joe’s version of this classic French dish? It was passable…but barely. After having that delicious homemade Coq au Vin last time, there was no way this could be anything other than a letdown. But, hey…at least it didn’t take a lot of work!
Related articles
- Coq Au Vin (fiveoz.wordpress.com)
- Coq au vin (slowgastronomy.wordpress.com)
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Hi Mark-
I was equally disappointed by Trader Joe’s Coq Au Vin. But the worst part is that it used to be much better- or at least more authentic. Sometime this year they changed the recipe from whole cutup bone-in dark and white meat chicken to boneless-skinless chicken breast. Mon Dieu! From something approximating the recipes I’ve enjoyed in many a restaurant in France (and Julia’s recipe), to something much more like airplane food.
I’ve just emailed TJ’s about it…and returned the ones we had in our freezer to the store. I was still fuming about it just now so Googled it and found your blog. It’s great!
Dave
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It’s nice to know that TJ’s Coq au Vin used to be good…I know they pride themselves on the foods they carry (and most are of pretty high quality). When it comes to chicken, IMHO dark meat always trumps white meat.
Thanks for stopping by the blog, and good luck with TJ’s. While you’re at it, ask them why they stopped carrying the avocado salsa I loved so much, too!
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