Fresh & Easy Tastes

We stopped by the new Fresh & Easy in Glassel Park on opening night to check out the goods. And the yummy mummies and daddies…who knew NE LA had such a high fertility rate? We couldn’t taste-test the hotties themselves, unfortunately, but we went nuts on the food. Here’s a pic of what $24 will get you at the food emporium.

The chain seems to be ganking the best of the competition: they’ve got packaged goods, fresh and frozen, just like Trader Joe’s, they carry enormous items like Costco (yeah, that is a 96-ounce Stouffer’s lasagna taking up half the freezer), and, just like your average Von’s or Ralph’s, they carry every kind of junk food you could imagine. We went solely for the Fresh & Easy brand products, of which there are plenty. We experimented so you don’t have to: here are our picks and pans from the F&E shelves. (Items pictured in packages as an homage to F&E’s obvious love of plastic packaging.)

California roll: Nothing special here. But we love the reusable, packable, adjustable chopsticks they come with.

Yogurt: We tried two flavors, strawberry and pina colada. They weren’t as good as hippie brands, but better than Yoplait.

Cinnamon rolls: Well, you’d have to try pretty hard to eff these up. We actually quite enjoyed these, but remember to pop ‘em in the toaster oven!

Chocolate cheesecake: It’s a chocolate cheesecake. It’s not spectacular, but it gets the sweet-tooth job done.

Chicken tortilla soup: Ew. It’s not right when flour is one of the main flavors.

Methi malai chicken: One of F&E’s many Indian frozen dinners (perhaps a nod to their British roots, along with the enormous turkey drumsticks and pate with aspic). The chicken was pretty good, the rice was gross, and the beans seemed unnecessarily spicy. But it’s a frozen meal, so it’s not like our expectations were high anyway.

 

Steak & blue cheese sandwich: Ding ding ding! We have a winner. They aren’t afraid to pile on the sautéed onions and the blue cheese, the steak was pretty good quality, and the bread never got too mushy or stale. We’d definitely get this again. And again.

—Katherine Spiers