Trader Joe's always has interesting products to try. Some people complain that just when you find the perfect product, the store changes its selection. Other shoppers find it literally the "spice of life".

Paul talked me into picking up a $0.99 product imported from Thailand. He knows I like Asian foods quite a lot. It was a soup that came with noodles and a packet of seasoning in its own bowl. I just added water from the tap, microwaved, stirred, and ate heartily. Now, the price and simplicity is important. Just yesterday I was listening to a segment on NPR about people having to buy frozen lunches to take to work. This is as cheap as you can get next to a Campbell's can, which would require you to bring a bowl to work and wash it to reuse or bring a lot of disposable ones and store them in your little cubicle.

The soup was delicious and filling, but I didn't realize the amount of sodium in my serving. I calculated 1340 mg Sodium in the bowl! Ridiculous. I hope I was wrong, but I never flunked math. Surely you can make your own soup cheaper and healthier. I also grumbled a bit because I felt like the microwave instructions should have said "Let stand 3 minutes" as the boiled water instructions said. The noodles tended to be a bit crunchy.

Don't get me wrong, I still think Trader's is next door to the greatest place on Earth. And the flavor of this dish was better than the prepackaged pasta bowls made by Betty Crocker. But I think I'd prefer to make it myself in the future.