We braved the crowds today and entered Trader Joe’s. I’m not going to say anything controversial here, since I’ve already said plenty about the place and, after having looked around, my feelings have only been made more concrete. I did notice good prices on butter and eggs, but otherwise, it’s just a bunch of shrink-wrapped junk and frozen meat, not to mention a bunch of losers ramming their carts into me, fighting their way to the trail mix aisle.

If I ever find myself that far east on 14th Street and it’s not overcrowded, I’ll cheerfully go in to buy dairy products. In the meantime, I celebrated fresh produce today by making homemade vegetable chips, in the spirt of Terra Chips. You could spend $3.89, or you could buy one sweet potato and some generic vegetable oil and do it yourself in ten minutes.

Twice-fried yam chips

• Vegetable, peanut, corn, or canola oil, for frying
• 1 yam, washed and peeled
• Rosemary, optional
• Maldon or any other salt
• Pepper
• Freshly grated Parmesan cheese, optional

1. Heat at least two inches of oil in a sauce pan to 360ºF. If you don’t have a thermometer, buy one.
2. While the oil is heating, slice the yam with a mandoline or v-slicer into very thin slices.
3. Add the optional rosemary to the oil, and then fry the potatoes in batches until lightly browned. Remove them to a plate lined with a double thickness of paper towels along with the rosemary.
4. Once all of the potatoes have been fried, fry them in batches again until crispy and slightly puffed.
5. Season to your liking. I like to use plenty of Parmesan, salt and pepper.

Trader Joe’s can keep their fancy, wasteful crap. These chips are fabulous.