Shopping the sale at Fairway Market

I drove to Fairway Market in the Fashion Center in Paramus in today's heat and humidity, lured by wild-caught jumbo shrimp at $5.99 a pound and fresh mozzarella at $3.99 a pound. But I brought home other good buys: a big bunch of peppery arugula for 99 cents and a cantaloupe for $1.50. Two heads of romaine lettuce were $1.49.

The white shrimp and arugula will pair well in a pasta dish. And I bought some tomatoes -- Jersey beefsteak and on the vine from Canada, both 99 cents a pound -- to go with the fresh, salted cheese, basil from my garden and extra-virgin olive oil as a light dinner with toasted Balthazar Bakery baguette from the freezer.

Other sale items include rotisserie chicken at $4.99, but not the drug-free or organic chicken; and USDA prime boneless sirloin steak at $3.99, labeled "the good stuff," but that boast isn't backed up with any information on how the animal was raised.

I also took a look at the olive selection in Paramus. A half-dozen signs urge customers to:

PLEASE BE CIVILIZED

NO HANDS IN THE OLIVES

VIOLATORS WILL BE EMBARRASSED

I guess New York-based Fairway Market doesn't think much of our manners here in New Jersey. Previously, I wrote Fairway olives sold for $6.99 a pound, but today, the Paramus olives were labeled $5.99 a pound. I'll continue to get my olives at Fattal's in Paterson, where most cost $2.99 a pound.

Fairway's sale prices are good through Aug. 21.