Shopping, tasting and recipe notes

At ShopRite in Rochelle Park, not one of my favorite stores, I had to buy a half-gallon of Organic Valley lactose-free milk for $4.99 yesterday instead of Horizon organic lactose-free milk for $4.19, because the Horizon half-gallons were setting on a shelf covered in milk and I couldn't tell which one was leaking.

I also bought a pound of Sunset-brand, herbicide-free kumatoes, which are black-purple outside, black-purple and red inside, for $2.50. Today, I opened the package, only to find two of the five tomatoes were slightly bruised and mushy. They originally are from the Galapagos Islands. I tried slices in pocket-bread sandwiches with tuna-red salmon-sardine salad (chopped onions, Dijon mustard, cumin and lime juice, plus all the liquid from cans), salad greens and thin-sliced Swiss cheese.Yum.

I counted nearly 20 greens at H Mart in Englewood on Friday, where I stopped after dropping off my son for his piano lesson. I saw Korean mustard greens, collard, a variety of Chinese greens and vegetables, and fresh spinach. I bought a nice bunch of spinach ($1.49), and at home, chopped off the ends, quickly blanched it in boiling water and sauteed it with olive oil, powdered garlic, black pepper and salt. I served it with Murray's antibiotic-free chicken leg quarters, baked Korean yams (bought from an employee tending an oven outside the store) and small salads.

Since the first of the year, we have eaten beef only once. We continue to consume a great deal of seafood for breakfast and dinner, at home and in restaurants, including the canned fish salad I referred to above, wild red snapper, grouper, frozen wild salmon, salmon sashimi, wild-caught shrimp (with orzo in tomato sauce), smoked wild salmon, fresh and canned sardines and Korean-style, pan-fried whiting. All of them are low in mercury.

I even ordered a pizza last night and asked for half with anchovies and hot peppers, from Metro Gourmet Brick Oven Pizza and Restaurant, Hackensack's newest pizzeria (my son got sausage and hot peppers on his half). It was a delicious pie, with a thin, well-baked crust (I asked for it well-done).

On my weekly trip to Costco last Monday, I picked up three quarts of Bolthouse Farms organic carrot juice and noticed the price had dropped to $5.89, from a high of $7.50 (which was already a great price for 100% juice). That night, I thawed, seasoned and steamed three fillets of Costco's frozen wild sockeye salmon with red wine, a little olive oil and lime juice. In a covered Pyrex dish on top of a pot of boiling water, they cooked in seven minutes (medium rare). Delish.

Metro Gourmet Brick Oven Pizza & Restaurant, 
111 Anderson Ave. (next to the tracks), Hackensack;
201-488-2511; open seven days, free delivery.