Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Rotting mango, seedless melon and lobster

Commercial campari tomatoesImage via Wikipedia
Try finding a better-tasting tomato than these hothouse-grown beauties.

Brothers Produce in the Paterson Farmers' Market has some of the lowest prices around, but quality isn't always guaranteed.

I bought four, small champagne mangoes at two for $1 last week, and when my wife peeled them, she found many brown spots. She showed me the plate with what was left, and it looked like I brought home only two.

On Tuesday, I found a box of 16 champagne mangoes at H Mart in Little Ferry for $8.99, or about 56 cents each. The green mangoes are ripening on my kitchen counter.

At Brothers on Tuesday, I bought six ounces of blackberries for $1.99 (though I thought the sign said $1.79), but found 18 ounces of the same Mexican blackberries for $3.99 at Costco Wholesale today, a better buy.

Costco prices fall

Some Costco tomato prices are falling.

The Sunset-brand Campari tomato -- small, round and delicious -- were $4.49 for 2 pounds today, $1 less than before.

The gourmet beefsteaks from Sunset still are $5.99 for 5 pounds, but that works out to $1.20 a pound, compared with $2.25 a pound for the smaller tomato.

I watched a man handling the beefsteak tomatoes, examining a few and switching them from box to box before I told him I didn't want him touching the tomatoes.

He was unmoved, showing me one that was split in a few places. At checkout, the Costco cashier counted my beefsteaks in the open box, explaining that people try to get away with a few extra.

Three large, gourmet cucumbers were $3.29. They reached a peak of $3.79 not long ago.

H Mart prices ease

H Mart prices also are falling. I picked up two heads of red-leaf lettuce for $1, compared to a high of $1.79 for a single head. 

Some beautiful baby bokchoy were $1.49 a pound, and a few bunches made a nice, bright-green addition to homemade cheese-tortellini soup Tuesday night.

Watermelon watch

Seedless watermelon are on sale at ShopRite for $3.99 each through Memorial Day -- a savings of $3 and the lowest price I've seen this season.

Live lobster also is on sale for $5.99 a pound through the holiday.

Wasted trip

Garden State Market in Englewood is described as "gourmet" in another food blog, but when I visited today, I found a small market with large prices, and nothing really remarkable that I wanted to buy.

It shares a building with a dry cleaners on busy South Dean Street, just up the street from Balthazar Bakery's retail shop and a half-mile or so from Jerry's Gourmet & More. 

My advice: Don't brake as you pass Garden State Market on the way to those outstanding places.
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3 comments:

  1. I used to be a weekly customer at Brothers but now go there once a month. During peak hours Saturday the lines are too long for me to bother with.

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  2. I agree. Saturdays are impossible. Even Tuesday was busy, but I got a space in the lot out back and there were only two other people on my checkout line.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was at Brothers this past saturday at about 9AM on the dot and each and every check out line had overflown into the aisles.

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