Do You Really Know What You're Eating?: My wild-salmon boat comes in

Attention food shoppers

We are legions -- legions who are sorely neglected by the media, which prefer glorifying chefs. I love restaurants as much as anyone else, but feel that most are unresponsive to customers who want to know how the food they are eating was grown or raised. I hope my blog will be a valuable resource for helping you find the healthiest food in supermarkets, specialty stores and restaurants in northern New Jersey. In the past five years, I stopped eating meat, poultry, bread and pizza, and now focus on a heart-healthy diet of seafood, vegetables, fruit, whole-wheat pasta and brown rice. I'm happiest when I am eating. -- VICTOR E. SASSON

Friday, May 25, 2012

My wild-salmon boat comes in


The first wild-caught salmon arrived on Thursday at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack. The fresh sockeye fillets, from Alaska's Copper River, fetch a premium of $13.99 a pound.

Shopping at Costco Wholesale on the Friday before a major holiday weekend isn't for the timid, but something drew me to the warehouse store in Hackensack today.

In the past few days, I've called the store and had my wife ask employees about the arrival of the season's first fresh wild salmon, which docked on May 21 last year at $13.99 a pound, a dollar less than in 2010.

This year, the deep orange-red fillets from Alaska's Copper River arrived on Thursday, and the price is the same.

In a couple of weeks, if that, the Copper River fish will be replaced by other fresh wild salmon at $8.99 a pound, guaranteeing good eating through the first days of October.

I sprinkled six portions with salt, squeezed on lime juice; and added Aleppo pepper, chopped fresh mint and oregano from the garden. I roasted them at 450 degrees.


The fresh fish needed only 10 to 12 minutes for medium rare.

I pulled the fish out of the oven after 7 minutes, but the fillets were still raw in the center, so I cooked them some more.

I ate a medium-rare fillet with organic whole-wheat pasta, Black Tiger shrimp from Costco, a salad of organic spring mix and white wine.

A can of anchovies and oil added to bottled marinara sauce will cook away, but leave behind a wonderful robustness. I cooked the pasta for the last 3 minutes in the sauce.

Whole-wheat spaghetti from Trader Joe's is terrific morning, noon and night.

Four pounds of Black Tiger shrimp from Vietnam are $41.99. They are designated U-15, meaning there are about 15 per pound. I also saw U-8 farmed shrimp at Costco today.

My wild-salmon fillet weighed 1.69 pounds.

I spent more than $108 on food at Costco today.

I bought our third or fourth watermelon of the season for $5.99, but there is no scale to tell you the price per pound.

Other customers thump the melons, listening for I know not what. I choose the biggest and heaviest I can find, and I've never been disappointed.

With fresh wild salmon only a couple of miles away, life is good.

I didn't see organic carrots, so picked up a 10-pound bag of Bolthouse Farms conventional carrots for $5.99.

Three half-gallons of Organic 1% Milk were $9.59, six Champagne Mangoes from Mexico were $5.79 and 1 pound of Kirkland Signature Smoked Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon was $15.79.