Easy mango peeling, $17.99 Costco dress shirts, sweet potato 'liquor'

At the ShopRite in Paramus this morning, on the second day of the new year, I saw this Toyota Corolla with handicapped license plates, above and below. Inside the car, there is room only for the driver.

 Editor's note: Today, I discuss food and food-related topics that don't fit into a neat category, including why men should buy their dress shirts at Costco Wholesale.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Mangoes are among the foods that don't give up their goodness easily.

On the box of small mangoes from Ecuador I picked up at H Mart in Little Ferry this week, three photos show how to extract the sweet flesh.

We also have a Mango Splitter made by Oxo.

Neither the mango-box tutorial nor the kitchen tool deal with how to enjoy the flesh around the seed. (Oxo even advises you to discard the seed.)  

1. Slice each side along the seed. 2. Slice flesh without breaking skin. 3. Scoop out and enjoy.

Using Oxo's Mango Splitter can result in a lot of waste.

When baked sweet potatoes are cooled and then placed in a container for storage in the refrigerator, the condensation yields a sweet, dark "liquor" you can enjoy when you reheat them.

Sweet-potato disks can be boiled for about 20 minutes for use in a 10-inch frittata with reduced-fat Swiss cheese, above and below. The egg mixture can be made of whites, whole eggs, a little low-fat milk and grated cheese.

You pour the egg mixture into a pre-heated pan with olive oil, place the sweet potato slices and Swiss cheese on top, and after the crust is set, you can finish the frittata under the broiler.

We used leftover Cuban-style roast pork from La Pola, a Cuban-sandwich shop in West New York, and Swiss cheese in another frittata. A Cuban sandwich, made on a heated press, includes roast pork, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard.

The Kirkland Signature Men's Dress Shirt from Costco Wholesale is only $17.99 with a button-down or spread collar, but the price could probably be cut, if less plastic, cardboard and paper, not to mention a half-dozen pins, are used to package it. Two great features are how the 100% Extra-long Staple Cotton is woven for eye appeal and how the spread collar buttons beautifully for men who wear ties, putting to shame more expensive shirts. 

One item offered during the Can Can Sale at the Paramus ShopRite is a 2-pound bag of individually wrapped tilapia fillets for only $7.49. Even if you eat farmed fish, you should avoid these fillets, which are from China, a country with a poor food-safety record.