A 'sale' on pasta sauce, pricey Passover ingredient, wild sea bass

On Tuesday, I found 24-ounce jars of Victoria Vodka Sauce, one of the few that doesn't contain heavy cream, on sale for $2.99 each with a store card at ShopRite, 224 Route 4 east, Paramus. The store also had a rare sale on ShopRite Lactose Free Milk for $2.99 a half-gallon, a discount of 50 cents.

A 40-ounce jar of the same vodka sauce was on sale in late January for $3.99, but on Tuesday, the price was $8.49.

You probably couldn't get one of the dozen tables at Rao's, the Italian-American restaurant in the East Harlem section of Manhattan, so why pay an outrageous $8.49 for a 32-ounce jar of the joint's marinara sauce at the Paramus ShopRite?

A 2-pound jar of kosher for Passover Tamarind was $17.99 at the Paramus ShopRite. The concentrated sweet-and-sour fruit , from Thailand, is used in many Sephardic Jewish dishes, including stuffed vegetables.

The $3-plus price spike for Wild Alaskan Smoked Sockeye Salmon at Costco Wholesale didn't stop me from buying this wonderful fish, but the price has settled back to $15.99 for two half-pound portions. Here, I used a few slices to stuff a whole egg and egg-white omelet with fresh spinach, a slice of reduced-fat Swiss cheese and Mateo's Gourmet Salsa, all from Costco.

On Sunday, Fresh wild-caught black sea bass were $5.99 a pound at H Mart, 25 Lafayette Ave., Englewood. My wife pan-fried them and dressed them in sweet and hot peppers, and onions cooked in vinegar. At the Little Ferry H Mart, 260 Bergen Turnpike, a box of 14 Ataulfo Mangoes was $9.99 with a store card.

-- VICTOR E. SASSON