Two can shop faster at Costco, another great fish dinner from Jerry's

The lot at the new, bigger Costco Wholesale in Teterboro appeared to be full less than an hour after the 10 a.m. opening on Friday, but there were plenty of parking spaces on the fringes.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Working together, me and my wife managed to get our weekly food shopping done at Costco Wholesale in about 30 minutes.

That's half of the time I spent on my first two visits to the new Teterboro warehouse, which opened last month.

The new Costco is far bigger than the Hackensack warehouse, with a separate cold room for milk, and three enormous refrigerated units for eggs, yogurt, frozen and prepared seafood, and other items.

I still think walking through the entire store and picking up items on your list as you see them is more efficient than just plunging into unfamiliar territory or going on individual searches.

On Friday, I stopped at the independent liquor store in the warehouse (with a separate entrance) to ask the price for a bottle of new Beaujolais, but my wife went ahead and I caught up to her in the produce section.

I didn't buy the French wine, which was between $8 and $9, a few dollars over my limit for a drinkable red.

Even though Friday's shopping trip was disorganized, we still managed to get in and out in close to a half-hour.

We spent about $185 on fresh and salted fish, smoked wild salmon, antibiotic-free chicken, organic eggs, lots of fresh conventional and organic produce, orange juice, lactose-free milk, peeled California garlic, guacamole and two dozen roses ($16.99).

We bought two fresh wild-caught red snappers from Panama that were nestled in ice at Costco's Seafood Road Show. They were 1.5 pound each and fully cleaned ($6.59 a pound). My wife prepared them for dinner Friday in closed aluminum-foil pouches with fresh lime juice, onions, sweet peppers and seasonings (40 minutes in a 400-degree oven). Delicious.

A wonderful piece of mahi mahi was the centerpiece of a takeout dinner from Jerry's Gourmet & More, 410 S. Dean St., Englewood.

Seafood dinners at a discount

I lucked out on Wednesday afternoon, when I stopped at Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood, and found five restaurant-quality Meals To Go in a refrigerated case, all seafood.

I picked up two, Mahi Mahi All'Acqua Pazza and Baked Grouper, at the discounted price of $5.99 each (after 4 p.m.)

My poached mahi mahi, with fresh tomato sauce, was accompanied by linguine in white clam sauce, vegetable dumplings, a vegetable frittata and an avocado salad.

I plated and reheated everything but the salad, which I ate cold.

My wonderful dinner only needed a glass or two of red wine to complete. 

My wife's grouper, with roasted peppers, came with gnocchi, sauteed broccoli rabe, vegetable dumplings and an artichoke fennel salad.

She has said the sauteed broccoli rabe in Jerry's dinners is the best she has ever had, and all of his sauces are bursting with flavor. 

At Jerry's, three dinners with Sea Scallops were still available Wednesday after 4 p.m., when the price is reduced to $5.99 from $7.99 (discount taken at the register).