Jerry's 320-pound provolone, Olivia's Organics, Whole Foods wine sale

A 320-pound Sharp Provolone Cheese is on display at Jerry's Gourmet & More, 410 S. Dean St., Englewood, where complete, restaurant-quality dinners are only $7.99 (reduced to $5.99 after 4 p.m.), if they don't run out before you get there.

Editor's note: Today, I explore the wonderful world of food shopping in North Jersey.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Jerry's Gourmet & More is an Italian specialty food and wine store in Englewood that spares you the agita of driving to Arthur Avenue in the Bronx.

Not to mention having to fork over the exorbitant toll at the George Washington Bridge.

Today, I wasn't as lucky as I have been in getting one of Jerry's complete, restaurant-quality dinners to go, but I picked up a small Caesar Salad and sampled several cheeses, including a Mild Provolone that was on sale for only $2.99 a pound.

I bought some of the mild cheese to eat with fruit and sodium-free almonds I roast at home and dust with cinnamon.

The 320-pound Sharp Provolone Cheese from Italy hanging from the ceiling is larger than the one I saw in 2013 by about 2o pounds.

Jerry's had Mild Provolone on sale for only $2.99 a pound.

Unfortunately, restaurant-quality Meals To Go ran out before I got to Jerry's in late afternoon, and I bought a small Caesar Salad, below, for my wife.

A Rochelle Roll -- cooked eel, caviar, kanpyo (a type of gourd), avocado, tempura flakes and cucumber -- from Maguro Sushi House in Rochelle Park.

Hedging my bets

Before I drove over to Jerry's, I scored the last tray from Maguro Sushi in Rochelle Park at the Englewood Hospital and Medical Center cafe.

The Rochelle Roll, with cooked eel, caviar, avocado and other ingredients, was $8.62.

Finding no Meals To Go at Jerry's, I made the Rochelle Roll my dinner at home, ending with a big salad of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix ($4.49 for a 1-pound package at Costco Wholesale).

On Sunday, Mackerel from Norway was only one of the whole wild-caught fish on ice at H Mart, the Korean supermarket at 260 Bergen Turnpike, Little Ferry.

Olivia's Organics

At H Mart in Little Ferry on Sunday, I picked up four whole whiting, a fish with relatively few bones, for $3.99 a pound, and two 5-ounce containers of Olivia's Organics Spring Mix (buy one for $3.99, get one free).

That's not as good a buy as Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix at Costco, but packages of Olivia's Organics carry a stamp from the NON-GMO Project Verified.

That assures you the Tango, Lolla Rosa, Mizuna and other lettuces and greens aren't genetically modified.

At home on Monday, my wife seasoned the whiting, cut each fish in two and pan-fried the pieces in olive oil. There were enough for two nights.

With big, flaky pieces of mild flesh and few bones to contend with, this is a great eating fish, accented with a splash of fresh lime juice, and I only needed a large organic salad to complete the meal.

Spicy Stewed Tofu, above, and Stewed Mackerel, below, are among the many prepared Korean side dishes available at H Mart in Little Ferry.

A 1-pound package of Stewed Pollack, a wild-caught fish from Alaska, was $7.99. A 1-pound tray of tofu with hot peppers, onion and carrot was $4.99. 

I plated the tofu and pollack with leftover organic whole-wheat capellini, reheated them and added freshly sauteed spinach for a rib-sticking, egg-less breakfast.

Whole Foods wine sale

On Saturday, Whole Foods Market in Paramus is having a one-day sale on bottles of wine (20% discount).

There are some exclusions.

I plan to combine my wine purchases that day with an American Express credit-card promotion good for a $10 statement credit when I spend $60 or more at Whole Foods.