Cucumber kimchi, wild red shrimp, pasta and eggs, organic brown rice

KIMCHI WITH CRUNCH: Cucumber Kimchi is a seasonal item at Arirang, 1 Remsen Place in Ridgefield. A 2-pound package made with cucumbers from Korea was $12 at the source in the H&Y Marketplace shopping center.

NO MSG: Arirang kimchis are made by hand with no MSG and no artificial ingredients.

WILD AND RED: Jumbo Red Shrimp from Argentina are packed in 4.4-pound boxes and frozen. They were on sale last Sunday at H&Y, a Korean supermarket at 1 Remsen Place in Ridgefield, below. 

ON SALE: These shrimp are a good deal at the regular price of $28.99 and a great deal at $24.99.

IN THE SHELL: I prepared them in a wok with olive and sesame oils, sake and seasonings, including Chinese Five Spice Powder and ground Star Anise. They are ready to eat when they curl up, but next time we'll peel and devein them first.

COMING TO A HEAD: I boiled the heads for 20 minutes, producing a broth with a strong shrimp flavor that could be used in a noodle soup or to cook rice with seafood.

ORGANIC EGGS WITH ORGANIC PASTA: Two organic brown eggs from Costco Wholesale in Teterboro served over organic whole wheat spaghetti from Whole Foods Market prepared in marinara sauce with sardines, anchovies and pitted black olives, below.

DINNER AND LEFTOVERS: I used 1 pound of pasta, a 40-ounce jar of marinara, one can of anchovies, four cans of Moroccan sardines and a can of pitted olives, ensuring plenty of leftovers for other meals. You can add red wine and extra-virgin olive oil, plus seasonings, to the sauce.

ORGANIC BROWN RICE: Lundberg Organic Brown Long Grain Rice from California can be found on Amazon.com, and prepared in a rice cooker with organic diced tomatoes from Costco and organic black beans from ShopRite in Paramus, where a 15.5-ounce can was only 76 cents during the Summer Can-Can Sale. Here, I served an omelet stuffed with fresh herbs, salsa and reduced-fat cheese over brown rice for breakfast.

SAUTEED SPINACH: Sauteed baby spinach is a great side dish at breakfast with organic eggs sunny side up, grated cheese, 

chopped fresh herbs and ground Aleppo pepper.

GOING WILD FOR FRESH SALMON: This week and last, Fresh Wild Sockeye Salmon was $9.99 a pound at Costco Wholesale in Teterboro. Above, I baked a tray of  raw salmon, organic spinach, fresh tomatoes, string beans, pitted black olives and fresh herbs in a preheated 400-degree oven for 15 minutes. If you like your salmon medium to medium rare, reduce the cooking time to about 12 minutes.

PESTO AND HERBS: Tonight, I added Costco's Himalayan Pink Salt and fresh lime juice to six portions of wild sockeye salmon, then grilled them on the stove top for 7 minutes (4 minutes with the skin side down and flipping them for 3 minutes). I took the grill off the medium-high flame and added Costco's refrigerated Basil Pesto, Aleppo pepper, and fresh basil and mint from my garden.

FOREIGN GARLIC: On my wife's last two visits to Costco Wholesale in Teterboro, she couldn't find the 3-pound bag of Christopher Ranch peeled California Garlic we have been buying for more than a year. Instead, the warehouse had a 3-pound bag of peeled garlic from Garland Food in Miami, but she passed because many of the cloves appeared to be soft. Garland said the garlic sold at Costco comes from Mexico, Argentina and Spain. Bad move, Costco.

100% LACTOSE FREE: A half-gallon of ShopRite 100% Lactose Free Milk was on sale for $2.89 during the Summer Can-Can Sale in Paramus. That's a discount of 10 cents. Cans of ShopRite pitted black olives were 99 cents each.

GREEN IS GOOD: An Asian green called Yuchoy was on sale at H Mart, 25 Lafayette Place in Englewood, for 98 cents a pound ($1.49 a pound regularly). I cut the tough stems off and sauteed the leaves in olive oil and sake, seasoning them with red-pepper flakes, salt, black pepper and ground garlic as a side dish for breakfast this morning.

-- VICTOR E. SASSON