Jumbo New Jersey mug, salty herring, summer fruit, red wine and more

The Jumbo New Jersey Mug holds 24 ounces or a day's worth of coffee. Trenton, which is in a perpetual state of political gridlock, isn't listed on the side of the cup.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I went looking for a sugar bowl and came away with a bonus -- an unusually large mug with a lighthearted graphic of the Garden State on each side.

I found both at Bed Bath & Beyond, off Route 4 in Paramus, after a fruitless search for a sugar bowl at the nearby IKEA, a maze-like furniture store with a grocery section I tackle once a year, if then.

IKEA has a smaller collection of kitchenware than I remember from my last visit.

I did purchase a pair of thin, flexible IKEA cutting boards that you can carry to the stove and funnel sliced garlic or chopped onion directly into the pan ($1.99).

When I couldn't find a sugar bowl, I also bought three colorful metal canisters for storing flour, sugar and other dry ingredients ($4.99).

From IKEA's grocery section, I bought a box of Muesli, a cereal mix with dried berries and nuts ($4.99); Oat Biscuits and Organic Ginger Thins ($2.49 each), and a package of addictive Rye Crispbread ($2.99).

At Bed Bath & Beyond, the sugar bowl was $4.99 and the jumbo mug $5.99.

I stopped buying pickled herring at IKEA after reading the label and seeing the high sodium content. Five pieces of this herring in dill marinade has 1500 milligrams or 62% of the daily recommended intake of sodium.

IKEA's packaged sauces for fish, left, have the same high sodium content as the herring, and none of the cheeses offered are made from part-skim milk. Sparkling fruit drinks contain added sugar.

IKEA's restaurant offers a dinner entree for only $4 -- mashed potatoes, vegetables and antibiotic-free chicken, lower left, something you don't find in far more expensive places.

A pint of New Jersey blueberries was $1.99 and a box of 16 sweet Ataulfo Mangoes was on sale for $10.99 last weekend at H Mart, 260 Bergen Turnpike in Little Ferry, below. A 15-pound bag of Kokuho Yellow Label Rice, grown in California, was reduced to $9.99. 

Wild Gulf Shrimp from Whole Foods Market cooked in minutes after I heated up olive oil and sauteed plenty of sliced garlic until it was fragrant. First, we marinated the shrimp in fresh lime juice and seasonings. I served them with mashed Kabocha squash and a medley of cooked sweet peppers, red onion and fresh corn.

For four people, I bought 2.2 pounds of wild-caught shrimp (16 to 20 per pound). On Thursday, they were on sale for $14.99 a pound, and the employee behind the seafood counter at Whole Foods in Paramus deveined them for me while I went to pick up other items.

The wild shrimp in the dinner cost about $8.50 per person. They cook in minutes after you put them in hot oil. I turned them once. They are ready when they turn white and curl up. 

The Whole Foods in the Bergen Town Center also had a sale on antibiotic-free chicken drumsticks for 99 cents a pound, above. Four ears of local sweet bi-color corn were only $2.

Whole Foods has a smaller selection of inexpensive red wine and no bottles for $3.99, as before. Still, I found six bottles of sangiovese, shiraz, tempranillo, tinto and a cabernet-merlot blend for $5.99 or $6.99 each. You get an additional 10% discount when you buy six bottles at one time.

A 1-pound box of 365 Everyday Value Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti from Italy is $1.49 at Whole Foods. Here, I prepared the spaghetti with four cans of skinless-and-boneless sardines, a can of anchovies and a 40-ounce jar of Victoria Marinara Sauce, and served the pasta with sauteed fresh spinach. The canned fish and sauce were from Costco Wholesale in Teterboro.

Visits to ShopRite and H Mart are bearing more fruit, fish, grass-fed beef

CALIFORNIA EATING: Good buys this week included California fruit at ShopRite, above, and Mexican mangoes bursting with sweetness at H Mart.

GRASS-FED FILET MIGNON: On Monday, I went to ShopRite, 224 Route 4 east in Paramus, to buy naturally raised, grass-fed Nature's Reserve Australian beef, which was on sale for only $6.99 a pound with a store card, and picked up California peaches for 99 cents a pound and apricots for $2.99 a pound that ripened after a day or two on the kitchen counter. 

MISSING QUALITY: At the Paramus ShopRite, Pat LaFrieda sells "restaurant quality" beef, but makes no claim the meat was raised naturally without harmful antibiotics and growth hormones.

LESS IS LESS: There is nothing on the package of Pat LaFrieda Original Blend Chopped Beef that tells you whether it was naturally raised, above.

A REASON TO SMILE: Laura's Lean Beef, on the other hand, boasts that it was raised without harmful hormones or antibiotics, lending credibility to the "all natural" label.

SUNDAY DINNER: Fresh wild-caught whole Black Sea Bass were $5.99 a pound at H Mart, 260 Bergen Turnpike, Little Ferry. Here, I plated the fish with two side dishes, brown bulgur wheat with small beans and sauteed cabbage with sweet peppers.

ASIAN-INSPIRED SAUCE: In a covered pan, I poached four Black Sea Bass in a sauce of boiling organic chicken stock, soybean paste, sake, minced garlic, five-spice powder, ground ginger and ground star aniseed powder.

SWEETEST MANGOES: In Little Ferry, I enjoyed free seafood samples while I waited for my fish to be cleaned at the nearby fresh fish counter. Last Sunday, the Korean supermarket also was selling Northwest Cherries for $3.99 a pound, and a box of 14 large, super-sweet Ataulfo or Honey Mangoes from Mexico for $8.99, a savings of $4.

--VICTOR E. SASSON

Little Ferry H Mart cuts back on free samples, stays mum on new store

These part-time employees at the H Mart in Little Ferry dispensed free seafood samples on the weekends for about a year, but last Sunday, they were gone for good, a store employee said. 

This empty space was where free samples of seafood were available, not far from the main fresh-fish counter, including seafood pancakes, crab meat, boiled octopus, smoked farmed salmon, broiled eel and broiled mussels topped with fish eggs. A few free samples, including meat, were available elsewhere in the store on Sunday.

The Korean supermarket occupies about half of the former Valley Fair building, which dates to the 1960s. A cyclone fence now surrounds most of the structure as workers clean the steel supports under the building, though it's not known whether the work is related to the company's plan to build a new store in the vacant half.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The shabbiest H Mart in Bergen County is long overdue for a complete makeover.

The store takes up the back half of an enormous 1-story building on Bergen Turnpike in Little Ferry that began life as a Valley Fair discount store.

The parking lot floods regularly, the dingy lunchroom closed years ago and the entrance to the Korean supermarket looks awful.

Still, the store attracts customers by offering fresh seafood, an unmatched variety of Asian greens, fresh produce and prepared Korean food -- much of it at low prices.

On Sunday, for example, a box of 16 small, yellow Ataulfo Mangoes was on sale for $8.99 with an instant coupon, reduced from $14.99.

Jackfruit was only 99 cents a pound.

I called H Mart headquarters in Lyndhurst on Monday, but couldn't find anyone who could tell me whether plans for a new store in the vacant half of the Valley Fair building are going forward.

A package of Stir-Fried Vermicelli, left, a yam-flour noodle Koreans call japchae, was $5.99 at the Little Ferry H Mart, 260 Bergen Turnpike.

Baby Bok Choy were cut to 68 cents a pound at H Marts in Englewood and Little Ferry.

A spicy preparation called Stewed Tofu was $4.99 at the Little Ferry H Mart. Prepared food is made in-store or supplied by such outside Korean caterers as Jinga.

A snack I enjoy at home is a small plate of reheated japchae with spinach and other vegetables topped with crunchy kimchi from my refrigerator.

Stewed Alaskan Pollack sections with skin and bones ($7.99 at H Mart) and Stewed Tofu served with leftover  Kabocha squash mashed with olive oil, and sauteed cabbage and sweet peppers.

The seafood counter at the H Mart in Englewood, where whole wild-caught whiting usually are $3.99 a pound.

A large tray of Kimbap -- a Korean roll filled with rice, vegetables, egg and imitation crab made from pollack, right front -- was $6.79 at the Englewood H Mart, 25 Lafayette Ave. Trays of sweet dessert Rice Cakes, rear, are 50% off after 4 p.m.

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

If we are what we eat, what are you and I?

A canned fish salad -- yellow-fin tuna, pink salmon and skinless-and-boneless sardines with their oil or water, all from Costco Wholesale -- gets its crunch from an abundance of diced celery, onion and apple. Instead of mayo, I dress the salad with Dijon mustard, fresh lime juice and ground cumin, and, if the salad is dry, add extra-virgin olive oil.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss the concept of "You are what you eat" and how we think of food, progress on the reopening of Arirang Kimchi, formerly of Englewood; and food samples at Korean supermarkets.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Am I what I eat?

If so, I am low fat (milk), reduced fat (cheese) and no fat (Greek yogurt).

I don't eat butter or cream, and use a lot of extra-virgin olive oil in salads and bottled pasta sauce, and to fry eggs sunny side up or make frittatas.

I go organic as much as possible to avoid pesticides and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

I switched to brown -- in rice and pasta -- regularly eat quinoa, and went from conventional potatoes to less starchy sweet potatoes.

I fill up not on animal fats, but on the heart-healthy fats found in wild-caught fish and other seafood.

When I shop for the meat eaters in the family, I buy antibiotic-free poultry and meat, including grass-fed beef; and preservative-free cold cuts, hot dogs and bacon.

I shop for good food at Costco Wholesale's good prices or food that is on sale at ShopRite and other markets, but I don't buy any one item because it is cheap.

Preparing food at home is the easiest way to control what you are eating, including sodium and sugar.

Since I hit a high of 228 pounds in April 2010, I have lost more than 40 pounds by not eating bread and pizza, and loading up on whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

I'd rather be eating than doing almost anything else, and I agree with a woman I once overheard telling her friends during dinner at It's Greek to Me in Englewood, "I'm happiest when I'm eating."

Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix is a great foundation for a dinner salad with Campari tomato wedges, fresh blueberries, roasted almonds dusted with cinnamon and chunks of Parmigiano Reggiano, a reduced-fat cow's milk cheese imported from Italy. All the ingredients came from Costco Wholesale.

The dressing is extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar without added color, such as Ponti Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, available at Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood. 

Arirang Kimchi is 'coming soon'

Arirang Kimchi, formerly of Englewood, is renovating a store in the H&Y Shopping Center in Ridgefield, above and below. The construction permit was issued in late April.

Free samples, sales

On Saturday, I went to see if Arirang Kimchi had reopened in a storefront next to the H&Y Marketplace, a Korean supermarket at 1 Remsen Place in Ridgefield.

I found an Arirang Kimchi sign, and a construction permit on the door for renovating the interior that was issued at the end of April.

Since Arirang closed its Englewood factory last year, my consumption of fermented cabbage, radish and cucumber kimchi has plummeted.

The H&Y supermarket offers a limited number of free food samples, but among the best anywhere are warm balls of Mixed 7 Grains (brown rices and beans) that you can wrap in dried seaweed sheets.

The woman preparing the samples handed me one containing pieces of radish kimchi, and it was outstanding.

I did a little shopping. Bunches of scallions were 10 cents each, with a maximum of 10; and two kinds of apples were on sale for 99 cents a pound, with a maximum of 6 pounds.

H Mart

At the H Mart at 321 Broad Ave. in Ridgefield, a box of 15 Ataulfo Mangoes from Mexico were $7.99 or $6 off, and Chinese broccoli was 98 cents a pound, compared to the usual price of $2.49 a pound.

Today, I stopped at the H Mart at 112 Linwood Plaza in Fort Lee, looking for brown rice on sale, but didn't find any.

The store displays bags of rice just beyond the checkout counters, claiming there is no room for them inside.

But this H Mart has the most extensive array of free food samples in the Korean supermarket chain, including freshly cut fruit; prepared noodles, tofu and dumplings; kimchi, pork or beef barbecue and other items.

I had to go to the bigger H Mart at 260 Bergen Turnpike in Little Ferry to find a 15-pound bag of U.S. grown brown rice for $12.99, a savings of $4.

A box of 16 4.2-ounce packages of Nongshim Shin Ramyun, a spicy instant noodle soup made without MSG, was on sale for $9.99 or $7 off.

But I noticed that the box of mangoes I bought for $7.99 in the Ridgefield H Mart was $9.99 in the Little Ferry store.

I'll bet you can't eat just one. A 16-ounce tray of seaweed-and-rice rolls (kimbap) from Jinga in Queens is $6.49 at H Mart. They contain egg and imitation crab made from pollock, and come with Korean pickles and jalapeno peppers.

No bread, no pizza, no meat, no problem

A frittata made with three reduced-fat cheeses, tomatoes and pesto, above and below, oozing like the deep-dish pizza I deny myself to maintain my weight loss.

Most of the ingredients are available at Costco Wholesale. To prepare a 10-inch frittata, see Do you know how to do 'The Frittata'?

Do I miss bread and pizza, which I gave up a couple of years ago to lose weight, at the suggestion of my trainer at the gym? Absolutely.

I no longer have a trainer, but I'm still on a no-bread, no-pizza diet.

What I don't miss is the 48 pounds I've lost, giving me -- someone who has been overweight for most of his adult life -- a feeling of being relatively light on my feet.

My weight recently hit a plateau in the 179-181 pound range, compared to a high of 228 pounds in 2010.

A wedge of the deep-dish frittata with Della-brand organic brown rice from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack and stewed tofu from H Mart in Englewood.

Go brown

I've substituted brown rice, whole-wheat pasta and mashed sweet potatoes for white rice, conventional pasta and white potatoes.

I've added organic quinoa to my diet, making 2 cups at a time to provide a side dish for 4 or 5 breakfasts and dinners. 

I finished the quinoa on Wednesday morning. So I made 2 cups of organic brown rice with diced organic tomatoes in an electric cooker for the next set of meals.

Fluffy organic quinoa has fewer carbohydrates than rice or pasta. Here, I ate the whole grain with Chinese cabbage and spicy tofu from a restaurant that didn't have brown rice.

Instead of having bread with these organic eggs accented with pesto, I filled my breakfast plate with squash, sweet potato and sauteed cabbage with sweet peppers.

Two fish are better than one, as in this dinner of fresh wild salmon from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack and pan-fried whole whiting, which were $3.49 a pound at H Mart in Englewood.

I also gave up meat and poultry more than 3 years ago out of concern over all the antibiotics and growth hormones used to raise animals on factory farms, and the lack of information on most restaurant menus.

I've switched to seafood, especially wild-caught whole fish and fillets.

I also favor anchovies, sardines, whiting and other small fish that contain very low levels of mercury.

Homemade Black Tiger garlic shrimp and whole-wheat spirals with sardines.

Food discounts

Jerry's Gourmet & More and H Mart, both in Englewood, discount prepared food after 4 p.m.

Jerry's knocks $2 off its restaurant-quality Meals To Go, cutting the price for a complete dinner of fish, chicken or pork with pasta and other sides to $5.99.

Jerry's added a sign to the refrigerated case to make its Meals To Go easier to find. The small yellow stickers on the cover indicate a price cut to $5.99 from the regular price of $7.99 after 4 p.m.

H Mart, the Korean supermarket, cuts the price of Jinga-brand prepared rolls (kimbap) and other food  by 50% after 4 p.m.

On Wednesday, I picked up a seaweed-wrapped roll with fish sausage and egg for $2.50 instead of $4.99.

I also found a box of 20 small, yellow, intensely sweet Ataulfo Mangoes for $9.99, a discount of $6.

But my wife said the Englewood H Mart was selling the 20-package Shin Ramyun box of spicy noodle soup at full price, forcing me to drive to the Little Ferry H Mart on Wednesday to buy it on sale for $14.99, a discount of $3.

Kimbap and Korean pickles from H Mart in Englewood.