Members don't always welcome constant change at Costco Wholesale

On Tuesday, when I went searching for the Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix I have been buying from Costco Wholesale for years, I found another brand, above and below.

The price, $4.79 for a 1-pound package, was the same, but when I made a salad at home, I didn't find the organic radicchio or arugula I've enjoyed in the Earthbound Farm mixture.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I try to eat a salad after dinner every night, and probably go through more than 50 pounds of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix a year.

Costco Wholesale always has the best price -- under $5 -- and a 1-pound package lasts me about a week.

On Tuesday, I walked into a cold room at the Teterboro warehouse in search of Earthbound Farm and found another brand, Wholesome Garden.

I enjoyed the salad I made that night, but missed a couple of ingredients I usually find in the Earthbound Farm mixture.

At the fish case, I searched in vain for the long-line caught cod fillets from Iceland that are one of my favorites.

I planned to poach the skinless-and-boneless wild cod in a Mexican-style salsa from Whole Foods Market, but settled for another wild-caught fish from Iceland, flounder, at only $7.99 a pound.

Going, going, gone

I've learned to roll with the punches at Costco Wholesale, which runs out of, moves, stops selling or substitutes another product for a surprisingly large number of items.

I waited years for Costco to sell lactose-free milk, but all of sudden, the product disappeared from the refrigerated case, never to return.

I loved the 16-ounce cartons of Kirkland Signature 100% Egg Whites, but again, they disappeared for many months before returning this year.

The Egg Beaters the warehouse stocked instead were a lot more expensive than Costco's own product.

And where oh where are the Frankly Fresh Vegetarian Stuffed Grape Leaves -- delicious when heated -- that I found at Costco several years ago?

One change for the better was when Costco started selling only cage-free whole and liquid eggs.

At the Teterboro Costco on Tuesday, only three of the fish fillets were wild caught.

The Teterboro Costco has started baking its own baguettes (2 for $4.99) and other specialty loaves every day, above and below. But the retail store at Balthazar Bakery on South Dean Street in Englewood sells a superior baguette for only $2 each.

Last week, my wife got a refund at Costco for a 5-pound bag of Moroccan Clementines, which we didn't like. On Tuesday, I bought a 5-pound bag of small, sweet clementines from Spain for $5.49. Today at the Super H Mart in Ridgefield, a 5-pound box of Bagu Clementines was $6.99.

My son, a dedicated carnivore, couldn't resist a 6-pound package of Seasoned St. Louis Ribs ($2.49 a pound), 5-plus pounds of Coleman Organic Chicken Drumsticks ($1.99 a pound) and a rack of Kirkland Signature Lamb Chops from Australia ($9.99 a pound).

I enjoy sunny side up Kirkland Signature Organic Eggs served over Kirkland Signature Organic Quinoa. Costco now sells 2 dozen cage-free organic brown eggs for a lower price, $5.99, and the house-brand organic quinoa comes in a larger bag (4.5 pounds instead of 4 pounds) for less than the national brand Costco once sold.

Thick Icelandic flounder fillets from Costco poached in under 10 minutes in a covered pan after I brought to a boil a 16-ounce jar of Roasted Chipotle Salsa from Whole Foods Market, a few ounces of chicken broth and fresh lemon juice.

I ate my flounder over leftover organic quinoa, which I prepared in an electric rice cooker with Kirkland Signature Organic Diced Tomatoes, black-eyed peas and olive oil.

Lactose-free search, cheap sake, discounted coffee beans, baguettes

At the ShopRite in Paramus, Lactaid-brand 100% Lactose-Free milk is far more expensive than the store brand, even when on sale.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

After the bigger Costco Wholesale opened in Teterboro, I haven't been able to find Kirkland Signature 2% Lactose-Free Milk.

The lactose-free house brand showed up for the first time in February at the old warehouse store in Hackensack -- three half-gallons for $7.99 or about $2.66 each, much cheaper than any other brand.

Then, ShopRite lowered the price of its store brand lactose-free milk to $2.99 from $3.49.

On my last few trips to Costco, I've had to settle for a 96-0unce container of Lactaid-brand 2% Lactose-Free Milk for $4.99, a dollar less than at ShopRite.

Now, I'm back to buying half-gallons of 1% lactose-free milk at ShopRite, 224 Route 4 east, Paramus.

On Tuesday, I purchased two half-gallons of the ShopRite brand and one of Smart Balance Fat-Free Lactose-Free Milk, which was on sale for $2.99, a reduction of $1.80.

ShopRite also had two Golden Pineapples on sale for $2.50 each. A bunch of fresh cilantro was 99 cents.

Mitsuwa Marketplace, the pricey Japanese supermarket at 595 River Road in Edgewater, is offering boxes of osechi for New Year parties -- sushi, kelp rolls, sweet omelets, fish and other food --that are priced from $260 to $413.

Sake for cooking

I shop at Mitsuwa in Edgewater once or twice a year, but make few purchases at the Japanese supermarket known for sticker shock.

You can easily spend $50 for a pound of beef or giant blue-fin tuna, even the farmed variety from Spain.

Imagine paying a premium for raw fish with more harmful mercury than many others.

Better to boycott over-fished blue-fin tuna, as I've been doing for many years, as well as Mitsuwa's annual blue-fin tuna cutting demonstration, if the store still puts on the event.

My only purchases on Tuesday were two 1.5 liter bottles of sake, which I use for cooking, on sale for $6.99 each, a discount of $3.

Sho Chiku Bai-brand sake is produced in California, not Japan, and has an alcohol content of 15%.

The colorful label shows that 2016 is the Year of the Monkey.

One change I welcomed on Tuesday is that Mitsuwa finally accepts American Express credit cards.

But the store no longer operates a free shuttle to Edgewater from Manhattan.

A 1-pound package of Starbucks whole coffee beans was sold at deep discount on Cyber Monday. When the beans are ground Turkish, the resulting powder yields a robust cup from my drip coffee maker.

Dark-roast coffee beans

I've been buying Starbucks whole coffee beans for use in my drip coffee maker since 2013.

On Cyber Monday, Starbucks.com offered bags of whole bean and ground coffee at the biggest discount I've seen, and repeated the offer on Sunday.

Shipping was free both times, and I got $25 off a purchase of $60 or more on each order.

Today, I received the second shipment of five 1-pound bags of whole coffee beans, all dark roast, that I'll take to the store at 360 Essex St. and have ground Turkish.

I paid $7.11 to $9.43 for each pound of coffee beans, which normally retail for $11.95 to $14.95.

Balthazar baguette

On Wednesday, I stopped at Balthazar, 214 S. Dean St. in Englewood, for three crusty baguettes, which are still $2 each, as they were when the French bakery's retail store opened 13 years ago.

Each baguette is just under 2 feet long, and they are crispy when the humidity is low, as it was on Wednesday.

I cut each baguette into four sections, slice them in half for sandwiches and freeze them. The frozen bread thaws in the toaster.

I'm on a no-bread diet, but allowed myself three small ends or heels with my dinner of whole-wheat pasta with sardines, salad and a couple of glasses of Chianti Riserva from Trader Joe's. 

Obese family shops for sweets at Balthazar Bakery in Englewood

This obese man and teenager, along with an obese girl who might have been the boy's sister, were among customers buying pastries on Wednesday afternoon in the crowded retail shop of Balthazar Bakery in Englewood, where Memorial Day weekend shoppers had to wait on a line for service. 

A 4-inch Mango-Passion Fruit Tart was $4.50.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

My visits to Balthazar Bakery on South Dean Street in Englewood have become routine.

Every two or three weeks, on a Wednesday afternoon, I stop there for two baguettes, still $2 each more than a dozen years after the wholesale bakery's retail store opened.

I usually find one or two customers ahead of me.

Then, I get back into the car and drive a half-mile or so to Jerry's Gourmet & More to sample cheese and olive oil, and buy restaurant-quality takeout dinners.

This past Wednesday, I encountered more than a dozen other customers lining up to buy pastries and bread for the Memorial Day weekend.

I couldn't find a space in the small parking lot, and yelled at a woman who bounded out of a Mercedes-Benz in the handicap-parking space, "You're handicapped?"

She said she would move soon, but that her autistic child was inside the car, which she left running.

Close quarters

I parked across the street in the lot of a building under construction, risking my life to cross the street -- a twisting two-lane, one-way speedway -- to reach the bakery.

Inside the small retail store, the line included an obese man with gray hair and a teenage boy choosing pastries that they certainly didn't need.

Nearby, an obese girl, presumably the boy's sister, waited for them to pay, and they left together.

Like SUVs and other large vehicles that take up more room on the road, increasing traffic congestion, this trio took up more room in the cramped store, making my wait even more uncomfortable than usual.

Struggling with weight

I was uncomfortable on two scores:

Looking at fat people isn't my favorite pastime, reminding me of my struggles with weight since I was a teenager.

And my will power is sorely tested by all of the great pastries displayed at the counter of the French bakery.

Customers at Starbucks on Essex Street in Hackensack on April 28.

Lox around the clock with Costco Wholesale's smoked wild salmon

The selection of cheeses at Jerry's Gourmet & More, 410 S. Dean St. in Englewood, above, is among the largest in North Jersey, but no other store matches Jerry's unlimited free samples.

Jerry's Meals To Go are restaurant-quality takeout, such as this dinner of grilled shrimp, pasta salad with chicken, fava-bean salad and broccoli, above. They are reduced to $5.99 after 4 p.m.

Editor's note: Today's buffet includes versatile Kirkland Signature Wild Alaskan Smoked Sockeye Salmon from Costco Wholesale, Jerry's Gourmet in Englewood and more.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR


This is probably the last month for fresh, wild-caught salmon at Costco Wholesale, but you can continue to lox around the clock with smoked and sliced sockeye.

Kirkland Signature Wild Alaskan Smoked Sockeye Salmon, available year-round, is appropriate at any meal, and you don't need a bagel with a schmear to enjoy it.

I add the fatty, heart-healthy fish to dinner salads and frittatas or for a snack, simply roll it up with a slice of reduced-fat Swiss cheese and organic spring mix, two other items you can find at Costco.

Costco's smoked wild salmon is terrific snack food. Here, I rolled it up in Romaine lettuce with reduced-fat cheese, Dijon mustard and herbs from the garden.

No bread or pizza

Before I went on a no-bread, no-pizza diet, I loved to layer the smoked salmon in sandwiches with cheese, greens and pesto.

One pound of the smoked wild salmon comes in two half-pound pouches for $15.59, reflecting a 20-cents price increase this year.

This is less than what you'd pay for smoked farmed salmon, which is artificially colored.

Smoked wild sockeye salmon added to a takeout dinner salad.

You won't find the deep red-orange color of smoked wild salmon in farmed counterparts.

Jerry's dinners

I picked up Grilled Shrimp, Chicken Milanese and Stuffed Squid takeout dinners at Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood after 4 p.m., when they are marked down to $5.99 each.

My first stop on Wednesday was Balthazar Bakery, 214 S. Dean St. in Englewood, for a pair of its wonderful baguettes ($2 each).

The baguettes are made with unbleached wheat flour, water, rye flour, sea salt, yeast and barley malt, and weigh 8 ounces.

Parking challenge

Leaving Balthazar's small parking lot is still dangerous, even with a round, convex mirror attached to a utility pole at the exit.

Vehicles, including buses and tractor-trailers, are larger and much closer than they appear in the mirror.

And cars parked at the curb in front of the building block the view of drivers who are trying to exit the lot safely.

Unfortunately, there is little street parking available.


 Related article

• Fresh Wild Salmon with Organic Diced Tomatoes

Giving up meat, poultry and bread: Diet food never tasted this good

Thin Icelandic flounder fillets ($7.99 a pound at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack), coated in a homemade mixture of spices, take about 12 minutes to cook in a 375-degree oven. I enjoyed them with boiled sweet potatoes that I mashed with extra-virgin olive oil, a little salt, cinnamon and other seasoning. I finished the meal with an organic spring-mix salad.

Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Spaghetti ($1.39) in canned Trader Joe's Marinara Sauce with anchovies, sardines and canned Kirkland Signature Organic Diced Tomatoes (about 75 cents a can at Costco Wholesale).

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR


When you give up meat, poultry, bread and pizza to lose weight -- as I have -- then everything else is diet food.

Of course, I've never been a big fan of cake, pastry and pies. My idea of a sweet ending to a meal is fresh fruit and a great cheese.

My diet foods include wild-caught seafood, organic salad mixes, reduced-fat cheese, greens, vegetables, fresh fruit, whole-wheat pasta, brown rice and tofu.

Instead of butter, I use lots of extra-virgin olive oil in cooking and salads.

Salt-free, raw almonds I roast at home and dust with cinnamon are my main snack, but I also rely on snack bars from Kashi, Kirkland Signature and others to help me skip lunch. 

Lundberg Wild Blend Rice from Costco stands in for bread in this Jamaican breakfast of ackee and salt fish (ShopRite is a good source for dried cod at $6.99 a pound).

An open-face, egg-white omelet with Campari tomato halves gets its gooey richness from reduced-fat Jarlsberg Swiss Cheese and Kirkland Signature refrigerated Basil Pesto. All the ingredients come from Costco.

45-pound weight loss

I've had a weight problem since I was 13, and I've taken off and put on so much weight my clothes have needle tracks from being altered repeatedly.

In 2010, I started using a trainer at the gym who said that if I really wanted to lose weight, I should give up bread and pizza.

Earlier in 2010, I gave up meat and poultry, and immediately lost 4 pounds.

But the no-bread, no-pizza diet, which I observe to this day, knocked off more than 40 pounds.

Last week, I gave away a half-dozen pairs of shorts with 40- and 42-inch waists.

We grow lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes and black figs in our garden.

Sweet fig halves from our garden top a salad of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix and Sunset-brand Gourmet Cucumbers, dressed simply in extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar and eaten at the end of the meal.

An occasional guilty pleasure is the heel from a Balthazar baguette, still only $2 at the bakery on South Dean Street in Englewood.

A platter of escoveitch fish using porgy from H Mart in Englewood ($2.49 a pound). The fish is pan fried, then doused in a spicy sauce of vinegar, whole pimento, carrot, sweet pepper and onion.

Porgy with steamed broccoli.

Leftovers for breakfast: A frittata with pesto and smoked wild salmon, left; wild coho salmon with pesto and organic diced tomatoes; and whole-what pasta with anchovies and sardines. Most of the ingredients can be found at Costco Wholesale.

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• Fresh Wild Salmon with Organic Diced Tomatoes

Reading the signs at Fairway and Whole Foods

Who knew we are supposed to rinse olives, which are cured with a lot of salt, according to this sign at Fairway Market in Paramus, and then dress them? I guess Fairway saved money by using a sign that says "New Yorkers" instead of "New Jerseyans."

Is there any need for a sign like this? Were customers throwing up all over the floor? It's in the bathroom of the Blimpie next door to Fairway Market. Fairway coffee is served there and there is a door between them, making Blimpie an annex of the supermarket. 

Signs are one of the things that shape the food-shopping experience in North Jersey.

At Corrado's Family Affair in Clifton and the cavernous Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, you won't find any signs telling you what is in the aisles, making shopping at the two stores a treasure hunt.

At Fairway Market in Paramus, you're constantly lectured about how good the food is and how great the prices are -- and both are an exaggeration.

In the years since the New York chain opened its Paramus store at the out-of-the-way Fashion Center, I have simply been unable to warm up to it.

I'm from Brooklyn, but I'm sick of Fairway's New York attitude.

Good coffee beans

I go there every couple of months to buy whole-bean coffee, but on Tuesday, I was suckered by a coupon for $10 off of a $75 purchase that I got in the mail.

We once bought 1-pound packages of salted cod from Fairway for $8.99, but then switched to Corrado's, which charged $6.99 and now charges $7.99 a package.

On Tuesday, I found out Fairway has raised the price for a 1-pound package of salted cod to $9.99. 

So, I bought 7 packages (the cod freezes beautifully), a pound of custom-ground coffee beans for $6.99 and sweet potatoes for 69 cents a pound. 

With $10 off, I paid $68.66. 

Does the cod smell?

I loved the young, female cashier, who picked up each sealed plastic package of cod by a corner to scan them and place  them in my reusable bag as if they were so many dead rats. 

She said she didn't want to get the smell of the salted fish on her hands, but when I sniffed a package and my hand, I couldn't smell anything.
 

Whole Foods Market in Paramus charges $3 for a Balthazar Bakery baguette that costs $2 at the bakery's retail shop in Englewood.



Breaking bread

Later on Tuesday, I stopped at Whole Foods Market in Paramus for a container of orzo and vegetable soup, and medium-roast coffee, which I drank black to enjoy its complex flavor.

Walking around the store, the familiar bag for the baguette from Balthazar Bakery in Englewood caught my eye.

The sign said "LOCAL" and "From New York," but on the back of the bag were the words "Englewood, N.J.," where Balthazar's wholesale bakery and small retail shop have been operating since late 2002.

So, I guess Whole Foods doesn't know this terrific baguette is even more local than it thinks.

But what really surprised me is that Whole Foods charges $3 for a baguette that costs $2 at the source.

What do you put in your smoothie?

A three-berry breakfast smoothie, above, with almond butter and low-fat yogurt, below. I also added Tropicana orange juice, juice from half a lime and organic vanilla soy milk.

Editor's note: Today's post discusses smoothies, two great takeout places in Englewood, the Paramus ShopRite and what's in those coffee pods.

I bought 4 pounds of frozen wild blueberries and another bag with three frozen berries from Costco Wholesale -- blackberries, raspberries and blueberries -- and started making smoothies in an old blender.

Other ingredients have included orange juice, low-fat yogurt, almond butter, lime juice, low-fat milk and soy milk.

I forgot that I had black chia seeds in the refrigerator I could have used.  

Pure, 100% apple juice would be another good ingredient, as would fresh fruit, including bananas and strawberries.

 

Cheese, bread and meat samples at Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood. The dark Mountain Gorgonzola from Italy, bottom left, is a powerful cheese.

A small mountain of butter for croissants at Balthazar Bakery in Englewood.

Englewood food

On the way home from Englewood on Wednesday, I stopped at Balthazar Bakery at 214 S. Dean Street for crispy baguettes.

Then, I continued on South Dean for about a quarter of a mile and went into Jerry's Gourmet & More for an appetizer of free cheese samples and three complete, restaurant-quality Meals To Go ($7.99 or $5.99 each after 4).

The samples included a powerful Mountain Gorgonzola and a melt-in-your mouth buffalo-milk mozzarella.

One of the dinners -- entree, pasta, vegetable and salad -- included deliciously light potato gnocchi in a light tomato sauce.

The baguette from Balthazar -- still only $2 -- is a "living" loaf of bread.

The crust is crispy in reverse proportion to the humidity, so the two loaves I picked up on Wednesday shattered under the knife at home.

I'm on a no-bread diet, but allowed myself the guilty pleasure of two "heels," the ends of the slender loaf, with my dinner salad.

The sign said $2.99, but the Golden Pineapple I bought rang up at $2.50.

Low-fat and regular Goat Milk at the ShopRite in Paramus.

Lactose-free milk

Lactaid-brand milk is priced higher than other non-organic, lactose-free milks, but it was on sale for $3.49 a half-gallon at the ShopRite in Paramus, only 10 cents more than the store brand.

When I got it home, I compared a teaspoon of it to ShopRite's lactose-free milk, and could taste no difference.

Lactaid usually costs $3.99 a half-gallon. ShopRite's lactose-free milk is $3.39, and rarely goes on sale.

I have yet to find any place serving coffee -- whether Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts or McDonald's -- that has lactose-free milk.

At the Paramus ShopRite, I also picked up a Golden Pineapple for $2.50 and two 1-pound packages of strawberries for $4.

Turkey Hill Rum Raisin Ice Cream was on sale for $2.50. 

At Target in Hackensack, I read the ingredients on one of those coffee pods that seem to be all the rage, and ran for the exit. See photo below.

A package of Cafe Caramel coffee pods.