Fire sale on all-natural turkey parts

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More than two weeks after Thanksgiving, Whole Foods Market in Paramus is still selling turkey -- and it's a bargain.


Last week, I picked up trays of turkey drumsticks and thighs for only 99 cents a pound. I called the butcher counter this morning, and was assured more parts were available at this price.


As with all Whole Foods meat and poultry, the turkeys were raised on a vegetarian diet free of antibiotics and growth hormones.


At 99 cents a pound, these turkey parts are cheaper than antibiotic-free chicken parts from Readington Farms or Coleman Organic.


Two large turkey thighs at Whole Foods were $2.07, and trays of two drumsticks were $1.64 and $1.91.


For dinner, I picked up 2 pounds of Blue Bay farmed mussels from Canada for $5.99.


I gladly pay more than at other stores, because these mussels are ready to remove from the net bag and put in a pot.


All I have to do is add chopped tomato, a few ounces of cheap sake and seasoning, and steam them open. They are always grit free -- unlike mussels I've purchased elsewhere.


This is a two-course meal: tender meat plucked from the open shells and a delicious broth.


Whole Foods Market, 300 Bergen Town Center, Paramus;
201-226-1244. Open seven days 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Wandering aimlessly through Whole Foods

Image by Dine.TO via Flickr

It's a pleasure to shop at Whole Foods Market in Paramus on Sundays. Parking spaces are easy to come by and you can wander through the store at your own pace. There are even a few free samples available -- bread, cheese and the like.

I drove the short distance from my home in Hackensack today for the second week in a row, and spent under $10, looking for sale items and ingredients for dinner tonight and tomorrow. Earlier, my wife drove to Englewood, where we once lived, and visited ShopRite and H Mart.

I love the fish department at Whole Foods, which pledges that all of its farmed seafood is drug-, hormone- and preservative-free. Last week, I bought two pounds of mussels, but forgot they were in the fridge, and they spoiled (I was in court all week). Today, I saw beautiful, whole whiting for $4.99 a pound; a shame, because my wife already bought whiting for a Jamaican fish tea at the Korean market.

In produce, I picked up organic red Swiss chard for $1.79 (about nine-tenths of a pound) that I will stir-fry tomorrow with West Soy seasoned wheat protein strips ($3.39 for 8 ounces) I picked up at Whole Foods last week. This pre-cooked vegan item is often referred to as "the meat of the wheat," the package says.

For tonight's dinner of farmed U-15 Black Tiger shrimp (Costco), giant rigatoni with pesto and salad, I bought a wide, ciabatta-like bread for $2.49 called sperlonga. (Photo: Black Tiger shrimp.)

I spoke to three other shoppers while I was at Whole Foods. All were pleasant, and two wished me "a beautiful day." Contrast that with the grimly determined shoppers at Fairway Market, a few miles away in Paramus, who turn up their noses at you and would just as soon run you down with their carts as speak with you.

Meatless run to Whole Foods

Image by moria via Flickr

I ran out on Sunday to Whole Food Market in Paramus to see what it had to offer in the way of meat substitutes -- five weeks into our pledge to avoid chicken, beef, pork and lamb. There were few shoppers and it was easy to get a parking spot.

For dinner last night, we enjoyed a vegetable-and-soy meatloaf smothered in our own barbecue sauce, with mashed potatoes, translucent Korean noodles and an organic green salad. The meatloaf weighed one pound and cost $7.49.

I also picked up strips of wheat protein called seitan for a stir fry ($3.39), Italian-flavored soy sausage ($2.99) and two bags of textured soy meatballs ($3.99 each). Normally, we buy chicken sausage and meatballs from Costco. Whole Foods also had two pounds of Blue Bay mussels from Canada for $5.99, so I grabbed a bag. (Photo: Seitan with eggplant, spinach and tomato).