Don't forget to bring calculator, magnifying glass to Paramus ShopRite

Last week, I picked up hothouse-grown Big Taste Tomatoes for $1 a pound, but by Tuesday, ShopRite in Paramus had replaced them with Campari Tomatoes for about $2.50 a pound, above and below. Costco Wholesale in Teterboro sells the 2-pound Campari Tomatoes package for $4.49.

ShopRite, at 224 Route 4 east in Paramus, also is accessible from Forest Avenue or Spring Valley Road.

ShopRite Fruit on the Bottom Low Fat Yogurt in 6-ounce cups, made with sugar, were on sale for 50 cents each, but ShopRite Light Fat Free Yogurt uses aspartame, an artificial sweetener. Only the aspartame-sweetened fat-free yogurt is available in boxes of 12, which brings down the price to about 41.5 cents per cup.

Chobani Greek Yogurt with fruit in 5.3-ounce cups was on sale for $1 each. Though it's pricier, Chobani contains about half of the sugar found in ShopRite Fruit on the Bottom Low Fat Yogurt.

I don't eat meat so don't have to try and figure out which package contains beef raised on feed that includes chicken-house waste or bits of dead animals.

Nature's Reserve 100% Grass Fed Ground Beef from Australia doesn't contain antibiotics, and is available with 20% fat, above, and 15% fat, below.

This package of hamburger patties appears to have the wrong shelf label. They are made with Certified Angus Beef Prime, which is raised on antibiotics. Certified Angus Beef Natural is antibiotic free and vegetarian fed.

-- VICTOR E. SASSON

Confused customers trying to adapt to changes at ShopRite in Paramus

At the ShopRite in Paramus, shelving has been replaced with new refrigerated cases for milk, yogurt, cheese and other dairy products, as well as orange juice and ice cream. Half-gallons of ShopRite Lactose Free Milk are $2.99 each.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

ShopRite in Paramus has customers searching for such familiar products as lactose-free milk.

The store at 224 Route 4 east just finished replacing aisles of refrigerated shelving with refrigerated cases, and in the process, moved the store brand of lactose-free milk and many other dairy products.

This morning, I heard two customers say they were "totally confused."

Another annoyance is that the doors on the cases are inconvenient for left-handed people like me, but that's nothing new.

I stop at the Paramus store once or twice a week on the way home from the gym to shop for a limited number of items.

I continue to spend most of my food dollars at Costco Wholesale in Teterboro and the Costco Business Center in Hackensack, where, by the way, the food court still has not reopened.

Even for large sizes, the Paramus ShopRite usually can't match Costco's prices.

I saw a 40-bottle pack of Poland Springs Spring Water for $6.99 at ShopRite or $2 more than at Costco.

Another change apparent in the front of the Paramus store is that shoppers are greeted by a display of cookies instead of Golden Pineapples and other fruit.

Like the smaller, more expensive Campari Tomatoes sold at Costco Wholesale, Big Taste Tomatoes are grown in hothouses in Mexico. At the Paramus ShopRite, 1-pound packages were on sale today for 99 cents each. I haven't tried them yet to see if they rival the Campari Tomato.

A 3-pound bag of Organic Sweet Potatoes is $5.99 or about $2 a pound, but organic baby yams and sweet potatoes are $3.99 a pound, below. I found a 3-pound bag of conventional sweet potatoes on another shelf for $2.99.

Yams are starchier than sweet potatoes.

A new item is Newman's Own for the Common Good organic pasta sauces. Instead, I purchased two 44-ounce jars of Classico Tomato & Basil pasta sauce with no added sugar, on sale for a total of $6.19 (about $3.10 each). A pound of Luigi Vitelli Organic Whole Wheat Pasta from Italy is now $1.29, up four cents, but still a better buy than similar products from Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Market.

Mayo-less tuna salad, Love Beets and pasta with anchovies

A homemade salad of solid light tuna gets most of its flavor from Dijon mustard and fresh lime juice. Sharing the plate are organic beets, Campari Tomatoes and Earthbound Farm salad greens. Just about everything is available from Costco Wholesale.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss a tuna salad with Middle Eastern and Asian Indian spices, cooked organic beets from Costco Wholesale and the robust taste anchovies give to pasta sauce.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Why settle for a humdrum tuna salad dressed with mayo when you can have one flavored with Dijon mustard, fresh lime juice and exotic spices?

Add crunch with chopped sweet pepper, onion, carrot, celery or scallions.

This week, I used green pepper, onion and a little carrot; three cans of Genova Solid Light Tuna in Olive Oil; Dijon mustard to taste; three limes and ground cumin, sumac and garam masala.

If the salad isn't moist enough, add extra-virgin olive oil.

Six 7-ounce cans of Genova yellowfin tuna were $11.89 at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

If you are concerned about mercury, you can make this salad with one can of tuna, one of pink salmon and one or two cans of sardines.

Do you love beets?

If you love beets, you'll love refrigerated Love Beets, fully cooked organic beets sold in a 1-kilogram package at Costco Wholesale for $7.99.

There are four ready to eat 8.8-ounce portions in plastic shrink wrap that you cut open with a scissor over a colander to drain the juices.

I slice the beets and dress them with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

No fuss, no muss.

Organic whole-wheat pasta from Italy in a reduction of red wine, chicken stock, tomato sauce, organic diced tomatoes, chopped garlic and triple-washed greens. The dish looked and tasted good, but there was something missing.

I also used fresh herbs, but didn't have a can of anchovies to give the pasta sauce a robust flavor.

Pasta with anchovies

I felt like pasta and even wanted to assemble my own sauce, but didn't have the can of anchovies that has always lent the dish a distinctive flavor without a hint of the assertive little fish.

Recklessly, I went ahead, and the result was a good plate of pasta, but not a great one.

And I made an entire pound so spent the week being disappointed, shaking my head at several meals and using grated cheese to add flavor.

For one thing, the anchovies are all the sodium I need, even when I drain the oil and rinse them to reduce the salt content of the finished dish.

They go into the boiling sauce and completely disappear, but leave behind their flavor.

For 1 pound of spaghetti, I often open a 32-ounce bottle of one of Costco Wholesale's pasta sauces and add anchovy fillets, red-pepper flakes, dried Italian seasoning and a couple of ounces of extra-virgin olive oil.

Once the drained pasta is added and mixed with the sauce, you can sit down to eat.

Six 2-ounce cans of Season Fillets of Anchovies in Pure Olive Oil were $6.99 at Costco Wholesale.

Love Beets are non-GMO and grown organically in the European Union. They are fully cooked and ready to eat. Nothing is added to the beets.

Costco tomato squeezer, Han Dynasty and ShopRite

Soup with Pickled Vegetable and Flounder at Han Dynasty in Manhattan, a branch of a Philadelphia restaurant known for its spicy, Sichuan-style Chinese food. The soup is rated 4 on a spice-level scale of 1 to 10. Servers wear black T-shirts with "(10)" printed on the back.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss an exchange with a Costco Wholesale shopper who was opening packages of Campari Tomatoes and squeezing them; a Sunday lunch at Han Dynasty, a Chinese restaurant in Manhattan popular with Asians; and a few sale items at the ShopRite in Paramus.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor 

Before I spoke, I watched a man opening two or three plastic clam-shell packages of Campari Tomatoes at the Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, squeezing the fruit and closing them.

"Do you mind my asking why you are touching all of those tomatoes," I said.

"I want to make sure they aren't soft," he replied.

Thinking the only "soft" thing was his head, I asked him if he would want other people touching the food he buys.

"Don't you think people touch the tomatoes when they put them into the packages?"

I said it is probably done by machine, but as he left, I noticed the big letters "EMT" on his jacket and hoped he shows better judgment in a medical emergency.

You don't have to touch Campari Tomatoes to see if they are soft. The redder they are, the riper and softer they are.

If you want a harder tomato, choose those that are a paler red. And they ripen when left out on your kitchen counter; refrigerating them destroys the rich, tomatoey flavor.

Then, because the beefsteak tomatoes didn't look that good, I took his place in front of the Campari Tomatoes and tried to find a 2-pound package with fruit he hadn't touched.

Organic chicken

My Hackensack warehouse store has added antibiotic-free Coleman Organic chicken drumsticks ($1.99 a pound) and thighs to the whole Coleman Organic chickens ($2.49 a pound) it has sold for the last few years.

They are in free-standing refrigerated cases near the produce section. As with all organic products, they contain no genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Costco Wholesale usually carries sweet potatoes only around the holidays, but I found these in a 6.5 pound bag at my Hackensack warehouse store on Friday for $5.99. A 10-pound bag of Earthbound Farm Organic Carrots was $7.99.

At Costco in Hackensack on Friday afternoon, my haul included 3 pounds of bananas ($1.39), 2 pounds of salted cod-fish fillets from Canada ($11.99),  and two loaves of Kirkland Signature All Natural Multigrain 100% Whole Grain Bread ($4.49). Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix was $4.79 (1 pound).

On Sunday afternoon, we had lunch at Han Dynasty, 90 3rd Ave. in Manhattan's East Village (212-390-8685), and many of the other customers were young Asian couples with big bowls of noodles in front of them.

Han Dynasty

Our lunch at Han Dynasty in Manhattan on Sunday started with the tasty fish soup that was part of my takeout order from the original in Philadelphia last year.

The mildly spicy Soup with Pickled Vegetable and Flounder (4) includes lots of fresh garlic and ginger ($9.95).

Our entree was a non-spicy Scallion Style Shrimp ($19.95), and we also ordered Peas Leaves with Garlic ($12.95).

Brown rice was $1 extra. The serving is generous, much larger than in other Chinese restaurants.

The food was terrific, but the restaurant was full and service was a bit slow. 

We were brought a pot of tea and glasses of ice water when we sat down. I had to ask twice for extra napkins and we never got the fork my wife wanted.

Luckily, the utensil with one end buried under the pea leaves turned out to be a fork.

Scallion Style Shrimp at Han Dynasty.

Pea Leaves with Garlic: A simple, delicious and healthy dish.

Paramus ShopRite

On Monday, I ran out of 1% lactose-free milk and stopped at the Shop Rite in Paramus, where half-gallons of the store brand were $3.29 each, a discount of 20 cents.

Two Golden Pineapples were on sale for $5, and a 5-pound bag of Golden Delicious Apples was $3.99.

The biggest surprise was a 15-ounce container of Smart Balance Original for $1.75 or about half-price.
The sale price was $3.20 with $1.45 off.

At the Englewood ShopRite on Sunday, my wife bought 15 ounces of Smart Balance Original with Flaxseed Oil "on sale" for $3.59.

 

Enjoying the many winners from Costco Wholesale

A recent addition to the fresh-fish case at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, wild-caught mahi-mahi fillets from Costa Rica take a swim in Mexican green salsa with fresh lime juice, pinches of Aleppo pepper and fresh basil leaves.

Three more winners from Costco -- Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix, aged Parmigiano Reggiano cheese from Italy and Campari Tomatoes -- team up to make a beautiful salad. Two other ingredients are sliced fuyu and cucumber, and everything is dressed in extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Lollo Rosa, Tango and Mizuna.

They roll off your tongue and dazzle your taste buds when they meet in a salad made with Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix.

The prewashed spring mix is among the many winners from Costco Wholesale that have become staples of our diet at home.

I have an Earthbound Farm salad after just about every home-cooked meal, often adding cheese, fruit and cucumbers.

Sliced fuyu, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and organic spring mix.

Reduced-fat cheese

Kirkland Signature Parmigiano Reggiano cheese from Italy, in wedges or shredded; Ground Saigon Cinnamon, Himalayan Pink Salt in its own grinder, Organic No-Salt Seasoning, Basil Pesto, Wild Alaskan Smoked Sockeye Salmon -- the list of winners is long.

Aged cheese cut from the wedge is ideal to eat with fruit and cinnamon-dusted almonds or to add to fried organic eggs, using a vegetable peeler.

The rind can be diced and added to pasta sauce, lending it a distinctive flavor.

The shredded cheese gives body and flavor to Kirkland Signature Egg Whites when they are mixed together before you add them to the pan for an omelet or frittata.

The hard cheese is made from part-skimmed cow's milk, and a serving has only 1.5 grams of fat.

Kirkland Signature Parmigiano Reggiano cheese added to organic eggs with leftover organic quinoa made in an electric cooker with organic diced tomatoes, all from Costco Wholesale. The quinoa has fewer carbohydrates and more protein than organic brown rice.

Fish in salsa

The fresh, wild-caught mahi-mahi I bought last week at the Hackensack Costco was $5.99 a pound or $2 less per pound than the same fillets I purchased at the warehouse store in December.

I squeezed fresh lime over the fish, which I cut into serving pieces, and then added a pinch of Aleppo pepper. 

They cooked for 10 minutes in Mexican green salsa I had heated on top of the stove to a gentle boil, and I ate the meaty and flaky fish and sauce over organic quinoa. 

This time, I used a preservative-free brand, Herdez Salsa Verde from Mexico, I found at ShopRite.

The label on the bottom of the plastic, 1-pound tub of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix.

Peeled garlic

Peeled garlic from the Christopher Ranch in California is a real convenience item, allowing you to chop up a handful of cloves, throw them into heated extra-virgin olive oil until they are fragrant, and stir-fry fresh broccoli or organic baby spinach from Costco with a little salt and red-pepper flakes.

A 3-pound bag of Monviso heirloom garlic cloves was $5.99 at the Hackensack Costco. 

Last week, I bought a bag with a use-by date of Feb. 15.

More changes at Costco Wholesale

Costco's Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, Italy.

Editor's note: Today, I look at some new and old items at Costco, and report on a light lunch at the newly renovated Suburban Diner in Paramus.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The world's best-tasting organic salad mix now comes in a new package -- and at a new lower price when you buy it at Costco Wholesale.

Earthbound Farm has tweaked the packaging of its Organic Half & Half -- Spring Mix and Baby Spinach -- and Costco knocked 40 cents off the usual price of $4.99 for a 1-pound container.

How long that price of $4.59 lasts is anyone's guess: 

Costco's price for Earthbound Farm's organic salads goes up and down, but it's always a dollar or two cheaper than other stores. 

The new package is an improvement over the old, though when you open it, you're still left holding tear-away plastic that is a recycling challenge.

In the old package, it was sometimes difficult to find the separation between the clear-plastic cover and tub.

Now, the cover has two tabs that make the package easier to open.

What's the big deal? When you eat a bowl of this salad every day, you appreciate the improvement.

Of course, the salad is still pre-washed, so it goes right from the container to the bowl, ready to be dressed.

Balsamic vinegar

At home, I dress my organic salad with 100% Spanish extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar from Italy, and this week I saw a new bottle of the latter at the Hackensack Costco.

I don't know if this is a new product or just a new bottle and label. I tried Costco's balsamic vinegar a few years ago and found it much too sweet.

Since then, I've been buying this aged vinegar at Jerry's Gourmet and More in Englewood, and since a trip to Italy in 2010, I always buy a brand called Ponti, which I was served in restaurants in Milan and Venice.

Neither Costco's or Ponti's Balasamic Vinegar of Modena contain artificial color, but the latter is a better buy at $1.99 for a half-liter bottle.

Costco's balsamic is sold under the label of the store brand, Kirkland Signature.

This week, I also saw Kirkland Signature Organic Diced Tomatoes, replacing the Del Monte product I bought at the warehouse store. 

Wyman's of Maine says wild blueberries are No. 1 in antioxidants.

In my freezer, I unearthed a package of fresh frozen wild blueberries from Costco that I bought I don't know how many weeks ago to replace Kirkland Signature Dried Blueberries, which contain a lot of added sugar.

I thawed some of the Wyman's of Maine Wild Blueberries, and used them in my cereal this morning.

It's no surprise they aren't as sweet as the dried blueberries. But they are sugar- and sodium-free -- just wild blueberries. 

At Costco on Tuesday, I picked up fresh wild-caught Pacific cod for dinner at $6.99 a pound, and served it with mashed sweet potatoes, skin and all, and an Earthbound Farm salad.

That night, I saw cod fillet for $21.99 a pound at a Food Emporium on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

A 2-pound package of those incomparable Sunset-brand Campari Tomatoes at Costco was $4.49, or $2.25 a pound, a lower price than at Fairway Market in Paramus.

Costco's Organic Brown Eggs with Manchego Cheese and Pesto, served with mashed sweet potatoes, skin and all. The sweet potatoes came from Trader Joe's.

Organic brown rice

This week, Della-brand Long Grain Organic Brown Rice reappeared at Costco.

In September, employees of the Hackensack Costco told me it had been discontinued, and I ordered another brand online at Amazon. com. 

The Suburban Diner in Paramus re-opened on Monday.

Route 17 diner reopens

The Suburban Diner in Paramus was crowded today with customers getting their first look at the newly renovated and expanded landmark on Route 17 north.

The diner, which re-opened Monday, has about 20 more seats and slightly higher prices. It now seats 230 people.

I ordered black coffee and split pea soup -- hold the croutons -- and got the biggest bowl of soup I've ever seen in a Greek diner. 

An unusually large bowl of soup was $3.10 at the Suburban Diner.

A cup of coffee with free refills was $1.80.

My friend had a Western Omelet Sandwich for $4.95, with coleslaw and a pickle, and a Diet Coke for $2.25.

Details

Suburban Diner, 172 Route 17 north, Paramus; 201-261-2605.