Nibbling around the edges of a few non-food issues

This one-ply toilet paper is so thin and narrow it is difficult to keep your hand clean unless you double and re-double it.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Did I buy the Scott Tissue I've been cursing for the past few weeks?

Yes. I actually purchased a large package of this thin, narrow toilet paper at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

In the past, when I've purchased toilet paper at Costco, it usually costs more than the Kirkland Signature store brand.

I'm sure the Scott Tissue cost less, though I don't have the receipt in front of me.

This toilet paper may not even be good enough for prisons and mental hospitals.

I just looked at the package, described by Scott as "Our biggest pack ever!" Groan. There are plenty of the original 36 rolls left.

A Russell Hobbs electric kettle, right, and glass tea pot on a warming tray.

Makes me blue

Another terrible product is Clorox Automatic Toilet Bowl Cleaner Bleach & Blue, which shouldn't be confused with the regular, white tablet also sold as Automatic Toilet Bowl Cleaner.

On Dec. 16, I purchased two packages, containing two tablets each, when they were on sale at Target in Hackensack, and two packages of the white tablets ($4.49 each).

I found the Bleach & Blue tablet gave the toilet water an appealing color, but did a miserable job of controlling stains below the water line and odor.

The white tablet, which I bought for many years before Costco discontinued it, does a much better job on stains and odor.

I returned one package with one blue tablet and got a full refund, then discovered a second, unopened package, and will have to go back.

Great customer service

We love the Russell & Hobbs 1.7-liter Electric Kettle with Keep Warm Tea Tray I found on Amazon.com when another electric kettle started rusting inside after a dozen years.

But after a week or so of using the new electric kettle, I noticed a stain forming on the shiny interior bottom plate that eventually turned brown.

I called the company, and as I suspected, the stain was from minerals in our drinking water in North Jersey.

As the instruction booklet suggested, I used diluted vinegar and allowed it to soak inside the kettle for 30 minutes, but it didn't remove the stain.

I told that to the woman at customer service, and then asked if the company could send me another kettle. 

She agreed, and it showed up at our door two days later.

Then, we cleaned the original kettle with Bar Keepers Friend Cleanser & Polish, a terrific product we have been using for a few years to clean stains on our steel cookware.

The opening on the kettle is narrow, but large enough for a woman's hand, and my wife was able to remove all of the ugly brown stain.

Do we need more choice in food shopping?

Image via Wikipedia

Target had expanded the food sections at its Hackensack and Paramus stores.

Though I don't need any more food-shopping options, I dropped by the Hackensack store today to redeem a coupon for a dozen free eggs I received in the mail.

Now, just about the entire rear of the store is devoted to groceries, refrigerated and frozen food, and a new fresh produce section.

Costco, ShopRite and H Mart are within 2 miles of the Hackensack Target, and all three have bigger selections and better prices.

I jotted down some of the prices at Target: 

Bananas for 24 cents each, a dozen eggs for $1.69, cucumbers for 99 cents each; Taylor organic baby spring mix, $3.99 for 5 ounces; Market Pantry (the Target brand) lactose-free milk, $3.19; Horizon organic lactose-free milk, $3.99; Green Giant Fresh romaine lettuce, $2.14 a head.

I picked up my free eggs, and purchased a 30-ounce jar of reduced-fat Kraft Mayo with Olive Oil, on sale for $2.50, a savings of $1.34; and two 5.5-ounce packages of conventional spring mix and spinach for $2.99 (buy one, get one free).

'All you ever cook are fish and pasta'

Image via Wikipedia

What's for dinner? Potato chips or mackerel in red-wine sauce?

My 13-year-old son came home around dinner time and lugged his book bag into his room.

While he was at the YMCA gym, I was shopping for fish to prepare for dinner. But when I went into his room to call him to the table, he was finishing off a large bag of potato chips.

"You're eating chips? What about dinner? I cooked mackerel (one of his favorites)."

"I don't want any," he said between bites of the chips. "All you ever cook are fish and pasta."

Even if that were true, he was the one who suggested more than 13 months ago that we stop eating meat and poultry, and he was the one who went back to being a carnivore when a hamburger was put in front of him on a flight several months after all of us took the pledge.

My wife also has returned to eating meat and poultry, but I've been happy eating only seafood, even as I cut down drastically on bread and pizza starting about six months ago to lose weight. I've shed 25 pounds.

I've added cheese to my diet, including the full-fat kind I used to avoid, pairing it with fruit or adding it to salads.

My son isn't being deprived of meat and poultry. This week, my wife prepared his favorite soup with chicken feet, and even added beef and ribs to it. I bought him uncured, preservative-free bacon from Trader Joe's.

Image via Wikipedia

He raved about the macaroni with a sauce of olive oil, chicken broth, garlic and anchovies the first couple of times I made it, garnished with lots of fresh, wilted spinach and grated cheese, but now it's taken its place among the hated "pasta" dishes he avoids.

I bought organic ground beef at Costco in Hackensack for him, while stocking up on canned fish, vegetable stew, four-bean chili and other non-meat items for me, but once I took him to Smashburger, he refuses to eat a burger anyplace else.

I told my son that if he continued eating chips instead of the dinners I prepare, I won't return his PlayStation 3, which I hid because his school work suffered.

My wife didn't back me up. She said eating chips was no reason to deny him the video-game console. 

Image via Wikipedia

I've had to be inventive without meat, poultry, bread and pizza as part of the dining equation, both at home and eating out. 

My breakfasts often are salads with the same ingredients I once stuffed into sandwiches -- smoked fish, sardines, cheese, tomato and so forth. 

This morning, I fried four quail eggs -- sunny side up -- from the Korean supermarket, and ate them with leftover baby bok choy, Korean stewed tofu  and a cooked cabbage-and-sweet-pepper dish my wife made. 

I just prepared a canned fish salad -- tuna, pink salmon, sardines and anchovies -- with Dijon mustard, lemon juice, cumin and other Middle Eastern spices, and diced celery and onion, and wonder if my son will have a sandwich of it for breakfast tomorrow.

I love pasta and rice, but can't eat them to my heart's content while cutting down on carbohydrates.

Eating out, there are several meatless Korean dishes I like and others that can be prepared without meat, and they always come with vegetable, fish and tofu side dishes that are perfect for me.

Everywhere else, I choose fish or shrimp for my entree, such as the fried whole tilapia I shared the other night with my wife at a Colombian restaurant.

How most chicken and beef are raised

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Verde Farms imports organic beef from Australia and other countries.

My wife went to ShopRite in Englewood looking for antibiotic-free Readington Farms chicken legs and thighs she planned to prepare for a church member, but the store only had breast meat. So she came home with "jumbo" drumsticks, wings and thighs from Perdue.

I took a look at the words on the Perdue package, claiming the chicken is all natural and "fresh from family farms." Nowhere does it say how the chickens got to be "jumbo."

Perdue says its chickens are raised on an all-vegetarian diet and are "cage free." They receive no animal by-products (bits of dead animals, kitchen scraps and so forth), the package says.

But the package and Perdue's TV ads are silent on antibiotics, which prevent the chickens from getting sick in crowded conditions. Some get too heavy for their legs, and fall over in the chicken houses. The Perdue pieces are noticeably bigger than Readington Farms' chicken parts.

A human who eats a steady diet of meat and poultry raised with antibiotics will be more resistant to prescribed antibiotics.

The Perdue chicken my wife bought on Wednesday was on sale. It's typical for ShopRite to put Perdue on sale, while rarely cutting the price on Readington Farms or organic chicken.

Turning to beef, the Web site of Costco supplier Verde Farms compares how its organic beef is raised to how most other beef is raised. Chef Martin C. Chai explains how he founded the company:

"Verde Farms was conceived at an estancia, or ranch, in the pampas while living in Argentina. Watching the cows roam in the open countryside, I rode alongside a gaucho on horseback experiencing a world so different than my life in the States. After the ride, when we sat down to eat a traditional meal of beef, red wine, more beef, and more wine, I realized that not only did the cattle grazing on the open pasture create a picturesque setting but it also resulted in scrumptious, flavorful beef.

"My interest had been piqued. Upon returning to the States, I began to educate myself about the cattle industry in the US. Unfortunately, the more I learned, the more dismayed I became about the conditions in which the majority of the cattle were raised. Cattle, after a quick stint on the open-range, are quickly relocated into massive feedlots of 50,000-100,000 cattle. Rushed from birth to slaughter in factory-based feedlot systems using government-subsidized corn, pesticides, artificial fertilizers, growth hormones, and antibiotics results in cheap, mass-produced fatty meat that has little inherent flavor. There had to be consumers, like myself, who demanded better. Fortunately, the stars of the Southern Hemisphere aligned. My familiarity with South America and my passion for food soon intersected, and I launched Verde Farms, the premiere brand of free-range organic beef.

"Verde Farm's commitment to importing beef from Uruguay [and other countries] has created the opportunity for American consumers to eat a great-tasting product while also supporting small farmers from a developing economy. When you purchase a product from Verde Farms, you are directly supporting a traditional way of life that has existed for generations and that, with your support, will continue to thrive."

Web site of Costco supplier Verde Farms

Which scale is supposed to come first?

Image by Joe Lencioni via Flickr

Fairway Market in Paramus usually has a sale on a pound of coffee beans for $5.99.  Not too many months ago, the sale price of a pound of beans was $4.99.

I have been buying whole fish for years, but encountered a first the other day at Fairway Market in Paramus.

This branch of the New York-based supermarket company has a great fish counter, but prices also are among the highest. I saw one woman pay $11.99 or $12.99 a pound for flounder fillets.

However, whole whiting and whole porgy were being sold at a low $3.99 a pound on Monday. Knowing my wife and son were planning to eat beef for dinner, I asked the fish monger to clean one porgy for me, leaving the head and tail on.

Usually, the whole fish is weighed first, then scaled, gutted and cleaned. But he went straight to the cleaning counter. When he weighed it and packed it up, the sticker said $4.03.

So, here I am thinking I was getting away with not paying for a heavier, pre-cleaned and pre-gutted fish. But when I prepared my dinner, plated half the fish and began eating, I discovered that he had done a poor job of scaling, and I had to pick about a half-dozen scales out of my mouth. That's no bargain.

I guess you could call my dinner, "Porgy and Mess."

I drove to Fairway to buy four liters of the store-brand extra-virgin olive oil from Italy at $4.99 each (regular $8.99). Unlike ShopRite's extra-virgin olive oil from Italy, this one isn't "first cold pressed," just "cold pressed."

I also picked up two pounds of French roast coffee beans and had them ground ($5.99 a pound).

Organic ground beef

My food purchases at Costco in Hackensack on Monday included a pound of organic spinach ($3.99); two pounds of herbicide-free, Sunset-brand Campari tomatoes ($5.49); and three, one-pound packages of Verde Farms organic ground beef, with 15% fat content ($12.99).

The Verde Farms package says "no added" antibiotics and growth hormones, so I've e-mailed the company for clarification. The beef comes from the U.S., Canada and Australia.

Two pounds of domestic pistachios -- shelled -- were $19.99. I couldn't find the ones in the shell I usually buy.

I also exchanged a pair of Sketchers exercise shoes my wife found too small ($49.99 for women, $46.99 for men).

Whole Foods' chicken feet

My wife prepares soup with chicken feet and has been relying for years on the mystery frozen chicken feet sold at ShopRite and Hackensack Market. But last year, we asked and found that the butcher's counter at Whole Foods Market in Paramus stocks frozen feet from organic chickens -- sometimes.

More times than not, unfortunately, the Paramus store is out of chicken feet, which also is a popular item in Chinese cuisine. I don't recall the price, but my wife and son say they notice the difference in taste between the organic and conventional feet.

Puzzling pricing

My wife picked up four, one-pound packages of Barilla thick spaghetti at ShopRite in Paramus for 77 cents each on Tuesday (limit of four) -- far less than during the recently concluded 40th anniversary Can Can Sale.

Bar Keepers Friend

I ordered a dozen cans of Bar Keepers Friend cleanser for the Calphalon stainless-steel pots that I've had trouble cleaning, but when they arrived on Tuesday, I told the UPS man to return them to the company. I felt buyer's remorse over the $11-plus shipping charge for about $18 in product.

My wife bought a 12-ounce can at ShopRite for $2.69, but couldn't find one marked "Cookware" that has a grease-cutting ingredient. Still, I cleaned one of my trouble pots this morning and, finally, it looks clean.

Do smart shoppers have to use coupons?

Image by Hotcouponworld.com via Flickr

I keep on reading newspaper stories about all the money I could save if I just clipped coupons and took them to the supermarket with me. Morning TV shows report on Web sites where I can print out coupons for even greater savings.

Sure, I've looked over the coupons delivered with my newspaper, but I usually can't find any for the food my family eats. 

Hey, there's Chef Guy Fieri selling his soul for Ritz Crackers. To save $1, all I have to do is buy two boxes of a cracker that isn't part of my diet.

Here are coupons for Pillsbury Crescent Dinner Rolls (Pizza) or Savorings (whatever they are), Chex Mix, Snickers Ice Cream Cake, Pagoda Express Egg Rolls and Wontons, Tyson mystery Crispy Chicken Strips and Tostito Chips and Dip.

I have never tried any of this highly processed food, and I'm not about to start now, just to save money. 

I also found coupons for two fast-food places I don't patronize: Blimpie, which offers sandwiches stuffed with preservative-laden cold cuts, and Boston Market, which serves mystery chicken dinners and side dishes.

Image by HA! Designs - Artbyheather via Flickr

Now, here are two coupons I'll take to the store: $2 off Method, a 50-load, plant-based, ultra-concentrated detergent that promises to deliver the same beautifully clean clothes as the petroleum-based stuff in those big plastic jugs; and 40 cents off any size package of Wacky Mac pasta, which is made from beets, tomatoes, spinach and other vegetables.

But where are the coupons for such high quality food as smoked wild-caught salmon, 100% whole grain bread, organic or antibiotic-free chicken, organic ground beef, fresh fish, organic spring mix, herbicide-free tomatoes and on and on (all of which I buy at Costco).

Do I have to settle for processed or conventionally raised food to save money with coupons? 

Or do the low prices and high quality at Costco -- and the cash rebate that more than covers the membership fee -- make more sense? Costco doesn't accept store coupons, but issues its own coupons about five times a year.

ShopRite has its Can Can Sale for stocking up on canned and other goods, and offers drug-free chicken, beef and lamb, too. Often, you can buy free-range, grass-fed beef from Australia for $5.99 a pound or less, and all you need is a store card, not a coupon.

At Whole Foods, I try to buy items when they are on sale, including organic pasta from Italy and vegetarian meat loafs made from whole grain. I've also found bottles of red wine there for about $5. This week, extra-virgin olive oil sold under the Fairway Market label in Paramus is on sale for $4.99 a liter, an excellent price, and you don't need a coupon. 

And there are plenty of deals at H Mart, the chain of Korean supermarkets in Bergen County that doesn't accept store coupons. The fresh fish selection is tremendous.

We eat a lot of sardines -- in salads, mixed with other canned fish, and with rice and pasta -- and I have never found a lower price -- with or without a coupon -- than the 99-cent beauties from Morocco at Fattal's Bakery in Paterson, where I buy two dozen cans at a time (not skinless and boneless). Sahara Fine Foods, a Middle Eastern grocery in Hackensack, also stocks them.

I've also found coupons on the Web sites of the products I buy, including Organic Valley. Earthbound Farm and other companies will send you a cash card or coupons if you write them an e-mail about their product.

For example, when the organic spring mix I bought at Costco rotted before its use-by date, Earthbound Farm sent me a $10 Costco gift card. The product costs under $5.

But when I e-mailed Finlandia cheese about inconsistent slices in thin-sliced Swiss I bought at Costco, I received store coupons that essentially didn't make economic sense to use, because ShopRite and other supermarkets charge about twice as much per pound of sliced cheese than the warehouse store.

Since I stopped eating meat nearly a year ago, I have been spending more and more of my food dollars at Costco, where I can find such gourmet items as lobster ravioli and smoked wild salmon; lobster bisque and king crab soup; a wide array of fresh and frozen seafood; cheeses from around the world; and organic or herbicide-free produce. 

Plus, the two credit cards I use provide me with hundreds of dollars in rebates every year on food, gasoline and other purchases. 

Image by Bramus! via Flickr

I'm going to take a look at some of the coupon Web sites and see if they have anything to offer.

One thing I will not do is compromise my standards for the ingredients that go into our home-cooked meals or start eating a lot of processed foods just to save money.

We live to eat -- and we eat well. That won't change.

Healthy meal ushers in the new year

Image via Wikipedi

Cabbage kimchi is one of the side dishes at So Gong Dong in Palisades Park.

We welcomed the new year with a healthy, non-meat meal of tofu, vegetables, rice and seafood on Friday night in Palisades Park. My 13-year-old son, who suggested at the end of February 2010 we all stop eating meat, long ago fell off the wagon, and he ordered beef, too.

We've been climbing the stairs to So Gong Dong, a second-floor soft-tofu house, about 10 times a year for belly busting portions of Korean comfort food, and my son has crowned it his favorite restaurant. After we stopped eating meat, our visits increased.

Strictly speaking, soft-tofu stew is not a vegetarian meal, because the broth is made from boiling beef bones. But you can order it with seafood, mushrooms or kimchi, and ask for it "not spicy" to "more spicy." My son ordered his with pork.

You also get side dishes of cabbage kimchi, cucumber kimchi, bean sprouts and spicy, raw squid. You can add a raw egg and then eat the soft-boiled yolk with the rice -- a terrific combination. All of this costs $10, including tax.

We also ordered a rice-flour seafood pancake for me ($9.99) and for my son, thin-sliced prime beef cooked with onions and cabbage ($14.99). I drank hot tea and small glasses of a sweet-potato liquor called soju that I brought from home.

A soft-tofu restaurant on Main Street in Fort Lee apparently is now operated by the same owner, because I noticed the receipt I got Friday night lists the one in Pal Park as "So Gong Dong II." The restaurant stays open until the wee hours. 

So Gong Dong II, 118 Broad Ave., Second Floor, 

Palisades Park. BYO, open seven days for lunch and dinner.

Breakfast salads

For years, I'd eat a sandwich for breakfast -- open-face, traditional or with Syrian pocket bread. The main ingredient was fish: smoked wild lox or sardines or canned tuna-salmon-sardine salad. I spread the bread with homemade soft yogurt cheese, pesto or hummus, and add sliced tomato, za'atar thyme mixture, sliced cheese and organic salad greens.

Now that I've lost 15 pounds by cutting down on bread and pizza, and visiting a gym five days a week, I've deconstructed the sandwich, eliminating the bread and assembling a salad for breakfast that has many of the same ingredients, including Earthbound Farm organic spring mix ($4.49 a pound at Costco). 

I've also added sun-dried tomatoes in oil, yogurt-cheese balls or a simple egg-white omelet. 

Good stuff for sale

I was looking for antibiotic-free Readington Farms chicken for my son on Friday in the ShopRite in Rochelle Park. ShopRite always seems to have a big sale on crappy Perdue chicken, but discounts for Readington Farms poultry are rare.

However, I saw a sign for Readington Farms leg quarters at 99 cents a pound, but couldn't find any on the shelf. Readington Farms drumsticks were $1.89 a pound and wings were $2.89 a pound. (Does anyone know why chicken wings, whether from Readington Farms or Murray's, cost more than other parts?)

I pushed open the door to the meat room and asked an employee if there were any more leg quarters. He seem displeased that I opened the door and interrupted his work day, and barked that whatever was on the shelf is what the store had. Happy New Year to you, too.

I also saw Readington Farms turkeys, and like the chickens, they are raised on a vegetarian diet without animal by-products or antibiotics.

Jenny-brand Kalamata figs from Greece have reappeared at ShopRite, but they are $3.99 for 14 ounces. I believe they were only $2.99 last year.

New bread at Costco

We love Costco's Kirkland-brand, 100% whole-grain bread, made with seeds and flax. And two loaves are only $3.99. But this week, I found a two-loaf package of Kirkland-brand organic whole wheat bread, which I've never seen before. It's more expensive, though, at $5.39 for two loaves.

All-you-can-eat sushi and BBQ for $9.95

Image by ombrelle via Flickr

All the sushi, barbecued meat and salad you can eat are only $9.95 for lunch at Green Grill Rodizio, a Korean-owned Brazilian barbecue restaurant in Hackensack.

Lunch is served from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday to Friday, an employee said Tuesday. The price includes sushi, hot food, salad bar and barbecue, he said, but he was unable to give the total number of items.

The dinner price is $20.95. Green Grill is the largest restaurant in Hackensack.

Green Grill Rodizio, 450 Hackensack Ave., Hackensack, in the Home Depot Shopping Center; 201-488-2885.

Great noodle dish

The noodle dish I had for lunch Tuesday at Lotus Cafe in Hackensack was $9.95, but I wouldn't trade it for all the sushi I could eat at Green Grill, which is opposite the Chinese restaurant.

Noodles in Abalone Sauce is made with soft, house-made egg noodles sauteed with spinach, black mushrooms and leeks -- simple but delicious. The portion is enough for two.

 

$4.99 clementines

We found 5 pounds of clementines for $4.99 at ShopRite in Rochelle Park with a store card, but these are from Morocco. They are bigger than the Spanish ones I bought for $5.99 at Costco in Hackensack, easy to peel and, so far, all but one of them has been sweet.

Smoked wild salmon

Now, Costco is offering its Kirkland-brand of smoked, wild-caught Alaskan sockeye salmon in two 8-ounce packages for the same price as the pound package -- $14.99. This smoked salmon has no preservatives, and it's available year-round.

Costco almonds, dry espresso beans and more

Image via Wikipedia

Shelled, left, and unshelled almonds.

Costco has improved the package for its Marcona almonds from Spain. These blanched, shelled almonds are seasoned with sea salt, and cost $7.69 for just over a pound of nuts (500 grams) in a plastic bottle with a screw top.

The old container was a canister with a loose-fitting plastic top. Costco also sells roasted, unshelled California almonds with sea salt, but I don't have the price.

Earthbound Farm's restaurant-quality, organic spring mix, which I buy at Costco in Hackensack,  seemed to be rotting before its expiration date, but in the last three or four weeks, I haven't had that problem.

I look carefully at the salad in its clear-plastic tub, to make sure it looks dry. If there is a more delicious salad mix, I haven't found it. It cost only $4.49 a pound, and it's pre-washed, so you can just grab some and put it on a plate or into a sandwich. 

Lately, I have been trying to cut down on bread, so I've been enjoying this salad for breakfast with smoked wild salmon, reduced fat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes in oil from Costco.

Espresso-bean dilemma

My built-in Bosch coffee machine seems unable to handle oily coffee beans, which get hung up in the chute of the grinder, prompting an "add beans" message and necessitating my sliding out the chassis and "stirring" the beans with my fingers.

I found some non-oily beans from Brazil at Fairway Market in Paramus and others from amazon.com. The 2.2 pounds of Lavazza Super Crema espresso beans cost less than $7 a pound, with discounts and free shipping, if you agree to have them sent to you periodically.

I'm trying the Lavazza beans from Italy first.

Black figs and tofu

I picked up two dozen black figs from California for $6.99 at H Mart in Fort Lee on Wednesday, as well as a new prepared-food item -- sweet-and-sour tofu balls with red pepper ($4.99).

I tried the tofu balls at room temperature, but I like them better after heating them in the microwave for about a minute and a half. The microwave also lends a new dimension to small blocks of stewed tofu with scallion and red pepper ($3.49).

For dinner Wednesday night, I cooked three small, wild-caught croakers ($1.99 a pound) on my stove-top grill, and ate them with a salad. What a mess.

Memories of Italy

Image by Alex Bikfalvi via Flickr

Sunset over the Adriatic Sea.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss the pleasures of eating out in Italy, and compare Costco Wholesale and B.J.'s Wholesale Club.

More than a month after I came home, I found notes about one of the meals I had on my vacation that reveal the pleasures of dining out in Italy.

All of the restaurants I visited in Milan, Venice and Gallarate were nicely or beautifully decorated. Service was polished, and food was cooked to order.

During my visit to Venice, I stayed on Lido island, a beach resort on the Adriatic Sea that allows motor vehicles. I was on a quiet end of the island, with a panoramic view, and my hotel was across the way from a bus stop. Downtown and ferries to other islands were only two kilometers away.

My first dinner on Lido was at a seafood restaurant called La Sfera. I sat inside and looked around. The ceiling was covered with beautiful textiles, and the walls were adorned with paintings and gorgeous sconces.

I chose a fixed-price, 26-euro menu (about $35) and had a wonderful meal:

My spaghetti with clams also had red pepper, garlic and parsley, and some of the freshest bivalves I've encountered. The entree: nine grilled sardines (smaller than the fresh ones from Portugal I see in North Jersey), with a side of sauteed spinach. I finished with a cup of espresso.

La Sfera, Via Lepanto, 19, Lido di Venezia; 041.5261722.

Costco v. BJ's 

I tried to prepare the wild-salmon burgers I bought at BJ's Wholesale Club on Tuesday, but when I opened the box, I found two plastic bags, each with five frozen salmon burgers that were fused together. 

The Costco salmon burgers are in a single, large plastic bag, without additional packaging, and easily break apart when frozen. The burgers are made from fillets, according to the package.

Costco's Trident-brand salmon burgers weigh a total of 3 pounds ($12.99), and BJ's World Catch-brand salmon burgers weigh 2.5 pounds ($11.99).

I also wrote that on my second visit to BJ's, I saw frozen, wild-caught shrimp from Mexico and the U.S. for $11.99 a pound, and that Costco only sells farmed shrimp and prawns. 

But today, previously frozen, wild Pacific brown prawns from Mexico were available at Costco for $8.99 a pound.

Stopping at Stop & Shop

Image via Wikipedia

I had an errand today near the Super Stop & Shop in north Hackensack, and stopped in to see what was on sale.


I found a special on Wallaby-brand organic yogurt in 6-ounce cups at four for $3 or 75 cents each -- 4 cents less than at BJ's Wholesale Club in Paramus. I bought eight cups of the flavored yogurt. My wife prefers Wallaby to Stonyfield Farm organic yogurt, and I agree with her.


What looked like a half gallon of Tropicana orange juice (two for $6) was actually only 59 ounces, instead of 64 ounces.

In produce, I had trouble trying to figure out the signs. The only sign for romaine lettuce I saw said $1.99 each and had "Organic" written above it, but when I got to the register, the big head I chose rang up at $1.50 or two for $3, and likely is conventional, not organic. It weighed about two pounds.

On the way home, I stopped at Sahara Fine Foods for 11 cans of Al Shark-brand Moroccan sardines in spicy oil, at 99 cents each (not skinless and boneless). A 16-ounce jar of Beirut-brand tahini sauce was $3.99.

It's a good thing I picked up the romaine lettuce, because when I wanted to make a salad with Earthbound Farm organic spring mix for dinner tonight, I found it had started to rot, and it has a use-by date of Oct. 25. I plan to take it back to Costco in Hackensack for a full refund.

Stop and Shop, 380 W. Pleasantview Ave., Hackensack; 201-342-6030.


Sahara Fine Foods, 242 S. Summit Ave., Hackensack; 201-487-7222.

Mahi-mahi with penne in a tomato-yogurt sauce

Image via Wikipedia

Mahi-mahi is also called dolphin fish. This one was caught off the coast of Jamaica.

Preparing dinner on Sunday night, I was trying for a creamy sauce, like the one I saw on a cooking segment on morning TV, but I also wanted to substitute mahi-mahi for the chicken used and yogurt for light sour cream. This is what you'll need to feed three:


1. Three small mahi-mahi fillets or other wild-caught fish. (I used frozen fish sold at Costco under the Kirkland brand.)


2. A half-pound of penne. (I used leftover spinach penne from Italy I found at Whole Foods Market.)

3. Half a bottle of 32-ounce pasta sauce. (I used leftover Fairway Market sauce with roasted garlic.)


3. About four tablespoons of organic, low-fat yogurt. (I used Stonyfield Farm yogurt from ShopRite.)


The TV chef also added chicken stock to the sauce, but I found that made it too thin, and I won't use it next time.


Preparation is simple. Bring water to a boil and add the penne, which will take about 10 minutes for al dente.

After about three minutes, empty the pasta sauce into a second pan with dried Italian seasonings and dried garlic; add the four tablespoons of yogurt, mix well, cover and bring to a boil over medium heat.


I thawed the meaty fillets, which were less than two inches wide, and sliced them into half inch pieces. I sprinkled them with salt and black pepper. When I put them in the sauce, I turned up the heat. They turned white and firmed up in about five minutes.


Drain the penne and add to the fish and sauce, combining well. I served this with a salad and wine.

Enjoy.

Breakfast goes swimmingly

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The pink salmon is called the smallest of the true salmon. It has less oil than others.

I've been eating a breakfast sandwich for many years -- smoked wild salmon, sardines or canned fish salad between toasted, whole-grain bread or stuffed into pocket bread, spread with pesto or hummus and garnished with lettuce and tomato.


Now that  I've been advised to cut down on bread and pizza to lose weight, I continue to eat fish for breakfast with a slice of bread or none at all. A favorite breakfast is a canned fish salad with sweet and hot peppers, onion, Dijon mustard, ground cumin and lemon juice. You'll need:


1. Two 7-ounce cans of Genova-brand Yellowfin light tuna in olive oil (Costco) or other solid light tuna.

2.Two 6-ounce cans of wild-caught Alaskan pink salmon (Costco) or one large can or other pink salmon.


3. Two cans of Al Shark-brand Moroccan sardines in vegetable oil (Fattal's Bakery, Paterson) or other sardines, with or without skin and bones.


4. Sweet and hot peppers, and a medium onion.


5. Dijon mustard and ground cumin (Fattal's Bakery) to taste.

6. Two lemons.


To make less salad, use one can of each fish. I've made this salad with Alaskan red salmon, but I have not seen it on sale at ShopRite, Fairway Market or anywhere else for a long time, so I've switched to the lower-cost pink salmon, the smallest salmon. You could also add a can of anchovies, if you're a fan of them, as I am.


Empty all of the cans into a large bowl, with all of their liquid, to avoid a dry salad. Mash with a fork or large spoon. Add chopped sweet and hot peppers, chopped onion, fresh lemon juice and the other ingredients, and combine well.

For breakfast this morning, I placed a mound of the salad on a plate with red-leaf lettuce, sliced tomato sprinkled with za'atar thyme mixture (Fattal's Bakery), stewed tofu with red pepper sauce (H Mart), kimchi and a toasted slice of Kirkland-brand 100% whole-grain bread (Costco).


Enjoy.

Whole sea bass in Mexican salsa verde

Image by lorises via Flickr

Two ingredients in Mexican green salsa are tomatillos, bottom, and cilantro.

This wonderful main dish couldn't be simpler. All you need is:

1. Fresh fish.

2. A bottle of green salsa.

3. A  lemon. 

Preparation is minimal, two whole fish will cook in under 30 minutes and if you have leftover pasta or rice, all you need to do is make a salad to complete this nutritious meal.


I found fresh, wild-caught sea bass at H Mart, the Korean supermarket in Little Ferry (with branches in Englewood, Fort Lee and Ridgefield). I bought two fish -- to feed three -- that weighed about 2.5 pounds before cleaning at $5.99 a pound. 

Red snapper or other wild-caught whole fish is great, too, and of course, you could use fillets of wild-caught cod, flounder or other fresh or frozen fish.

All I did with the fish is sprinkle it with a little salt inside and out, stuff it with fresh parsley from garden (you can skip this step) and slit the body in three places. 

I used a 16.7-ounce bottle of La Costena Green Mexican Salsa, marked "Medium" spicy, available for $2.99 at Hackensack Market on Passaic Street and many ShopRites. Goya and other companies make a similar product. La Costena's red salsa is good, too.


I poured some of the salsa -- made from tomatillos and jalapeno peppers -- into the bottom of the pan, placed the fish on top and poured the remaining sauce in, plus the juice of one lemon, and covered it with the clear-glass top.

I cooked it over medium heat for about 20 minutes (in boiling salsa), but 30 minutes will ensure that it is cooked thoroughly. No need to turn over the fish. You'll have plenty of sauce for that leftover rice; we had organic brown rice left over.


I ate my meal in courses, as they do in Italy: leftover bow-tie pasta in tomato sauce, the meaty middle section of one of the sea bass and then a big salad with cucumber, tomato and organic spring mix. Easy, filling and delicious.

Quail eggs

Quail eggs showed up in the produce section recently at H Mart in Little Ferry -- 18 for $2.99. I fry four or five of the small eggs at a time, and their taste is similar to other eggs. I used a sharp knife to crack the black-spotted shells near the ends to avoid breaking the yolks and poured the contents into hot olive oil.

I also found Clifford-brand Fusion tomatoes from Canada that are grown without chemical fertilizers. A one-pound package of small tomatoes --red, green, purple and yellow -- was $1.99, and they have been great in my salads.

Fresh wild salmon run ends

I believe I've seen the last of the fresh wild salmon fillets in the fish case at Costco in Hackensack -- they were available for about four months. This week, I bought Kirkland-brand frozen sockeye salmon and mahi-mahi fillets, both wild caught. 

99 cents sardines are alive and well

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Sardines at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California.

Seafood is a crucial part of my non-meat diet and those plump, little sardines are one of my favorites -- as part of a breakfast sandwich with hummus, cheese, lettuce and tomato, or with spaghetti and red sauce.


For the past two or three years, I have been buying Moroccan sardines at Fattal's Syrian Bakery in Paterson, where the price of 99 cents a can is lower than at Corrado's, Costco, ShopRite or any other North Jersey store I know. Of course, if you insist on skinless and boneless, you'll pay more.


Today, I drove to Paterson to replenish my supply and found that while the price remains at 99 cents, Fattal's now carries both Moroccan and Thai sardines. I bought 15 cans -- 10 from Morocco and five from Thailand. I also picked up Fattal's small spinach pies, canned hummus from Lebanon, canned large fava beans, string cheese and a yogurt drink.


For dinner, I emptied four cans of Thai sardines, including their spicy oil or hot tomato sauce, into a covered pan large enough to hold a pound of spaghetti, and broke up the fish with a wooden spoon. I added about half of a bottle of arrabbiata sauce from Modena, Italy (red like a Ferrari), dried Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, black pepper and dried and powdered garlic, and heated it over a medium flame.


Meanwhile, I heated water for thick spaghetti, and when it started to boil, I blanched two heads of fresh spinach in two batches, transferring it into another pan with hot olive oil. Then the pasta went into the same water, while I seasoned the spinach, covered it and turned off the heat.


When the pasta was cooked, I drained it and dumped it into the pan with the sauce and sardines, mixed it well and served it with grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, Italian red table wine and the spinach. Mangia bene.

Fattal's Bakery, 975-77 Main St., Paterson; 973-742-7125. 
Open seven days, free parking in lot.

Shopping, cooking and dining notes

Image by skeggy via Flickr

Fish counter at a Whole Foods Market (not Paramus).

It's been fairly easy to keep eating at the level I did in Italy. There is plenty of fresh seafood available in North Jersey -- at Costco, Whole Foods Market and Fairway Market -- organic salad mix and decent produce.


Last week, I picked up two pounds of what was labeled Pacific true cod at Costco in Hackensack for $5.99 a pound. I cut the fillet into pieces, coated them in bread crumbs and chili spices and baked them at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes, until they gave up their liquid and started to flake.


Two days later, I bought two dozen farmed prawns from Vietnam at Costco for $9.99 a pound (vein removed). I shelled them, marinated them in the juice of three lemons and seasoned them with red-pepper flakes, garlic powder, black pepper and a little salt. Meanwhile, I cut up sweet peppers and garlic, opened a can of diced tomatoes and boiled a half pound of organic pasta bowties from Whole Foods in Paramus.

I sauteed the peppers and garlic in olive oil, added the diced tomatoes and then the shrimp with all its marinade. When they were cooked, the pasta went in. I mixed it well and put the pot on the table with a slotted spoon. Next time, I'll drain the diced tomatoes. 

When Italians eat pasta, the sauce coats the spaghetti, tagliatelle or whatever they use, and doesn't pool in the bottom of the plate. Of course, there is always just a little sauce left over to be wiped up with bread.

Some of the large sizes at Costco make me wonder if the store expects customers to do clam bakes at this time of the year. Little Neck clams and mussels were in the fish case, but only in 5-pound packages.

Having recently returned from Italy, I couldn't pass up a wedge of Kirkland's imported Grana Padano at $8.99 a pound, a grainy, skim-milk cheese from cows that are grazing on the same grass their predecessors did in Roman times, according to the package. 

There is a great fish counter at Whole Foods in Paramus, with fresh seafood arriving seven days a week. I usually buy what's on sale, such as large, whole whiting for $4.99 a pound. My wife cut these in half to fit in the pan, coated them in flour and fried them.


My wife found farmed whole branzino for $5.99 a pound (usually $9.99 a pound). Two branzini that  weighed just under two pounds made a great dinner for three, seasoned, stuffed with herbs and lemon slices and baked in the oven.


I also love the fish counter at Fairway Market in Paramus, but I'm often put off by high prices, as I was on a visit to the store Saturday morning. I did buy four, one-pound packages of salted cod fish ($8.99) and one of salted pollack ($5.99) to compare with the cod.

I needed tomatoes, but one-pound packages of small, round Campari tomatoes were $2.99 -- too high even if they're herbicide free. Sometimes, Fairway sells three packages for $5. Why not on my visit? 

I wanted to try Polar lemon-flavored seltzer at 12 cans for $1.99, but inadvertently purchased Polar Dry Orange, which contains 6% orange juice, according to big lettering on the package. To my horror, I read the small lettering of the ingredient list when I got home, only to discover it also contains high fructose corn syrup, the first time I've seen a seltzer with it.


I picked up Marco Polo red-pepper spread (spicy) from Turkey for $2.99, compared with a similar product from Macedonia on the shelf above for $4.99.

 Australian beef

The ShopRite sales circular that came with the paper is offering Nature's Reserve, grass-fed, free-range beef from Australia for $3.99 a pound with a store card, through Saturday, Oct. 9. You have to buy several pounds of it -- the whole beef tenderloin for filet mignon -- and trim it before cutting it into small steaks or thin slices for Korean barbecue.

Here is a link to the U.S. federal trademark registration of Nature's Reserve beef in 2003. The producers say the cattle are never confined and no additives are used: Nature's Reserve Australian Beef

Last month, the Coles supermarket chain in Australia announced it would not sell beef containing hormone growth promotants. That has upset beef industry groups, including the Australian Beef Association and the Cattle Council of Australia, because smaller cattle will sell for less. 

At lunch one day in Italy, I met two Australian women who were traveling without their husbands and children. I asked them about Australian beef. They were not familiar with the Nature's Reserve brand, which apparently is sold only in the United States.

But one said beef producers are now confining cattle in feed lots and feeding them grain for the kosher and halal markets in the U.S.

Chef Ji's Moon Jar in Fort Lee


Chef Ji Cha, who competed on Gordon Ramsay's "Hell's Kitchen" TV reality show a few years ago, has revised the menu of her Korean fusion restaurant and is preparing to open for lunch starting Oct. 15. I had dinner there Saturday night, and will report on the meal in my next post.

Six months without meat

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I'm not sure what I expected, but going without meat for six months hasn't resulted in anything dramatic -- except a sense of relief from not always having to worry how the poultry, beef, pork and lamb were raised before I got to them in stores.

My overall cholesterol dropped only four points -- to 176 -- probably because I started eating much more full-fat cheese than before. In the last month or so, I've switched to low-fat cheese and plan to resume eating aged Parmigiano Reggiano (photo), which is made with skim milk.  

I don't think I saved money, because the seafood I substituted for meat often cost more, including Costco's wild sockeye salmon and farm-raised prawns from Vietnam that weigh about two ounces each (eight to a pound) and cost a small fortune.


Do I feel better? Yes. But I can't separate the effects of going to a gym five mornings a week for the past two months or so, and the lighter feeling of not being weighed down by meat.


I've always loved salads and grilled vegetables, and I've been eating them more frequently and incorporating greens and vegetables into sandwiches and frittatas or just eating them on their own.


Last Sunday, I picked up fresh mustard greens and two heads of arugula at the Tenafly farmers' market.


One morning, I quickly blanched the mustard greens, then poured some extra-virgin olive oil and Costco egg whites into a 10-inch, nonstick frying pan. When the eggs set on the bottom, I added the mustard greens, sliced beefsteak tomato and low-fat cheese; sprinkled on some salt and finished the frittata under the broiler. (Preparation tip: Chop greens into bite-size pieces to make frittata easy to portion and eat.)


Today, I made a breakfast sandwich with grilled eggplant and carrot, baked wild salmon with herbs straight from the fridge, cheese and fresh arugula, spreading toasted 100% whole-grain bread with Dijon mustard. Outrageously good.


A friend who is a faithful Costco food shopper invited me over for a lunch the other day and served me items from the warehouse store: A Greek salad with anchovies and crumbled cheese, and a fruit salad with mango, strawberries and other fruit. We had an appetizer of spicy hummus and  drank coffee and seltzer.


For the last few weeks, I've wanted to add antibiotic-free poultry back into my diet -- Readington Farms chicken from ShopRite and turkey parts and duck from Goffle Road Poultry Farm in Wyckoff.

But I haven't done that yet, secure in the knowledge there are so many other good things to eat that don't involve meat.