In hot sauces, don't forget to look for the black label

Valentina's spiciest hot sauce carries this black label. I tried some this morning on a sweet potato frittata and baked sweet potato, below. (Updated on Nov. 18, 2014.)

Editor's note: Today, I discuss a hot sauce that won't hide the taste of food, extra-virgin olive oil from the Middle East and Costco produce that doesn't list a weight. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Valentina Salsa Picante has been made in Mexico for 50 years and I'm hoping this wonderful hot sauce will be around for another half-century.

We were almost out of Valentina when my wife picked up two 34-ounce bottles, which were $2.49 each as part of a "Manager's Special" at Hackensack Market on Passaic Street.

Four 12-ounce bottles of Valentina were $5, so the larger bottles were a better buy. Once opened, the hot sauce requires no refrigeration.

But my wife brought home the milder of two Valentinas, and I had to exchange the bottles for ones carrying a black label and marked "Extra Hot."

This is a thick, dark-red, spicy sauce that doesn't obliterate the taste of your food. And it's a much better deal than Tabasco, which was selling for $6.79 (12 ounces) and $3.49 (5 ounces) today at ShopRite in Englewood.

Valentina is made by Salsa Tamazula, and the ingredients list is short: water, chili peppers, vinegar, salt, spices and 0.1% sodium benzoate as a preservative.

I use Valentina on fried eggs, egg-white omelets and Jamaican ackee and saltfish, and the hot sauce can elevate an ordinary veggie burger into something you actually look forward to eating.

But even Valentina can't save Meal Mart Vegan Falafel Balls, one of the few food duds I've found at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack. They are fully cooked, but extremely dry after being warmed up in the oven.

Hackensack Market, 120 Passaic St., Hackensack; 201-996-9177

Oil from Jordan

I picked up a 3-liter bottle of Nablus-brand extra-virgin olive oil at Brothers Produce in Paterson with a label that didn't specify the country of origin, so I called the importer listed, Mediterranean Expo LLC (973-553-2640).

Brothers carries more than a dozen large tins or heavy glass bottles of extra-virgin olive oil, many from Lebanon and Syria. But I was told Nablus oil is 100% Jordanian.

The price was $14.99 or about $5 a liter.

Weighing in

Labels on Costco Wholesale's premium fruits and vegetables don't always list the weight, so you don't really know the price per pound.

Today, I bought six mixed sweet peppers -- yellow, red and orange -- for $6.79, and three large seedless cucumbers for $3.99. Neither package had a weight listed.

On the other hand, 5.5 pounds of large Gala apples from Washington State were $7.99, and 3 pounds of bananas were $1.39.

Costco prices are on the upswing again

Image via Wikipedia

The 2-pound package of Campari tomatoes from Costco has
shot up to $5.99. Above, the 1-pound package sold elsewhere.

I spent more than $100 on food at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack on Wednesday, but a higher price prompted me to pass up one of my usual purchases.


Two pounds of those wonderful, small, round, hothouse-grown Campari tomatoes were $5.99, compared to $4.49 on Oct. 24. I passed.


I substituted 2 pounds of Roma tomatoes from the same grower, Sunset. They were $4.99, an increase of 50 cents.


A trio of large, hothouse-grown cucumbers were $3.99, up from $3.49 on Oct. 24. I bought those anyway.


I asked an employee why the Campari tomatoes had shot up, but he said he just stocks the produce aisles and doesn't notice prices.


Prices appear to be holding steady on other items I bought on Wednesday -- organic 1% milk, six small cartons of egg whites, 2 pounds of sliced cheddar cheese, dried blueberries, organic carrot juice, loaves of 100% whole grain bread, bananas, organic spring mix and marinara sauce.


The marinara comes in three 32-ounce bottles and is sold under the Kirkland Signature label, the Costco store brand. This is plenty for a full pound of pasta, and costs only $2.10 a bottle. 


A can of anchovies and oil cooks away, but adds robustness to the sauce.


Some of my purchases on Wednesday replaced items I had thrown out after heavy, wet snow from Saturday's nor'easter knocked out our electricity for 57 hours. Many thousands are still without power five days after the storm.


I also bought 5.5 pounds of large, crisp Gala apples from Washington State for $6.99, and a rack of pork, which my wife wanted to prepare for dinner. The pork was $3.99 a pound, with a discount of $2.50 on the package.


Even if I was eating meat, I wouldn't eat this pork, which was raised conventionally by one of the big producers. Pigs receive more antibiotics than all other animals raised on factory farms.


But my wife doesn't plan dinners, and because of trying to eat as much as possible before it spoiled on Sunday and Monday, we didn't have any drug-free meat or poultry in the freezer.


My dinner was organic spring mix topped with tomato, cucumber, olives and a can of Moroccan sardines, and I dressed the salad with extra-virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and lemon juice.


Later, I had one of the Gala apples with two kinds of cheese, almonds and dried dates that I also picked up at Costco.


On Tuesday, I stopped into ShopRite in Rochelle Park to replace the lactose-free milk I discarded, and picked up a half-gallon of the store brand ($3.29), Barilla whole-grain spaghetti (88 cents) and ShopRite low-fat fruit yogurt made with sugar (44 cents).


The pasta and yogurt were on sale, as were antibiotic- and hormone-free Omega 3 eggs from 4 Grain ($1.99). They made a nice scramble with a bit of milk, reduced-fat Swiss cheese and coarse Aleppo red pepper.


Related articles

• What makes Greek yogurt so pricey? (doyoureallyknowwhatyoureeating.blogspot.com)
• When meat divides a family (doyoureallyknowwhatyoureeating.blogspot.com)

Wild salmon with ripe mango

Image via Wikipedia

Adding ripe mango to wild salmon makes for a sweet and savory meal.

The fresh, wild-caught fish came from the northwestern United States, but I found the other ingredients in my kitchen and garden.


I picked up another large fillet of wild sockeye salmon at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack on Monday ($7.99 a pound), and prepared it for dinner with lemon juice, coarsely ground Aleppo red pepper, chopped fresh herbs and slices of intensely sweet Champagne mango.


I took out two rare portions after about 10 minutes in a 375-degree oven and the rest cooked through in 15 minutes.


The sweet mango was delicious hot and contrasted nicely with the bite of the red pepper and the peppery chopped basil, oregano and rosemary.


The skin-on fillet weighed about 1.75 pounds and yielded seven portions, which I placed in a baking pan lined with aluminum foil that was coated with cooking spray. I placed the mango between the portions.


Image via Wikipedia
First, I squeezed on lemon juice, then added the ground red pepper, then topped the portions with the chopped herbs. I used mango, because I couldn't find ripe peaches at ShopRite or Costco.


I ate my fish with a big salad, and my wife and son had theirs with leftover yellow rice and sliced cucumber. 


I've been having a love affair with the wild salmon that has been available at Costco since late May. It makes a delicious, nutritious meal I can put on the table in 15  minutes or less.


On my trip to Costco, I also picked up 6 pounds of large white-flesh peaches from California ($8.99), 5.5 pounds of large Gala apples from Washington State ($6.99),  2 pounds of Roma hothouse tomatoes from Canada ($3.29), 1 pound of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix ($4.79) and Manchego sheep's milk cheese from Spain ($8.29 a pound).

Some produce prices are actually falling

Image by JasonUnbound via Flickr

Don't expect to see one of these in North Jersey anytime soon.

Costco Wholesale has some of the best produce prices around -- if you insist on high quality -- but the warehouse store hasn't been immune from price hikes. Now, some items are actually selling for less than before.

Today, at the Hackensack store, I bought a pound of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix -- one of the most delicious bunches of leafy greens around -- for $4.39. That's 20 cents less than I paid on March 1, and 60 cents below the high of $4.99.

This is a pre-washed mixture that you can layer in a sandwich or put in a bowl, dress and eat.

Another favorite, pre-washed Boskovich Farms' U.S.-grown organic spinach, was $3.79 for a one-pound package -- 20 cents less than before. I use this spinach directly from the package, adding it to just-cooked pasta and sauce, and mixing them together until the spinach is wilted.

But they were the exceptions. Gala apples were $5.99 for 5.5 pounds, but today, they were $7.49. Bananas were $1.47 for three pounds -- about a dime higher than before.

Other items have held the line, including Sunset-brand large Gourmet cucumbers, three for $3.79, and Campari tomatoes, two pounds for $5.49.

Nothing fishy

The fish case at Costco in Hackensack yielded fresh, whole, cleaned, wild snapper from Brazil for $6.99 a pound and fresh, wild-caught flounder fillets from Canada for $7.99 a pound. Both were packed today.