H Mart coupons, kosher food, wine clubs

Seaweed rolls with vegetables, fish and egg from H Mart in Englewood.

I got a thick H Mart Coupon Book in the mail the other day, recalling the discount booklets the Korean supermarket chain issued for about 6 months in 2011.

Don't get your hopes up for the resumption of regular coupon books. This one is to celebrate the chain's 30th year in America.

H Mart has stores in 9 states.

A marketing employee at H Mart's New Jersey headquarters said another coupon book may be issued at the end of the year.

The coupon book was sent to shoppers like me who have an H Mart 1% cash-rebate card. 

The coupons are good from Aug. 25 through Sept. 7 at stores in Fort Lee, Englewood, Little Ferry, Ridgefield and Edison.

Some but not all of the coupons list the regular price for comparison to the discounted price.

 

A Glatt kosher turkey (Wikipedia)

'Kosher' fruit salad

I witnessed the kosher food scam at the Paramus ShopRite this morning.

An African-American woman distracted by her two young sons did a double take when a small container of fruit salad rang up at $3.49.

The African-American clerk explained the fruit salad came from the kosher food section.

When the woman asked how kosher is different than regular food, the clerk explained kosher food is prepared by "kosher people."

I tried to explain some of the rules of kosher food to the woman -- such as the prohibition against mixing meat and dairy -- but said I couldn't understand how fruit salad could be made "kosher."

I said kosher food is just like regular food, but costs more.

The poor woman was a victim of the kosher food scam, whereby conventional food is labeled kosher and the price is hiked accordingly.

Kosher food doesn't guarantee it was raised or grown naturally unless it says so on the package.

With dinner, I drank Italian Sangiovese di Romagna Superiore from a wine club.

Join the club

One of the few ways to get around high wine prices in restaurants and liquor stores is to take advantage of introductory offers from wine clubs.

In recent years, I've bought several cases of award-winning wine from clubs sponsored by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Zagat.

The introductory cases often include a bonus, such as the Rabbit corkscrew and other accessories that came in a beautiful wood case or a Riedel wine carafe.

Now, WSJ Wine is offering 15 bottles of "superb reds" worth $229.99 for only $69.99, plus $19.99 for shipping and tax. 

That's about $6 a bottle, and you're under no obligation to buy any more wine.

I'll drink to that.

 

Add a little sweetness to your fresh wild-caught sockeye salmon

Image by drurydrama (Len Radin) via Flickr

Wild-caught pollock  is a cheaper alternative to cod.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The culinary fireworks didn't go off in my kitchen until after the long July Fourth weekend was over.


On Tuesday, I made an early trip to Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, picking up boxes of peaches and beefsteak tomatoes, organic spring mix and another fillet of fresh, wild sockeye salmon ($7.99 a pound).


I can't get enough of this wonderfully oily fish. Except for a 10-day break, I've eaten a pound or more weekly since it first appeared at Costco in late May.


For dinner Tuesday, I went out to my garden for rosemary, oregano, mint and basil, and washed and chopped them coarsely. From the refrigerator, I took a lemon and a container of Aleppo red pepper.

Fish with peaches

The fillet weighed under 1.5 pounds, so I cut it into seven small portions, squeezing on some lemon juice and then adding ground Aleppo pepper and herbs.


The large peaches were on the counter, and a light went off. The peaches were ripe and had a nice aroma, so I sliced one and put the pieces here and there in the roasting pan with the salmon.


I cooked the fillets in a pre-heated, 350-degree oven for 15 minutes, longer than usual, because my wife likes her salmon cooked through. 


I took out one portion after 10 minutes for my dinner, along with two peach slices, which were hot and had softened further in the oven. I had a second portion, with more peach slices and a salad. Delicious.


The fruit and the fish -- sweet and savory -- are nice foils for each other.


For breakfast this morning, I had another portion of fish and two peach slices right out of the fridge, over red-leaf lettuce from my garden, tomato, cucumber and olives.

Kosher Costco

From the refrigerated case in Costco's kosher section, I bought Meal Mart Hungarian-style Beef Stuffed Cabbage for my wife. 

Four large rolls with beef and mashed potatoes in sweetened tomato sauce weigh 2.5 pounds.


They are fully cooked and not just kosher, but Glatt kosher. Don't ask. The price, $8.99, seems a lot, because there's nothing on the package about how the beef was raised. 


It probably was raised conventionally with antibiotics and growth hormones.

Salt fish

At Costco last week, I bought more salted, wild-caught pollock from Canada -- 2 pounds for $7.29, up from $6.39. That's still a couple of dollars less than a single pound of salted cod at ShopRite, Fairway Market in Paramus and other stores.


On Tuesday, I picked up more Pasta Prima lobster ravioli -- 30 ounces for $11.99 -- but couldn't find lobster bisque, corn-and-chicken chowder, and other  refrigerated soups.


I was told they've been discontinued for the summer.