In Englewood, these sushi rolls may be just what the doctor ordered

Spicy Tuna and Salmon Rolls from Maguro Sushi House in Rochelle Park are a recent addition to the fare offered to visitors, employees and volunteers in the cafeteria at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A hospital cafeteria might not seem like a good place for takeout in Englewood, where you'll find Balthazar Bakery, Jerry's Gourmet & More and Best Dumplings, just to name three terrific options.

But since I began volunteering at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, I've always used my $8 dining card to take home a hearty soup or fresh spinach, spring mix and other items from the cafeteria's great salad bar.

Now, the Drapkin Family Garden Cafe is offering tasty inside-out rolls from Maguro Sushi House in Rochelle Park and other Asian fare.

I liked the Spicy Tuna and Salmon Rolls I brought home on Wednesday afternoon ($8.63), especially the absence of any sweetener.

Ingredients listed are ground tuna and chopped salmon with cucumber, all mixed with a special hot sauce and caviar.

They have proven too popular. I found some on Wednesday afternoon after 4, but when I returned to the hospital on Thursday afternoon, they were sold out.

Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, 350 Engle St., Englewood. Cafeteria is open until 8:30 p.m. Hospital parking is $5.

On Wednesday afternoon, there were two trays of sushi rolls available, above. But on Thursday, the sushi and seaweed salad sold out before 3 p.m. Fried vegetable dumplings also are available at the cafeteria grill.

Giving thanks for crab cakes, red snapper, steak and tacos

My Thanksgiving appetizer of handmade Phillips Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes from Costco Wholesale with Whole Foods Market's Roasted Salsa Verde and a side of organic purple sweet potatoes, which I mashed with extra-virgin olive oil, cinnamon and other seasonings.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I happily celebrated another turkey-free Thanksgiving this week, filling up instead on great seafood dishes, mashed purple sweet potatoes and an organic spring mix salad with crunchy pomegranate seeds.

And as we did before I stopped eating meat and poultry nearly five years ago, we don't have leftovers from a whole bird, because my wife roasts only the most flavorful dark-meat parts.

I started my feast on Tuesday night with a takeout order of fish tacos from Taqueria Los Gueros in Englewood.

On Wednesday night, I threw together a dish of pasta with sardines, using leftover bottled sauce in the refrigerator and a few ounces of organic whole-wheat capellini, which are just a little thicker than angel hair and cook in three to four minutes in a shallow pan (no need to salt the water).

And for breakfast on Thursday morning, I prepared a 10-inch egg-white frittata with smoked wild salmon and Roasted Salsa Verde from Whole Foods Market.

My Thanksgiving entree was a whole red snapper prepared by a family friend and leftover wild-caught U-12 shrimp from H Mart in Englewood that my wife marinated in fresh lime juice and chopped garlic.

Pre-Thanksgiving takeout

At Taqueria Los Gueros, 48 W. Palisade Ave. in Englewood, we took advantage of Taco Tuesday, when 5 Pastor, Carnitas or Pollo tacos are only $4.99.

But my wife, who ordered the takeout, said the server wouldn't give her any fresh pineapple, an essential ingredient in a Taco el Pastor, and the way it comes when you eat it there.

The Taco Tuesday price is $1 less than what Pastor tacos cost the rest of the time.

She brought me an order of four fish tacos topped with avocado slices, what the taqueria calls Mexican Tacos ($8), but the portion was noticeably smaller than what I was served at Los Gueros in March.

I was in Englewood late Wednesday afternoon and stopped at Balthazar Bakery, 214 S. Dean St., for two $2 baguettes, waiting on line behind six or seven other customers.

Then, I stopped at Jerry's Gourmet & More at 410 S. Dean St., where I was surprised the hordes of pre-holiday shoppers left behind three Meals To Go, those complete restaurant-quality takeout dinners that are cut to $5.99 after 4 p.m.

Organic purple sweet potatoes from Whole Foods Market with conventional sweet potatoes from Trader Joe's. I mashed about 2 pounds of each with extra-virgin olive oil after boiling the skin-on sections together for about 45 minutes. The water turned purple.

Thanksgiving

For breakfast, I prepared a 10-inch frittata with Costco Wholesale's smoked wild salmon. 

This week, my wife paid $15.99 for a 1-pound package of Kirkland Signature Wild Alaskan Smoked Sockeye Salmon, close to the $15.59 the sliced salmon cost in March 2013. This year, the price had suddenly risen to $18.89.

For our Thanksgiving dinner, I started with two wonderful Phillips Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes, also from Costco, and delicious mashed organic purple sweet potatoes.

For $21.99, you get six frozen 3-ounce crab cakes (about $4 each). The first ingredient listed is crab meat.

My entree was a whole fish and wild-caught shrimp with chopped garlic and lime juice.

A few hours later, I had a simple salad of organic spring mix and pomegranate seeds, both from Costco.

The meat eaters in the family really went to town, preparing naturally raised turkey drumsticks from Goffle Road Poultry Farm in Wyckoff, heating up a fully cooked naturally raised ham from Wellshire, and cooking oxtails and rice with pigeon peas.

I drank a red wine from Siciliy.

A wedge of smoked wild salmon frittata with roasted green salsa I made for my Thanksgiving morning breakfast and served over organic quinoa.

This morning, I had pasta and eggs -- a wedge of frittata with leftover organic whole-wheat capellini and sardines.

I used a 16-ounce carton of the 100% Egg Whites from Costco Wholesale with chopped garlic, scallions, grated sheep-milk's Pecorino Romano cheese and a little low-fat milk before I poured it into a preheated 10-inch pan with olive oil on the stove, below.

As the crust set, I added a half-pound of sliced Wild Alaskan Smoked Sockeye Salmon from Costco Wholesale, where a 1-pound package was nearly $3 less last week. 

The frittata finished cooking under the broiler. I spooned on Whole Foods' Roasted Salsa Verde in the last few minutes.

A takeout order of Mexican Tacos from Taqueria Los Gueros in Englewood. Two corn tortillas are used for each taco. The green salsa that comes with them is hot and the red salsa is really hot. You also get marinated onions and jalapeno peppers.

A complete Grilled Hanger Steak takeout dinner from Jerry's in Englewood includes bowtie pasta with pesto, broccoli with garlic and steamed vegetables. Two other dinners contained roasted pork chops.

The price for a Meal To Go is cut to $5.99 after 4 p.m.

I ignored the many temptations at Balthazar Bakery, ordering my usual, two crusty baguettes, still only $2 each 12 years after the retail store opened.

Here's why you should never pay retail for food

At the Costco Wholesale in Hackensack on Thursday afternoon, employees were restocking shelves with items left behind by customers at checkout counters or elsewhere in the store after last-minute changes of mind.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Costco Wholesale's fair food prices are a persuasive argument for never paying retail for what we eat.

Why pay $6.99 or $7.99 for a pound of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix -- one of the best salads on Earth -- when Costco sells it for $4.49 to $4.99 year-round , and makes a profit?

Why pay ShopRite $6.99 for 2 pounds of those wonderful Campari Tomatoes, when you can find them every day of the year at Costco for $4.99?

When ShopRite has one of its Can-Can Sales, the reduced prices of seltzer, marinara sauce and other items approach and sometimes beat the deals you can get at Costco all the time.

But fewer and fewer items go on deep discount during those ShopRite sales, and shoppers can sometimes do better with manager's specials, such as the bottled Dress Italian pasta sauces I bought at the Paramus ShopRite for $1.99 each or half-price.

Today, I saw the same imported sauce at the Englewood ShopRite for $3.49, a 50-cent discount, at the Super Can-Can Sale.

Despite long lines at other checkout counters, employees at the ShopRite in Hackesack didn't open the 20-item express line on Monday. It also remained closed on a previous visit.

Costco members 

You say Costco Wholesale is a members-only store with an annual fee of $55 to $110 a year, negating the savings on food?

With a no-fee American Express-Costco credit card, you get as much as a 3% rebate at the warehouse store, and outside rebates on gasoline, restaurant meals and other purchases -- money back that easily surpasses the membership fee.

Costco also sells such winners as Natural Peanut Butter and Basil Pesto that are difficult to match in terms of quality and price. 

At H Mart in Fort Lee, frozen South Korean yellow tail -- a fish often served raw at sushi bars -- were only $1.99 a pound on Sunday. I bought fresh, wild-caught croaker for $3.99 a pound.

Fresh mustard greens and prepared Korean pancakes, stir-fried vermicelli noodles and stewed tofu from H Mart and H Mart Fresh, both in Fort Lee.

Price variances

At Costco Wholesale, you won't run into price differences from one store to another in the same area.

That's what happened when I purchased a 16-portion box of Shin Ramyun, a spicy instant noodle soup, for $12.99 on Sunday at the Fort Lee H Mart, only to see it for less the next day at the Little Ferry H Mart (regularly $16.99).

I'm kicking myself for passing up the same box of Shin Ramyun for $9.99 at the H&Y Marketplace in Ridgefield.

Mouth-filling ribbons of Garofalo whole-wheat pappardelle noodles in bottled Dress Italian Arrabbiata Sauce with baby spinach. The pasta's name derives from the verb "pappare" or "to gobble up." How appropriate.

For a filling breakfast the next morning, I served myself the chunky pasta sauce, which is made with Italian chopped tomatoes and white wine, over organic brown rice and stewed tofu, plating them and reheating them in the microwave.

I added fresh basil leaves to the bottled Dress Italian sauce from a plant I found at the ShopRite in Englewood for $2.49, above and below. The plants, grown in Belvidere, contain no GMOs.

What goes up ...

I was surprised last week when the price for Kirkland Signature Wild Alaskan Smoked Sockeye Salmon at Costco jumped by more than $3 for a 1-pound package.

On Thursday, I returned to my Hackensack Costco, looking for more wild mahi-mahi fillets, a recently added item.

Instead of going when the store first opens at 10 a.m., I decided to visit after 5 in the afternoon, and found the shopping experience a lot more relaxed.

However, the parking lot was the usual zoo, with shoppers looking for parking spaces close to the doors and backing up traffic.

An employee was adding more shrink-wrapped mahi-mahi to the fish case, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the price had dropped to $5.99 a pound, from $7.99.

One pound of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring mix was $4.79, 2 pounds of Campari Tomatoes were $4.99 and 3 pounds of peeled Christopher Ranch Monviso Garlic, an heirloom variety from California, were $5.99.

Jumbo Shingo Korean Pears were $6.49 for three (weight is 2.8 pounds).

A homemade frittata and stewed tofu with mashed sweet potatoes from Costco Wholesale. They are sold in 10-pound bags only during the holidays for around 49 cents a pound.

The mall entrance to Whole Foods Market in Paramus.

'You can't see it'

Whole Foods Market and ShopRite are the last two supermarkets I patronize that give shoppers credit for bringing re-usable bags.

But on Thursday, when I purchased three 1-pound packages of imported organic whole wheat pasta at the Whole Foods in Paramus, the receipt didn't show the usual 10-cents credit for my one bag.

I said to the cashier, "You didn't give me credit for my bag," and she said, "I did, but you can't see it."

That didn't sound right, so I handed her the receipt, she looked at it and handed me a dime.

More smoked salmon

At Marshalls, near Whole Foods, I found a box containing a pound of smoked wild Alaskan sockeye salmon for $19.99.

The fish, in a vacuum-sealed pouch, is fully cooked, preservative free and doesn't require refrigeration until it is opened.

The label says the salmon is "smoked [over alder wood] in the same careful and time-consuming Native American tradition."

It's from Alaska Smokehouse and carries a sell-by date of January 2018. 

Lavazza beans

Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood restocked and had more Lavazza coffee beans from Italy when I stopped there today.

A 2.2-pound bag of Crema E Aroma was $19.99, a good price, though I've seen Lavazza beans at Jerry's for a few dollars less.

Great seafood and going organic to avoid GMOs

Two organic brown eggs served over organic quinoa prepared in an electric cooker with organic diced tomatoes and organic chicken stock, all from Costco Wholesale. In the absence of a labeling law in the United States, going organic is the only sure way to avoid genetically modified foods and the safety issues they raise.

Wild-caught Pacific halibut is the most expensive fresh fish sold at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, but it's a breeze to prepare and the taste is worth every penny.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

I've seen fresh, wild-caught halibut in the cold case at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack for at least a couple of years, but the price has always stopped me -- until last week.

At $16.99 a pound, the fillets are only $2 or $3 more a pound than the Copper River sockeye salmon that I enjoyed this year.

When I got it home, I didn't have to do much more than slice the 1.16-pound skinless fillet into four serving pieces, place them on parchment paper in a large pan, squeeze lime juice over them and add a few pinches of Aleppo pepper.

Then, I put them in a 375-degree oven for about 10 minutes, took out the pan and spooned refrigerated Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto on each fillet.

My snowy fillet flaked beautifully and tasted wonderful. I served the fish with boiled sweet potatoes mashed with extra-virgin olive oil and seasoning.

A halibut snack reheated in the microwave for 1 minute.

Here is more about halibut from the Environmental Defense Fund:

"Halibut are flatfish (like flounders and soles) and can grow up to 7 feet long and weigh 800 pounds. They have both eyes on the same side of their head, which enables them to better see predators and prey as they lay camouflaged on the sea bottom."

EDF gives its "Best-eco" rating to Pacific halibut (sold at Costco), notes it contains a "moderate" amount of mercury and advises adults to limit their consumption to about 4 times a month.

A takeout dinner of calamari stuffed with shrimp and crab meat; spaghetti with red-clam sauce and whole shrimp; crab cake, broccoli and beets was only $5.99 after 4 p.m. at Jerry's Gourmet & More, 410 S. Dean St., Englewood.

A serving of jumbo shrimp with vegetables; dry sauteed string beans and brown rice delivered by Zen Kitchen, 1443 Teaneck Road, Teaneck.

Avoiding GMOs

The European Union has a law calling for labeling of food containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs), but the United States doesn't.

Going organic is the only sure way to avoid GMOs, but in the United States there are some organic and non-organic foods that carry a label from the NON GMO Project.

The NON GMO Project Verified label appears on Tru Roots Organic Quinoa, right, and  non-organic Lundberg Wild Blend Rice.

Click on the following link: nongmoproject.org

The European Union's Web site is: GMO Compass

Related articles

• Costco: Shifting More and More to Organic
• Costco return policy is only as good as employees
• Target Introduces GMO-Free Food Line

Fat-free and cream-free pasta sauces, a $2 baguette and much more

You don't have to keep kosher to like these marinara sauces.

Editor's note: Today, I bring you further adventures in food shopping -- from kosher pasta sauces to imported whole-wheat pasta to a great $2 baguette.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

This week, I found two pasta sauces that prove less is more.

Both are from a company named Gefen and both are kosher for Passover, but that's not why I bought them.

One of the marinara sauces contains no olive oil and is fat free. The other is a "Marinara Style Vodka Sauce" with vodka, but no artery clogging cream.

The cream-less sauce helps Jews observe the ban on eating meat and dairy at the same time, but also is perfect for people like me who are lactose intolerant.

Each 26-ounce bottle was $2.39 at ShopRite in Paramus.

Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood has a terrific selection of imported pasta, and three or four different brands of whole-wheat pasta from Italy, such as the two above.

Jerry's is on South Dean Street, near Route 4 in Englewood.

Jerry's in Englewood

I stopped at Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood on Wednesday for olives, balsamic vinegar, whole-wheat pasta and coffee beans from Italy, and nibbled on free samples of smoked mozzarella and other cheeses.

Jerry's has more varieties of 100% whole-wheat pasta than any other store I know, but prices are higher than the $1.39 I pay for a 16-ounce package of Trader Joe's Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti, Fusilli or Penne.

Jerry's sells three or four brands of whole-wheat pasta and shapes include spaghetti, fusilli, farfale and pappardelle or wide, mouth-filling ribbons.

I bought a pound of Colavita Fusilli or spirals for $1.49 and a pound of Garofalo Farfalle or bowties for $1.99. 

Whole coffee beans from Italy are being sold at a new, lower price at Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood. I save about $5 or more a bag compared to my usual source.

Whole coffee beans

I have been buying Lavazza whole coffee beans from Italy at Amazon.com, but Jerry's often beats Amazon's prices.

On Wednesday, I found new, even lower prices, only $16.99 for a 2.2-pound bag of Lavazza Crema e Aroma beans, which I use in my built-in coffee machine.

That's about $5 less per bag than at Amazon.

Assorted Italian olives with whole garlic cloves were, as usual, $3.99 a pound, a great price.

Ponti Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, a brand served in many restaurants in Milan and Venice, was $1.99 for a 16.9-ounce bottle. 

The bottles are lableled "Primus" and "It matures in precious oak casks," and the vinegar is free of artificial color.

The mirror that helps customers exit the small parking lot at Balthazar Bakery in Englewood. The retail store opened in late November 2002.

 $2 baguette 

Balthazar Bakery in Englewood has repaired the convex mirror that gives customers driving out of the parking lot a view of traffic racing along one-way South Dean Street in Englewood.

In the photo above, the red car is leaving the lot and the black vehicle parked at the curb is blocking the driver's view of oncoming traffic.

So, even with the mirror, the driver has to nose his vehicle into traffic before getting a clear view of what's bearing down on him.

It's hair raising. Imagine what it was like in the years before the mirror was installed.

I stopped at Balthazar for two baguettes -- the best $2 loaf of bread in the metropolitan area. 

You can see the bakers at work through plate-glass windows in the retail store.

The mound of butter waiting to go into croissants was about the size of a Fiat 500.

The circular from Fairway Market in Paramus calls this tilapia "pretty darn perfect."

  

Pass on Chinese fish

Does any other country have a worse food-safety record than China?
  
No. 

So, I was surprised to see that Manhattan-based Fairway Market in Paramus is selling farmed tilapia from China for $3.99 a pound.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch labels tilapia from the United States and Equador as "Best Choice."

Tilapia from China and Taiwan are called a "Good Alternative," but shouldn't Fairway be selling the best, not the second best? 

Fairway also mailed three coupons, each good for $10 off a purchase of $75 at the Paramus store.

That's a 13.3% discount, and I'm not sure it's worth a trip to Paramus, and having to endure all that New York attitude. 

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.