A fresh look at Corrado's Family Affair

Part of the produce section at Corrado's Family Affair in Clifton.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Are there any other food stores with a more intriguing name than Corrado's Family Affair?

The big, ethnic supermarket on Main Avenue in Clifton -- just a couple of blocks over the Paterson line -- has been packing them in for more than 50 years.

The lure is a lot of food for just a little money, though there are fewer bargains here than in the past.

Jersey Fresh peaches were $1.39 a pound, the same price I paid for peaches at the Paramus ShopRite, but I ate only two of the latter and threw two away.

Two packages of Campari tomatoes were only $1, but they were less than a full pound.

Lousy peaches

After I wrote about buying South Carolina and New Jersey peaches for $1.39 a pound at the Paramus ShopRite -- they turned out to be lousy -- a reader said the new Corrado's supermarket in Wayne had Jersey Fresh fruit for only 99 cents a pound, and they were good.

Today, I went to the original Corrado's in Clifton, where New Jersey peaches were $1.39 a pound, so I bought four and will let them ripen on the counter.

I went for peaches and bought so much more.

Fresh bi-color corn, cold to the touch, were six for $1.99, and after I steamed them, they turned out to be sweet and needed nothing.

One-pound packages of strawberries were $2 each, sweet red peppers were 99 cents a pound and sweet orange peppers were $1.39 a pound.

But green-red peppers appeared wrinkled and old, and I passed, despite the low price.

Two 25-ounce bottles of Don Bruno Vodka Sauce, made with Italian tomatoes but no sugar, were $2.50 each.

Salted codfish

My biggest purchase was six 1-pound packages of Atlantic Pearl Salted Codfish Fillets from Canada at $6.99 each -- far lower than at ShopRite or Fairway Market in Paramus.

The high price of salted cod has prompted us to buy salted Alaskan pollock from Costco Wholesale, but my wife says the taste and texture aren't quite the same.

Corrado's is one of the few stores that carries squid-ink pasta, but an 8.8-ounce package was $5.99, and I decided against buying one.

The original Corrado's opened in 1960, and has expanded across Getty Avenue to a Corrado's shopping center -- with a store for amateur wine makers, garden center, pet store and so much more.

Gasoline, too

There is even a Corrado's gas station on Getty, where regular was $3.56.9 cents a gallon today.

I'd shop at Corrado's Family Affair almost every time I visited Fattal's Syrian Bakery and the Middle Eastern restaurants in nearby South Paterson.

But I stopped going there a few years ago after produce quality slipped, and I saw price stickers placed over expiration dates on organic salad mixes.

Today, Corrado's has liquor, flower and houseware stores inside the main building, as well as one corner devoted to brick oven pizza.

As good as Corrado's prices are on many items, I still had to go to Fattal's today for Al Shark spicy Moroccan sardines, still only 99 cents a can, and a gallon of Merve Aryan Yogurt Drink for $7.79.

I also noticed Corrado's is charging $12.99 a pound for Manchego sheep's milk cheese from Spain -- more than at Whole Foods Market in Paramus or the Hackensack Costco. 

I also couldn't find any antibiotic-free chicken for family members who eat poultry.

Corrado's Family Affair, 1578 Main Ave., Clifton; 973-340-0628.

Web site: www.corradosmarket.com

Fattal's Bakery, 975-77 Main St., Paterson; 973-742-7125.

Jersey Fresh or fresh deception?

The smaller peach, upper left, is from South Carolina and labeled "Cotton Hope."

At the Paramus ShopRite this morning, I found boxes of South Carolina and New Jersey fruit below a sign for "Jersey Fresh" peaches at $1.49 a pound.

Many of the South Carolina peaches, labeled "Cotton Hope," were in boxes carrying the name of Sunny Slope Farms in Bridgeton.

The other peaches were yellow and carried yellow labels with a number, but no name. Did I get any Jersey Fresh peaches?

My only other purchase was a gallon of Lactaid 1% Lactose-Free Milk, which was on sale for $6.19 (a savings of 60 cents) -- for the second or third week in a row -- or less than the cost of two half-gallons of ShopRite Lactose-Free Milk at $3.39 each.

It pays to comparison shop for fish, shrimp and rotisserie chickens

Whole Foods Market in Paramus has the best seafood counter in northern New Jersey (2018 photo).



By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

You'll find some of the freshest seafood at Whole Foods Market in Paramus -- and some of the highest prices, too.

I was looking over the wonderful fish display on Tuesday and noticed wild-caught Gulf of Mexico shrimp for $16.99 a pound.

I just happened to be carrying the sales flier from Fairway Market in Paramus and pulled it out to show the Whole Foods fishmonger.

Fairway has wild-caught Gulf of Mexico shrimp on sale for $7.99 a pound through Sept. 5. 

Fairway calls its shrimp "jumbo," while Whole Foods says there are 16 to 20 shrimp in a pound. They could very well be the same shrimp.

Whole Foods does have wild bay scallops from Mexico on sale for $7.99 a pound, a discount of $4 a pound -- as part of a "Madness Sale" that ends today.

Wild-caught, meaty hake fillets from the U.S.A. are $5.99 a pound, a savings of $3 a pound. I've tried these and they are terrific eating.

Whole Foods also has a sale on Jersey Fresh peaches at $1.19 a pound -- about what I paid on Monday at Costco for large peaches that were distributed by a New Jersey company, but appear to be from South Carolina.


Image via Wikipedia
I also noticed Whole Foods' naturally raised rotisserie chickens now are $8.99 each -- up a dollar -- but you can save $3 by buying two for $14.98. I rate this chicken tops in North Jersey.

On the coffee line at Whole Foods, I said to the woman in front of me, "This store should give out more free samples."

She agreed, and said that's why she likes shopping at Costco. I told her she'd find great free samples, especially cheese, at Jerry's Gourmet and More on South Dean Street in Englewood, and not to miss Balthazar Bakery on that same street.

This morning at H Mart in Little Ferry, I picked up two dozen black figs from California for $7.99, and the ripe one I ate after breakfast was like sugar.

I had a cheese omelet filled with pesto, accompanied by the Korean supermarket's stewed tofu in red-pepper sauce, and cabbage and radish kimchis.