O say can you taste the grass?

Image by Powerhouse Museum Collection via Flickr
Raising sheep on grass is common in Australia.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss grass-fed beef, lamb, milk, cheese and eggs, all of which are available in North Jersey.

The phrase "all natural" is thrown around with abandon, but there are no government or food industry standards to enforce it.


The best you can do is to look for meat and dairy products from animals that are treated humanely and raised on their natural diets -- free of antibiotics, growth hormones and animal byproducts.


Chief among them are pasture-raised Australian beef and lamb sold at ShopRite supermarkets, Costco Wholesale and other stores.


Unfortunately, labels carry little information on how cattle and sheep are raised in Australia, but ShopRite sales fliers call the beef -- sold under the Nature's Reserve brand -- "All Natural, Free Range, Grass Fed."


I was told by Meat and Livestock Australia Ltd. (MLA) that Nature's Reserve beef comes exclusively from cattle that are fed grass from start to finish. They are never confined to a feed lot, but they do receive some growth hormones.


The racks and boneless legs of lamb sold under the Costco label, Kirkland Signature, or sold without that label, such as the lamb osso bucco I saw last week in the Hackensack warehouse store, are from sheep raised in the same way-- except they do not receive any growth hormones.


Originally, MLA told me no growth hormones were used in beef sold under the Nature's Reserve label, but later corrected that.


Cattle and sheep stomachs are designed to turn grass into protein. When cattle are fed grain -- as the vast majority in the United States are to speed growth -- they can become sick. 


And the wide use of animal antibiotics is making humans resistant to prescribed antibiotics.


Nature's Reserve steaks, roasts and whole beef tenderloin for filet mignon are sold at ShopRite for about $6.99 a pound and even less when they are on sale. 


The meat is lean and contains beneficial Omega 3 fatty acids. It cooks quicker than conventional beef and is best when prepared medium rare.


I once saw grass-fed steaks from New Jersey on sale at Whole Foods Market in Paramus for $9.98 a pound, and the Fairway Market across town sold grass-fed, rib-eye steaks for $14.99 a pound and grass-fed burgers for $5.99 a pound in June 2010.


On Saturday, Costco's prices for Australian grass-fed lamb were $5.99 a pound for the boneless leg, $7.99 a pound for loin chops and $13.99 a pound for racks.  


Before I stopped eating meat nearly two years ago, the small lamb chops in the rack were my favorite. I would trim the rack and cut it apart, broiling the chops only until they were rare. They would literally melt in my mouth.


Of course, you don't taste the grass. But the meat is so pure and flavorful, compared to conventionally raised lamb, it needs little more than a bit of salt.


The current price of $13.99 a pound for a rack of lamb chops at Costco compares to the price I recall from a couple of years ago, $9.99 a pound.


The Australian whole beef tenderloin was ideal for slicing thin, marinating with Korean barbecue sauce and cooking quickly on a stove-top grill before wrapping the beef in red-leaf lettuce with rice, kimchi and garlic at the table.


Grass-fed beef and lamb are among several products from pasture-raised animals available in North Jersey.


Fairway Market sells milk from grass-fed cows. Trader Joe's has sharp cheddar cheese made with milk from pasture-raised cows in New Zealand ($5.49 a pound).


On Friday, for $5, I picked up two dozen Grade A Large Brown Eggs "from grass-fed hens with freedom in the field" at H Mart, the Korean supermarket in Englewood. The yolks are a healthy shade of yellow.


They are distributed by Swiss Villa LLC in Lykens, Pa., with a label that tells you the package is made from recycled PET, fewer than 350 hens forage on a pesticide-free acre of pasture "spring to fall," and the eggs come from "Swiss-peasant-descendant, small-scale farmers."


"You would enjoy seeing the hens scatter out over the pasture meadow each morning as dew droplets mirror the rising sun," the label says. 


I'm sure I would, as long as I was served a breakfast of their eggs right away.


Here are Web sites to help you find grass-fed meat.


Australian Lamb


The site lists Costco Wholesale and Stop and Shop supermarkets as sources of Australian lamb. Some brands to look for are Country Meadow Austral American Lamb and Opal Valley.


Australian Beef


ShopRite and Pathmark supermarkets in North Jersey are listed as sources.


Meat and Livestock Australia Ltd.


Meat and Livestock Australia is a marketing, research and development  agency that represents ranchers, processors, exporters and others involved in meat production in Australia.


To take a virtual farm visit in Australia, click on this link: 


On a Farm Down Under

Waitress, there's a bug in my salad

Image via Wikipedia
Hotel Caesar's in Tijuana, Mexico, built for Italian-born Caesar Cardini, a restaurateur who moved to Mexico and is commonly credited with creation of the lovely Caesar Salad.

Editor's note: Today, I describe a return visit to Amici Family Restaurant in Bergenfield, preparations for Thanksgiving, and free-range, grass-fed Australian beef.

If you go to Amici Family Restaurant, a BYO that serves big portions at reasonable prices, it makes sense to share dishes to keep the final bill down.


We tried that Saturday evening, but ran into a couple of problems with sanitation and food in a busy dining room, and I'm not sure we'll return.


We started with a well-dressed, family style Caesar Salad, combining two portions at $6.95 each, but the romaine lettuce was cut into confetti-like strands that were hard to eat. 


We loved all the grated cheese, but not the over abundance of croutons.


A bigger problem was the tiny bug my mother-in-law found as she ate her first serving of the salad. When she put it aside, it fell, jumped or flew to the floor, and she couldn't find it again.


My wife and her mother also shared two menu items, an appetizer of Jumbo Lump Crab Cake ($8.95) and an entree of Red Snapper Amici with vegetables  ($17.95), plus a side order of linguine in tomato sauce ($6.95).


They loved the large, moist crab cake and all the crab used in it, but found the thick fish fillet tough, even chewy, as if it had been frozen, precooked or overcooked. My wife said it wasn't red snapper. I tried a piece and agreed.


I also ordered an entree from the regular menu, Zuppa di Pesce in a fra diavolo sauce, but chose the gluten-free penne instead of regular linguine ($17.95).


I loved the spicy tomato sauce, the delicious, fresh-tasting shellfish, scallops and shrimp; and my first gluten-free pasta, which was cooked al dente -- all served in an oversized soup bowl. 


Service was terrific. The restaurant has added at least two servers to handle the crowds that responded to a favorable review in the newspaper, and the dining room was full when we left around 6:30.


We told our waitress about the fish, but not the bug. When I looked over the bill at home, I didn't see a charge for the salad we had shared.


Amici Family Restaurant, 127 S. Washington St., 
Bergenfield; 201-374-1996. BYO, off-street parking.


Thanksgiving meal


We drove to Goffle Road Poultry Farm in Wyckoff on Friday to pick up the fresh-killed turkey I ordered over the phone, and left with a few other items.


The turkey, raised on vegetarian feed and without antibiotics, weighs just under 14 pounds at $2.39 a pound, bigger than the 10-12 pound bird I had ordered. 


We also asked for eight split turkey wings ($16.65) and a half-dozen duck eggs ($1.25 each). Duck eggs have really large yolks, but at this price, I probably won't buy them again.


An 18-ounce bottle of Uncle Dougie's Chicago-Style Chicken Wing Marinade -- a wickedly spicy sauce that's great with turkey wings, too -- was $5. 49.


In the past, we've ordered only turkey drumsticks, thighs and wings from the farm, but this year, we needed a whole turkey to serve white meat to my mother-in-law.


At nearly 14 pounds, I don't think it will fit into our electric rotisserie, so I asked my wife to pick up a turkey roaster while she was shopping at the mall on Saturday morning.


I gave her a J.C. Penney circular, and she came home with a Philippe Richard-brand, 2-piece, nonstick steel roasting pan for $18.89 -- with a mail-in rebate of $10.


Of course, it's made in China, which doesn't have a great record for food safety, but I hand-washed the pieces and put them away for use on Thursday.


On the way to the farm on Friday, we stopped at Whole Foods Market in Paramus for a fully cooked, naturally raised Niman Ranch Applewood Smoked Ham to serve with the turkey ($7.99 a pound), but could find only a drug-free Wellshire Farms Virginia Baked Deli Ham ($6.99 a pound).


Then, I couldn't find the credit card I had used, so returned to the store on Saturday. I didn't find the card, but did find the Niman Ranch ham, which is raised without antibiotics, growth hormones or animal by-products. 


Beef from Australia


The ShopRite circular is advertising Nature's Reserve Boneless Rib Eye Roasts from Australia at $5.99 a pound under the words "All Natural, Free Range, Grass Fed."


For several months now, I've been trying to get updated information on how cattle and sheep are raised in Australia, especially those destined for export.


At ShopRite, Costco Wholesale and elsewhere, Australian lamb often is labeled in the store, and the words "All Natural" and "Grass Fed" don't appear on the labels.


ShopRite is the only North Jersey supermarket I know that sells Australian beef, and it's marketed under the Nature's Reserve label, but the words "Grass Fed" don't appear there, either.


I've been referred to the Web site of Meat and Livestock Australia, a ranchers group, and have found extensive discussions of cattle and sheep being raised on pasture, including the methane gas released by grass-eating animals.


Here's is a link to the Web site: Grazing and Pasture Management