Paramus ShopRite hit with $470 fine

Image by dklimke via Flickr
It took some doing to buy a can of Progresso Soup for $1.09 during the ShopRite Can Can Sale.

Editor's note: Bergen County consumer affairs officials have stepped into a dispute over Can Can Sale prices at ShopRite. Today, I also discuss Restaurant Week in Manhattan, the difference between farmed and wild salmon, and rising prices at Costco.

The ShopRite supermarket in Paramus has been fined $470 for misrepresenting the price of Progresso Soup during the Can Can Sale.

On Wednesday, an official at the Bergen County Weights and Measures Office in Hackensack said "corporate" sent the word out to other ShopRites to honor the lowest price, even if the customer doesn't buy the 10 cans listed on a Super Coupon in the sales flier -- "10 for $10.88."


There is nothing in the coupon or the flier indicating the customers "Must Buy 10," as in the past. However, there is a $10 minimum purchase. The Can Can Sale price is $1.25 per can and the Super Coupon price is $1.09.


The consumer official said when he tried to buy nine cans at the Paramus ShopRite, they rang up at $1.25 each. He cited the store for nine counts of misrepresenting the price of the soup.


Today, at the Hackensack ShopRite, it took a bit of doing to buy eight cans of Progresso Soup for $1.09 per can.


An employee at Customer Service wasn't aware of any change, but I asked to speak to the manager, who said the "front end" had been notified. At checkout, my cashier was clueless and she called over an assistant manager.


He made sure I had $10 in other items. Then, the soup rang up at $1.57 a can, a savings of $1.02, with another 32 cents deducted automatically, bringing the price to $1.25 a can. Another $1.28 -- or 16 cents a can -- was deducted manually, giving me a final price of $1.09.


Weights and Measures took action after two consumers complained about the stores' refusal to honor the lowest price for less than 10 cans.


I also purchased a half-gallon of Smart Balance Fat-Free Lactose-Free Omega-3 Milk for $3.99, then doubled a 75 cents coupon for a final price of $2.49. Last week, the same milk was on sale for $1.99.


I put 2 liters of Goya Extra-Virgin Olive Oil from Spain in my basket, thinking it was on sale for $4.99 a liter, but when I went back for a third bottle, I looked carefully at the shelf sign and realized the sale was on half-liter bottles or the equivalent of $9.98 a liter. 


I didn't buy any.


$24.07 lunch


It's Winter Restaurant Week in Manhattan, so we had a three-course, $24.07 lunch at Blue Fin Seafood and Sushi Restaurant on Wednesday before catching "Jersey Boys" on Broadway.


I started with a tasty Winter Vegetable Minestrone and my wife had the Blood Orange and Endive Salad. We both enjoyed the cheesy bread crisps with sesame seeds served in a basket with a couple of rolls, but my wife said the butter was too salty.


For an entree, we both had the Sustainable Scottish Salmon served on a bed of wonderful lentils and pureed winter squash with a blood-orange vinaigrette, and it was a  valuable lesson in the difference between farmed and wild-caught fish.


The Blue Fin salmon fillet tasted fine, but it was paler in color than its wild cousins and didn't have the same robust flavor. In farmed fish, the color is artificial, added through the feed.


However, the restaurant cooked the skin until it was crisp and presented the fillets skin up. I ate mine in one bite and gulp. Extraordinary. 


For dessert, I had a trio of sorbets and my wife enjoyed a trio of ice creams. We paid a total of $62.04, including $4.27 in tax and a $9.63 tip (20%).


We had coffee at Starbucks, 1585 Broadway, the first I've seen with large touch-screen computers that allow you to take your own photo and send it to your e-mail address.


Winter Restaurant Week ends Feb. 10 (Monday to Friday). 


Web site :


Three Courses for $24.07


Blue Fin Seafood and Sushi Restaurant, Broadway and 47th Street, 
in the W Times Square Hotel; 212-918-1400.


Salt in smoked salmon


Almost every item I bought at Costco Wholesale on Tuesday cost more than a couple of weeks ago.


Earthbound Farm's Half and Half organic salad went up 20 cents, to $4.99; 5 pounds of Sunset Beefsteak Tomatoes were $6.99, up $1; Salted Alaskan Pollock was $7.29 for 2 pounds; and Jarlsberg Thin-Sliced Reduced-Fat Swiss Cheese was $9.49 for 2 pounds, up 50 cents.


And for the first time, I bought Kirkland Signature Imported Smoked Salmon, an artificially colored farmed Atlantic salmon, because the Hackensack warehouse store was out of smoked wild salmon.


The 1.5-pound package, divided between two pouches, was $18.99, a better buy than a 1-pound package of Blue Hill Bay Smoked Salmon for $14.59, also farmed and artificially colored.


I tried the Kirkland Signature salmon in an omelet this morning and found it paler in color and less flavorful than the smoked wild sockeye salmon from Alaska that is also sold under the Kirkland Signature label.


But the Kirkland salmon is far less salty than the fish from Blue Hill Bay -- with sodium listed at 19% for a 2-ounce serving of the former compared to 33% for the same serving size of the latter.

A miss, a hit and a cancellation

Image via Wikipedia

Sardi's offers a two-course lunch with coffee for $24.

I was really looking forward to Restaurant Week in Manhattan -- actually two weeks when some of the best restaurants offer a three-course lunch for $24.07. 


The semi-annual restaurant promotion ends Friday, but some restaurants continue to offer special, fixed-price lunches and dinners through Labor Day.


And as I saw last week, restaurants that don't take part in Restaurant Week sometimes offer lunches of similar value -- such as the $24 business lunch at Sardi's, 234 W. 44th St.


Actually, the Sardi's lunch is only two courses, plus coffee, but for someone like me who doesn't eat dessert it's perfect: appetizer, entree and coffee.


For today, my wife and I had made a reservation for a $24.07 lunch at Blue Fin, a seafood restaurant in the W Hotel, Broadway and 46th Street, but I cancelled it because of the excessive heat and humidity.


We had been planning to take the bus into the city, as we did for two lunches last week.


That means I won't get a $20 statement credit for using a registered American Express credit card to purchase three lunches during Restaurant Week.


Our first lunch at Esca was disappointing, mainly because the whole John Dory fish I chose was bony and had little flesh. How a seafood restaurant could list that on the menu is puzzling.


Our second lunch was at Ca Va Brasserie, a Todd English restaurant, and we were much happier. My entree was an enormous prawn served on a tasty bed of small, white beans.

An ugly fish shows up at lunch

Image via Wikipedia

John Dory is a fish designed to eat, not to be eaten.

We love whole fish -- my wife takes the head, my son slices off the tail section and I devour all that delicious flesh in the mid-section.


So I didn't know what to make of the scrawny specimen that was put down in front of me today at Esca, a seafood restaurant in Manhattan where my wife and I had a $24.07 lunch.


Looking at the Restaurant Week menu, I thought offering a whole fish was generous in view of the price. Boy, was I wrong. 


I ordered the first course -- a crudo of Spanish mackerel -- because I had never eaten that fish raw, but the two pieces were the size of postage stamps.


My wife had a salad of wonderful greens with a whole-pistachio vinaigrette, and we both enjoyed the complimentary two dozen Gaeta olives and some marinated white beans on toasted Italian slices.


The oven-roasted, whole John Dory fish (photo above) was one of three entree choices -- my wife chose homemade tagliatelle with rock shrimp in a pesto sauce. She said it was a bit  salty. 


I have never seen such an ugly fish. It looked like it had gone on a crash diet before it was caught. The delicate, white flesh was delicious; there just wasn't very much of it. It was mostly bones, with an ugly head.


And it wasn't hot when I got it.


There was only one choice for dessert, a small lemon cake with fresh berries and an odd-tasting custard. The waiter said the kitchen was unable to fill my request for berries only.


This was my third visit to Esca, but I was disappointed. I left only a 15% tip.


Esca , 402 W. 43rd St., Manhattan; 212-564-7272.

Glorious seafood lunch at Anthos

Image by FotoosVanRobin via Flickr

Two men were walking past Anthos on West 52nd Street in Manhattan just before noon today when one said to the other, "She planned the entire trip around food. It's sort of funny." Funny? I'd say it's admirable.


I was cooling my heels outside the restaurant waiting for 11:45 a.m., when I had a reservation for lunch, on the last day of Restaurant Week. (Many restaurants in the city will continue to offer a $24.07 lunch through Labor Day.)

The staff was running a little late, and the bar still held an open newspaper, and an empty glass and bottle. Two women ahead of me were seated at a table near the window. I was by myself and ended up against the rear wall.


After I received a glass of tap water, I waited and then waited some more as other customers were seated nearby. Finally, a waiter apologized and handed me the menu, saying he thought a second person would be joining me.


I ordered, and he offered me one of three rolls: plain, olive or whole wheat. I asked for all three, and he obliged, then brought me some olive oil for dipping to replace the butter I said I don't use.


Anthos offers "new Greek cuisine." First, I received a little salmon tartare, with mint yogurt, dill, and a bit of orange, a gift from the chef.

My appetizer was crudo -- tender, raw fluke with strips of ginger, more bits of orange and dill. For my entree, I chose skate wing (photo) served over couscous and under a little salad. The white-meat skate was lightly breaded and roasted in a pan. It was thick, moist and delicious.


I finished with roasted peaches and shortbread, but asked the waiter not to bring me the accompanying vanilla ice cream. The meal left me feeling full and contented. With a 15% tip, I rounded up the bill to $30. 


This was my third $24.07 lunch in two weeks, so American Express will give me a $15 statement credit, bringing the cost of each of these excellent lunches to $25, including, tax and tip.


Walking back to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, I encountered police closing a portion of Eighth Avenue because of a bomb scare. I stopped at Starbucks for black coffee and sat in the window to watch the fascinating parade of tourists and New Yorkers strutting by.

Anthos, 36 W. 52nd St., New York, N.Y.; 212-582-6900.

Anthos New Greek Cuisine

Hair in my salad and other $20 lunch stories

I have been sampling some of Manhattan's finest spots during Restaurant Week for at least a decade, starting when a three-course lunch was priced according to the year: $19.96, $19.97 and so forth. A couple of years ago, with little fanfare and no notice in the media, the meal jumped from twenty dollars and change to $24.07. Sometimes, I still call it the $20 lunch.

Today, I drove into the city by myself for a fine meal at Artisanal Fromagerie & Bistro on East 32nd Street, and the waitress was nice enough to substitute a cheese plate for the high-calorie desserts listed on the price-fixed menu. As it turned out, it was the least she could do.

I started with the mesclun salad, served in a deep bowl, and just as I was remarking to myself how nicely dressed it was, I noticed a hair on the side of the bowl that came into view as I ate down the red- and green-leaf lettuce. When I pointed it out to the woman who seated a couple next to me, she whisked it away. I got another salad and apologies from three staff members.

My entree was a superb skate wing, breaded and served over a bed of miniature croutons, baby cauliflower and capers in a sweet blood-orange sauce, one of the chef's specialities. I finished with two cheeses, quince and bread.

The hair wasn't the only problem. I saw two flies, a tiny one that came out from who knows where when I was eating my salad and a larger one that seemed to be heading for my face and zigzagged at the last moment. I have seen flies in fine-dining places before, including Nobu and Tribeca Grill in Manhattan, and do not understand how the staff tolerates them. They are among the filthiest insects.

The $20 .... uh .... $24 lunch is sort of a game with me. I have been drinking only tap water since restaurants started charging for refills of iced tea, seltzer and so forth. I tip exactly 18%, up from 15% last year, but exclude the tax. Today, the check read $24.07 for food and $2.02 for tax. I added a $4.33 tip for a total of $30.42. Summer Restaurant Week is scheduled to end this coming Friday, when I'm planning to join a friend for the $24.07 lunch at Del Posto, the enormously expensive Italian place opened by Chef Mario Batali and others.