Putting a delicious summer meal on the table for less than $7 a person

Fresh whole wild-caught whiting were $1.99 a pound on Sunday at H Mart, 260 Bergen Turnpike in Little Ferry. Six of them, enough to feed four, were only $7.72.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Why whiting?

If you love whole fish, pan-fried whiting are among the easiest to eat, because of a single center bone surrounded by flaky morsels of sweet flesh.

A Sunday dinner with whiting, sauteed greens, a salad and fruit for dessert costs under $7 a person.

That's a guesstimate for a meal that included lettuce and fruit I had on hand, and leftover organic brown rice as a side dish for other family members.

After washing, cutting up and spin drying, Chinese Broccoli is easy to saute with olive and sesame oils, a little red wine, and such seasonings as garlic powder, red-pepper flakes and sea salt.

  

AT H Mart in Little Ferry, I bought almost 2 pounds of Chinese Broccoli, which was on sale for 98 cents a pound.

I also had a salad of Romaine Lettuce with grape tomatoes from my garden, dressed with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

How long will DePiero's be around?

The entrance to DePiero's Country Farm store on a hill in Montvale.

Stairs to the store's gift and housewares loft.

No visit to Montvale would be complete without stopping at the hilltop store of DePiero's Country Farm.

Unfortunately, all of the fresh, local produce and the relaxed food-shopping experience soon may be just a memory.

If town officials approve, half of the farm's 55 acres will be used to build a huge Wegmans Food Market, displacing the homey farm store.

The Wegmans would be the chain's first store in Bergen County.

The Wegmans in Woodbridge is an enormous 140,000 square feet -- bigger than any other supermarket in Bergen.

Photos of the Woodbridge Wegmans 

On Monday, I stopped at DePiero's for a large cup of soup and purchased sweet corn, romaine lettuce, basil and leeks, all grown on the farm.

Fragrant basil, above. Romaine lettuce and leeks, below.

In late afternoon, customers arrived in twos and threes, but the store never got crowded.

The thick, meatless lentil soup was delicious.

When I got home, I shucked and steamed the bi-color corn, which was sweet and need nothing (6 ears for $3.50). 

It was far superior to corn I picked up last week at the Ramsey Farmers' Market.

I chopped some of DePiero's fresh basil, along with oregano and mint from my garden, to use with fresh wild king salmon on Tuesday night.

I plan to use the rest of the basil to make pesto, which is wonderful with fish.

A plastic spoon stood up easily in the thick soup.

Halloween costumes are available now.

DePiero's greenhouse.

DePiero's Country Farm Store, 300 W. Grand Ave., Montvale; 201-391-4576. Open 7 days until 6 p.m.

Web site: An Old-Fashioned Farm

Does anybody still eat iceberg lettuce?

Image by joana hard via Flickr

What's the attraction of iceberg lettuce? Does it have any nutritional value?

You can't miss rising produce prices, but now, ShopRite supermarkets north of Trenton are doing something about it.

The sales flier in my newspaper this morning labeled three deals with the word "WOW!" in red -- store-made Italian sausage, DiGiorno Pizza and California-grown iceberg lettuce for 99 cents a head (24 size), a price cut of 50 cents, with a store card.

Limit is 1, but before you rush out the door, the sale doesn't start until Sunday, April 3. 

Does anybody still eat iceberg lettuce? Isn't it just cheap filler used by restaurants in salads or put on the plate as decoration to hold tuna salad?

I can't remember the last time I ate iceberg. During road trips in the 1960s and 1970s, my older brother used to walk into diners and loudly demand "hearts of lettuce," meaning the best part of the iceberg, if that's even possible.

Image via Wikipedia

Romaine lettuce goes green.

Romaine lettuce is far better, but for my money, I prefer Earthbound Farms organic spring mix from Costco in Hackensack, where one pound of this delicious, multicolored salad was $4.39 on Thursday.

The price for the pre-washed salad fluctuates, and has been as high $4.99, but that's $2 less than ShopRite and other supermarkets. A one-pound package yields seven medium-size or five large salads, and the mix makes a great sandwich stuffer.

If you insist on iceberg or romaine lettuce, I am sure you can do far better than ShopRite on price for that item and others at Brothers Produce on East Railway Avenue in the Paterson Farmers' Market.

 

Stopping at Stop & Shop

Image via Wikipedia

I had an errand today near the Super Stop & Shop in north Hackensack, and stopped in to see what was on sale.


I found a special on Wallaby-brand organic yogurt in 6-ounce cups at four for $3 or 75 cents each -- 4 cents less than at BJ's Wholesale Club in Paramus. I bought eight cups of the flavored yogurt. My wife prefers Wallaby to Stonyfield Farm organic yogurt, and I agree with her.


What looked like a half gallon of Tropicana orange juice (two for $6) was actually only 59 ounces, instead of 64 ounces.

In produce, I had trouble trying to figure out the signs. The only sign for romaine lettuce I saw said $1.99 each and had "Organic" written above it, but when I got to the register, the big head I chose rang up at $1.50 or two for $3, and likely is conventional, not organic. It weighed about two pounds.

On the way home, I stopped at Sahara Fine Foods for 11 cans of Al Shark-brand Moroccan sardines in spicy oil, at 99 cents each (not skinless and boneless). A 16-ounce jar of Beirut-brand tahini sauce was $3.99.

It's a good thing I picked up the romaine lettuce, because when I wanted to make a salad with Earthbound Farm organic spring mix for dinner tonight, I found it had started to rot, and it has a use-by date of Oct. 25. I plan to take it back to Costco in Hackensack for a full refund.

Stop and Shop, 380 W. Pleasantview Ave., Hackensack; 201-342-6030.


Sahara Fine Foods, 242 S. Summit Ave., Hackensack; 201-487-7222.

At La Ziza Restaurant in Clifton

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

La Ziza is a Lebanese restaurant near the Paterson Farmers' Market that opened recently in the space once occupied by Al Assayad.

Unfortunately, the use of a hookah (photo) is allowed in the dining room, a concession to smokers that drove me away from the old place.

Luckily, only a few other tables were occupied while I had dinner last night, and I didn't find the fruity smoke a problem. I asked Jamal, the waiter, if smoking the water pipe improved the appetite, and he said he didn't think so.


I watched people at the next table as they ate, then smoked a little and then returned to eating. I still don't get it.


At the old place, to get away from the smoking, we asked to be seated on the second floor. But the service was poor, because the waiter had to run up and down the stairs.


Fortunately, the food at La Ziza is good enough to persuade me to return with my wife and son.


After I placed my order, I got the usual plate of pickles and olives, and warm, chewy pocket bread, which, as is the custom at Arabic restaurants, is microwaved in the plastic bag (with a small opening).


I enjoyed a fatoush salad ($6.95), which combines romaine lettuce with cucumbers, tomato, onion and fried bread chunks in a lemony dressing that includes powdered sumac. I wasn't sure whether it was sumac, because it lacked the sourness of the sumac used in the za'atar thyme mixture.
 
I ordered the fried whiting listed on the menu ($12.95), and received a platter of rice with fried bread sandwiching four whole fish, each about seven to eight inches long. They had been quickly fried, leaving a crunchy tail and head and moist flesh along the bone. Wonderful. I ate two fish there and the rest for dinner tonight at home.


Strong, smooth Arabic coffee came in a small pot ($2), enough for two cups.


This would be a terrific place for maza, the meal of small plates chosen from the appetizers, such as fava beans and spicy potatoes, to name just two of the meatless items. But carnivores will find plenty of meat throughout the menu.

La Ziza Restaurant, 341 Crooks Ave., Clifton
(Crooks Avenue divides Paterson and Clifton);
973-772-2700.

For an update on La Ziza, see North Jersey-style food run