Trader Joe's typo, salty sauce, Green Pans, Whole Foods fly and more

At Trader Joe's in Paramus on Friday, the sign said a new, larger bag of Organic Sweet Potatoes weighs 6 pounds, but when I got one home, I looked at the label and found it actually weighs 5 pounds, below.

Still, at $1 a pound, Trader Joe's has the lowest price I've seen for Organic Sweet Potatoes. These are from North Carolina, not California, as I wrote earlier.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Have you heard the big news about sweet potatoes at Trader Joe's?

At the Paramus store on Friday, the old 3-pound bag of Organic Sweet Potatoes had been replaced with a 6-pound bag -- or at least that's what the sign said.

The sign was wrong, but I welcome the larger, 5-pound bag for $4.99 or about $1 a pound.

That's what ShopRite charges for conventional sweet potatoes when they are not on sale.

I've been trying to buy only organic to avoid pesticides in conventional sweet potatoes, because I always eat the skin after I bake or boil and mash them with extra-virgin olive oil. 

Sweet potatoes are not only delicious, they are a great bread substitute if you are trying to lose weight.

A 2-pound bag of conventional Sweet Potatoes at Trader Joe's is $1.69.

BAGEL BAN: A hearty breakfast of two organic eggs with organic sweet potatoes and garlic cloves, which I boiled and mashed with extra-virgin olive oil and a dozen seasonings.

A 1-pound bag of Organic Whole Wheat Fusilli Pasta at Trader Joe's is $1.49, compared to $1.25 for the imported Luigi Vitelli-brand at ShopRite supermarkets.

Bottle pasta sauces contain a lot of sodium, and Trader Giotto's Tomato Basil Marinara is no exception, with 24% of the daily recommended limit in a half-cup. That's a good reason to never salt the water you use to boil pasta. Some Victoria and Classico bottled sauces have less sodium, 18% and 13%, respectively.

At Costco Wholesale in Teterboro, a twin pack of 10- and 12-inch Green Pans was $33.99 after an instant $6-off coupon. In June, I bought my first 10-inch Green Pan from Amazon.com for $29.99.

On Friday, I stopped for a cup of coffee at Whole Foods Market in Paramus, where I usually look at the prepared food but never buy any. I saw a fly over this food, and it landed on the basket, left. Then, an employee came out and said, yes, he had seen the fly but didn't know where it was now.

At Target in Paramus on Friday, I saw this 12-cup coffee maker on sale for $15.99, but later found it on Amazon.com for slightly less in white, the color I wanted, and ordered it.

At ShopRite, naturally raised Australian beef isn't created equal

Clayton's 100% Organic Ground Beef, which is free of harmful antibiotics, is one of the two brands of naturally raised Australian beef available at ShopRite. 

Three 1-pound packages of Clayton's 100% Organic Ground Beef often go on sale for $4.99 each at the Paramus ShopRite, 224 Route 4 east.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

ShopRite supermarkets in five states, including New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, sell two brands of naturally raised Australian beef.

The cooperative probably is the biggest retailer of organic and free-range, grass-fed beef outside of Whole Foods Market.

Grass-fed Australian beef is said to be leaner and to have fewer calories than American beef.

In addition, Australian beef boasts of containing more heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids, such as those found in salmon and other fish.

The United States is the second-biggest market for beef from Australia after Japan.

Nature's Reserve beef -- which is marketed as free range and 100% grass fed -- was the first Australian brand sold at ShopRite, usually in a whole beef tenderloin for filet mignon that retails for several dollars a pound less than the same domestic cut.

Although I no longer eat beef, other members of the family enjoy this cut thinly sliced, grilled on the stove-top and eaten wrapped in red-leaf lettuce leaves, a home version of Korean cook-on-the table barbecue restaurants. 

Nature's Reserve beef once was marketed as antibiotic free.

See the Nature's Reserve Web site:

'Good for the animals, good for the land'  


New beef in town

At the end of 2012, ShopRite introduced antibiotic-free Australian beef raised on organic farms and sold under the Clayton's brand name.

Clayton's 100% Organic Beef is raised on organic grass, organic sorghum and organic corn, all of which are free of genetically modified organisms.

See the Clayton's Organic Web site:

'Beef the way it used to be'

Nature's Reserve 100% Grass Fed Beef usually sells for $4.99 a pound at the Paramus ShopRite, above and below. Nature's Reserve markets meat raised on many Australian farms.

Clayton's Organic Beef also is available as Top Round London Broil, above, and as steaks.

Nature's Reserve beef often goes on sale for as little as $5.99 a pound.

ShopRite ends payments for bringing reusable bags to store

You can still recycle shopping bags, food wrapping, plastic wrap, dry cleaner bags and other plastic at ShopRite stores, such as the one in Paramus, above.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I got the bad news on Thursday when I stopped at the ShopRite in Paramus to pick up fruit and sweet potatoes.

When the woman at the checkout didn't deduct 5 cents for my reusable bag, I asked her what was up.

It turned out that five days earlier, ShopRite stopped giving customers 2 cents back for plastic shopping bags and 5 cents back for reusable bags, according to a notice hanging nearby.

The notice said the supermarket chain had met its "goal of educating customers and encouraging bag reuse."

That leaves Whole Foods Market as the only supermarket chain I patronize in North Jersey that gives cash back for reusable bags (10 cents per bag).

H Mart, a small chain of Korean supermarkets, discontinued its cash-back program, and Trader Joe's and New York-based Fairway Market never had one.

Costco Wholesale, where I spend most of my food dollars, never bagged customer purchases.

ShopRite claims that "over the past seven years, our customers have reused more than 321 million bags."  

How ShopRite saves money

According to nyc.gov, ShopRite's "Save-A-Bag" program began in 1990, and has saved the supermarket chain $1.5 million by reducing bag purchases.

The savings to consumers is put at $1.2 million.

ShopRite Supermarkets (Wakefern Food Corp.) is the largest retailer owned food cooperative in the United States, with more than 190 stores in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Delaware and Pennsylvania, according to the Web site.

See: Promoting bag reuse at ShopRite

Today's special at H Mart: $2.99 each or two for $6

Seen on Saturday morning at the H Mart in Englewood, part of a chain of Korean supermarkets celebrating its 30th anniversary in the United States.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Price signs continue to be a problem for food shoppers, whether they patronize a ShopRite or an H Mart.

On lower shelves, the signs are unreadable unless you get down on your hands and knees.

Often, products are misplaced on the shelf over the wrong sign, and instead of a deal, you get sticker shock at the register.

H Mart, formerly Han Ah Reum, is a chain of Korean supermarkets in New Jersey that is celebrating its 30th anniversary in America.

But the five H Marts I patronize in Englewood, Little Ferry, Fort Lee (2) and Ridgefield act as independent stores -- with different retail and sales prices, coupons, late-day discounts and sales.

Sign, label confusion

On Saturday at the Englewood H Mart, I saw Rico Garlic Paste for $2.99 each, according to the shelf sign, or a "special" of two for $6, according to a sticker on the jar.

The Englewood store also offers prepared food, and one of my favorites is spicy stewed Alaskan pollock, a cousin of the cod.

Jinga, one of the caterers that supplies H Mart, recently hiked the price for a 1-pound package of stewed pollock to $8.49 from $6.99.

Next to it on the shelf was a similar package of stewed pollock from Pinocchio, another outside company, for $7.49, but I couldn't compare the two, because the Pinocchio label listed the weight as "0 lb. 2 oz."

Shin Ramyun, a spicy instant noodles soup, is available in individual 2.6-ounce cups, above, and "Family Packs" of 4.2-ounce servings, below. The cups were on sale Saturday at the Englewood H Mart, but each serving contains 66% of the daily recommended sodium intake, compared to 43% for the larger portions.

The label on Pinocchio Catering's Stewed Alaskan Pollock has shoppers guessing at the correct weight.

At the H Mart in Englewood, I bought a 56-ounce tin of Kadoya Pure Sesame Oil from Japan on sale, but had to return to the store for a lesson on how to close it. The can has a three pictographs instructing you on how to open the can, but none on how to close it. The sale ends today.

ShopRite sales, price breaks and other fine print

ShopRite's newspaper flier stated clearly the "sale starts" on Aug. 25, but there are "price breaks" on other items that don't go into effect until days later.

Nature's Reserve free-range, grass-fed beef from Australia was on "sale" starting last Sunday for $8.99 a pound. But there is a "price break" starting on Wednesday, knocking $2 more off each pound. Other items are covered by an "all-week price break" from last Sunday through Saturday.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

ShopRite's sales fliers are getting as hard to interpret as Manhattan parking regulations or the Talmud.

When "sale" appears in a ShopRite newspaper flier, it isn't the last word, and other items may be discounted through "price breaks."

But "price breaks" aren't always available during the full sale period, as I found out on Monday, when I went to my Hackensack ShopRite to buy Nature's Reserve Whole Beef Tenderloin for Filet Migon.

The sale started on Sunday, but the price break on the free-range, grass-fed beef from Australia doesn't start until Wednesday, meaning I'll have to return to the store.

Luckily, I also went to pick up 48-ounce containers of Turkey Hill Ice Cream for $1.97, a savings of $1.32; and Eggo Waffles for $1.47, a discount of $1.20.

Those items were discounted under an "all-week price break" (Sunday to Saturday).

A sign at H Mart in Little Ferry said this 15-pound bag of California-grown white rice is  "free" with a coupon.

H Mart is first stop

Of course, when meat-eating members of my family prepare Korean barbecue, they marinate the thin slices of Australian beef in bulgogi sauce, grill the meat, steam white rice and wrap everything in red-leaf lettuce.

We were out of white rice and red-leaf lettuce, so before I went to ShopRite on Monday, I stopped at H Mart in Little Ferry.

H Mart has been heavily discounting 15-pound bags of Kokuho Yellow Label California-grown rice, normally $14.99.

Last Wednesday, I saw it at the Englewood H Mart for $7.99, but the store had sold out.

At the Little Ferry H Mart, the rice was "free" with a coupon or $9.99 without.

I got the coupon from the customer service counter, but didn't read it carefully enough: 

The rice is "free" when you purchase $100 in other items.

I also picked up 2 heads of red-leaf lettuce for 99 cents each, and a bottle of B.B.Q. Bulgogi Beef Marinade for $2.99, because it had the least sodium.

Wild salmon still swimming our way

Image via Wikipedia
An amazing sockeye salmon. 

Editor's note: Today, I discuss the continued availability of wild Alaskan sockeye salmon at Costco Wholesale; brown rice that requires no soaking, and visits to H Mart and ShopRite.

The taste of fresh wild-caught salmon from Costco Wholesale is just a memory, but you can still find frozen fillets and smoked sockeye salmon from Alaska at the warehouse store.


After checking out on Monday at the Hackensack store, I asked one of the managers about a comment I received from another customer, saying Kirkland Signature's preservative-free Wild Alaskan Smoked Sockeye Salmon had been discontinued as of Dec. 1.


I had found a couple dozen packages on the shelf, and the manager punched in the code from the one I purchased ($15.39 for 1 pound).


He said his computer still listed it as an "active" item, not as discontinued, and that he had 600 1-pound packages in the store.


The previously frozen smoked salmon is sliced, so it's easy to use over a salad or rolled up with a slice of cheese, if you're avoiding bread to lose weight, as I am. I also put pieces of the salmon in cheese omelets.


I also picked up a 3-pound bag of Kirkland Signature frozen Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon fillets for $28.99 or about $9.65 a pound. That's more than the fresh sold for this year, and it's a dollar a pound or so more than the frozen fillets cost last year.


I've tried cooking these fillets a couple of ways, but get best results when I put them on a clear-glass plate, add lemon juice, a little soy sauce, white wine or sake, and put the plate inside a covered, 12-inch steamer I found at H Mart, the Korean supermarket.


Whether I make them rare for me or cooked through for the rest of the family, the fillets stay moist, and the sauce is great over white or brown rice.


Talking about brown rice, the Della-brand organic long-grain brown rice I found at Costco last week requires no soaking, a real time saver.


We've made this delicious brown rice twice in our electric cooker, and it was ready and perfectly al dente in about 30 minutes. 


The key is the recommended use of two and a half cups of water for each cup of rice, more water than other brown rices call for and more water than the rice cooker calls for. For a softer rice, the package says to use even more water per cup of rice.


Food-o-rama


Monday was a busy food-shopping day for me and my wife as we prepare for the holidays. Separately, we visited five food stores.


After an hour in the cardiac-rehab gym at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, I stopped at the Englewood ShopRite with a Lipitor $4 Co-Pay card.


While there, I picked up 4 pounds of naval oranges for $2.49 with a store card.


I went to the H Mart in Little Ferry later for prepared stewed tofu and stewed pollock, but found none on the refrigerated shelf.


To avoid a total loss, I bought a large jar of beef barbecue marinade for $3.99 or $1.50 off -- to use with the Australian grass-fed beef that's on sale at ShopRite this week.


H Mart gave me 10 cents back for my re-usable bag.


At Costco, besides the frozen and smoked salmon, I bought 5 pounds of tangerines from Florida for $3.99 and 5 pounds of lemons from Chile for $6.99. Three pounds of bananas were $1.39 and 5 pounds of crisp Jona Gold apples were $5.99.


My wife stopped at the Englewood ShopRite, Hackensack Market and Happy Fruit Market, a Korean grocer in Teaneck.


Related posts

• Wild salmon with pesto and Jersey peaches (doyoureallyknowwhatyoureeating.blogspot.com)
• Wild salmon with ripe mango (doyoureallyknowwhatyoureeating.blogspot.com)
• Holiday hits and misses at Costco (doyoureallyknowwhatyoureeating.blogspot.com)

Thai favorite needs a makeover

Image by scaredy_kat via Flickr
Spicy Panang curry is typical of Wondee's fare, though this dish was photographed elsewhere.

Editor's note: Today, I report on Wondee's, my favorite Thai restaurant; the inspirational story of a young food blogger who was born without a functioning digestive system; and continued confusion over whether growth hormones are used to raise grass-fed Australian beef.

Wondee's Fine Thai Food and Noodles in Hackensack is one of our fallback restaurants -- the place we go when the four of us can't decide where to eat or don't want to risk disappointment at a new venture. 


The food served at our last few meals there has been as good as ever -- crunchy, green-papaya salad; Thai fried rice, and whole, fried fish or jumbo shrimp in a sweet chili sauce -- and prices are reasonable, even after a recent increase. 


But when I looked around at the plain decor and worn carpeting, I was let down, even though I'm one of those people who feel you can't eat the wallpaper, so what difference does it make what the place looks like? 


I thought, Here's a great, reasonably priced restaurant that is in need of a makeover to showcase the talents of the chef-owner, Wandee Suwangbutra, who was hired to open several Thai restaurants in Manhattan before venturing out on her own.


On Saturday, we used the rear parking lot, across Camden Street from the public library, and sent our 14-year-old son in to get a table, while I parked.


We usually sit near the big plate-glass window on Main Street, but found our son at a  table next to the kitchen doors, opposite a serving station. The back of my seat was near an uneven, sloping part of the floor covered in worn carpeting.


When you use the rear entrance, you have to step up, something I don't always remember. To get to the small, plain restrooms, you have to step down. The walls are painted or covered in mirrors, with just the bare minimum of Thai-themed decoration.


It was between 5:30 and 6. We could hear a noisy group in a section of the L-shaped dining room we couldn't see, and tables were arranged for a party of eight, or so it seemed.


The only place for my car coat was the back of my chair and it dragged on the floor. My wife put my wool baseball cap in her lap after it fell to the floor twice. 


In view of my son's insistence on ordering won ton soup with pork and complaining that I order whole fish "all the time," we shared salads and a jumbo-shrimp entree, but I could eat only a little of the fried rice with vegetables, avoiding the pork, because I'm not eating meat.


I felt uncomfortable in my seat, but got through the meal and didn't kill myself on the uneven floor surfaces getting up to use the bathroom.


I brought one bottle of beer to the BYO. Service was good, as usual, but for the first time, we had to send back our entree, because the big shrimp were under-cooked.


Wandee herself came out of the kitchen, mopped up a puddle of sauce on the table and placed the replacement dish in front of us, explaining some customers ask for their shrimp just barely cooked. 


Not far away on Main Street is Bangkok Garden, a relatively expensive Thai place with a liquor license. I recall from a visit more than five years ago that it is nicely decorated.


Whole fish at Wondee's is $18; at Bangkok Garden, it is listed at $24.95 on the online menu.


Wondee's could do with a renovation. 


It's no kitchen nightmare, but wouldn't it be nice if Chef Gordon Ramsay stumbled in, embraced the warm and welcoming Suwangbutra family, and gave it a free makeover?


Wondee's, 296 Main St., Hackensack; 201-883-1700.


Kitchen artist


Her parents named her Matisse, but she was born without a functioning digestive system, according to today's Parade magazine.


Then, in December 2010, the Reid family moved to the United States from New Zealand so Matisse could receive a new small and large intestine. Her first meal? Squid.


Now, the 10-year-old seafood lover is writing a cooking blog, Matisse's Kitchen, which I have added to my Blog List at the right.


Beef confusion


I relied on information from Meat and Livestock Australia Ltd. (MLA)  in writing a recent post about Nature's Reserve grass-fed beef, which is sold at ShopRite.


After I published the post, O say can you taste the grass?, I was contacted and told MLA had given me the wrong information: growth hormones are used in raising the cattle in Australia.


Last week, I received an e-mail from MLA, saying the Nature's Reserve Web site has been re-launched. I took a look and it says, "Raised without added hormones."


Well, at least Nature's Reserve beef is 100% grass fed from start to finish, and doesn't contain antibiotics or animal by-products -- kitchen scraps and bits of dead animals fed to cattle raised on feed lots in the U.S.


ShopRite is having a sale through Dec. 17 on Nature's Reserve Whole Beef Tenderloin for Filet Mignon at $8.99 a pound or $6.99 a pound with a store card.


Here is a link to the Nature's Reserve Web site: 


Nature's Reserve Beef from Australia

Free-range, grass-fed steaks go on sale

Image via Wikipedia


Boneless beef rib-eye steaks and boneless shell steaks from Australia are on sale today through Aug. 20 at ShopRite supermarkets north of Trenton.


This beef is sold under the Nature's Reserve label. It is free range and grass fed. The price is $3.99 a pound with a store card.


Grass-fed beef is not as fatty as beef raised conventionally, usually on grain. It also cooks faster and tastes best when cooked rare to medium rare.


Third Gammeeok


A new branch of Gammeeok, a Korean restaurant known for its unusual kimchi service, has opened on the second floor of a building at 110 Broad Ave. in Palisades Park (201-945-6300).


The first Gammeeok in North Jersey opened at 485 Main St. in Fort Lee (201-242-1333). The original is in Manhattan. The name is pronounced GAM-yo.


At the stylish Fort Lee restaurant, kimchi is brought to the table in what looks like a vase, and the long pieces of cabbage coated with red pepper are cut and served to customers.


The new Gammeeok offers an $11.95 lunch special of soup, fish, rice and side dishes, which I saw displayed on a table near the entrance. The space is smaller than in Fort Lee, but beautifully renovated with heavy beams of wood.


A popular dish in Fort Lee is bibimbap -- a combination of rice, vegetables and ground beef topped with a raw egg, all served in a hot stone bowl.


You add hot sauce to this comfort food and mix up the ingredients with a spoon before eating it. You can ask the restaurant to hold the beef and cook the egg.

Rotting mango, seedless melon and lobster

Image via Wikipedia

Try finding a better-tasting tomato than these hothouse-grown beauties.

Brothers Produce in the Paterson Farmers' Market has some of the lowest prices around, but quality isn't always guaranteed.

I bought four, small champagne mangoes at two for $1 last week, and when my wife peeled them, she found many brown spots. She showed me the plate with what was left, and it looked like I brought home only two.

On Tuesday, I found a box of 16 champagne mangoes at H Mart in Little Ferry for $8.99, or about 56 cents each. The green mangoes are ripening on my kitchen counter.

At Brothers on Tuesday, I bought six ounces of blackberries for $1.99 (though I thought the sign said $1.79), but found 18 ounces of the same Mexican blackberries for $3.99 at Costco Wholesale today, a better buy.

Costco prices fall

Some Costco tomato prices are falling.

The Sunset-brand Campari tomato -- small, round and delicious -- were $4.49 for 2 pounds today, $1 less than before.

The gourmet beefsteaks from Sunset still are $5.99 for 5 pounds, but that works out to $1.20 a pound, compared with $2.25 a pound for the smaller tomato.

I watched a man handling the beefsteak tomatoes, examining a few and switching them from box to box before I told him I didn't want him touching the tomatoes.

He was unmoved, showing me one that was split in a few places. At checkout, the Costco cashier counted my beefsteaks in the open box, explaining that people try to get away with a few extra.

Three large, gourmet cucumbers were $3.29. They reached a peak of $3.79 not long ago.

H Mart prices ease

H Mart prices also are falling. I picked up two heads of red-leaf lettuce for $1, compared to a high of $1.79 for a single head. 

Some beautiful baby bokchoy were $1.49 a pound, and a few bunches made a nice, bright-green addition to homemade cheese-tortellini soup Tuesday night.

Watermelon watch

Seedless watermelon are on sale at ShopRite for $3.99 each through Memorial Day -- a savings of $3 and the lowest price I've seen this season.

Live lobster also is on sale for $5.99 a pound through the holiday.

Wasted trip

Garden State Market in Englewood is described as "gourmet" in another food blog, but when I visited today, I found a small market with large prices, and nothing really remarkable that I wanted to buy.

It shares a building with a dry cleaners on busy South Dean Street, just up the street from Balthazar Bakery's retail shop and a half-mile or so from Jerry's Gourmet & More. 

My advice: Don't brake as you pass Garden State Market on the way to those outstanding places.

Free-range beef, a 140-pound fish and other tales

Image via Wikipedia

When told the opah fish is from Hawaii, shoppers asked to see its birth certificate.

ShopRite supermarkets are running a sale on two cuts of free-range, grass-fed beef from Australia for $4.99 a pound with a a store card, $6.99 a pound without.

Boneless steaks or boneless rib-eye roasts are available, sold under the Nature's Reserve label and free of antibiotics and growth hormones. There is a limit of one package, and the sale ends Saturday.

Wowing shoppers

At Whole Foods Market in Paramus today, shoppers enjoyed samples of pineapple, cheese, matzo and opah, a fish from Hawaiian waters.

A 140-pound opah rested on ice at the fish counter, and a woman who took a photo with her cellphone camera asked an employee if it was real.

Here is what About.com says about the fish, pronounced oh-pah:

"A rich, creamy moonfish, it is served both as a raw appetizer as well as baked. Hawaiians consider opah to be a good-luck fish, and often used to give it away as a gesture of goodwill, rather than sell it."

As I purchased two pounds of mussels at the Whole Foods fish counter, other employees were removing the fish, presumably to fillet it. I didn't catch the price.

The farmed mussels from Canada, harvested on April 11, are for my dinner tonight.

Dinners from Costco

My wife and son are having Cuisine Solutions lamb shanks in a mint and rosemary sauce from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack ($6.29 a pound, fully cooked). 

Also at Costco on Saturday, I bought nearly 2 pounds of fresh, wild-caught Pacific cod fillets for Monday's dinner ($6.99 a pound), a pound of organic spinach ($4.29) and two pounds of trimmed French green beans ($5.79).

Four, 64-ounce containers of Tropicana orange juice were $10.99 and three half-gallons of Kirkland Signature organic 1% milk were $8.99.

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.

 

Special Korean food, grass-fed Australian beef and Lotus Cafe

A package of Stewed Tofu from Jinga, a Korean caterer based in Queens, N.Y., that I purchased from the H Mart in Little Ferry in February 2018. No MSG or artificial flavors or colors are listed on the ingredients label.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

Editor's note: This post on Korean caterers and supermarkets was written in November 2010, and updated in February 2018.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The five H Mart supermarkets in Bergen County are a great source of fresh fish and Asian greens, but they also stock some of my favorite prepared Korean dishes.

Three items I buy all the time are stewed tofu and stewed Alaskan pollock, both in a spicy red-pepper sauce, and japchae, translucent noodles with mushrooms, scallions and other vegetables.

What's great about them is a short ingredient list and no preservatives. The tofu, for example, is made with soy sauce, scallion, garlic, red-pepper paste and sesame oil.

Jinga, a company in Maspeth, N.Y., prepares the tofu and fish I bought in the Fort Lee store, though you can find store-made tofu in Little Ferry and Englewood. 

You get a pound of the small tofu slabs for $3.49. The pollock, which comes with onion, carrot and hot, green pepper, is $5.99 for 12 ounces. These chewy chunks of fish include the bone.

Sweet-potato flour is used for the noodles, $4.49 for 14 ounces. They are made by another company, Pinocchio Catering of Little Neck, N.Y.


The noodles are best when they are heated in the microwave, but the tofu and fish can be eaten right out of the fridge.


Here is the H Mart Web site:

Where to find H Mart stores 

2-day sale on Australian beef

ShopRite supermarkets in Rochelle Park, Paramus, Englewood and Hackensack will be selling free-range Australian beef for a low $2.99 a pound with a store card and $10 purchase -- two days only, Nov. 26 and 27. (I gave the wrong sale dates previously.)

The whole beef tenderloin for filet mignon, sold under the Nature's Reserve label, is said to be grass-fed and raised without antibiotics and growth hormones.

When I was eating beef, I would trim this tenderloin, slice it thin and place it in freezer bags with Korean bulgogi marinade.

If we were in the mood for Korean barbecue, we'd grill the beef on top of the stove and wrap it in red-lettuce leaves with spicy bean paste, garlic, scallion salad, kimchi and rice for a fun meal.

Good food close to home

What's for dinner? 

We were out of ideas for a home-cooked meal late Friday afternoon, and weren't in the mood for Chinese takeout, which we had the week before. The Korean tofu restaurant we love is in Palisades Park -- not the end of the world, but I just didn't feel like driving there.


Luckily, we live in Hackensack, less than two miles from Lotus Cafe, our favorite sit-down Chinese restaurant. As we walked toward the door, I noticed a full moon illuminating the parking lot.


Mr. Su, the owner, greeted us warmly, and in a few minutes we were enjoying a great meal:


We started with won ton soup for my son ($2.10), and creamy tofu-and-spinach soup for me and my wife to share ($4.95).


Our entrees were prawns in chili sauce and fillet of sole in black-bean sauce ($15.95 each). We also enjoyed water spinach sauteed with fresh garlic ($9.95), and three bowls of white rice.


Lotus Cafe has wonderful seafood. The prawns were fresh-tasting and soft, and thick chunks of fish had been breaded and sauteed with carrot, onion and sweet pepper.

Along with our chocolate fortune cookies, the waiter gave us a small plate of canned pineapple and lychee speared with toothpicks.

Details

Lotus Cafe, 450 Hackensack Ave., Hackensack,
in the Home Depot Shopping Center; 
open seven days, free parking, BYO.

Website: Order Online