A big week for seafood

Image by malias via Flickr

The H Mart in Little Ferry wasn't crowded when I dropped in on Monday, but a woman was ahead of me at the fish counter and her appetite seemed insatiable.

She already had the Korean fish monger weigh one of the whole cod fish and slice it into pieces for soup or stew. Now, she was discussing whether to buy two more, each about 3 pounds and buried in ice. I left in frustration.

The fish counter was my last stop in the Korean supermarket. I had a bunch of collard greens and prepared tofu and other food in my cart. I saw whole fluke on ice, but the price sign was missing. Then, I was told it was $2.99 a pound.

Fluke is relatively flat fish that is prized for sashimi -- slices of raw fish without rice. I like to have it cut into four or five cross-section slices, including the head and tail, and cook it with diced tomatoes, olive oil and Italian seasoning or with sake, fish and soy sauces, and sesame oil.

Instead of fluke for dinner Monday night, I prepared frozen cod and mahi-mahi in pasta sauce and served it with spinach penne and a salad. 

Casting a net at Costco

On the way home from H Mart, I stopped at Costco in Hackensack, where the fish case had lots of wild-caught haddock fillets and a whole red snapper that weighed 3 to 4 pounds.


As I wandered around, I discovered the Seafood Road Show, which usually arrives on Fridays, was already set up.

Again, other customers were ahead of me and I just didn't feel like waiting, but I plan to return on Friday and buy king crab legs, dry scallops and farmed prawns or shrimp for our Christmas dinner.

Costco sells large lobster tails at the Seafood Road Show, but they are treated with a preservative and I've never tried them.

For Christmas dinner, my wife and son will be having Cuban-style pork ribs, which we'll pick up on Friday in West New York, along with rice cooked with black beans, yuca and other typical dishes.

I plan to serve them Costco prawns and crab legs as an appetizer, and the seafood, along with the scallops, will be my dinner. I'll also be able to have yuca in garlic sauce and rice with black beans.

Seven-fish dinner

I've heard some Italian families have seven fish or seafood dishes for Christmas dinner, but I've never been invited to what I'd consider the perfect meal.

Seafood Road Show at Costco in Hackensack will be open all this week at

80 S. River Street, Hackensack; 201-487-5471.

Moors and Christians

Image via Wikipedia

For breakfast this morning, I topped rice cooked with black beans, heated in the microwave, with a plain omelet and Valentina hot sauce, and went to town. The rice-beans combination is called congris, a Cuban term for dirty rice, but it's also known as moros y cristianos or Moors and Christians (at left in photo), a term reflecting the Arab occupation of Spain that ended in 1492.

The moros were left over from our Cuban roast pork feast on Christmas Day -- accompanied by ham croquettes and a Spanish potato omelet -- all from Belarmino Rico, owner of a West New York Cuban sandwich shop called La Pola, the Spanish town where he was born. All that was missing was a salad I forgot to make in the rush of heating up the Cuban food and preparing lamb, a hamburger, a hot dog and mashed potatoes for three guests who don't eat pork. Next year, I'll sautee collard greens with garlic.

The roast pork I sliced and plated was moistened with an addictive garlic sauce or mojito, which also goes into Rico's Cuban sandwiches before they are heated. This morning, I sliced off the roast pork's skin and fat and put them in the oven to crisp up the skin and liquify the fat. I ate entirely too many pieces, but included something healthy in my breakfast -- a small bowl of cabbage kimchi.

Christmas Eve Cubano

We fought the holiday traffic today and drove to West New York, but, luckily, there was an empty parking spot waiting for us in the small lot next to La Pola Restaurant, self-described "King of the Cuban Sandwich." To that, I say, Amen.

Inside, proprietor Belarmino Rico, his wife, sons, grandchildren and merry band of helpful employees made and served hot sandwiches, or Cubanos, and packed up Christmas specialties his customers had ordered -- roasted hams, ribs and  whole, butterflied pigs; the rice-and-black beans combination called congris; tamales, Spanish potato omelets, plantain chips (photo) and chicharrones or fried pork rinds.

Rico, who was born in the Asturian village of La Pola in Spain, lived in Cuba and learned to make the sandwiches at his uncle's bodega in Havana.

My Christmas menu now is set:

Alaskan king crab and sweet corn chowder (Costco)
Cuban roast pork
Congris (white rice cooked with black beans)
Tortilla espanola (potato omelet)
Cuban ham croquettes
Organic spring mix salad
Wine
Pear and hazelnut galette (Balthazar Bakery)

One of my guests and her children don't eat pork, so I'll prepare Australian leg of lamb for her, and an organic hamburger and uncured hot dog for the kids, with mashed potatoes.

La Pola Restaurant, 5400 Palisade Ave (54th Street), 
West New York;  (201) 867-6028. Call for holiday hours.