This week, we go shopping for tires, tofu and turkey necks

Whole Foods Market at Bergen Town Center in Paramus.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

It's no secret Costco Wholesale has great prices on food, especially for a growing number of organic items.

But the Hackensack warehouse store is just as appealing for its inexpensive clothing -- including 100% cotton dress and casual shirts for men, and slacks imported from Italy -- and even tires, among many other non-food products.

This week, I sent my wife to Costco's tire store for Michelin Energy Saver tires for her 2010 Toyota Prius, a gas-electric hybrid.

Instead, she came home with another fuel-efficient tire, the Michelin Defender, which has an astounding 90,000 mile tread-wear warranty, compared to 65,000 miles for the Energy Saver.

The tires were $115.99 each, but Michelin offered a coupon for another $70 off on the purchase of four. 

And we'll eventually get $14.89 back in credit card and Costco rebates on the total price of $496.64, including mounting and balancing.

The only disadvantage to buying tires at the Hackensack Costco is that you have to go elsewhere to have your wheels aligned.

Fresh wild-caught Ocean Perch from H Mart in  Little Ferry prepared with sweet peppers, above, and seasoned and pan fried, below. They were $2.99 a pound on Sunday, when the Korean supermarket offered free seafood tastings, including boiled octopus and broiled eel.

Tofu, mangoes and fish

At H Mart in Little Ferry on Sunday, I picked up fresh whole Ocean Perch for $2.99 a pound, and a 1-pound tray of Stewed Tofu for $5.99.

A tray of kimbap -- a seaweed, rice and vegetable roll with Korean pickles -- was $4.79.

Stewed tofu from H Mart, right front, can be eaten cold right out of the refrigerator or warmed up with other side dishes.

With a store card, a 15-pound bag of Hukukome Medium-Grain White Rice, product of the U.S.A., was on sale for $11.99, and a box of 16 mangoes was $10.99, a discount of $4.

A 16-portion box of Shin Ramyun, a spicy noodle soup, also was on sale, for $9.99.

Two packages of fresh Oyster Mushrooms were $2.49 or half price.

A seedless watermelon was on sale for $4.99, compared to a little larger watermelon I bought at ShopRite for $6.99.

Organic quinoa prepared in an electric cooker with organic black beans and organic diced tomatoes.

Turkey necks, salsa

I stopped at Whole Foods Market in Paramus on Tuesday for 16-ounce jars of Roasted Chipotle Salsa and Roasted Salsa Verde ($2.69 each).

For dinner, I used the chipotle salsa to poach the Icelandic haddock fillets my wife bought at Costco Wholesale for $8.99 a pound on Tuesday, the day she had the new tires installed.

At Whole Foods, I also picked up packages of frozen turkey necks and backs for soup ($1.99 a pound), and a 3-pound-plus package of fresh chicken drumsticks, also on sale for $1.99 a pound.

All Whole Foods poultry is antibiotic free.

I also found small, juicy Sonya Apples from New Zealand on sale for $1.99 a pound.

A can of Organic Black Beans was $1.29.

At home, the black beans went into a rice cooker along with two cups of organic quinoa, a can of organic diced tomatoes, four cups of organic chicken broth or water, and extra-virgin olive oil.

I served the quinoa dish with the haddock, using the salsa the fish was cooked in as a sauce.

Organic whole-wheat pasta

At ShopRite in Paramus, I stocked up on Luigi Vitelli-brand Organic Whole Wheat Pasta from Italy, including spaghetti, linguine and capellini.

At $1.25 for a 1-pound package, this is lowest price I've found for organic whole wheat pasta, beating Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's.

Also at ShopRite, Golden Pineapples were reduced to $1.97 each.

Reading the signs at Fairway and Whole Foods

Who knew we are supposed to rinse olives, which are cured with a lot of salt, according to this sign at Fairway Market in Paramus, and then dress them? I guess Fairway saved money by using a sign that says "New Yorkers" instead of "New Jerseyans."

Is there any need for a sign like this? Were customers throwing up all over the floor? It's in the bathroom of the Blimpie next door to Fairway Market. Fairway coffee is served there and there is a door between them, making Blimpie an annex of the supermarket. 

Signs are one of the things that shape the food-shopping experience in North Jersey.

At Corrado's Family Affair in Clifton and the cavernous Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, you won't find any signs telling you what is in the aisles, making shopping at the two stores a treasure hunt.

At Fairway Market in Paramus, you're constantly lectured about how good the food is and how great the prices are -- and both are an exaggeration.

In the years since the New York chain opened its Paramus store at the out-of-the-way Fashion Center, I have simply been unable to warm up to it.

I'm from Brooklyn, but I'm sick of Fairway's New York attitude.

Good coffee beans

I go there every couple of months to buy whole-bean coffee, but on Tuesday, I was suckered by a coupon for $10 off of a $75 purchase that I got in the mail.

We once bought 1-pound packages of salted cod from Fairway for $8.99, but then switched to Corrado's, which charged $6.99 and now charges $7.99 a package.

On Tuesday, I found out Fairway has raised the price for a 1-pound package of salted cod to $9.99. 

So, I bought 7 packages (the cod freezes beautifully), a pound of custom-ground coffee beans for $6.99 and sweet potatoes for 69 cents a pound. 

With $10 off, I paid $68.66. 

Does the cod smell?

I loved the young, female cashier, who picked up each sealed plastic package of cod by a corner to scan them and place  them in my reusable bag as if they were so many dead rats. 

She said she didn't want to get the smell of the salted fish on her hands, but when I sniffed a package and my hand, I couldn't smell anything.
 

Whole Foods Market in Paramus charges $3 for a Balthazar Bakery baguette that costs $2 at the bakery's retail shop in Englewood.



Breaking bread

Later on Tuesday, I stopped at Whole Foods Market in Paramus for a container of orzo and vegetable soup, and medium-roast coffee, which I drank black to enjoy its complex flavor.

Walking around the store, the familiar bag for the baguette from Balthazar Bakery in Englewood caught my eye.

The sign said "LOCAL" and "From New York," but on the back of the bag were the words "Englewood, N.J.," where Balthazar's wholesale bakery and small retail shop have been operating since late 2002.

So, I guess Whole Foods doesn't know this terrific baguette is even more local than it thinks.

But what really surprised me is that Whole Foods charges $3 for a baguette that costs $2 at the source.

Tasting and cooking notes -- in pictures

One of my favorite breakfasts got healthier when I asked the Golden Grill, on Queen Anne Road in Teaneck, to grill or broil fresh whiting fillets, which are normally fried.

Frozen sea scallops from Costco Wholesale were a little tough and a few contained fine grit. I made them with organic diced tomatoes, white wine and lemon juice.

I made a faux Cuban sandwich for my son, above, using a crusty baguette from Balthazar Bakery in Englewood. I had only two of the four ingredients, roast pork and Swiss cheese, and no heated press. My son doesn't like mustard, so I used Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce, and melted the cheese under the broiler, below.

I used pre-washed organic spring mix to garnish a sandwich of canned fish salad with sweet pepper, onion, garlic, apple, Dijon mustard, lemon juice and ground cumin.

A fluffy 10-inch frittata, above and below, was made with 7 organic whole eggs, smoked wild salmon, shredded cheese, low-fat organic milk, fresh and sun-dried tomatoes, and no-salt organic seasonings. I started it on top of the stove and finished it under the broiler, and served it with orgnaic brown rice and sweet plantains. Almost all of the ingredients came from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

At Whole Foods Market in Paramus, a briny Lobster and Corn Bisque is made without heavy cream. A small, 8-ounce cup is $3.74, including tax.

A 16-ounce cup of Organic Indian Chai, a spiced black tea, is $1.93 at Whole Foods.

Whole Foods' gorgeous antipasti will set you back $9.99 a pound. I'm happy with the assorted Italian olives with whole garlic for $3.99 a pound at Jerry's in Englewood.

A perennial favorite in our home is Valentina Mexican Hot Sauce (Extra Hot), with a black label, which we buy at Hackensack Market on Passaic Street.

An earlier version of canned-fish salad went great with Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix, cucumber, tomato, kimchi and za'atar thyme mixture.

I cook ahead hot cereal, pasta with sardines and other dishes in larger than unusual quantities to cut the time it takes to put a meal on the table. Here, fresh blackberries and low-fat milk were added to reheated 10-grain cereal and rough-cut oatmeal with pignoli nuts, dried cherries, black chia seeds and goji berries.

Super spicing your home-cooked meals

Fresh Icelandic haddock coated in spices and served with mashed sweet potatoes.

The spice mixture after I added a couple of ounces of Aleppo red pepper.

It didn't take long after our power was restored to shake off Hurricane Sandy, restock the refrigerator and freezer, and get back into preparing quick, nutritious meals at home.

Instead of huddling around the gas fireplace, we've resumed gathering for good breakfasts and dinners in our cozy kitchen.

One of the items I had almost ran out of before the storm hit Oct. 29 was a mixture of bread crumbs and ground spices I've been using for years to coat fish fillets, chicken, pork or beef before baking or roasting them in the oven. 

This is no-recipe cooking at its simplest and quickest, with the juices from the fish or meat rejuvenating the ground spices.

This week, I searched our cupboards and freezer for  spices -- new and old -- and combined them in a big plastic tub stained from all the ground red pepper it has held. 

I decided to streamline the ground-spice mixture by eliminating the bread crumbs and using many more spices than the ones I've long favored from Wick Fowler's 2-Alarm Chili Kit, which I would mail-order  by the case.

Post-Sandy breakfasts included callaloo and saltfish with sweet plantains and boiled green banana, above, and organic eggs with whole-wheat pasta and sardines, below.

I didn't discriminate between new bottles of spices and the old ones I found in the back of the closest, refrigerators or freezer.

I started with Organic No Salt Seasoning, Garlic Powder, Red Pepper Flakes, Ground Black Malabar Pepper, Dried Onion Flakes and other spices from Costco Wholesale.

I found a couple of old containers of Jamaican and Indian curry powders, Chinese Five Spice Powder and White Pepper; Corrado's Ground Ginger and Dried Mint Leaves. 

Korean Red Pepper, Cayenne Pepper and Ground Saigon Cinnamon also went into the mix. I didn't add salt, but had some spice mixtures with salt to add to the plastic tub. 

I can't think of any ground spice that wouldn't be appropriate for the Super Spice Mixture, and you can just continue to replenish the container as you use the mixture. 

For example, you can add a couple of ounces of ground cumin, which is what I did today.

I used the spice mixture to coat fresh, wild-caught haddock fillets from Iceland that I found at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack for $7.99 a pound.

I unwrapped the tray of fish, ran it under tap water, cut it up into smaller pieces and coated both sides with spices in the container, which I keep in the refrigerator.

Or you can spread the spices on a plate and coat the fish that way.

The fillets were ready after about 20 minutes at 350 degrees, and I served them with mashed sweet potatoes and wedges of lime.  

The heating system at the Little Ferry H Mart was broken today.

My wife went to Costco Wholesale in Hackensack today and Tuesday, and I shopped today at the ShopRite in Hackensack and H Mart in Little Ferry, a Korean supermarket, which had lights but no heat.

At Costco, a 10-pound bag of sweet potatoes from North Carolina was $5.99, 10 pounds of organic carrots were $7.99, a 1-pound package of Kirkland Signature Smoked Wild Alaskan Salmon was $15.39.

A 2-pound package of Jarlsberg Light sliced, reduced-fat cheese was $9.99, and 3 pounds of sodium-free California almonds I roast at home were $12.99.

At H Mart, a 15-pound bag of California-grown Kukuho Yellow Label Rice was on sale for $9.99. Other sale items were frozen Greenshell Mussels for $5.99 and a large bunch of fresh spinach for 99 cents.

At ShopRite, I bought the last three packages of antibiotic-free Readington Farms chicken legs and thighs for $1.89 a pound.

Now, the house is filled with the aroma of Curry Chicken.

But I'll be content with whole-wheat rigatoni in bottled marinara with added anchovies, which cook away but leave behind a robust taste; steamed spinach and a salad.   
  

 

Today, this omelet was made with Manchego cheese I didn't throw away.

After Hurricane Sandy knocked our power out on Oct. 29, we could still cook on our gas stove by igniting it with a match.

So, we cooked and ate what we could, supplemented by prepared food from Whole Foods Market; gave away a  lot of items from the freezer and threw away food.

But I didn't discard Tropicana orange juice in sealed cartons; Manchego, grated Pecorino Romano and another hard cheese; two jars of kimchi, olives, capers in brine, homemade pesto, ground spices, bread and tortillas. 

Laying in food for the holiday

Image via Wikipedia
At Costco Wholesale, you can find the same Parmigiano Reggiano displayed at this festival in Modena, Italy. The cheese has been made since before the Renaissance. 

Editor's note: Today, I discuss last-minute food shopping at Costco Wholesale, fresh fish at Whole Foods Market and Australian beef at ShopRite.

I was in and out of Costco Wholesale in about 20 minutes this morning, buying ingredients for a big salad we plan to serve to guests on Saturday.


I picked up a naturally raised, fully cooked Niman Ranch ham and large Tiger shrimp on previous visits to the Hackensack warehouse store, so I only had to nibble around the edges of our holiday menu.


I bought a second package of Andy Boy jumbo romaine hearts (six for $3.99), because that wonderful Earthbound Farms Organic Spring Mix sold at Costco doesn't always stand up well until its expiration date.


I also found pesticide-free Euro Farm Fresh seedless cucumbers (three for $3.99), and in view of tomato prices going through the roof, I picked up another 5 pounds of Sunset beefsteak tomatoes for $6.99 or about $1.20 a pound.


The romaine, tomatoes and cucumbers are going into the salad, along with fresh spinach, organic carrot,  sweet peppers and other ingredients I have on hand. 


We're having a Jamaican-American meal on Christmas Eve this year, in contrast to last year's Cuban-style dinner of roast pork, rice cooked with black beans, and yuca with garlic sauce we picked up at La Pola in West New York.


On Friday, we're planning to visit La Pola, at Palisade Avenue and 54th Street, to bring holiday greetings to owner Belarmino Rico, who named his Cuban sandwich shop after the small Spanish town where he was born.


On Saturday, our guests will be bringing curry goat, rice and peas, roast chicken and Jamaican potato salad to supplement the ham, shrimp, fish stuffed with okra and salad we plan to serve.


We've prepared a Jamaican drink from a herb called sorrel, with ginger and rum; and there are four bottles of non-alcoholic sparkling apple cider in the wine cooler.


For dessert, we'll serve fruit and cheese, including Kirkland Signature Parmigiano Reggiano from Italy I picked up at Costco ($12.69 a pound). The part-skimmed cow's milk cheese, aged for 24 months, has been made in Italy since before the Renaissance, according to the package. 


When I got home, I cut off the thick rind, then cut the wedge into three portions, wrapping them tightly.


I also bought organic carrot juice, organic 1% milk, Tropicana orange juice in 64-ounce cartons, crab and corn chowder, 3 pounds of raw almonds, reduced-fat sliced Swiss cheese and fresh Pacific cod fillet.


Go fish in Paramus


You'll find some of the freshest fish around displayed on ice at Whole Food Market in Paramus, and when the store puts seafood on sale, prices are competitive.


On Tuesday, I saw fillets of wild-caught sockeye salmon from Canada on sale for $9.99 a pound -- not much higher than Costco's frozen sockeye salmon fillets from Alaska. The Canadian fillets had been previously frozen.


I also saw whole sea bass landed at Barnegat Light (on the Jersey Shore), which is 63 miles from the store, according to a sign. The price was $9.99 a pound.


Grass-fed beef price cut


Through Saturday, ShopRite supermarkets have dropped the price of free-range, grass-fed Nature's Reserve Boneless Rib Eye Roast from Australia by $2, to $4.99 a pound with a store card. There is a limit of one.

A robust pasta sauce without meat

Image by stopthegears via Flickr

Try to cook pasta until it's a minute or two short of al dente, 
drain it and then finish it in the sauce.

You've seen those robust, red pasta sauces on menus, the ones made with lamb, rabbit, even wild boar. 


It's a ragu, yet it has nothing in common with the bottled sauce of the same name. So, what do you do if you want a ragu, but don't eat meat?


I tried to answer that question on Tuesday night, when I prepared a ragu of salted fish and cabbage for my dinner of whole-wheat pappardelle -- a sturdy, flat noodle that is nearly an inch wide.


My pasta dish was tasty, but the proportions were wrong: I used too much fish and not enough red sauce, so I added another jar of bottled Jersey Tomato sauce to the leftovers, which I refrigerated.


Next time, I'll use a 32-ounce bottle of Fairway Market pasta sauce, a half-pound of salted pollock, one quarter of a medium-size cabbage, a can of anchovies with their oil, Italian seasoning, three or four garlic cloves, and a half-pound of dried pasta.


First, sautee the garlic until it's fragrant, then add the cabbage, which you have to cut up into small pieces. Next, add the bottled sauce and the anchovies and oil, and simmer over a medium-low flame. Season with dried herbs.


Meanwhile, in a separate pot filled with water to cover the dried pollock or cod, boil the fish for about 30 minutes to get out some of the salt. Drain, rinse, chop it up and add it to the sauce. 


Ideally, you'll drain the pasta you've boiled in a third pot a minute or two before it's al dente, and finish it in the sauce.


Using salted fish and cabbage gives a Caribbean spin to the sauce, and a handful of dried red-pepper flakes wouldn't be out of place.


Good appetite.


Fair way or high way?


Earlier Tuesday, I drove to Fairway Market in Paramus to buy two pounds of Brazil Dark coffee beans (Turkish grind), on sale for $6.99 a pound.


I also picked up three, 32-ounce bottles of organic lemonade, peach lemonade and mango lemonade for $5.


But some of the other prices were too high: cherries for $4.99 a pound, compared to $3.99 at ShopRite (and as low as $2.49 a pound on sale); and a 2-pound bag of Canadian mussels priced by the pound, not by the bag.


When I saw "$3.99" on the sign, I thought it was for 2 pounds, as in other stores. But when the fishmonger threw the bag on the scale, I looked closer and saw the letters "lb." on the sign.


I told him to forget about it. At Whole Foods Market in Paramus, 2 pounds of Canadian mussels are $5.99 and $5.49 on sale. At H Mart, 2 pounds of Maine mussels are usually $2.99, but they are not as clean.


And, of course, Fairway shows its concern for New Jersey's environment by being one of the few stores that don't credit you 5 cents or 10 cents for bringing reusable bags.


Organic grapes


On the way home, I stopped at ShopRite in Paramus, but couldn't find the organic red grapes advertised in the store flier for $1.99 a pound. I bought several other items.


I found the organic grapes this morning at the ShopRite in Hackensack, but looking at the receipt now, I realize I was charged the price for conventional grapes -- 99 cents a pound -- even though "Organic" is written clearly on the plastic bag.

Looking for something good to eat

Image by Smitten with Kittens via Flickr

Don't add salt when cooking clams. They'll give up lots of salty water.

It's raining -- first a pounding on the roof that awoke me around 6:30 this morning and now a drizzle. The forecast is for more of the same through Thursday.

That means I won't be seeing much sun, so I need something good to eat for dinner.

I headed for Whole Foods Market in Paramus, where I saw some beautiful, whole red snapper on ice, and they were on sale.

The fish looked great, but I had wild salmon, flounder, fried whiting, fish sticks (pollock) and shrimp last week, so I was looking for something else.

I picked up my 14-year-old son at Bergen Community College in Paramus, where his arthritis fund-raising walk ended, and drove to Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

From the way some people were dressed, I figured they were coming directly from church. 

I was in luck. The seafood case held frozen Black Tiger prawns from Vietnam -- about 15 to the pound -- and wild Littleneck clams.

The farmed prawns were $9.50 a pound for four pounds, or $9.99 a pound, if you bought less. The clams were $3.49 pound.

The prawns are cleaned and ready to shell, season and marinate before I cook them quickly in hot extra-virgin olive oil. I'll steam open the clams with a little sake and lemon juice, and make yellow rice and salads.

That will make me feel better. Let it rain.

Good food, good behavior

Image via CrunchBase

I stopped at Whole Foods Market in Paramus for a cup of black coffee this afternoon, and had two brief -- but interesting -- conversations about food.

I sat at a table, and the tall, thin man on my left was beautifully dressed in a long overcoat, suit and tie, and polished black shoes. His hair was silver, and I complimented him on his outfit, noting, "You look prosperous."

A few feet away, a young Korean woman was dressing her two small children in their winter coats as they prepared to leave after having a bite to eat. The man on my left complimented her on how well-behaved her children were.

When they left, he said you don't see children misbehave in Whole Foods because of the high quality of the food. He added the children appreciate the good food their mothers buy for them.

"Are you saying that in a fast-food restaurant, children are out of control?" He said, yes, they are, then got up to leave.

I turned to the Asian woman on my right, and repeated what he had said. 

We talked about naturally raised food, and she mentioned her daughter is a vegetarian who eats only dairy and eggs. But she doesn't eat seafood, and will reject chocolate if the milk comes from a cow fed animal by-products (bits of dead animals) or another non-meat item if it has gelatin from an animal.

The woman said her relatives don't know what to serve her daughter. So she told them, "I don't eat anything with a face."

 

Three-minute meal. What's the catch?

Image via Wikipedia

It looks like meat. It feels like meat in your mouth. But these "beefless tips" are made from wheat gluten and soy protein, and come with Burgundy-wine sauce and vegetables, and rice -- in pouches. Sold under the Gardein label (garden protein), this refrigerated meal from Canada weighs a total of 10.5 ounces.


I plated the contents of the box, managing to squirt sauce on my shirt, pants, shoes and the kitchen floor. I microwaved the tips, sauce, rice and some leftover broccoli, carrot and red pepper for close to four minutes, but the rice remained hard.


I ate everything but the rice and put it back in the microwave for two more minutes, cooking it. The tips had a nice texture, but they didn't taste like any meat I have ever had. I was filled after finishing everything, but only because I ate a big romaine lettuce salad with slivered almonds a couple of hours earlier. I found Gardein's Burgundy Trio at Whole Foods Market in Paramus.

Click on the link below to go to the company's Web site and see other meatless meals that resemble chicken breasts, pulled pork and kabobs.


Garden Protein International

(Photo: Wheat gluten flour.)