Costco's Greek smoothie, Korean blood sausage, Arirang Kimchi

Langers Mango Nectar and Kirkland Signature Greek Yogurt are two of the ingredients in smoothies we make with fresh bananas and frozen strawberries and blueberries, all from Costco Wholesale.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Kirkland Signature Greek Yogurt has it all -- it's non-fat, packed with protein and calcium, and versatile.

We use the tangy yogurt to thicken fruit smoothies, garnish hot cereal, mix it with diced cucumbers and dried mint to eat over organic brown rice or quinoa, and as a stand-in for sour cream on baked sweet potatoes.

Two 32-ounce containers were $7.39 at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

Costco's Greek Yogurt and dried mint on a baked sweet potato served with an egg-white omelet.

A sweet potato with Greek Yogurt and pomegranate seeds, also from Costco, served with sauteed spinach and Jamaican ackee and salt fish.

Korean blood sausage, kimchi

I returned to Arirang Kimchi's new store in Ridgefield today to replenish my supply of its incomparable handmade cabbage or mahk kimchi.

The ingredients list is short: Nappa Cabbage, radish, salt, salted shrimp, red pepper, garlic, anchovy sauce, ginger, water, sugar, scallion.

A 5-pound bag is $7.99.

The crunchy kimchi will leave your lips tingling.

Next door at H&Y, a Korean supermarket, I grazed on free food samples, including several kinds of fruit, maple tree water and two types of fish cake in hot soup.

When I got home, I snacked on cabbage kimchi and a slice of Jun's Wild Sesame Tofu with gochujang, a spicy vinegared red-pepper paste.

One of the popular free weekend food samples at H&Y, a Korean supermarket in Ridgefield, is blood sausage, foreground. A woman who was eating a sample said the sausage is made with translucent noodles mixed with cow's blood. A package was $6.

Live abalone are available.

Jun's Tofu is made at H&Y, including soft tofu for soup ($3.50), left, and Wild Sesame Tofu, sold in 30-ounce blocks ($5), right. Jun's Tofu is non-GMO.

A delivery truck for Arirang Kimchi reflected in the glass of the store at 1 Remsen Place, Ridgefield, next to H&Y Supermarket.

Above and below, Arirang Kimchi ready to be delivered to Kang Ho Dong Baekjeong on East 32nd Street in Manhattan, a Korean barbecue restaurant owned by a famous comedian.

Arirang Kimchi, 1 Remsen Place, in the H&Y Marketplace shopping center, Ridgefield; 201-313-7975. Open 7 days.

How far would you drive for $1.99 clementines?

Image via Wikipedia

Newark's Ironbound section got the name from the surrounding railroad tracks.

I blinked a couple of times and made sure the $1.99 sign was for the 5 pounds of clementines from Spain piled up this afternoon at the entrance to the produce department of A. Seabra Foods, a Portuguese supermarket in Newark's Ironbound neighborhood.

The lowest price I've seen previously was $4.99. I grabbed two of the small crates and went looking for other bargains.

I found Jona Gold apples at 89 cents a pound and collard greens for $1.29 a pound. Mineola tangelos were four for $1.99 or about $1 a pound, compared to $2.49 a pound at Whole Foods Market (those may have been organic).

I looked over the fresh, wild-caught fish -- from sardines to Chilean sea bass -- and was tugged by the strong smell from all the dried codfish piled up in a corner.

When I drew near, I also could smell the blood sausage piled high on the meat counter. 

I bought four codfish fritters in the prepared-food section, as well as two shrimp fritters, at 99 cents each. (After tasting them, I'd stick with the cod fritters next time.)

Image via Wikipedia

The store carries other Spanish products, including small wheels of goat-milk's cheese called Rocinante from Toledo at $11.99 a pound. 

I was in Newark for a court hearing today, and couldn't leave without visiting the Ironbound, the busy Spanish-Portuguese-Brazilian neighborhood filled with restaurants and markets.

A. Seabra Foods is one of the few stores with its own parking lot, a good thing because street parking was impossible to find before noon, when alternate-side rules were lifted.   

It's also the first supermarket I've seen with small shopping carts for children and small plastic shopping baskets with long handles that you pull behind you like luggage.

A. Seabra Foods, 260 Lafayette St., Newark; 973-589-8606.