You'll have to decide if a new Whole Foods in Closter is worth the detour

A meatless Korean BBQ Veggie Bowl ($8 or $12 with a wedge of tofu) is among the prepared-food options at the new Whole Foods Market in Closter, a wealthy Bergen County community about 10 miles northeast of Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A visit to the new Whole Foods Market in Closter immediately makes clear why shoppers are willing to pay more for groceries and prepared food.

The supermarket in the Closter Plaza shopping center offers the best from local farms and fisheries, but nothing from the factory farms that raise mystery meat and poultry, putting profits above the welfare of both animals and humans.

Products that line the shelves are organic or grown naturally without genetically modified seeds and pesticides.

Whole Foods also is the only supermarket chain in northern New Jersey to give you a credit (10 cents) for using a reusable bag.

I've been shopping at the bigger Whole Foods Market in Paramus since it opened in 2009, but visit a Korean-owned barber shop, manicurist or restaurants in Closter about once a month.

After a haircut on Tuesday, I met a friend for lunch at the new Whole Foods, had a cup of coffee and looked around.

It's different enough from the Paramus store that I'll probably drop in whenever I'm in town.

See: No one has to spend a whole paycheck

The organic supermarket, which opened last week, isn't as big as the Whole Foods in Paramus, a couple of miles from my home, and doesn't sell wine or have a sushi stand. But the new market has a few exclusive features, including a sheltered outdoor seating area for customers with a big ceiling fan and a fire pit, below.

Once you leave the store, there is no re-entry, above and below.

The exit gate is next to the fire pit.

More outdoor seating and near the entrance, firewood for sale.

The seafood counter is about half the size of the one in Paramus, but Whole Foods assures customers that even the farmed seafood it sells is raised without antibiotics and preservatives.

The whole wild-caught Porgies nestled in ice, right, are a great deal at $4.99 a pound.

Wild and farmed oysters were $1.75 each.

Dry-aged beef is raised naturally without antibiotics and growth hormones, as is all the poultry and meat sold at Whole Foods.

In Paramus, you get a break if you buy two antibiotic-free rotisserie chickens, but I didn't see any such deal in Closter.

I counted three islands of help-yourself hot or cold prepared food at $8.99 a pound. You could easily spend $20 to fill the box in the foreground.

Food stands offer wood-fired pizza from a special oven, made-to-order sandwiches and Veggie Bowls (misspelled "Vegie" on signs), which are available with extra-cost protein, including salmon and chicken. My spicy lunch bowl included Korean BBQ cauliflower, kimchi and carrots, plus sriracha sunflower seeds, cilantro and Korean BBQ aioli over kelp noodles and kale, all topped with a wedge of tofu.

A slice of pizza with Brussle sprouts and Bacon was $3.50. A Classic Deli sandwich with natural, preservative-free pastrami and corned beef on marble rye, served with a Guss' pickle, set my friend back $10.

The Closter store offers freshly milled Tahini ($12 a jar), and Halva, a Middle Eastern confection usually made with sesame flour and honey. I tried a sample of the Rose Oil Halva, which was delicious and not too sweet.

Whole Foods' 365 Everyday Value line includes a variety of Mexican-style salsas -- all of which are non-GMO and free of added sugar -- including Roasted Verde (16 ounces for $2.69). That night, I used most of a bottle I had at home to poach Icelandic cod fillets from Costco Wholesale in Teterboro ($7.99 a pound), below.

The 365 Everyday Value line includes non-GMO Garbanzo Beans, Black-Eyed Peas and others for 79 cents a can, and Organic Whole Wheat Pasta imported from Italy for $1.49 a pound.

You pay for sandwiches and other prepared food at the checkout counter amid inspirational signs that remind you why you shop there, such as, "We sell the highest quality natural and organic products available."

Tables and chairs for eating your food purchases have stations for utensils and napkins at either end, but none in the middle. A couple of couches also are available near the restrooms, and I saw a woman relaxing on one as she appeared to be nursing a baby, though the child was covered by a cloth.

Details

Whole Foods Market, 33 Vervalen St., Closter (in Closter Plaza shopping center); 1-201-367-9099. Open 7 days from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Website: Healthy Food

How to use Costco Wholesale as an ATM

A shopping trip to Costco Wholesale in Hackensack on Friday proved exhausting.

This month, many shoppers were spending their American Express rebate checks.

Editor's note: Costco Wholesale shoppers get rebate checks that far exceed their annual membership fee. Today, I also discuss Starbucks coffee and two more fish dishes.

I received more than $450 in rebates on  purchases at Costco Wholesale, gasoline stations, restaurants and everywhere else with my TrueEarnings credit card from American Express, and they arrived in the form of two checks.

A week apart, I took the checks to my Costco in Hackensack, spent only part of the total and walked away with lots of cash.

That's a no-fee ATM for the frugal shopper.

A cup of Starbucks Blonde Veranda Blend brewed at home.

Hold the milk 

Starbucks describes its Blonde Veranda Blend of whole coffee beans as "mellow and soft," and I can add that the brew is free of any trace of bitterness.

I bought 1 pound for $6.95 during a promotion (regularly $11.95), and asked for it as a Turkish grind, essentially a powder.

I brewed a few cups on Friday, and didn't add any of the usual low-fat milk.

After drinking a cup, I decided it is better than anything I have bought in recent years at Fairway Market in Manhattan and Paramus.

 
More fish dishes

Sliced cucumber with canned fish salad -- pink salmon, yellow fin tuna and sardines with diced celery and apple; Dijon mustard, lime juice and ground cumin. Most of the ingredients are available at Costco Wholesale.

Leftover pan-fried fresh wild cod from Costco Wholesale served over leftover Goya low-sodium black beans with Kirkland Signature Diced Organic Tomatoes.

The fattiest fish is the best fish

Whole sea bass, okra and other vegetables, cooked with sake and lime juice.

We need Omega-3 fatty acids to make our bodies work properly, and there is no more delicious source than wild-caught fish, including salmon and cod.


But you don't have to buy the most expensive fish to get the heart-healthy benefits of Omega-3s, according to the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.


A seafood nutrition chart shows a 3.5-ounce portion of fresh or smoked black cod, also called sable fish, contains 1,800 milligrams of Omega-3s, but they are among the priciest selections on a menu or in the market.


You can get 500 milligrams of Omega-3s from the same portion of sole, 470 mg from Alaska pollock  and 450 mg from rockfish.


Pacific oysters


Among shellfish, a 3.5-ounce portion of Pacific oysters contains 1,400 mg of Omega-3s.


In January, I ordered black cod at Maritime Parc, an expensive seafood restaurant in Jersey City, but we enjoy Alaska pollock at home at least once a week.


This past Sunday, I found Pacific rockfish on sale at Whole Foods in Paramus for $8.99 a pound (40% off) and bought it to add variety to the wild-caught fillets I usually buy at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack -- Pacific True Cod, haddock and sole.


Pearly white rockfish


We fried some of the rockfish, and coated the rest in a mixture of bread crumbs and chili spices. 


The fillets on ice were reddish, but they turned pearly white in the oven and broke into big flakes when we ate them.


For breakfast this morning, I enjoyed leftover rockfish and  brown rice with cabbage and saltfish (salted pollock) my wife made for dinner last night.

This fatty sashimi comes from a farmed fish and costs $79.99 a pound.

Alaska King or Chinook salmon -- usually the most expensive kind -- provides 1,700 mg of Omega-3s, but you can get 1,200 mg from the same portion of Sockeye and 1,100 from Coho salmon.


A 3.5-ounce portion of Alaska Pink salmon provides 1,300 mg of Omega-3s, but I've never seen fresh or frozen fillets of this fish in New Jersey.


A can of Pink salmon provides 1,100 mg of Omega-3s, compared to 1,400 from a can of much more expensive Sockeye or Red salmon.


Sustainable seafood


Alaska says it is a major source of sustainable seafood -- seafood that is managed and fished using practices that ensure there will always be more to catch in the future.


It's a commitment that dates to 1959, "when Alaskans wrote sustainability into their [state] Constitution," according to the marketing institute.


Canned-fish salad


I buy canned Pink salmon at Costco in Hackensack, and mix it with canned yellow-fin tuna and sardines, plus diced celery, sweet pepper or onion, for a fish salad flavored with Dijon mustard, fresh lime juice and powdered cumin.


Costco also sells frozen Alaska Sockeye salmon fillets, smoked and sliced Sockeye salmon, and salted pollock fillets, which usually are boiled to reduce the salt content before the fish is used in cooking.


Boycott bluefin tuna


Last Saturday, during a visit to Mitsuwa Marketplace in Edgewater, I stopped at the refrigerated fish case and stared at the veins of fat in a small piece of raw oh-toro -- the prized belly meat from the endangered giant bluefin tuna.


The price: $79.99 a pound. And this piece came from a farmed bluefin raised in Spain. 


I'm boycotting bluefin tuna, which is high in harmful mercury and which has been driven to the brink of extinction by the Japanese.


I'd rather get my Omega-3s elsewhere.


More information about Alaska seafood is available at the following link: Wild, Natural & Sustainable


Everything you want to know about Omega-3s is at the following WebMD link: The ABCs of Omega-3s

A tale of one sauce and two dinners

Fresh fish at Costco Wholesale in South San Francisco, Calif. The warehouse store carries wild-caught fish from the Pacific that New Jersey shoppers never see at their Costco.

Editor's note: Today's bill of fare includes how to turn one sauce into two dinners, reduced-fat cheeses and a few sales items I found at Whole Foods Market and H Mart.

We love the wild-caught fish fillets available at Costco Wholesale, and cooking them with tomatoes ensures good eating for at least two home-cooked dinners.

No recipe is required. Anyone who can open cans and boil pasta can turn out two satisfying meals.

I started with fresh Pacific cod fillets from the Hackensack Costco for $7.99 a pound and two cans of tomatoes I had in the cupboard -- a large can of whole peeled tomatoes and a smaller can of diced organic tomatoes with sea salt.

I emptied the cans into a deep, 12-inch non-stick pan with a glass cover, added a few ounces of olive oil and seasonings, including powdered garlic, red pepper flakes, and dried Italian herbs, and the juice from two limes from the refrigerator.

I covered the pan and brought the tomatoes to a boil over a medium-high heat.

I cut the large, long fillets into pieces of roughly 4 ounces to 6 ounces, added a little salt and put them into the tomatoes, lowering the heat to medium and covering the pan.The flaky fish was ready in about 15 minutes.

Rice and pasta

I used a rice cooker to prepare organic long-grain brown rice with lentils. I started the rice first, because that took about 30 minutes. I spooned the fish with the tomatoes over the rice and added a salad, wine and seltzer for a wonderful dinner.

There was plenty of sauce left, so the next night, I heated it up in a smaller sautee pan with a cover and used a separate pan to boil about one-third of a pound of Colavita whole-wheat capellini, which took 4 minutes.

I drained the pasta, added it to the sauce, mixed them together, covered the pan and cooked the pasta for another 2 minutes, then turned off the heat to allow the pasta to soak up the sauce.

I ate this pasta in the fish-flavored sauce with leftover cod, another salad and grated cheese. 

Other fish

Fish and tomatoes go together well, so this preparation is terrific for any of the other fillets found at Costco, such as wild-caught flounder and haddock, and farmed catfish, or the many whole fish sold at H Mart, the Korean supermarket chain.

Alternately, you can use a 32-ounce bottle of pasta sauce, plus a small can of tomato sauce, to prepare the fish on the first night, yielding a thicker sauce for the pasta on the second night.

I also like to add a can of anchovies and their oil to the sauce for a more robust flavor, though I didn't do so this time. 

When boiling pasta, it's not necessary to use the 4 to 6 quarts of water called for on the package nor to salt the water, especially if your sauce and fish have added salt.

The capellini, which is like angel hairs, cooked in 2 to 3 inches of water.

Old cheese

Grana Padano from Italy once was called "caseus vetus" or "old cheese," according to the small print on the package I bought at the Hackensack Costco for $9.49 a pound.

The wedge of grainy cheese, made with part-skimmed cow's milk and aged over 18 months, is sold under Costco's Kirkland Signature label.

The cheese and fresh fruit make a great dessert.

Other reduced-fat cheeses available at Costco include thin-sliced Jarlsberg Swiss Cheese at $9.99 for 2 pounds and sliced Finlandia Swiss, Cheddar. Havarti and Colby Jack, also $9.99 for 2 pounds.

The Jarlsberg has 50% less fat than regular cheese, the Finlandia 25% less fat than full-fat cheese.

I use the Jalrsberg Swiss in omelets, eat it with fruit or roll it up with Kirkland Signature smoked wild salmon for a snack.

Sale items

On Monday at H Mart in Little Ferry, I picked up a box of 16 Champagne mangoes from Mexico for $9.99, a savings of $3.

Fresh collard greens were 99 cents a pound. Two prepared items -- stir-fried japchae or translucent yam-flour noodles and kimbap or a roll with seaweed, rice, vegetables and imitation crab -- were $4.99 each for a 1-pound package.

On Tuesday at Whole Foods Market in Paramus, 59-ounce bottles of Indian River Select 100% Florida Orange Juice (not from concentrate) were 2 for $5 -- about the same price per ounce as Tropicana in the 64-ounce cartons at Costco.

A wedge of fig cake with Marcona almonds from Valencia, Spain, was $7.99 a pound -- $2 a pound less than at Fairway Market in Paramus, the only other store where I've seen this product.

Wondee's

We had a terrific meal at Wondee's on Saturday evening, seated at a table near the front plate-glass windows, and we got the Thai soups and salad we ordered in only about 5 minutes.

I especially like the tofu salad with its sweet-sour-spicy dressing, fruit and lettuce leaves. We chose a whole fresh red snapper steamed with garlic and chili, and served on a fish-shaped metal plate over a burner ($18).

The rest of the family had won ton soup with pork, and steamed shrimp-and-pork dumplings. 

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

BYO. Free parking in rear lot.

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Vegetable stew, guacamole and rising prices

Image via Wikipedia

Wholly Guacamole is packed with avocados.

I keep on discovering new items and old favorites at Costco in Hackensack that help me forget I haven't eaten meat or poultry for more than a year.

A new favorite is Stonewall Kitchen Old Farmhouse Vegetable Stew, packed with potato and carrot chunks, and peas and other veggies that are fresh-tasting and firm to the bite. The ingredient label lists 10 vegetables, plus herbs and spices.

The delicious, milky looking broth contains no dairy. Two 20-ounce portions were $7.99, and they can be frozen.

An item I tried a couple of years ago is appearing more frequently at meals after my son fell in love with the guacamole at Rosa Mexicano in Hackensack, where the appetizer is prepared table-side. The restaurant's guacamole is priced at $12, but contains only two avocados.

Costco's Wholly Guacamole claims to have 15 Hass avocados "in every batch" or five in each of the three 16-ounce portions. It's a much better deal.

Check out the ingredient list: Hass avocados, jalapeno puree, dehydrated onion, salt, granulated garlic. That's it. And it's made in Mexico. I paid $8.49, and it's enough for three meals, plus it can be frozen.

I serve the guacamole after adding a liberal amount of Goya's spicy Salsa Taquera, though you can use chunky salsa or any other hot sauce.

Image by saguayo via Flickr

Rising prices

Costo's prices are trending upward for its own Kirkland Signature brand of smoked wild salmon and 100% whole grain bread.

Now, a pound of Boskovich Farms' organic spinach has jumped to $4.49, from $3.79; and three, long gourmet cucumbers went up 20 cents, to $3.99. 

I've also noticed substantial hikes -- about $2 -- in the price of apples and other fruit sold in 4- or 5-pound packages. 

Other items, such as 2 pounds of salted pollock from China for $6.39, have held the line. Frozen Pacific cod was $14.99 for 2 pounds, just under the price for fresh fillets you sometimes find in the fish case.

Two pounds of Sunset-brand Roma and Campari tomatoes have held steady at $4.99 and $5.49, respectively.  The price is high, but the tomato taste is intense.

More about the fish at Costco Wholesale

Image via Wikipedia

Atlantic Ocean cod fisheries have collapsed.

Under pressure from Greenpeace, Costco Wholesale has halted sales of five wild-caught fish species that are on the environmental group's "red list" of over-fished species, including Greenland halibut, certain types of grouper and skates and rays.

I don't recall seeing any of those in the more than five years I have been shopping at Costco in Hackensack.

Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, Costco stopped selling seven other species on the Greenpeace list, including Atlantic cod, Chilean sea bass and orange roughy.

I've been buying fresh cod fillets at Costco recently, but they are from the Pacific Ocean and labeled "True Cod." 

Dipped in an egg-milk mixture, breaded and baked, this cod makes for wonderful eating. It's a meaty, flaky white fish that fills your mouth. This morning, I had a piece leftover from dinner on Tuesday topped with two fried eggs -- sunny side up.

Image via Wikipedia

Another Korean enclave

In Closter, you can get your hair cut by a Korean barber or have your nails done in a Korean salon, enjoy a lunch of Korean dumplings and cold noodles, and then have dessert and coffee at a Korean bakery.

A few blocks away from those merchants, who are in the Closter Plaza shopping center, the small downtown is filled with more food choices.

After my haircut and coffee, I stopped at a catering shop called Doorebak for a jar of homemade cabbage kimchi, stewed tofu in red-pepper sauce and the translucent Korean noodles known as japchae. 

Doorebak, 218 Closter Dock Road, Closter.

Good deal on olives

Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood has mixed Italian olives for $3.99 a pound, among the lowest olive prices I've seen in North Jersey. I bought a large container with green and black olives of various sizes, plus crunchy, whole garlic cloves. Delish.

Fairway Market and Whole Foods Market , both in Paramus, charge at least $7.99 a pound for olives. In Fairway, a sign posted above the open pails of olives warns shoppers about behaving badly.

Jerry's Gourmet & More, 410 S. Dean St., Englewood; 201-871-7108.

ShopRite produce prices

I found seedless red grapes from Chile for $1.29 a pound with a store card at ShopRite in Rochelle Park, but sweet peppers were $1.99 to $2.49 a pound -- compared to 99 cents a pound at Brothers Produce in the Paterson Farmers' Market.

If you go to Paterson for cheap produce, you can stop at Fattal's Bakery on Main Street for fresh-baked Syrian pocket bread, Moroccan sardines for 99 cents a can, and olives for $2.99 to $4.99 a pound.

Brothers Produce, 327 E. Railway Ave., Paterson; 973-684-4461.

Fattal's Syrian Bakery, 975-77 Main St., Paterson; 973-742-7125.
 

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.

Shopping, cooking and dining notes

Image by skeggy via Flickr

Fish counter at a Whole Foods Market (not Paramus).

It's been fairly easy to keep eating at the level I did in Italy. There is plenty of fresh seafood available in North Jersey -- at Costco, Whole Foods Market and Fairway Market -- organic salad mix and decent produce.


Last week, I picked up two pounds of what was labeled Pacific true cod at Costco in Hackensack for $5.99 a pound. I cut the fillet into pieces, coated them in bread crumbs and chili spices and baked them at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes, until they gave up their liquid and started to flake.


Two days later, I bought two dozen farmed prawns from Vietnam at Costco for $9.99 a pound (vein removed). I shelled them, marinated them in the juice of three lemons and seasoned them with red-pepper flakes, garlic powder, black pepper and a little salt. Meanwhile, I cut up sweet peppers and garlic, opened a can of diced tomatoes and boiled a half pound of organic pasta bowties from Whole Foods in Paramus.

I sauteed the peppers and garlic in olive oil, added the diced tomatoes and then the shrimp with all its marinade. When they were cooked, the pasta went in. I mixed it well and put the pot on the table with a slotted spoon. Next time, I'll drain the diced tomatoes. 

When Italians eat pasta, the sauce coats the spaghetti, tagliatelle or whatever they use, and doesn't pool in the bottom of the plate. Of course, there is always just a little sauce left over to be wiped up with bread.

Some of the large sizes at Costco make me wonder if the store expects customers to do clam bakes at this time of the year. Little Neck clams and mussels were in the fish case, but only in 5-pound packages.

Having recently returned from Italy, I couldn't pass up a wedge of Kirkland's imported Grana Padano at $8.99 a pound, a grainy, skim-milk cheese from cows that are grazing on the same grass their predecessors did in Roman times, according to the package. 

There is a great fish counter at Whole Foods in Paramus, with fresh seafood arriving seven days a week. I usually buy what's on sale, such as large, whole whiting for $4.99 a pound. My wife cut these in half to fit in the pan, coated them in flour and fried them.


My wife found farmed whole branzino for $5.99 a pound (usually $9.99 a pound). Two branzini that  weighed just under two pounds made a great dinner for three, seasoned, stuffed with herbs and lemon slices and baked in the oven.


I also love the fish counter at Fairway Market in Paramus, but I'm often put off by high prices, as I was on a visit to the store Saturday morning. I did buy four, one-pound packages of salted cod fish ($8.99) and one of salted pollack ($5.99) to compare with the cod.

I needed tomatoes, but one-pound packages of small, round Campari tomatoes were $2.99 -- too high even if they're herbicide free. Sometimes, Fairway sells three packages for $5. Why not on my visit? 

I wanted to try Polar lemon-flavored seltzer at 12 cans for $1.99, but inadvertently purchased Polar Dry Orange, which contains 6% orange juice, according to big lettering on the package. To my horror, I read the small lettering of the ingredient list when I got home, only to discover it also contains high fructose corn syrup, the first time I've seen a seltzer with it.


I picked up Marco Polo red-pepper spread (spicy) from Turkey for $2.99, compared with a similar product from Macedonia on the shelf above for $4.99.

 Australian beef

The ShopRite sales circular that came with the paper is offering Nature's Reserve, grass-fed, free-range beef from Australia for $3.99 a pound with a store card, through Saturday, Oct. 9. You have to buy several pounds of it -- the whole beef tenderloin for filet mignon -- and trim it before cutting it into small steaks or thin slices for Korean barbecue.

Here is a link to the U.S. federal trademark registration of Nature's Reserve beef in 2003. The producers say the cattle are never confined and no additives are used: Nature's Reserve Australian Beef

Last month, the Coles supermarket chain in Australia announced it would not sell beef containing hormone growth promotants. That has upset beef industry groups, including the Australian Beef Association and the Cattle Council of Australia, because smaller cattle will sell for less. 

At lunch one day in Italy, I met two Australian women who were traveling without their husbands and children. I asked them about Australian beef. They were not familiar with the Nature's Reserve brand, which apparently is sold only in the United States.

But one said beef producers are now confining cattle in feed lots and feeding them grain for the kosher and halal markets in the U.S.

Chef Ji's Moon Jar in Fort Lee


Chef Ji Cha, who competed on Gordon Ramsay's "Hell's Kitchen" TV reality show a few years ago, has revised the menu of her Korean fusion restaurant and is preparing to open for lunch starting Oct. 15. I had dinner there Saturday night, and will report on the meal in my next post.

Go fish for meat substitutes

Image via Wikipedia

 


In a few days, it will be five months since I have eaten meat -- poultry, pork, beef and lamb -- but only the availability of great seafood has seen me through.


In the past two weeks, I had fresh, wild-caught fish in restaurants, as part of takeout and at home. 

Esca, Fig & Olive and Anthos restaurants in Manhattan serve wonderful fish, and Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood usually has a fish selection or two among its restaurant-quality Meals To Go ($6.99). Finally, Costco sells extraordinary seafood at low prices year-round.

At Esca , I had a wonderful  lunch of halibut cheeks and a pair of beautiful yellow-fin tuna medallions with rare centers. Though Fig & Olive didn't serve bread, I really enjoyed a caramelized fillet of snowy cod served in a bowl over vegetables and broth. Anthos won me over with salmon tartare, raw fluke and an incredibly thick and moist skate wing.


At Jerry's, I picked up a dinner with grouper in fresh herbs, which came with breaded artichokes, cauliflower, vegetable dumplings and potatoes. 

This morning, I had the last of six portions of the wild sockeye salmon fillet I bought at Costco and baked until it was medium ($8.99 a pound). I ate most of the fish in sandwiches for breakfast or over salad for a light summer dinner, stuffing salmon and dressed greens into warm halves of pocket bread.

Hope you like the new design I've applied to the blog. It's called Simple.

(Photo: Sockeye salmon.)

Where seafood lovers gather

Image by wallyg via Flickr

The Seabras are an enterprising Portuguese family in Newark with a supermarket and restaurants in the Ironbound section, including Seabra's Marisquiera, where seafood is king. With the word "sea" in their name, how could they miss?

To avoid the Mother's Day rush today, I took my wife and son there Saturday night for a bountiful meal of lobster, shrimp and cod. We watched other families digging into platters of octopus salad, fried squid and whole fish.

 My wife and son started with a briny, pureed seafood soup that had shrimp, pieces of lobster in the shell and some elbow macaroni floating in it. One portion ($8.50) yielded two bowls of soup. I was very happy with a crisp watercress, tomato and onion salad ($4.50) that came on a large metal platter and was perfectly dressed in just enough oil and vinegar, good for sopping up with soft Portuguese bread.

My wife and son shared an entree -- twin lobsters stuffed with crab and accompanied by those addictive, homemade potato chips ($34). The waiter grabbed two live lobsters from a tank and brought them over. Did we want a single big one or two small ones? When I said two small, the eye of the junior crustacean seemed to swivel in my direction.

The lobster meat was tender, but I ended up eating must of the chips after my wife and son asked for some rice.

The waiter tried to talk me out of my selection -- salted cod boiled with potato and onion  ($21) -- and steer me to grilled fish. But I wanted to try the cod. A long, thick fillet of the snowy fish came on a platter with crisp broccoli and carrot, black olives, potato and onion -- a classic boiled dinner. This was the tenderest salted cod I had ever tasted, but it could have used a simple sauce. It wasn't salty at all, so I sprinkled on fresh lemon juice. It also was a big portion; I took a lot home.

A small bottle of Portuguese green wine (two to two and a half glasses) was $10. I finished with an espresso.

Seating is in a front room and bar and a rear dining room, where tables are lined up family style, so another group might be seated next to you. The two rooms are split by an open kitchen and a display of beautifully iced whole red snapper, sections of larger fish such as grouper and hake, enormous shrimp that looked to be five to six inches long and tanks of live lobsters.

The menu is extensive and offers cold and hot seafood combinations for four ($45). When we left, waiting customers were lined up in the corridor connecting the two seating areas.

The cod dish had a happy ending this morning, when my wife incorporated the leftover fish and potato into her Jamaican ackee and saltfish breakfast. Delicious.

Seabra's Marisquiera, 87 Madison St., Newark; 

973-491-6634. Open seven days. Off-street parking. 

rdison ax: (973) 491-633087 Madison Street, Newark, N
5-1250
Fax: (973) 491-6330