Monks stop to refuel on turnpike

Three men who appeared to be monks stopped for coffee and pastry last week at Starbucks in the Vince Lombardi Service Area of the New Jersey Turnpike in Ridgefield.

One-stop food shopping -- some day

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I buy a great deal of food at Costco in Hackensack, but it still has a way to go to become the only store I visit.


This morning, I picked up three half-gallons of 1% organic milk ($8.99), but I have to go to ShopRite for lactose-free milk.

Five pounds of lemons from Chile were $5.99. Three pounds of wild-salmon burgers  were $12.99, and Costco also stocks fresh and frozen wild sockeye salmon, wild-caught flounder and haddock, whole red snapper and other seafood, including prawns and crab, so I don't really have to buy fish anywhere else.

Sunset-brand Roma tomatoes were two pounds for $2.99, lower than they were at the beginning of the summer; and three, large burpless cucumbers, also from Sunset, were $3.49. All Sunset-brand vegetables are grown without herbicides. Earthbound Farm organic salad mix was $4.49 the last time I bought it, a price you can't beat elsewhere.

Three pounds of conventional bananas were $1.32. A pound of organic spinach was $3.99 -- great sauteed, in a salad or piled on top of a pizza or foccacia.

We're not eating poultry or meat now. If we were, I'd have to go elsewhere for antibiotic-free turkey and dark-meat chicken and Australian free-range beef. Costco only carries grass-fed ground beef and organic breast meat or whole chickens. 

Drug-free chicken sausage, organic ravioli, and fresh and frozen pizza are just the tip of Costco's food iceberg.

The selection of bread and rolls is terrific, including two loaves of 100% whole-grain, sliced bread for $3.99. Ditto for spices, juice, cheese, vegetables and fruit, though some of the large sizes are not suitable for a family of three. Ketchup, mustard, diced tomatoes, pasta sauces, dried pasta, maple syrup -- it's all there -- plus everything you need for the clean-up.

Three-minute meal. What's the catch?

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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.)

Grass-fed beef is a natural

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Grass-raised and finished beef is a rarity in most supermarkets. It's more expensive than conventionally raised beef, but it cooks faster and is better for you. Here is more about grass-fed beef from Whole Foods Market, whose blog (Whole Story) is listed to the right of this post. The Paramus store has sold grass-fed beef raised in New Jersey for $9.99 a pound (on sale). Just click on the link below:
 
Whole Foods Market blog

Trader Joe's is still on my list

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Before we pledged to eat meatless meals more than two weeks ago, Trader Joe's was a reliable source for uncured, preservative-free bacon, hot dogs and cold cuts, and incredible, naturally raised, fully cooked St. Louis-style ribs from the Niman Ranch -- all at good prices.


When I found myself in Westwood yesterday, I dropped into the Trader Joe's there to see what else might help us diversify our homemade dinners.

I went looking right away for one of our favorites -- sliced yogurt cheese with jalapeno ($4.69) -- and discovered shredded soy three-cheese blend ($3.79), and other soy cheeses for future shopping trips. I also picked up some great hand-made tortillas -- flour and whole wheat ($2.49 each) and habanero lime ($2.69).

And I bought another bottle of raw organic agave sweetener ($2.99) , which is terrific over yogurt or pancakes, and Trader Joe's premium extra-virgin olive oil ($7.99 for 32 ounces). The front label says imported from Italy, but on the side, it lists four countries for the product: Italy, Spain, Argentina and Greece.

Web site: Trader Joe's

Where to find a really great burger

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I have never eaten a beef  hamburger at Fuddruckers, but I am a loyal fan of its naturally raised ostrich burger and its great salad bar. Fuddruckers opened its Paramus restaurant about 20 years ago, the pioneer among so-called better burger chains in North Jersey.

My wife and I had a terrific lunch there yesterday, but noted a few changes from our last visit.

 The red-meat ostrich burger, which has much less fat than a beef burger,  is one-third of a pound and comes from New Jersey-based Fossil Farms, which sells naturally raised meat from many animals -- alligators to yaks (Web site link is below).

Fuddruckers offers other alternatives to its hamburgers -- two kinds of farmed fish, chicken and buffalo, and you can sip wine or beer with your meal. One of its best features is the salad bar, which allows you to add freshly made salsa with cilantro and sliced jalapeno peppers to your burger, as I did along with ketchup and mustard. But you can no longer get a baked potato in place of the excellent skin-on fries, and you seem to be penalized if you order cole slaw with your burger, but not fries.

My wife ordered a half-pound beef burger for $5.49 and added cole slaw and fries for $2 more. I added only cole slaw to my ossi burger ($6.99) and it cost me $1.39 more. Fuddruckers says it beef hamburgers are made from fresh, prime beef, the highest USDA grade, which has the most fat of the three grades, and that the cattle were vegetarian-fed. This means they weren't fed animal by-products -- kitchen scraps and bits of dead animals.

The ostrich burger has so little fat, Fossil Farms recommends you order it medium rare, which I did yesterday, but I have also ordered it medium and it has always been moist and delicious. A quarter-bottle of merlot ($4.50) went well with the orstrich.

You can keep your Smashburgers, your Five Guys burgers, your Bobby Flay burgers -- all made from cattle raised conventionally. These places seem to spend more money on marketing than on ingredients, and gushing articles about them in The Record make them suspect. If I want a beef burger, I go to Tasteatery in Fort Lee for one of its wonderful, naturally raised, grass-fed patties, such as the West Coast burger with greens and hummus.


Fuddruckers, 282 Route 4 east, Paramus, 201-343-4533,
open seven days. Second restaurant on Route 23, Wayne.


http://www.fuddruckers.com/

Other Web sites:


Tasteatery


From alligator to yak

Two more meatless meals

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Tonight, I plan to serve my wife and son spaghetti with sardines in tomato sauce as a follow-up to last night's meal -- one of Jerry's Neapolitan pizzas with a big salad and Italian red wine.

We're trying to cut down on our consumption of beef, but we're not giving it up altogether. In fact, in the interest of full disclosure, I'm heading to the ShopRite in Rochelle Park today to buy an Australian whole beef tenderloin for filet mignon -- on sale for $4.99 a pound with a store card. The cattle are free range and grass fed, and raised without antibiotics and growth hormones.

I'll trim the fat, slice this beef  thin and store it in freezer bags with Korean bulgogi marinade from H Mart. Then, we'll be able to enjoy Korean barbecue at home without having to fret over the mystery meat most restaurants serve for cooking on the table.

And Sunday night at home, we did enjoy Australian shoulder lamb chops I bought at Pathmark for under $3 a pound. I served them with mashed potatoes and sauteed broccoli.

Strategies for avoiding beef

For the past month, we haven't knowingly eaten beef in a restaurant or at home, as we try to boost our already large intake of fish, pasta, vegetables and fruit.

We haven't been able to give up poultry, though, and rely on antibiotic-free chicken or turkey for home-cooked meals at least once a week. And we have had a couple of meals of naturally raised Australian lamb. But we also have had dinners of falafel and cheese-and-spinach ravioli, and try to eat a salad with every meal. We don't eat dessert, preferring fresh and dried fruit and nuts, though we occasionally eat sweet rice cakes or other cakes stuffed with red bean paste (Korean or Japanese).

Only my wife's and son's complaints prevent me from preparing pasta two times a week. And I usually have to serve it with drug-free chicken meatballs or sausage I get at Costco.

Having said all this, I did notice today that ShopRite will be putting on sale free-range, grass-fed whole beef tenderloin from Australia, for $4.99 a pound with a store card, from Dec. 6-12 at  the Rochelle Park, Paramus and Englewood stores. Average weight is 6 to 8 pounds. We have bought this beef in the past to prepare Korean barbecue, which used to be one of my son's favorite meals.

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Shopping notes

In one trip to Englewood today, I shopped at three of my favorite places for food -- H Mart, Balthazar Bakery and Jerry's Gourmet, where I sampled cheese and wine.

H Mart was almost empty, because the street was blocked by police for Veterans Day. I looked over the blue crabs, large Chilean sea bass fillets and fresh fish, then bought a Korean roll made with rice, vegetables and crab (not sure if it is artificial) and wrapped in seaweed ($4.99). I've sometimes heard this called finger maki. I also picked up plum tomatoes, a head of escarole and fresh collard greens. (25 Lafayette Ave., 201-871-8822.)

At Balthazar Bakery, I bought a quarter of the signature pain de siegle (sliced), a large, round, sourdough rye bread with a "B" stamped in the crust ($3.75 for a quarter). I looked longingly at the wonderful fruit tarts and other pastries, but bought none. (214 S. Dean St., 201-503-9717.)

At Jerry's, an employee was pouring Portuguese and Italian wines to go with the free cheese samples, and I tried them. I had hoped to find three complete dinners with wild fish, such as the Chilean sea bass I had recently, but had to settle for farmed salmon and farmed tilapia. The restaurant-quality dinners are only $6.99.

In the back of the store, there were a couple of cases of imported Pomi marinara sauce, from fresh tomatoes, in aseptic packages that don't need to be refrigerated. At two 26.45-ounce packages for $3.99, they were a good deal. Each would be more than enough for a half-pound of pasta. (410 S. Dean St., 201- 871-7108.)

Delivering food the old-fashioned way

I shop for food in probably half a dozen stores, so you'd think I would be drawn to one of those supermarket delivery services. But some of the stores I patronize regularly (Costco, Trader Joe's, Fattal's Bakery) don't deliver and I haven't warmed up to the ones that do.

I do speak regularly to the home delivery staff at the ShopRite in Hackensack, because they know exactly where everything is and whether it's in stock, saving me valuable time.

Ah, if I had the delivery services that were available to my mother, Grace Sasson, in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s in Brooklyn, life would be sweet. My mother self-published a cookbook of Sephardic Jewish recipes and made a lot of the food we ate -- including string cheese and baklava, which she learned from my father, the son of a pastry maker in Syria. We kept kosher and rarely ate out.

We had one refrigerator and two big freezers stuffed with food. One of her big time-savers was preparing a dish such as stuffed grape leaves or black-eyed peas with tender beef, placing them in a pot and putting the pot in the freezer. She only had to pull out a pot and place it directly on the stove or into the oven.

Just about everything she bought was delivered -- produce, fish, meat and Syrian bread from individual stores on nearby Kings Highway or Avenue U, and groceries from the C-Town supermarket near McDonald Avenue. She could call or stop by the store and leave her order. There was even a live-poultry market only a couple of blocks away.

One time, my father saw the fruit guy kiss my mother on the cheek, and went ballistic.

We spent the summers in Bradley Beach, on the Jersey shore, and my father would commute by train to his dry-goods store on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. (As a kid, I'd place a coin on a track and retrieve it -- flattened -- after the steam locomotive had left. ) After we picked him up, we would drive across the tracks to the farmer's market and buy 50-pound bags of potatoes and other items.
 
Luckily, we didn't have to go without fresh Syrian bread. A man took the train down from the city most days and hawked the pocket bread from a baby carriage he pushed down the center of the street in the sleepy, sun-spalshed community.

Traveling on your stomach at Costco

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Costco in Hackensack has become one of my favorite places to shop for food -- despite the crowds, the frantic parking lot and some inconsiderate shoppers, who think nothing of leaving a cart up against your fender.

You never know what you'll find there or how far it has traveled. And no store in North Jersey I know of can match the prices for this quality food and produce. It's even a better deal when you consider the cash rebates from the American Express Costco credit card easily reimburse you for the annual membership fee.

The past two Fridays, I saw whole red snappers from Nicaragua in the fish case. Smoked wild sockeye salmon (preservative free) from Alaska is now sold year-round under the store brand, Kirkland. Last night, I finished the last fresh flounder fillet from Iceland we had fried Friday.

Last week, I bought a 12-pound box of oranges from South Africa. The antioxidant-rich acai berry juice in my fridge is from Brazil. For my espresso machine, I've also brought home a 4-pound bag of whole coffee beans grown in Africa. And I'm working on a big wedge of Manchego sheep-milk's cheese from Spain.

Costco sells a ranch full of beef and pork, but all of them are conventionally raised with antibiotics, except for organic ground beef. What you want is the grass-fed, free-range lamb from Australia, usually available as chops or boneless legs.

The store also stocks a lot of terrific food grown domestically, such as the one-pound package of Earthbound Farms organic spring mix I eat weekly.

Of course, there is also the possibility you'll buy and like an item, then find the store no longer stocks it. I recall fondly the fully prepared, drug-free lamb shanks in mint sauce from New Zealand that we enjoyed on a few occasions, but never saw again.

For commentary on food coverage in The Record, see:
http://eyeontherecord.blogspot.com/

Good for the ocean, but not good for you

The Record's Better Living section has the usual food coverage in a Monday paper -- a single vegetarian recipe -- but under Health on F-8, there is more: a Washington Post story about fish that are not only caught sustainably but are also rich "in long-chain omega-3 fatty acids," a key in reducing the risk of heart disease. Pole-caught albacore tuna is listed, but the rankings by the "influential" Monterey Bay Aquarium don't take this tuna's high mercury content into account. So the headline isn't really accurate: "Good for the oceans and good for you." The story probably could have used a subhead: "Oh, but not the albacore tuna."

This is one of the dangers of running a lot of stories supplied by outside sources, including the Washington Post, especially when, like The Record, your food and copy editors know little about what is healthy and what is not.

Too little, too late

After virtually ignoring for at least two years how the food she writes about has been raised or grown, restaurant reviewer Elisa Ung of The Record has a column on the Better Living front today listing places that serve organic items, wild fish or meat and poultry free of antibiotics. She lists five eating places in all of North Jersey.

This past Friday, her restaurant review displayed no such sensibility. She is an inconsistent voice for the consumer. She has spent far more time obsessing over the quality of desserts she has encountered in her reviewing and feature stories.

The Record could be of even more service to readers by listing supermarkets that sell naturally raised food, but that might run afoul of the drive for advertising revenue.

Tasting and shopping notes

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The block of smoked-mackerel sushi from Mitsuwa Marketplace in Edgewater didn't disappoint. (See previous post.)  In fact, my wife, who squirms at the the thought of eating raw fish, loved the slices she tried. I ate mine without wasabi or soy sauce and they nicely set up our dinner of frozen wild sockeye salmon in a light Asian sauce.

I placed the frozen salmon (from Costco) in a glass plate set atop my steamer (it didn't fit inside), in a shallow pool of olive and sesame oils, fish sauce and cheap sake. I sprinkled salt on the fillets, rubbed them with coarse red Aleppo pepper and steamed them about 20 minutes for medium, serving the fish with leftover rice and peas, salad and pita bread.

The latest batch of Aleppo pepper I purchased from Fattal's on Main Street in Paterson is noticeably darker than what I had and noticeably spicier, a good thing. I keep it in a plastic container in the freezer and sprinkle it over eggs, fish and chicken, but wonder if the intensity fades over time.

I forgot to mention I bought aged Manchego sheep-milk's cheese from Spain at Costco the other day. The price, $8.29 a pound, is 70 cents less than the sale price at Fairway Market in Paramus and several dollars less than the regular price. Storage tip: Trim off the inedible rind, slice the wedge into three pieces and wrap each in plastic wrap before placing them in a freezer bag in the fridge. This also works with a large wedge of Reggiano Parmigiano.

North Jersey markets are running some good sales, starting today.  

Fairway Market has three pounds of herbicide-free Campari tomatoes for $5, three heads of organic romaine for $2.99 and Columbia supremo coffee for $4.99 a pound. Stop & Shop is reprising its sale on drug-free Australian shoulder lamb chops, $3.69 a pound for three pounds or more. And two markets on Railway Avenue in Paterson, El Campesino and El Rancho, are selling limes or lemons at 10 for 99 cents, 20 pounds of Canilla rice for $3.99, three cups of La Yogurt (6 ounces) for 99 cents, Lactaid milk for $4.99 (96 ounces) and Hass avocados, 2 for 99 cents.

If you think Paterson is going too far for food, stop first at Aleppo Restaurant, at Main and Thomas streets, or Hummus Restaurant across the street for a nice lunch, pick up Syrian bread and spices at Fattal's down the strteet, then go food shopping. Hungry food shoppers spend more, research has shown.

Back in the food-shopping game

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I'm back to food shopping after a few days off and really enjoying it. I am going to try and avoid visiting a store just because it has a sale. See earlier post, "Are we sick of food shopping yet?"

We go through a ton of Halloween candy every year, so I headed to Costco in Hackensack for my weekly trip. I picked up 600 to 700 pieces of candy, plus 100% whole grain bread, smoked wild salmon, ravioli stuffed with cheese and spinach, and organic salad greens -- all at great prices. That was yesterday.

Today, I drove to Mitsuwa Marketplace in Edgewater for its autumn food fair, sampling ramen made by Master  Kenji Chiba, owner of a Tokyo noodle-soup shop, Chibaki Ya. I learned that ramen broth isn't always made with pork. This one takes six to seven hours to prepare from fish and chicken. The fair ends Sunday. Nice.

To take home, I bought one of my favorites, a log of smoked mackerel sushi imported from Japan ($29). It comes wrapped in a leaf, inside a box. I also bought two scrumptious, freshly made rice balls with fish roe, wrapped in seaweed. I wolfed those down as soon as I got home. My third purchase were Kobe-style pancakes stuffed with sweet bean paste, made on the spot.

After I left Mitsuwa, I stopped at Trader Joe's, which is just down the road, picking up drug- and preservative-free Applegate Farms cold cuts, two packages of uncured, preservative-free hot dogs; and sliced yogurt cheese with jalapenos.

I also purchased a T.J.'s five-gallon, reusable, insulated bag to replace one I lost, at a bargain price of $1.99. The store doesn't give you any credit for bringing reusable bags, but almost makes up for that with this low price.

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Food coverage in The Record

In the Better Living section of The Record today, on Page F-1, 2 and 3, a staff written story on Jewish deli maven David Sax and a so-called 15-minute pork-chop recipe from the Chicago Tribune fail to discuss whether any of the meat was raised on factory farms with antibiotics, growth hormones or animal byproducts (bits of dead animals and kitchen scraps), or whether the hot dogs contain preservatives linked to cancer.


The paper's food coverage rarely discusses these issues, whether in a feature story, restaurant review or recipe. I've always been in favor of reviewing supermarkets, rating them on price and how much naturally raised food they stock. But For The Record, that might jeopardize sorely needed advertising revenue.

On Page L-10 of The Record, in business news, there's no mention in the Start-Ups column of whether the sea salt being promoted contains iodine, a necessary nutrient.

Clashing food coverage at Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports magazine likes to rate supermarkets and chain restaurants, but the food is rarely evaluated on how it was raised or grown. Value is most important. Yet food is treated far differently in Consumer Reports' On Health newsletter, which exposes the dirty details of antibiotics, additives, contaminants and other horror stories.

The magazine's October 2009 issue evaluates store brands under the headlines: "It pays to buy store brands. They often cost less but taste as good." Among other items, two pizzas are evaluated, from DiGiorno and Archer Farms (Target). "Meat lovers might prefer Archer Farms, chock full of pepperoni chunks and slices," the magazine says, without saying whether either pizza uses uncured, preservative-free meat.

The cover article in the magazine's May 2009 issue is on supermarkets: "Shop smart & save big. Our best tips, plus exclusive ratings of 59 supermarkets." A national survey ranks stores on service, perishables, price and cleanliness, but not on the availability of organic products, wild fish, and drug-, hormone, and preservative-free poultry and meat.

The magazine's July 2009 and July 2006 issues rate chain restaurants. The latest report appears under the headlines: "Where to dine well for less. Readers rate food, value & service at 101 chains." But "trained tasters" evaluate steaks on taste and value, not on how the the animals were raised and whether they were given antibiotics, growth hormones and animal by-products.

For example, the $53, 20-ounce strip steak at Morton's The Steakhouse was judged "excellent" in a comparison to three others, including the $22, 14-ounce strip steak at Outback Steakhouse ("very good"). Is the beef grass-fed or grain-fed? Is it free range or was the animal confined in a feedlot and given drugs and growth hormones? We are never told. We don't even find out whether Outback serves Australian beef, which is often grass-fed and free-range.

The magazine's food articles leave many of us hungry for more information. Why do we have to rely on the pricey Consumer Reports On Health newsletter to find out the truth about what is in our food? I'll be passing along some of the On Health reports in future posts.

Web sites

Magazine: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/index.htm

On Health: http://www.consumerreports.org/oh/index.htm