Sticker shock is everywhere on rare visit to Fairway Market in Paramus

I'm not ready to pay $31.99 at Fairway Market  in Paramus for a pound of lobster meat -- a price equivalent of four live lobsters. Are you?

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I became a big fan of Fairway Market's Harlem store, which was a convenient place to shop every time I returned to my New Jersey home from visiting Manhattan.

My favorites included Fairway's extra-virgin olive oil, pasta sauces, store-roasted coffee beans and loose mesclun salad mix, which I stuffed into a plastic bag.

When Fairway opened in the out-of-the-way Fashion Center in Paramus in May 2009 -- after years of delay -- I started going there for custom-ground coffee beans, pasta sauce and other items, but the store didn't carry the goat meat that was available in Harlem.

I was puzzled that Fairway picked what is arguably the least popular shopping center in Paramus; the owners must have gotten a great deal on the rent.

And my wife told me she preferred the taste of ShopRite's antibiotic-free Readington Farms chicken to the naturally raised Murray's birds at Fairway.

I started going there less and less, and not at all after I discovered the superior coffee beans available at Starbucks.

I realized I could get just about everything else I need at Costco Wholesale, H Mart, ShopRite and other stores, often at much better prices.

And I didn't have to deal with Fairway's superior New York attitude.

Rotisserie chickens at Fairway Market in Paramus, above, cost more than at Whole Foods Market, also in Paramus, below.

Two rotisserie chickens at Whole Foods work out to about $7.50 each. Organic birds are $12.99 each.

New to me at Fairway are hot and cold food bars, like those Whole Foods Market has had since it opened. The prepared food costs $7.99 a pound. At an olive bar, you'll pay $8.99 a pound. I'm happy with the mixed Italian olives with whole garlic cloves I buy for $3.99 a pound at Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood.

Fishmonger: Clean shrimp yourself

On Friday, after visiting a friend who lives in Paramus, I decided to go to Fairway in search of wild-caught shrimp.

Fairway has a great seafood department, and sure enough I saw jumbo Gulf shrimp for $17.99 a pound (16-20 per pound).

That was a little high, but thought if the store deveined them for me, a job I hate, I would get a couple of pounds. 

But when I asked, the fishmonger just shook his head back and forth in a definite "no."

I moved on to the meat department, and asked if the store now carried goat meat. I was in luck.

I was told I could find packages of cut-up goat meat on the refrigerated shelves with chicken and other poultry and meat.

The previously frozen goat meat was $5.49 a pound, and I bought three packages for a total of $25.58.

Whole-wheat pasta

After a picked up the goat meat, I went looking for the whole-wheat pasta I saw in another shopper's cart, stopping for free samples of bread with extra-virgin olive oil and an intense pesto.

The rich pesto came in a 16-ounce bottle, but was about twice the price per ounce of the 22-ounce jar of Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto from Costco.

Fairway carries several brands of whole-wheat pappardelle, penne, spaghetti and other shapes, including Garofalo from Italy.

But all of them were more expensive than the organic and conventional whole-wheat pasta I buy at Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, ShopRite and Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood.

Organic spring mix

Fairway also has a great produce department, but a 1-pound package of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix was $6.99, compared to $4.99 or less at my Hackensack Costco.

I saw a sign for bunches of peppery arugula for $1.49 each, but when I grabbed one, it was small, about 3 ounces; that works out to a pricey $6 a pound. I passed.

Fairway also refuses to reimburse shoppers for bringing reusable bags, unlike Whole Foods and ShopRite.

Thanks, Fairway, but no thanks. You should have stayed in New York.

At H Mart, the sea bass doesn't pass the smell test

H Mart, the Korean supermarket on Lafayette Avenue in Englewood, boasts that it gets fresh seafood from the Fulton Fish Market, but doesn't say how often that is. Whole Foods Market in Paramus says it gets seafood deliveries six days a week.

Editor's note: Holiday food shopping is hit or miss, and you have to fight all that traffic and other shoppers who seem to be gathering ingredients for their last meal. Today, I discuss shopping at H Mart, ShopRite, Costco Wholesale and other stores.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I've purchased and enjoyed literally hundreds of whole fresh fish from H Marts in Bergen County in the past dozen years -- whiting, mackerel, sea bass and more.

But three plump sea bass I bought at the Englewood H Mart on Sunday for $4.99 a pound didn't pass the smell test.

Knowing I had a couple of other stops to make on the way home, I asked the man at the fish counter to give me a bag of ice to keep the wild-caught fish cool after he cleaned them.

I picked up two crispy baguettes at Balthazar Bakery on South Dean Street in Englewood that were still warm from the oven ($2 each).

Then, I continued down South Dean, stopping at Jerry's Gourmet & More for a 2.2-pound bag of coffee beans from Torrisi in Italy ($18.99).

The Italian specialty store hasn't had any Lavazza coffee beans for many weeks.

When I got home, I could smell the fish through the closed plastic bag -- not a good sign.

Wild-caught shrimp from Mexico at H Mart in Englewood.

I asked my mother-in-law to look at the fish, and she indicated they seemed to be OK. But when she started to cook them, she didn't like how they fell apart, so she asked me to return them.

The man at the H Mart fish counter apologized, and I got a full refund.

I didn't ask the H Mart employee when the sea bass had come in, but selected that fish because it is one of our favorites.

At home, as my mother-in-law was washing and cleaning parts of the fish the fishmonger had missed, I noticed the eyes weren't as clear as they should be.

After I got my refund of $22.85, I bought wild-caught shrimp from Mexico for $14.49 a pound (under 12 per pound).

Jinga-brand Fish Cake Roll (a seaweed-and-rice roll known as kimbap) was $2.49 or half price after 4 p.m.

I slice Balthazar baguettes and store them in the freezer, toasting them when I want to use them for sandwiches -- from canned fish salad with Dijon mustard, lime juice and cumin to peanut butter and jelly.

At the Rochelle Park ShopRite, a 40-ounce bottle of Victoria Marinara Sauce was $7.99, compared to $8.49 for two 40-ounce bottles of the same pasta sauce at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack. Last month, an instant Costco coupon brought that down to $6.14 for two bottles, and I bought four.

ShopRite v. Costco

At the Hackensack ShopRite on Sunday, I picked up three 25.4-ounce bottles of Martinelli's Sparkling Cider on sale for $1.99 each, a savings of $1.50 a bottle, less than the same apple cider at the nearby Costco Wholesale.

Liter bottles of Adirondack Original Seltzer were two for $1.

Trimmed French green beans from Costco Wholesale can be prepared quickly by blanching in boiling water for about 5 minutes, draining the pan and adding extra-virgin olive oil, fresh lime juice, salt and other seasoning.

Costco's Atlantic cod

Fresh cod fillets showed up at my Costco Wholesale today after an absence of many months.

But this fish is from the Atlantic Ocean, not the Pacific, and comes all the way from Iceland, where it is long-line caught by a fishery certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council.

The wild-caught fish is from a company called North Coast Seafoods, and the price is an easy to swallow $7.99 a pound.

Atlantic cod is the fish that literally fed the world for hundreds of years before over-fishing prompted regulators to declare a moratorium on large commercial catches.

Other Costco purchases included three 32-ounce bottles of Kirkland Signature Marinara Sauce, made with extra-virgin olive oil and fresh garlic and basil, for $7.99 or about $2.66 a bottle.

A wedge of aged Parmigiano Reggiano from Italy was $10. 69 a pound, the lowest price in North Jersey.

Shaved Parmigiano Reggiano with Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix, both from Costco. The delicious, triple-washed salad is $4.99 for a 1-pound package.

At the Seafood Road Show, I saw frozen wild-caught octopus from the Philippines for $3.49 a pound, and enormous frozen Black Tiger shrimp, which are farm raised in Vietnam, for $19.99 a pound. 

I also got a $5.49 refund for a large bag of hard pears that never ripened, even though we ate all but two of them.

Fairway goat meat

Before Fairway Market opened a Paramus store, we would stop at the Harlem outpost on the way back from dining out or seeing a show in Manhattan.

We liked the goat meat on the bone, and purchased it regularly.

But when it opened, the Paramus store never carried goat meat, even though North Jersey is as diverse as Manhattan. 

I was told several years ago I could call the Paramus store and ask the butcher to get the goat meat from Manhattan, but twice today, the phone rang and rang, and no one in that department ever picked up.

Whole Foods Market in Paramus occasionally has frozen organic goat meat, but this afternoon, I could not find a space in the lot, turned around and went home.

COMFORTING BREAKFAST: Eating the broken yolks of organic eggs prepared sunny side up with mashed sweet potatoes, which were plated and reheated in the microwave.

Canned fish salad -- yellowfin tuna, pink salmon and sardines -- dressed with Dijon mustard, fresh lime juice and ground cumin, and served with stewed tofu, tomatoes and cucumbers sprinkled with za'atar thyme mixture.

Ingredients label has a sweet spot

Image via Wikipedia

"Agave tequilana," or blue agave plant, in Jalisco, Mexico.

I started using Organic Blue Agave Sweetener a few years ago after seeing it on the shelf at Trader Joe's in Paramus. 


But the ingredients label on the Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Blue Agave I found at Costco Wholesale recently contains a lot of information I seemed to have missed.


The natural nectar, extracted from the heart of the agave plant, "is a low-glycemic index sweetener, so it is slowly absorbed into the body, preventing spikes in blood sugar," according to the label.


"It is 25% sweeter than sugar, so you need less, and it has been consumed by ancient civilizations for over 5,000 years."


There's no mention of whether the nectar comes from the same part of the blue agave plant used to distill some of the best tequilas.


The label recommends using the sweetener whenever you use table sugar, such as for sweetening beverages and in baking. I use it in espresso and pour it over yogurt and hot, 10-grain cereal. 


The single ingredient listed is "organic light agave nectar." It's also gluten free.


The label identifies the sweetener as a product of Mexico, distributed by a company in Sugar Land, Texas.


Staying close to home


We've been wanting to try the Organic Tofu House in Ridgewood -- as we search for the best Korean soft-tofu stew in North Jersey -- but I just didn't feel up to getting on Route 17 and driving there.


So, on Saturday evening, we had dinner at one of our favorite places, Wondee's in Hackesnack, which is about a mile from our home.


I made a wonderful, meatless dinner of spicy soup with fresh shrimp, button mushrooms, chili oil and cilantro; crunchy green papaya salad with fish sauce; a whole, fried red-snapper covered in a sweet-and-sour red chili sauce; and a  bowl of brown rice.


My wife and son also had part of the fish, in addition to Thai wonton soup, with sliced pork; and fried pork, shrimp and crab dumplings, which were a bit dry. I mistakenly ordered them instead of the juicy steamed dumplings they prefer.


Wondee's menu also has a page of vegetarian appetizers and entrees, including a terrific mock-duck salad made with fried tofu and fruit.


The chef-owner, Wandee Suwangbutra, held the line on prices for a couple of years, but recently redid the menu. Her new price for a whole, wild-caught fish ($18) is still among the lowest around.


Wondee's Fine Thai Food & Noodles, 296 Main St., Hackensack; 
201-883-1700. Free parking in rear, BYO, no delivery.


The fatted goat


My wife defrosted a 3-pound package of Coleman's organic goat meat we bought at Whole Foods Market in Paramus ($7.99 a pound), only to discover an unusual amount of fat.


It's not the first time we've bought goat meat on the bone from Whole Foods, but it has never had so much fat, which my wife trims for her curry goat dish. We're looking for the receipt to return it.


In the past, we bought our goat meat in New York, at Fairway Market in Harlem, where we'd stop anytime we were on the way home from doing something in the city.


When Fairway opened its store at the Fashion Center in Paramus, I thought I'd have a reliable source for goat meat closer to home, but I was wrong. The store didn't stock any.


The butcher there said I could call and he'd have some sent over from Manhattan, but Fairway's frozen goat meat wasn't organic and there was no package information on how the animals were raised.


Coleman's label specifies the meat is halal and comes from animals raised without antibiotics, growth hormones and animal byproducts.



Related story

• Agave Nectar- A Naturally Healthy Sweetener (findingcoffee.wordpress.com)

A colorful, delicious summer dinner

After my salad and seafood lunch today at Artisanal (see previous post), I felt like a light dinner, so I baked a fillet of fresh wild salmon that I bought at Costco on Saturday, seasoning it with salt, cumin, Aleppo red pepper and fresh chopped parsley from the garden. In a 350-degree oven, 11-12 minutes gave me five medium-rare pieces from a fillet of average thickness.

For a salad, I prepared No. 7 on the list of "101 Simple Salads for the Season" that was in The New York Times on July 22: "Grate carrots, toast some sunflower seeds, and toss with blueberries, olive oil, lemon juice and plenty of black pepper. Sweet, sour, crunchy, soft." I didn't have sunflower seeds so substituted pistachios and almonds, both salted. I grated four small carrots and added about a third a of a pint of Jersey blueberries.

I sliced and toasted a Balthazar dinner roll, poured what was left of some Portuguese vinho verde and Spanish sparking grape juice and really enjoyed my Sunday night meal.

Shopping notes: I picked up the blueberries at Fairway Market in Harlem, where I stopped for goat meat (the Paramus Fairway doesn't carry it). In Manhattan, the Jersey fruit was priced at two for $4, compared with two for $5 last week at ShopRite in Hackensack. The fresh wild sockeye salmon is $8.99 a pound at Costco and has been consistently delicious. And Fairway's price for goat meat on the bone, $2.99 a pound, is a great price in view of the quality (more meat than bone).