At Costco, should you go for fresh or frozen from the deep sea?

I poached fresh, wild-caught Icelandic haddock fillets from Costco Wholesale in Roasted Poblano Salsa from Whole Foods Market in under 10 minutes. 

Editor's note: With only a couple of exceptions, I prefer fresh, wild-caught fish fillets from Costco Wholesale.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

When I felt like fresh fish for dinner on Monday, I drove a couple of miles to Costco Wholesale in Hackensack at a little after 3 in the afternoon.

The warehouse store offers a large variety of seafood from all over the world -- fresh, frozen, wild and farmed.

As usual, I found fresh, wild-caught fillets of cod, haddock and flounder for as little as $7.99 a pound, and chose a 1.6-pound of package of flaky haddock from Iceland ($8.99 a pound).

I knew I had a 16-ounce bottle of 365 Everyday Value Roasted Poblano Salsa from Whole Foods Market and fresh limes at home, all I would need to poach the haddock, which I cut into serving pieces and sprinkled with Aleppo pepper.

Less than 10 minutes after the salsa and fresh lime juice came to a boil in a covered pan, I was spooning two portions of fish over leftover organic brown rice.

I actually cooked my haddock for only 5 minutes, and it continued cooking after I turned off the fire.

A glass of red wine and a triple-washed Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix Salad ($4.89 a pound) completed the meal.

Previously frozen lobster tails at Costco Wholesale are $21 a pound. The label describes them as "warm water" lobster, but the use of a preservative is a real turn-off, and I've never purchased them. Where are they from? The label doesn't say. See a comment at the end of the post for information on the origin of these lobster tails.

Boxes holding 10 pounds of frozen Red King Crab.

The label doesn't say where these cooked legs and claws come from, though we bought loose king crab legs from Costco's Seafood Road Show for our Christmas dinner, and I assumed they were from Alaska.

At the Hackensack warehouse store, previously frozen whole wild octopus from the Philippines, left, and frozen calamari tubes.

Frozen or previously frozen?

Costco's Seafood Road Show ended a long holiday run in Hackensack today, and we liked the loose frozen King Crab legs we bought for our Christmas dinner ($17.99 a pound).

We steamed the fully cooked legs for Christmas, and made a salad with the leftovers with diced celery, onion and sweet pepper, dressed with Dijon mustard and fresh lime juice.

We also like previously frozen Kirkland Signature Wild Alaskan Smoked Sockeye Salmon, which shot up to $18.89 a pound last May.

Recently, the price of 1 pound of the sliced salmon went down to $15.99, compared to $15.59 in May 2013.

We've also enjoyed frozen hake and wild sockeye salmon fillets.

But we avoid most of the frozen shellfish Costco sells, as well as the previously frozen farmed Black Tiger Shrimp from Vietnam.

We also are no fans of fresh farmed fish -- from the huge fillets of artificially colored salmon and steel-head trout to the tilapia.

NYC Restaurant Week lunch is a far better deal than dinner

Skate Wing with Chickpea Puree, Roasted Vegetables and Arugula at Fulton, a Manhattan restaurant owned by Citarella.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Fulton -- named after the famous fish market of the same name -- is a restaurant from Citarella, known for upscale markets selling pristine seafood, meat and produce.

The Upper East Side restaurant also is one of hundreds offering three-course lunches for $25 and three-course dinners for $38 during the city's semi-annual Restaurant Week, which ends Aug. 15.

Lunch is a far better value, as I discovered at dinner on Wednesday at Fulton, where the two fixed-price menus are virtually identical.

I enjoyed my meal: An appetizer of the tenderest octopus I have ever had, a generous portion of skate wing with roasted vegetables and two kinds of sorbet to finish.

The restaurant is just around the corner from a Citarella market on Third Avenue.

An appetizer of Grilled Octopus with Potato, Chermoula and Cured Lemon. The waiter said the octopus is tenderized for three hours in boiling water, and it showed. 

Moroccan marinade, stacked skate 

The octopus was marinated in chermoula, a Moroccan seafood sauce made with cilantro, parsley, garlic and other ingredients. 

Two pieces of local skate wing were stacked with chickpea puree and roasted vegetables.

Skate is normally tender, which this one was, but some of it was annoyingly chewy and stringy.

I left a 15% tip, and took advantage of an American Express promotion during Restaurant Week by registering my card and using it to pay for the meal, giving me a statement credit of $5.

That brought the cost of dinner down to $33, plus tip and tax. As I was leaving, the hostess handed me two cookies.

Still, I plan to stick with lunch during the rest of Summer Restaurant Week.

Mango and raspberry sorbet with fresh mint leaves. Fulton's Restaurant Week dinner menu offers tiramisu, but I asked the waiter for something lighter and to tell the kitchen not to cook my food with butter. 

Bread service: Crusty rolls and extra-virgin olive oil.

You can't tell from the dining room, but Fulton was busy on Wednesday evening, with most customers sitting at outside tables, enjoying $1 oysters and $6 glasses of prosecco during Happy Hour, below.

Happy Hour menu.

Fulton Restaurant, 205 E. 75th St., New York, N.Y.; 1-212-288-6600. 

Web site: Citarella's seafood restaurant

A bountiful seafood meal at a discount

Image by fritzmb via Flickr
At Nisi Estiatorio in Englewood, every server is a fish salesman.


Before dinner service begins, the servers meet with the chef to taste and discuss the texture and flavor of the fresh fish sold by the pound, as well as the special available that evening, so they can brief customers. 


The fresh seafood -- turbot, red snapper, European sea bass, Scottish langoustines and more -- are buried in ice in a beautiful dining-room display set against a soothing waterfall, and the servers encourage customers to look over the choices before ordering.


The motto of this expensive Greek fish house is written at the bottom of every check: "Eat Fish Live Longer." You might think the phrase needs punctuation, but you can't argue with the sentiment.


On Friday, I had my first dinner at Nisi -- using a Groupon for $50 worth of food and drink I bought online for only $25.


I ordered dishes and a glass of wine that added up to $50 exactly, then used my credit card to cover the tax and tip, a total of $11. My $36 bought a four-course seafood meal with a total cost of $61.


I concentrated on small plates, an octopus salad ($18) and two appetizers,  Portuguese sardines and wild-caught Shrimp Saganaki ($12 each), plus a glass of Greek retsina or resin wine ($8).


After taking my order and heading for the kitchen, the waiter returned and said the restaurant was out of octopus, which seemed odd for a Greek place. 


And before I left, I heard another waiter taking a grilled octopus order from another customer, though I didn't actually see the dish delivered to the table.


So, I took another look at the menu and substituted Fasolada ($8), a white-bean-and-vegetable soup, and a salad called Roca Nisi ($10) for the octopus salad.
Image by Getty Images via @daylife


The soup, served in a large bowl, was thick and delicious, and the salad was wonderful, with a winning combination of micro greens, diced beets, cheese, fresh orange pieces and crispy, spiced walnuts.


I got five fresh sardines, simply grilled, and really enjoyed them, even though it took a little work to remove the bones of these mighty little fish.


I was full, and would have been happy to end the meal there, but then the waiter brought me a small ramekin filled with savory, saffron-flavored tomato sauce and melted feta cheese that hid four large, unusually tender shrimp.


I ate it all with a spoon. That meal was what I call a "belly buster." Two could have shared it as a light supper.


At home a couple of hours later, I had dessert: Greek-style non-fat yogurt with honey.


Nisi Estiatorio, 90 Grand Ave., Englewood; 201-567-4700.
Valet and street parking.


Web site: Eat fish, live longer

A second bite of Sik Gaek Seafood Grill

Image by vasta via Flickr

If you're a jazz fan, you might think of "Jumpin' at The Woodside" during your visit to Sik Gaek BBQ & Seafood Grill in the Woodside section of Queens, but that tune by the Count Basie Orchestra would be drowned out by the loud, pulsing Korean and American rock that gives this restaurant such energy.

Let me be quick to say we didn't see customers eating live, wriggling octopus tentacles -- a signature dish at this Sik Gaek and the original in Flushing, as you can see in a You Tube video by clicking on the Web site link below.

I've even read customer reviews on the Internet that describe a live octopus thrown on a seasoned hot plate to make it "dance" or "jump."

My son and I stuck to conventional seafood and had a delicious meal, but we ordered way too much and took home plenty of leftovers. The turn-off here might be the obscene lyrics of some of the American hip-hop songs, not the all-out, red-pepper assault on your senses. 

We love spicy food, so we ordered everything hot and weren't disappointed. My sniffles were drowned out by the loud music as my paper napkins piled up at the side of the table.

Right after we were seated, a server turned on the gas burner in the middle of the table and fried us two eggs, over easy. After we placed our order, we got a plate of spicy rice cakes and an egg souffle commonly served in Korean barbecue restaurants. 

Still, I had to ask for kimchi, and it wasn't as good as the fermented cabbage we loved at the Flushing restaurant. 

Our first entree was barbecued mackerel -- a whole, butterflied fish about a food long and slathered with a thick, spicy sauce ($14.99). The fish was moist, with crunchy bits at each end. My son ordered stir-fried crabs and a pot of them in the same sauce was placed over the burner ($29.99).

I sucked on a few shells and legs, but my son was delighted and able to find some crab meat. 

It was clear we couldn't finish the fish or crabs, so we asked a waitress for some rice, and she came over, spooned out the crabs and stir-fried cooked rice, vegetables and what I think were small cubes of cooked octopus into the spicy sauce  ($4.99).

The few spoonfuls I could manage to eat were fantastic. Our meal ended with refreshing cups of cucumber juice.

The Woodside Sik Gaek is a smaller than the Flushing location, but the shouted greetings and farewells from the staff are no less enthusiastic, the menu is the same and it's easier to get into. Sik Gaek offers $99 pots of mixed seafood if you come with a group.

When we arrived, we pushed and pulled on the door between the vestibule and dining room, but it didn't budge until a waiter came over and slid it open. The restaurant is next to a taxi garage, in the shadow of the elevated subway tracks, in a neighborhood of Irish pubs and taco joints.

The walls in Woodside are covered with newspaper pages, photos of customers and staff, and dollar bills covered with Korean and English writing. I saw, "So hot" and below that, "Go for it."  

Sik Gaek BBQ & Seafood Grill, 49-11 Roosevelt Ave. 
(near 49th Street), Woodside, Queens; 718-205-4555. Also,
161-29 Crocheron Ave., Flushing, Queens; 718-321-7770.
Web site: 


Anthony Bourdain and David Chang eat wriggling octopus

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

At Chung Dam Dong Restaurant

Image by xoundbox via Flickr
Broad Avenue is the main street in Palisades Park, home to dozens of Korean restaurants and coffee shops.

If you love to see your meal cooked on the table at a Korean restaurant and if you're a big fan of octopus and squid in a seriously spicy sauce, head over to Chung Dam Dong in Palisades Park.


We had dinner there last night after negotiating with the waitress and the kitchen over what we wanted in our seafood stir fry instead of those invertebrates, which I love but which my wife and son abhor. 


The meal came with eight panchan, or side dishes, including a delightful salad of greens, two kinds of terrific kimchi, stewed radish and fish, steamed egg, and potato salad with mayo and raisins. Another was scallion, green pepper, carrot and Spam on a toothpick, battered and fried.


So we agreed on pork and shell- and head-on shrimp in our stir fry, which was cooked with vegetables and a half-dozen mussels in the kitchen and brought to our table in a wok that was placed over a gas grill to keep it bubbling. 


The mussels never opened, so I didn't eat them. A stone bowl of coarse, bland bean curd -- or was it tofu? -- was the perfect counterpoint to this spicy dish.


After we put a serious dent in the entree and several dishes of salad and kimchi, which were replenished when empty, the waitress brought out fresh bean sprouts and a medium-size bowl of steamed white rice and dumped them into the wok, stirring them into the remaining sauce and flattening the rice against the bottom and sides of the blackened wok -- for sort of a Korean paella. We tried, but couldn't finish the rice.


I don't know the name of this entree, but you can find it on the menu by its lofty price -- $42.99. The waitress told us it served only two and urged us to order soup, in addition to the fried vegetable dumplings we wanted ($11.99). We declined. 


This is one restaurant where the quality of the "free side dishes" make some of the pricier entrees palatable. The only beer available is Coors Light, and a small bottle of soju is about $12.


Chung Dam Dong also offers Korean barbecue, but I didn't pay too much attention to those selections, because we have long ago decided to buy our own free-range, grass-fed Australian beef and prepare barbecue at home, after consuming so much "mystery meat" at restaurants.


You'll find this second-floor restaurant in the same building on Broad Avenue that houses So Gong Dong, our favorite soft-tofu place. At the top of the stairs, you turn right for tofu stews, left for spicy stir fries and great side dishes.


Chung Dam Dong Restaurant, 118 Broad Ave.,
Palisades Park, 201-313-8900. No Web site.