Big sale on family size Victoria Pasta Sauces at Paramus ShopRite

Victoria Vodka Sauce in a 40-ounce jar, above, and Victoria Marinara are on sale for $3.49 each at ShopRite in Paramus, compared to $4.50 for the same marinara sauce at Costco Wholesale in Teterboro.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

ShopRite in Paramus is having a 2-day sale through today, and Victoria pasta sauces are among the bargains.

Victoria Vodka Sauce, one of the few made without heavy cream, is $3.49 in a 40-ounce jar, a discount of $3.90 with the store's Price Plus Club Card.

The family size Victoria Marinara, which has no added sugar, unlike many others, also is $3.49.

None of the other Victoria varieties, such as Low-Sodium Marinara, are available at that sale price.

The 4o-ounce jar provides plenty of sauce to dress a full pound of organic whole-wheat pasta.

You also can use marinara to poach eggs or in an omelet with sauteed spinach and reduced fat cheese.

Out front on ingredients

The six to 12 ingredients in Victoria Pasta Sauces are listed on the front label.

On the back label, the marinara carries the stamp of the Non-GMO Project, meaning the sauce doesn't contain any genetically modified ingredients.

Even a great marinara sauce like Victoria can be improved with the addition of red wine, extra-virgin olive oil, anchovies, dried or fresh herbs and red-pepper flakes.

Besides pasta sauce, I picked up BPA-free plastic storage containers for $3.99, supposedly a discount of $4 (20 pieces).

ShopRite pitted olives, 3-inch basket coffee filters and Smart Balance Spread also were on sale.

Luigi Vitelli-brand Organic Whole Wheat Pasta from Italy in a 16-ounce package is always on sale at the Paramus ShopRite for $1.25. The package for the whole-wheat capellini, one of several shapes available, has been redesigned.

A 5-pound box of Clementines from Morocco was $4.99 on Friday. I prefer clementines from Spain.

A good buy on batteries?

Quality of Costco produce raises concerns

A display of bulk produce at Stop & Shop in Teaneck, where prices are competitive with Costco Wholesale in Hackensack and lower in one or two cases.

Do I have to pay a fortune for good produce?

I can't think of a store where the fruit and vegetables have always been perfect, including Costco Wholesale, which sells premium produce at a lower price than most other retailers.

From ShopRite, I've brought home fruit that either never ripens or rots when left out overnight.

At H Mart, I returned mangoes that were brown and rotting inside.

At Costco, I got a refund for mealy pears, and when we cut open "Washington Extra Fancy" Fuji apples, they were brown inside.

I asked for a refund when Trader Joe's organic pears never ripened on the kitchen counter.

In April 2011, I said produce prices were rising and quality was slipping at Costco in Hackensack.

A few days ago, a reader commented on that item:

"I have come to your site after an online 'review'
of Costco produce. Everybody I know is saying that Costco has gone to hell as far as produce goes. Their quality is gone. I'm totally bummed. I used to buy all my produce there.

"Now I go to Hy-Vee grocery stores. Only a little more, price-wise, but 10 times the quality."

I don't know about "Costco has gone to hell," but we spend thousands of dollars on food there every year, and would like to see an improvement, especially when it comes to fruit.

We'd also like to see customers who don't handle every piece of fruit or sample it before buying a package, like the man who popped a few grape tomatoes in his mouth.

 

Playing chicken

On Friday, my wife went to the Hackensack warehouse store for more fresh wild sockeye salmon from the Copper River in Alaska ($10.99 a pound).

She also picked up a package of Empire kosher leg quarters, which are from free-roaming chickens raised on a vegetarian diet and without antibiotics, according to the package.

When she got them home and opened the shrink-wrapped package, the chicken stank and she saw that it was rancid.

She returned it for a refund and Costco offered her a 50% discount on another package, but she said her time, the need to fight traffic and a ruined reusable bag were worth more than that.

She wanted another package for free.

She had to talk to a few employees, but the general manager granted her wish.

 

Part of the produce section at Fairway Market in Paramus. Fairway charges 79 cents for a pound of bananas, compared to about 47 cents a pound at Costco.

"Violators will be embarrassed," a Fairway sign warns. Maybe the store should be embarrassed selling olives for $6.99 a pound. Italian olives are $3.99 a pound at Jerry's Gourmet & More on South Dean Street in Englewood.

I went to Fairway Market in Paramus for coffee, selecting the only beans on sale -- French Roast for $6.99 a pound -- and asking an employee for the Turkish grind.

No other North Jersey store has the selection of whole beans available at Fairway, and most are roasted in the store.

There is a huge selection of coffee beans, but only one was on sale this week.

An employee at the coffee-bean roaster in Paramus.

At Fairway, I also bought 2 pints of Jersey blueberries for $5 or what I paid last week at ShopRite in Paramus, and two heads of green-leaf lettuce for $1.49.

A wedge of Spanish Fig Cake with Mixed Nuts was $6.19 ($9.99 a pound), and the only other store with this item is Whole Foods in Paramus.

The fig cake is wonderful with cheese, such as Grana Padano.

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.