Comparing sale prices at the H Marts in Englewood and Little Ferry

I picked up more than 2 pounds of mustard greens, above, and a Kabocha squash, both on sale for 88 cents a pound, at the H Mart in Englewood, but the same store was selling a 15-pound bag of Kokuho Yellow Label White Rice for $2 more than the H Mart in Little Ferry.

This breakfast includes organic brown eggs, organic quinoa and organic fresh salsa, all from Costco Wholesale. Why can't I find a mostly organic breakfast at my local diner?

Editor's note: I continue to be puzzled by varying sale prices at H Marts in Bergen County, and wonder whether I have to start to bring organic food and other items I like to restaurants that don't offer them.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On the way home from an errand in Cresskill on Saturday, it only made sense to stop at the H Mart in Englewood for fresh greens, produce and a few free food samples.

This Korean supermarket is part of the Hanahreum Group, but you wouldn't know it when you compare it to the larger H Mart in Little Ferry. 

For example, you might find a 5-pound box of Bagu Clementines from Spain on sale for $5.99 at both stores.

Yet, the Englewood H Mart will claim you saved $3 while the Little Ferry store puts your discount at $2.

A 15-pound bag of Kokuho Yellow Label, a white rice grown in California, was on sale for $14.88 in Englewood on Saturday and for $12.88 in Little Ferry on Sunday.

The parking lot at the Little Ferry H Mart on Sunday.

Spinach, red snapper

The Little Ferry store is much larger, but shabbier and sorely in need of a makeover, and employees keep their coats on in the seemingly unheated space.

On Sunday, I saw a few large potholes in the parking lot and a large, frozen pond that blocked access to half of the lot.

The Englewood store, which was renovated a couple of years ago, has a food counter where you can have lunch or buy prepared Korean food to take home.

Little Ferry had a dingy lunchroom, but it is now closed.

Still, Little Ferry offers more free food samples on weekends, and on Sunday, I sampled sushi made with cooked snow crab, broiled eel, seafood dumplings, fresh fruit and sauteed mushrooms.

In addition to the bag of Kokuho rice for $12.88 and clementines for $5.99, I bought two bushels of fresh spinach, on sale for 99 cents instead of $1.49 each.

At the fish counter in Little Ferry, I bought two large, wild-caught red snappers nestled in ice, and had them cut into steaks, including the head and tail ($6.99 a pound).

For dinner, I stir-fried the spinach and prepared the fish with organic diced tomatoes, red wine and fresh lime juice.

Web site: H Mart

Natural sugar oozing from large sweet potatoes I bought at Costco Wholesale and baked at home.

Plenty of restaurants offer baked potatoes, but finding sweet potatoes on the menu is rare.

Even rarer at diners and restaurants are mashed sweet potatoes with garlic, extra-virgin olive oil, salt and other seasoning, including curry powder and cinnamon. Here, I boiled 3 pounds of small sweet potatoes from ShopRite ($2.99) and about a pound of peeled California cloves from Costco.

I've switched to organic whole-wheat pasta instead of the conventional type, and buy imported whole-wheat linguine, spaghetti, capellini, spirals and other shapes from ShopRite, Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's for $1.49 a pound or less. But the only whole-wheat pasta I've been able to find at restaurants is penne. Do I have to bring my own? Above, organic whole-wheat linguine with sardines and anchovies in a cream-free vodka sauce.

Mayo-less tuna salad, Love Beets and pasta with anchovies

A homemade salad of solid light tuna gets most of its flavor from Dijon mustard and fresh lime juice. Sharing the plate are organic beets, Campari Tomatoes and Earthbound Farm salad greens. Just about everything is available from Costco Wholesale.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss a tuna salad with Middle Eastern and Asian Indian spices, cooked organic beets from Costco Wholesale and the robust taste anchovies give to pasta sauce.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Why settle for a humdrum tuna salad dressed with mayo when you can have one flavored with Dijon mustard, fresh lime juice and exotic spices?

Add crunch with chopped sweet pepper, onion, carrot, celery or scallions.

This week, I used green pepper, onion and a little carrot; three cans of Genova Solid Light Tuna in Olive Oil; Dijon mustard to taste; three limes and ground cumin, sumac and garam masala.

If the salad isn't moist enough, add extra-virgin olive oil.

Six 7-ounce cans of Genova yellowfin tuna were $11.89 at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

If you are concerned about mercury, you can make this salad with one can of tuna, one of pink salmon and one or two cans of sardines.

Do you love beets?

If you love beets, you'll love refrigerated Love Beets, fully cooked organic beets sold in a 1-kilogram package at Costco Wholesale for $7.99.

There are four ready to eat 8.8-ounce portions in plastic shrink wrap that you cut open with a scissor over a colander to drain the juices.

I slice the beets and dress them with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

No fuss, no muss.

Organic whole-wheat pasta from Italy in a reduction of red wine, chicken stock, tomato sauce, organic diced tomatoes, chopped garlic and triple-washed greens. The dish looked and tasted good, but there was something missing.

I also used fresh herbs, but didn't have a can of anchovies to give the pasta sauce a robust flavor.

Pasta with anchovies

I felt like pasta and even wanted to assemble my own sauce, but didn't have the can of anchovies that has always lent the dish a distinctive flavor without a hint of the assertive little fish.

Recklessly, I went ahead, and the result was a good plate of pasta, but not a great one.

And I made an entire pound so spent the week being disappointed, shaking my head at several meals and using grated cheese to add flavor.

For one thing, the anchovies are all the sodium I need, even when I drain the oil and rinse them to reduce the salt content of the finished dish.

They go into the boiling sauce and completely disappear, but leave behind their flavor.

For 1 pound of spaghetti, I often open a 32-ounce bottle of one of Costco Wholesale's pasta sauces and add anchovy fillets, red-pepper flakes, dried Italian seasoning and a couple of ounces of extra-virgin olive oil.

Once the drained pasta is added and mixed with the sauce, you can sit down to eat.

Six 2-ounce cans of Season Fillets of Anchovies in Pure Olive Oil were $6.99 at Costco Wholesale.

Love Beets are non-GMO and grown organically in the European Union. They are fully cooked and ready to eat. Nothing is added to the beets.

Two big food hits on Route 17 in Paramus

The newly renovated interior of the Suburban Diner on Route 17 north in Paramus, where I enjoyed a Greek-diner staple, a filling bowl of thick pea soup without carb-filled croutons, below.

Route 17 through Paramus isn't for faint-hearted drivers -- with shoppers cutting off other cars to turn into store driveways or leaving parking lots and barging into fast-moving traffic.

This is typical of small North Jersey communities, which line their state highways with malls and other businesses to generate property taxes.

There are only a few things that can get me to use Route 17, and two of them are the Suburban Diner and Trader Joe's, both in Paramus.

The Paramus Trader Joe's is bigger than the store in Westwood.

At the Suburban Diner on Thursday, my friend Gene bought me lunch -- a bowl of thick pea soup and hot tea.

Then, we drove about a mile north to Trader Joe's, which shares a building with Office Depot.

I know to start braking when I see the Stew Leonard wine store, where you can enjoy free wine-and-cheese samples.

I've purchased a few bottles of wine at Stew Leonard, but in recent years, most of my wine is delivered to my door as part of introductory wine club offers.

My hand-held shopping basket at Trader Joe's.

At Trader Joe's, I bought two 2-pound bags of sweet potatoes at 85 cents a pound; organic celery hearts, $2.29; a bottle of Trader Joe's hot Chipotle Salsa, $1.99; and two packages of Trader Joe's antibiotic- and hormone-free bacon, $4.49 each.

Also, Trader Joe's uncured beef hot dogs (antibiotic- and hormone-free), and uncured  jumbo beef hot dogs, $4.49 and $4.99, respectively.

I buy most of my cheese at lower prices from Costco Wholesale, but can't resist Trader Joe's Sliced Jalapeno Yogurt Cheese, $4.79.

Trader Joe's also is my source for the best 100% whole-wheat pasta I've found, available as organic spaghetti, penne and fusilli for only $1.39 a pound.



Suburban Diner, 172 Route 17 north, Paramus; 201-261-2605. Open 7 days, 24 hours on weekends.

Trader Joe's, 404 Route 17 north, Paramus; 201-265-9642. Open 7 days.