'Eat fish and live longer' is a year-round mantra, not just for my birthday

A hearty frittata layers slices of fresh tomato, boiled organic sweet potato and Costco Wholesale's wild Alaskan smoked sockeye salmon in a seasoned egg-white mixture. I added roasted green salsa in the last few minutes of cooking under the broiler.

My pasta-and-eggs breakfast on Saturday included a thick wedge of wild-salmon frittata and leftover organic whole wheat pasta with anchovies, sardines and sliced garlic.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Thanks to an abundance of wild-caught seafood -- fresh, smoked, salted and frozen -- I've been able to completely avoid eating meat and poultry for more than 6 years.

I rely mostly on fresh skinless-and-boneless fillets from Iceland sold at Costco Wholesale for $7.99 or $8.99 a pound, fresh whole fish at H Mart that sell for as little as $1.99 and $2.99 a pound, and wild-caught Gulf Shrimp from Whole Foods Market.

Don't overlook canned seafood, such as sardines and anchovies, those mighty little fish that can turn a simple bottled marinara into a heart-healthy dressing for organic whole-wheat pasta.

For dinner on Monday night, I enjoyed a handmade Maryland-style lump-meat crab cake from Phillips Seafood Restaurants, sold frozen at Costco Wholesale (six 3-ounce crab cakes were $16.99).

Costco also sells frozen fillets, including wild sockeye salmon from Alaska and mahi-mahi.

If you buy wild-caught seafood, you won't have to be concerned about the antibiotics, growth hormones and low-quality feed used to raise animals on the factory farms that supply the vast majority of the nation's supermarkets and restaurants.

The Jamaican national dish, Ackee & Saltfish, is made with salted cod, a fruit called ackee, and sweet and hot peppers, here served with a non-traditional side dish, sweet potatoes mashed with extra-virgin olive oil.

At Seafood Gourmet in Maywood on Saturday night, I splurged on a 2.5 pound lobster to celebrate my birthday ($48.40). I asked for it steamed, but the blackened shells at the claws suggest the crustacean was broiled, and it was overcooked.

Birthday dinner

If you love fresh, wild-caught seafood, no local restaurant can match Seafood Gourmet in Maywood, which is both a fresh-fish market with lots of prepared food to go and a restaurant.

But when the 38-seat dining room is nearly full, as it was Saturday night, there can be a long wait for your entree, and the kitchen may overcook your favorite seafood.

That's what happened with the 2.5-pound lobster I ordered steamed; the blackened shell looked like the crustacean was left under a broiler too long.

My wife complained the kitchen also overcooked the shrimp in the dinner special both she and my mother-in-law ordered:

Seafood Festival -- wild shrimp, lobster meat and crab meat tossed in a sherry wine cream sauce served over imported fettuccine noodles ($26 each with a cup of soup or salad).

A half-dozen oysters were the perfect appetizer ($14), above. Below, the salad that came with the lobster.

I also received this side dish of sauteed spinach.

My son ordered Seafood Gourmet's Catch of the Day, Red Snapper and Manila Clams over very thin spaghetti in an Amatriciana Sauce, a spicy dressing usually made with cured pork jowl or pancetta ($25).

We drank a bottle of Kirkland Signature Asolo Prosecco, a sparkling white wine from Italy ($6.99 at Costco Wholesale in Wayne).

Seafood Gourmet is at 103 W. Pleasant Ave., Maywood; 201-843-8558. BYO, closed Sundays, free street parking. Reservations recommended, especially for dinner. Website: Fish Market-Restaurant

Most of the fish you see in the market is served in the restaurant. 

On Friday morning, my wife took me to The Golden Grill, a family restaurant in Teaneck that serves breakfast and lunch 7 days. My favorite is a $7 Egg Special with broiled whiting fillet and home fries (hold the toast), above.

My wife's Spanish Omelette with toast and potatoes was $7.95.

Everything tastes better with this Mexican hot sauce.

The Golden Grill is at 1379 Queen Anne Road, Teaneck; 201-837-1078. Open 7 days, 6 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Free parking on street or in rear lot.

Most seating at The Golden Grill is in booths.

On the way home Friday morning, we stopped at Annapurna Indian Grocery, 561 Cedar Lane in Teaneck, for spice mixtures used to prepare fish, called Fish Masala ($2.49 each), above and below.

A few doors away we picked up a menu for an Indian restaurant that serves both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes, above.

Our Sunday dinner was pan-fried whole wild-caught Porgy from H Mart, 260 Bergen Turnpike in Little Ferry ($1.99 a pound). Four porgies (averaging more than 1 pound each) were $8.84.

I was tempted to ask the fish monger to fillet wild-caught Albacore Tuna ($2.99 a pound), but didn't think other members of the family would go for them. Large Bluefish also were $2.99 a pound.

In our kitchen, the egg comes before the chicken

Two organic eggs with tofu, quinoa and black beans made for a filling dinner.

A simple egg-white omelet with shredded Italian cheese and sun-dried tomato.

Which came first -- the chicken or the egg?

In our home-cooked meals, the egg comes first, along with fish, tofu, sweet potatoes, quinoa, squash and other ingredients that fill me up and help me follow a meat-free, bread-free diet.

And the chicken has to be organic or antibiotic-free or I won't buy it for family members who eat poultry.

Mashed sweet potatoes and squash with black beans and organic diced tomatoes.

I don't need all of the carbohydrates in one of those enormous New Jersey bagels for breakfast, and I can certainly do without artery clogging cream cheese.

The other night, I boiled sweet potatoes and Kabocha squash, drained and mashed them, and then added olive oil, butter substitute, a little salt and other seasoning.

The mash, with black beans and organic diced tomatoes, served as a filling breakfast side dish with a simple, egg-white omelet.

There's nothing wrong with comfort food first thing in the morning.

For breakfast, leftover haddock with mashed sweet potatoes and scrambled egg.

 


My wife brought home Costco Wholesale's fresh, wild-caught haddock from Iceland ($7.99 a pound); dipped the fillets in egg and then flour, and pan-fried them for dinner.

A single, leftover piece was perfect for breakfast the next day. 

Two organic eggs with shredded Parmigiano Reggiano and sun-dried tomatoes.

Pan-fried porgy under a blanket of onion, garlic and sweet peppers.

A Sunday dinner of pan-fried porgy with mashed Kabocha squash.

An egg-free breakfast of hot cereal with fresh pineapple and banana.

On Wednesday, I picked up a big dinner salad and a delicious root-vegetable soup from the Garden Cafe at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, where I volunteer.

A dinner salad with tofu, beets, peas and beans from a hospital cafeteria.

This morning, half of an omelet with pesto and sun-dried tomatoes went beautifully with mashed sweet potatoes and sweet plantains. I also had a side of cabbage kimchi, below.

Going in search of fresh local seafood along the New Jersey Shore

Image by mcamcamca via Flickr
A fishing boat.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Garden State is also the Fishing State, with several working ports -- from Belford on Raritan Bay all the way down to Barnegat Light on the Atlantic Ocean.

So, on Saturday, we set off in search of fresh local seafood for lunch, but met with only limited success.

Four of us had a big meal at The Fishery in South Amboy -- fried smelts, steamed Littleneck clams in a scrumptious broth, fried whiting, meaty broiled haddock, large crab cakes and even soft-shell crabs.

I'm not sure how much of it was brought in by New Jersey boats (In 2016, The Fishery was closed).

Pirate's Cove

We had hoped to eat at Pirate's Cove, a restaurant operated by the Belford Seafood Co-op on Raritan Bay, but it was closed for the winter, as I learned when I called the attached retail market.

Fishermen who belong to the co-op catch fluke, porgy and many other kinds of fish in the Atlantic Ocean, and sell much of it wholesale to the Fulton Fish Market and elsewhere along the East Coast.

After lunch, we drove down to the Belford Co-op Fish Market, which is in the same long, low shed as the restaurant, but when I walked in, no one was on duty at the counter. 

However, I could hear someone working in another part of the building.

I saw whole clams and oysters in the fish case along with three kinds of fish fillets, all unlabeled. Some of the fillets were in a metal tray with water (maybe melted ice), which I thought odd.

There was a fishy smell to the place, though it wasn't strong.

On a board on a wall, more than a dozen kinds of fish were listed at prices you don't see in North Jersey fish markets. Many were listed at $2 a pound. Fluke, a terrific fish often eaten raw as sashimi, was listed at $2 to $4 a pound.

I left without buying anything.

I found the history of fishing in Belford at the following link: History of Belford

Belford was officially established in 1891 when a rail station was built here, separating from Port Monmouth (Township of Middletown).

 A menhaden processing plant was built in Belford in the late 1800s, which operated until 1982 (Jones 2004); this was once the town’s largest employer (Township of Middletown).

The presence and stench of the menhaden plant helped maintain Belford as a relatively unchanged fishing port while the rest of the shore around it was subject to intense development and tourism.  Belford has notoriously been home to pirates, blockaders, rum runners, and even through the 1980s, fish poachers.

There is a long tradition among some Belford fishermen of not obeying fisheries regulations (Jones 2004).  Some consider Belford to be the longest continuously operating fishing village on the East Coast.

The Fishery

Earlier, at The Fishery, we ordered way too much and ran up the bill to $100 for four, not including the tip.

The restaurant is basically a seafood shack on a forlorn stretch of Route 35 littered with shuttered businesses. 

There's seating for under 20 people, plus a counter, seafood cases, walls covered with white tiles and a more-or-less open kitchen in back.

We parked behind the small building, near a 5-foot-high bush of rosemary. The energetic young woman behind the counter is the lone server. Basic silverware comes wrapped in small, paper napkins.  

For some reason, the friendly Greek owner charges more for broiled or sauteed fish than for fried, so my wife's two large crab cakes were $18.95 with two sides, compared to $15.95 fried. Still, she complained they tasted "greasy" or oily.

My son wanted soft-shell crabs, which I didn't think were in season, and he wanted them fried with french fries ($19.95). 

My mother-in-law's fried whiting platter had three fish for $12.95.

I saw haddock fillet on ice, so ordered simply broiled haddock with fresh, sauteed spinach and a naked baked potato, a balanced and filling meal for $15.95.

We loved one of our appetizers: a half-pound of headless, fried ocean smelts, which are smaller than sardines but larger than anchovies. We ate them whole, sprinkled with lemon juice or dipped in a spicy red sauce or tartar sauce.

A smelt dinner was listed on a blackboard for $12.95, but I'm not sure how much we were charged for a half pound.

Our other appetizer: a dozen Littleneck clams ($9.95), which came with garlic toast. I ate the pleasantly salty broth with fresh tomato as a soup course. 

Three of us also ordered cups of The Fishery's Manhattan Clam Chowder ($2.50) and Maine Lobster, Clam and Corn Chowder ($3.95).

The Fishery, 1812 Route 35 north, South Amboy; 
732-721-9100. BYO. Closed Mondays.

Belford Seafood Co-op, 901 Port Monmouth Road, Middletown; 732-787-6508 (retail market).

Supermarket sale fliers abound

Image by Chris Devers via Flickr

You need a calculator when you go food shopping, even at a sale.

The 78th anniversary sale at Fairway Market in Paramus runs from May 6-12, 2011. 

I guess it was the original store on the West Side of Manhattan that opened 78 years ago. On my first visit, maybe 15 years ago, I found the aisles so narrow, impatient shoppers constantly rear-ended me with their carts.

During the Paramus sale, two containers of strawberries will be $4, though the size and brand are not given in the flier; a 64-ounce carton of organic, grass-fed milk will be $2.99; and Murray's antibiotic-free chicken drumsticks, legs and thighs will be 99 cents a pound, but only for the larger family packs.

Fresh, whole porgy and whiting will be $2.99 a pound, but that's nothing special. Mercury-filled Bumble Bee solid-white tuna will be 99 cents a can.

The flier carries a long, loving description of smoked king salmon from New Zealand that seems designed to hide its origin in a fish farm and its artificial color ($7.99 for 4 ounces or almost $32 a pound). This would be no bargain, even if it was wild-caught.

Pathmark is offering shoppers 55 years old and up 5% off on Mondays, if they spend $30 or more. 

The supermarket chain also is having a one-day sale on Saturday, May 7, with a 48-ounce container of Turkey Hill Ice Cream selling for $1.79 with a store card (limit one), and a $5 off coupon on a purchase of $50 or more or $16 off a purchase of $160.

On May 6,7 and 8, Pathmark also will double all manufacturers coupons up to $2, with a limit of 20, even those that say "do not double."

A&P's 5% off coupon for shoppers 55 years old and up is good on Tuesdays, if they spend $30 or more. Driscoll's strawberries are $1.99 for a 1-pound container May 6-12 with a store card.

After I wrote this, I bought the same strawberries at H Mart in Little Ferry for $1.49.

On Essex Street In Lodi, the International Food Wine & Liquor Warehouse has three packages of Earthbound Farm organic salads for $10 through May 17, but the flier doesn't specify the size.

If a 1-pound container of Earthbound Farms Organic Spring Mix is $4.79 at Costco, would three 12-ounce containers of other organic salads for $10 be a better buy?

A 3-liter tin of extra-virgin olive oil -- origin unknown -- is $12.99. Collard greens from Florida are 69 cents a pound. All loose olives are $4.99 a pound.

Which scale is supposed to come first?

Image by Joe Lencioni via Flickr

Fairway Market in Paramus usually has a sale on a pound of coffee beans for $5.99.  Not too many months ago, the sale price of a pound of beans was $4.99.

I have been buying whole fish for years, but encountered a first the other day at Fairway Market in Paramus.

This branch of the New York-based supermarket company has a great fish counter, but prices also are among the highest. I saw one woman pay $11.99 or $12.99 a pound for flounder fillets.

However, whole whiting and whole porgy were being sold at a low $3.99 a pound on Monday. Knowing my wife and son were planning to eat beef for dinner, I asked the fish monger to clean one porgy for me, leaving the head and tail on.

Usually, the whole fish is weighed first, then scaled, gutted and cleaned. But he went straight to the cleaning counter. When he weighed it and packed it up, the sticker said $4.03.

So, here I am thinking I was getting away with not paying for a heavier, pre-cleaned and pre-gutted fish. But when I prepared my dinner, plated half the fish and began eating, I discovered that he had done a poor job of scaling, and I had to pick about a half-dozen scales out of my mouth. That's no bargain.

I guess you could call my dinner, "Porgy and Mess."

I drove to Fairway to buy four liters of the store-brand extra-virgin olive oil from Italy at $4.99 each (regular $8.99). Unlike ShopRite's extra-virgin olive oil from Italy, this one isn't "first cold pressed," just "cold pressed."

I also picked up two pounds of French roast coffee beans and had them ground ($5.99 a pound).

Organic ground beef

My food purchases at Costco in Hackensack on Monday included a pound of organic spinach ($3.99); two pounds of herbicide-free, Sunset-brand Campari tomatoes ($5.49); and three, one-pound packages of Verde Farms organic ground beef, with 15% fat content ($12.99).

The Verde Farms package says "no added" antibiotics and growth hormones, so I've e-mailed the company for clarification. The beef comes from the U.S., Canada and Australia.

Two pounds of domestic pistachios -- shelled -- were $19.99. I couldn't find the ones in the shell I usually buy.

I also exchanged a pair of Sketchers exercise shoes my wife found too small ($49.99 for women, $46.99 for men).

Whole Foods' chicken feet

My wife prepares soup with chicken feet and has been relying for years on the mystery frozen chicken feet sold at ShopRite and Hackensack Market. But last year, we asked and found that the butcher's counter at Whole Foods Market in Paramus stocks frozen feet from organic chickens -- sometimes.

More times than not, unfortunately, the Paramus store is out of chicken feet, which also is a popular item in Chinese cuisine. I don't recall the price, but my wife and son say they notice the difference in taste between the organic and conventional feet.

Puzzling pricing

My wife picked up four, one-pound packages of Barilla thick spaghetti at ShopRite in Paramus for 77 cents each on Tuesday (limit of four) -- far less than during the recently concluded 40th anniversary Can Can Sale.

Bar Keepers Friend

I ordered a dozen cans of Bar Keepers Friend cleanser for the Calphalon stainless-steel pots that I've had trouble cleaning, but when they arrived on Tuesday, I told the UPS man to return them to the company. I felt buyer's remorse over the $11-plus shipping charge for about $18 in product.

My wife bought a 12-ounce can at ShopRite for $2.69, but couldn't find one marked "Cookware" that has a grease-cutting ingredient. Still, I cleaned one of my trouble pots this morning and, finally, it looks clean.

Fish and greens for dinner tonight

 Image via Wikipedia

Fairway Market in Paramus has been advertising fresh whiting and porgy for only $2.99 a pound. But today, I found a special at H Mart, the Korean supermarket in Little Ferry: a pile of king whiting on ice at $1.79 a pound.


I bought four -- each about eight or nine inches long -- and had them cleaned with the head and tail on. Whiting is a wonderful, wild-caught fish that is on the menu of many soul food restaurants, where fillets are fried. It is also appreciated by Koreans, who, in flush times, used to receive small whiting among the free side dishes that accompany every meal.


My wife likes to bread them and fry them whole. The pearly, white flesh breaks away from the bone easily. But we also eat the skin and tail.


Before I selected the fish, I stopped at H Mart's Green Room, where a wide variety of Korean, Chinese and other greens chill on ice. I took advantage of another special: baby mustard greens at 69 cents a pound. I'll blanch the leaves and thick stems quickly in boiling water, then steam them with oil, soy sauce and fish sauce.

Friday is the start of  free-sample weekend at H Mart. I tried a spicy soup with thick noodles and fresh watermelon, but passed on the pork-and-vegetable dumplings.