Costco's Kirkland Signature brand is sending mixed quality signals

Chicken wings for under $2.30 a pound at Costco Wholesale.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Kirkland Signature is the premium house brand at Costco Wholesale, but members are discovering the quality of products carrying that name isn't always the highest.

Last week, my wife came home with a 10-pound bag of Kirkland Signature Chicken Wings for $22.99 or less than $2.30 a pound, an unusually low price when compared to supermarket wings.

For a reason that eludes me, supermarkets charge more for chicken wings than for other, meatier parts, including drumsticks and thighs.

But with the Kirkland Signature wings, only the price is special. 

The wings are from chickens raised on antibiotics that have proven harmful to humans.

The same can be said of Costco's wildly popular, fully cooked Kirkland Signature Rotisserie Chicken, which is raised on antibiotics and non-vegetarian feed.

The ingredients label of Costco's rotisserie chicken should give you pause.

 

It doesn't make sense for Costco to sell inferior chicken wings and rotisserie chicken under the Kirkland Signature label side by side with other, high-quality products, including:

Preservative-free, smoked wild sockeye salmon from Alaska; a spread made from organic fresh strawberries, and organic diced tomatoes and tomato sauce.

Kirkland Signature also offers premium Green Tea Matcha Blend from Ito En, made with 100% Japanese tea leaves; organic low-fat milk and other items. 

When my wife wanted to buy more chicken wings from Costco, I told her to get antibiotic-free Empire kosher chicken.

But she couldn't find any Empire wings, and I couldn't find antibiotic-free or organic wings at the Paramus ShopRite.

The first time my wife brought home the Kirkland Signature wings she said she has assumed all along that Costco sells only naturally raised food at low prices.

Sadly, she is mistaken. Costco is not above trying to hide low quality under its Kirkland Signature label.


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It pays to comparison shop for fish, shrimp and rotisserie chickens

Whole Foods Market in Paramus has the best seafood counter in northern New Jersey (2018 photo).



By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

You'll find some of the freshest seafood at Whole Foods Market in Paramus -- and some of the highest prices, too.

I was looking over the wonderful fish display on Tuesday and noticed wild-caught Gulf of Mexico shrimp for $16.99 a pound.

I just happened to be carrying the sales flier from Fairway Market in Paramus and pulled it out to show the Whole Foods fishmonger.

Fairway has wild-caught Gulf of Mexico shrimp on sale for $7.99 a pound through Sept. 5. 

Fairway calls its shrimp "jumbo," while Whole Foods says there are 16 to 20 shrimp in a pound. They could very well be the same shrimp.

Whole Foods does have wild bay scallops from Mexico on sale for $7.99 a pound, a discount of $4 a pound -- as part of a "Madness Sale" that ends today.

Wild-caught, meaty hake fillets from the U.S.A. are $5.99 a pound, a savings of $3 a pound. I've tried these and they are terrific eating.

Whole Foods also has a sale on Jersey Fresh peaches at $1.19 a pound -- about what I paid on Monday at Costco for large peaches that were distributed by a New Jersey company, but appear to be from South Carolina.


Image via Wikipedia
I also noticed Whole Foods' naturally raised rotisserie chickens now are $8.99 each -- up a dollar -- but you can save $3 by buying two for $14.98. I rate this chicken tops in North Jersey.

On the coffee line at Whole Foods, I said to the woman in front of me, "This store should give out more free samples."

She agreed, and said that's why she likes shopping at Costco. I told her she'd find great free samples, especially cheese, at Jerry's Gourmet and More on South Dean Street in Englewood, and not to miss Balthazar Bakery on that same street.

This morning at H Mart in Little Ferry, I picked up two dozen black figs from California for $7.99, and the ripe one I ate after breakfast was like sugar.

I had a cheese omelet filled with pesto, accompanied by the Korean supermarket's stewed tofu in red-pepper sauce, and cabbage and radish kimchis.

A filling meal of Peruvian specialties

Image by Another Pint Please... via Flickr

 
What I love about Pollos El Chevere, a clean, well-run Peruvian restaurant in Passaic, is that even if you ignore its signature rotisserie chicken, there are so many other great dishes to indulge in -- some of them showing Japanese and Chinese influences.


My wife and I haven't eaten meat since the end of February, so on Friday evening, she ordered a tasty fish soup with a green broth (parsely?) and I started with ceviche, the Peruvian twist on sushi, this one with pollock marinated in lime juice and onions, and served with crunchy corn kernels and a small sweet potato. My son had a Chinese-Peruvian chicken soup with noodles.


We shared another appetizer -- papas la huancaina -- boiled potatoes in a light, mildly spicy cheese sauce, and tostones -- green plantains that are smashed twice and fried beautifully, perfect for dipping in the restaurant's milky hot sauce. We also shared an entree -- tallerin verde, a pesto-like spaghetti. I asked the waiter to substitute fish for steak, and he brought us a big, fried fillet of pollock.


We all drank chicha morada, a preservative-free soft drink made from purple corn extract, sugar cane, cinnamon, cloves, lemon and other natural flavors. The bill for three was $53 before the tip, and we took home leftovers.


We didn't miss the rotisserie chicken. One of the Japanese-Peruvian owners once confided the chickens he buys are nothing special before he marinates them in wine, garlic and other ingredients he wouldn't disclose, and roasts them in the special rotisserie cases that fill the front window. When we ordered chicken regularly, we stuck to moist dark meat over dry white meat.


After our meal, we drove a block or so to Compare Foods, a supermarket, and bought two, 64-ounce bottles of chicha morada for $2.28 each, normally $3.19.


Pollos El Chevere, 228 Washington Place, Passaic; 
973-249-6330. Open seven days, 
parking in municipal lot on same block.

Contradictons at Costco

A salmon farm in Finland.

Image via Wikipedia

For about six months every year, Costco sells wild salmon and artificially colored farm salmon side by side. You'll also notice this in the chicken and meat sections -- organic poultry and organic or grass-fed meat mixed in with a much larger selection of their conventionally raised counterparts.

Yestersday, on my weekly visit to the Hackensack warehouse store, I saw a woman put a large tray of farmed salmon in her cart, and I asked her if she knew it is artificially colored. She thought the farmed salmon at Costco might be different, but it isn't. I told her she could find wild Alaskan sockeye salmon fillets in the freezer case and I have found that steaming them yields a fish that would fool many people into thinking it is fresh.

She also had one of the store's rotisserie chickens, which also are raised conventionally. The one time I asked the employee tending the rotisserie, he couldn't tell me anything about the chickens, inlcuding the brand. My frugal friend Jay, who has tried almost every rotisserie chicken in North Jersey, says the antibiotic-free, vegetarian-fed bird from Whole Foods Market in Paramus gets the crown.

Yesterday, I saw Coleman-brand organic skinless and boneless thighs at Costco, but they were in pouches -- not one of those foam trays -- and when I picked them up, the feel of the formless meat was unpleasant and I didn't buy any.

The contradictions continue throughout the store. At Christmas,  I was all set to buy the first Costco ham raised without antibiotics or growth hormones, but when I looked at the label, it listed harmful preservatives used in curing. I would have bought an uncured ham. Most of the cold cuts offered also have sodium nitrates or nitrites as preservatives, though I have noticed expensive imported prosciutto without them.

Though they are pricier, wild fish and organic poultry taste better.This morning, I used part of a frozen wild salmon fillet I had steamed for dinner last night in my breakfast sandwich, stacking it with Costco's smoked wild salmon, herbicide-free tomato slices and organic lettuce. I also used Dijon mustard, though pesto or hummus would have tasted good, too, as would have a slice of Swiss or shavings of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. (Sockeye salmon is shown).

A sockeye salmon.

Image via Wikipedia

 




With the sandwich, I had some lemony, Hannah-brand taboule salad from Costco ($4.99 for 21 ounces), a relatively new item, and Arirang kimchi, an MSG-free brand made and sold in Englewood. Costco recently put out jars of kimchi, but unfortunately, they are made with monosodium glutamate, and it's not worth the couple of dollars I would save.

Some final words on road food

Heading for New Orleans, we stopped for gas and coffee on July 6 at a filling station off I-10, near Chattahoochee, Ala. On the counter, near the register, were large jars of pickled pigs' feet, eggs, sausage, kosher dills and shredded pork ears.

I saw fried green tomatoes on a menu only once, at Buck's Diner in Loxley, Ala., part of the Lucky 7 Truck Stop. They were expertly fried, with crackling exteriors and steaming interiors, and served with a nice dipping sauce.

We bought ice for our cooler at supermarkets -- Gooding's, Winn-Dixie and Publix. We also got dinner at the Publix, on the outskirts of Atlanta, eating it in our hotel room. The Mediterranean rotisserie chicken was one of the best I have ever had, with moist breast meat, a rarity. (The package showed the time it was prepared and the time it was to be taken off the shelf if unsold.) A pasta salad of bow ties with feta cheese, tomato and black olives was the perfect side dish.

We stumbled upon the K&W Cafeteria in Roanoke, Va., while searching for another supermarket and decided to eat breakfast there, on our final leg of the trip July 12. This is one of those classic steam-table restaurants with made-to-order eggs, pancakes and other items. The three of us ate for $21.40, compared with our usual breakfast tab of $30 to $40.