We hope twin-lobster deal comes around again before the year 2020

As part of a Leap Year promotion, two steamed lobsters with two house side dishes were only $29 on Monday at Legal Sea Foods in Paramus, one of the most expensive restaurants in North Jersey. 

Normally, a single lobster with two side dishes is listed on the menu for $34.95.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On Monday night, the dining room at Legal Sea Foods in Paramus was filled with the sound of contented customer cracking open steamed lobsters and enjoying the sweet, tender meat.

The Leap Year promotion on the last day of February -- two lobsters with two house sides for $29 -- isn't scheduled to be repeated until 2020.

But our server said the restaurant, one of the most expensive in North Jersey, plans to offer it again before then. 

We hope so, recalling the shocking $81 lunch tab, including tax and tip, on our last visit to Legal Sea Foods in September.

On Monday, our total for four lobsters, four side dishes, wine and ginger ale was $91.04, including tax and an 18% tip.

Despite high menu prices, the service and the complimentary bread leave a lot to be desired.

Our waiter misunderstood our order, and another server brought us only one twin lobster special. 

Although that was easily remedied, the house-made rolls are awful, with doughy interiors that go to waste. They are served with butter, so you have to ask for extra-virgin olive oil.

A flight of red wine -- three 2-ounce glasses of pinot noir, chianti and malbec -- was $10.75.

With her lobsters, my wife chose the excellent coleslaw and delicious sauteed spinach, above. I had brown rice and sauteed spinach with mine.

Not long after we arrived for our 4:30 reservation, and was shown to a booth, the dining room filled up with customers who had read about the Leap Year lobster promotion in a local newspaper -- "an extra day, an extra lobster."

Legal Sea Foods, Paramus (201-843-8483), is part of Garden State Plaza, New Jersey's largest mall. Web site: Fresh fish in landlocked Paramus 

Do you wash salad from a bag?

Image by UnholyKnight via Flickr

Consumer Reports has an article in the March 2010 issue that gives me pause: Tests found pre-washed salad in bags or plastic containers -- including organic -- weren't always squeaky clean.

That worried me, because I am a big fan of Earthbound Farm organic spring mix, which I buy at Costco for $4.49 a pound (the price of the container I bought today). I don't wash this delicious mix of red and green baby lettuce, arugula, radicchio, chard and mizuna before stuffing it into a sandwich or making a dinner salad.

The article said contaminated salad usually contained spinach, and my Earthbound Farm mix doesn't have spinach. But I do sometimes buy another bagged salad at Costco -- a non-organic product complete with dressing, nuts and cheese. I don't believe that one has spinach, either, but I'll be looking more closely at my pre-washed salads in the future -- and maybe even washing them.

Here is the link to the Consumer Reports article: How clean is bagged salad? 

Improvising a breakfast frittata

A couple of days ago, I saw a recipe for a frittata with kimchi on the Arirang kimchi Web site and this morning, I started pulling items from my fridge to see what I could improvise. I eat kimchi as a side dish most mornings, so why not incorporate it into the main dish, I thought.

I had a jar of Arirang cabbage kimchi I bought in Englewood, egg whites, drug- and preservative-free bacon, thin-sliced Swiss cheese and a little leftover sauteed spinach from dinner Friday night.

Image via Wikipedia

I chopped up spinach, kimchi and cheese, put them into a bowl, added the liquid egg whites -- enough to fill a 12-inch non-stick frying pan -- and seasoned them with salt, pepper and an organic  spice mixture from Costco. I also sliced a plum tomato.


I added a couple of ounces of extra-virgin olive oil to the pan and poured in the egg mixture. After it cooked a while and the edge was set, I placed three strips of bacon on top, along with tomato slices, salting them individually (the tomato, not the bacon). The frittata spent about 8 to 10 minutes on the stove and another 6 to 8 minutes under the broiler, until it was sizzling all over and the cheese oozed.

Image via Wikipedia

I ate it with warm Syrian bread, hummus and seasoned tofu from H Mart in Little Ferry. I liked how the kimchi still had some crunch, but realized I had put way too little into the egg mixture. Next time, I'll add enough so its presence shouts, not whispers.