Easy mango peeling, $17.99 Costco dress shirts, sweet potato 'liquor'

At the ShopRite in Paramus this morning, on the second day of the new year, I saw this Toyota Corolla with handicapped license plates, above and below. Inside the car, there is room only for the driver.

 Editor's note: Today, I discuss food and food-related topics that don't fit into a neat category, including why men should buy their dress shirts at Costco Wholesale.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Mangoes are among the foods that don't give up their goodness easily.

On the box of small mangoes from Ecuador I picked up at H Mart in Little Ferry this week, three photos show how to extract the sweet flesh.

We also have a Mango Splitter made by Oxo.

Neither the mango-box tutorial nor the kitchen tool deal with how to enjoy the flesh around the seed. (Oxo even advises you to discard the seed.)  

1. Slice each side along the seed. 2. Slice flesh without breaking skin. 3. Scoop out and enjoy.

Using Oxo's Mango Splitter can result in a lot of waste.

When baked sweet potatoes are cooled and then placed in a container for storage in the refrigerator, the condensation yields a sweet, dark "liquor" you can enjoy when you reheat them.

Sweet-potato disks can be boiled for about 20 minutes for use in a 10-inch frittata with reduced-fat Swiss cheese, above and below. The egg mixture can be made of whites, whole eggs, a little low-fat milk and grated cheese.

You pour the egg mixture into a pre-heated pan with olive oil, place the sweet potato slices and Swiss cheese on top, and after the crust is set, you can finish the frittata under the broiler.

We used leftover Cuban-style roast pork from La Pola, a Cuban-sandwich shop in West New York, and Swiss cheese in another frittata. A Cuban sandwich, made on a heated press, includes roast pork, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard.

The Kirkland Signature Men's Dress Shirt from Costco Wholesale is only $17.99 with a button-down or spread collar, but the price could probably be cut, if less plastic, cardboard and paper, not to mention a half-dozen pins, are used to package it. Two great features are how the 100% Extra-long Staple Cotton is woven for eye appeal and how the spread collar buttons beautifully for men who wear ties, putting to shame more expensive shirts. 

One item offered during the Can Can Sale at the Paramus ShopRite is a 2-pound bag of individually wrapped tilapia fillets for only $7.49. Even if you eat farmed fish, you should avoid these fillets, which are from China, a country with a poor food-safety record.

Super Can-Can Sale, Havana Espresso Bar and more

A 5-pound box of clementines from Spain were on sale for $4.99 at the ShopRite in Paramus on Monday. The fruit and box tipped the scale at more than 6 pounds.

Editor's note: Today, I find slim pickings during the Super Can-Can Sale at two ShopRites, and discuss a comfortable alternative to the Starbucks in Englewood. I also recommend an organic tea you can brew as black as coffee without bitterness.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

ShopRite's Can-Can Sale once meant deep discounts on premium canned red salmon, seltzer, imported pasta from Italy and many other items.

But the Super Can-Can Sale that started on Sunday elicits a yawn from many shoppers.

Today, I stopped at the Paramus ShopRite on the way home from the gym, and at the Englewood ShopRite before a doctor's appointment in that city.

I picked up six liter bottles of Adirondack Lemon-Lime Seltzer at 5 for $2 or 40 cents each -- a better buy than the same seltzer in 12-can packs.

ShopRite Sparkling Cider from Spain, made from 100% apple juice with no added sugar, was $1.99 for a 25.4-ounce bottle, and I bought three.

A 5-pound box of Roxy Clementines from Spain was $4.99, but a 5-pound box of sweet potatoes was $3.99, compared to $2.49 before Christmas.

Imported Italian Soda at ShopRite contains only 2% juice (pomegranate) to 12% juice (blood orange and lemon).

A preservative was added to these wild shrimp at the Englewood ShopRite.

These cans of pasta sauce at the Englewood ShopRite seem like a good buy until you look at the ingredients and find high fructose corn syrup or added sugar or both. You have to wonder at the use of the word "premium" on the label.

Out of fizz

At the Englewood ShopRite, the shelf had been swept clean of Adirondack Lemon-Lime Seltzer in bottles.

I stared in disbelief at the price for a large can of red salmon: $8.89.

In the fish department, I noticed that a sign for wild-caught shrimp said sulfites, a preservative, had been added.

The U-15 shrimp also were more expensive -- $1.50 more per pound -- than the bigger, wild-caught, preservative-free shrimp I bought at the H Mart in Englewood.

Three-pound bags of frozen tilapia fillets at the Englewood ShopRite were only $9.99, but when you look at the small print on the back of the bag, you'll see they are from China, which has a poor food-safety record.

Fish in Paramus

Earlier, at the Paramus ShopRite, I asked an employee at the fish counter how often his seafood is delivered and where it comes from.

"Seven days a week," he said, sounding defensive, adding that the seafood is purchased directly by Wakefern Food Corp., which supplies all ShopRite stores.

Nearby, the Whole Foods Market in Paramus gets seafood deliveries six days a week, but along with the high prices comes a guarantee of farmed fish that is free of antibiotics, preservatives and other additives. 

The espresso bar and cafe on North Dean Street in Englewood.

Espresso with a Latin beat

The Starbucks has been drawing crowds for years, offering wonderful coffee and a limited amount of food in a spacious double storefront at Palisade Avenue and North Dean Street in Englewood.

But four months ago, Havana Espresso Bar opened on North Dean within a block of Starbucks.

Havana Espresso, which is smaller and more intimate than Starbucks, offers far more food, as well as table service.

Food from the extensive menu is displayed on the counter.

This week, I met a friend at Havana Espresso, and bought him lunch.

He ordered the Classic Cuban Panini: ham, roasted pork, Swiss cheese, pickles and grainy mustard.

The ingredients are authentic, even though Cuban water bread isn't used, and he loved the sandwich, which was served with a small salad for $8.75.

I ordered a 100% Jazzy Mango fruit smoothie, which was so thick I ate it with a spoon ($4.25 for 16 ounces), and Cafe Con Leche ($3.55 for 16 ounces).

The cafe serves breakfast and offers a long list of salads, wraps, sandwiches, soup and pastries.

Havana Espresso Bar, 46 N. Dean St., Englewood; 201-541-0765.

Web site: A Cubano and so much more

You can steep bags of Newman's Own Royal Tea for hours without a trace of bitterness. However, 100-bag boxes of the organic black tea have been difficult to find in stores, and I have been buying it online.

Fat-free and cream-free pasta sauces, a $2 baguette and much more

You don't have to keep kosher to like these marinara sauces.

Editor's note: Today, I bring you further adventures in food shopping -- from kosher pasta sauces to imported whole-wheat pasta to a great $2 baguette.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

This week, I found two pasta sauces that prove less is more.

Both are from a company named Gefen and both are kosher for Passover, but that's not why I bought them.

One of the marinara sauces contains no olive oil and is fat free. The other is a "Marinara Style Vodka Sauce" with vodka, but no artery clogging cream.

The cream-less sauce helps Jews observe the ban on eating meat and dairy at the same time, but also is perfect for people like me who are lactose intolerant.

Each 26-ounce bottle was $2.39 at ShopRite in Paramus.

Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood has a terrific selection of imported pasta, and three or four different brands of whole-wheat pasta from Italy, such as the two above.

Jerry's is on South Dean Street, near Route 4 in Englewood.

Jerry's in Englewood

I stopped at Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood on Wednesday for olives, balsamic vinegar, whole-wheat pasta and coffee beans from Italy, and nibbled on free samples of smoked mozzarella and other cheeses.

Jerry's has more varieties of 100% whole-wheat pasta than any other store I know, but prices are higher than the $1.39 I pay for a 16-ounce package of Trader Joe's Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti, Fusilli or Penne.

Jerry's sells three or four brands of whole-wheat pasta and shapes include spaghetti, fusilli, farfale and pappardelle or wide, mouth-filling ribbons.

I bought a pound of Colavita Fusilli or spirals for $1.49 and a pound of Garofalo Farfalle or bowties for $1.99. 

Whole coffee beans from Italy are being sold at a new, lower price at Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood. I save about $5 or more a bag compared to my usual source.

Whole coffee beans

I have been buying Lavazza whole coffee beans from Italy at Amazon.com, but Jerry's often beats Amazon's prices.

On Wednesday, I found new, even lower prices, only $16.99 for a 2.2-pound bag of Lavazza Crema e Aroma beans, which I use in my built-in coffee machine.

That's about $5 less per bag than at Amazon.

Assorted Italian olives with whole garlic cloves were, as usual, $3.99 a pound, a great price.

Ponti Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, a brand served in many restaurants in Milan and Venice, was $1.99 for a 16.9-ounce bottle. 

The bottles are lableled "Primus" and "It matures in precious oak casks," and the vinegar is free of artificial color.

The mirror that helps customers exit the small parking lot at Balthazar Bakery in Englewood. The retail store opened in late November 2002.

 $2 baguette 

Balthazar Bakery in Englewood has repaired the convex mirror that gives customers driving out of the parking lot a view of traffic racing along one-way South Dean Street in Englewood.

In the photo above, the red car is leaving the lot and the black vehicle parked at the curb is blocking the driver's view of oncoming traffic.

So, even with the mirror, the driver has to nose his vehicle into traffic before getting a clear view of what's bearing down on him.

It's hair raising. Imagine what it was like in the years before the mirror was installed.

I stopped at Balthazar for two baguettes -- the best $2 loaf of bread in the metropolitan area. 

You can see the bakers at work through plate-glass windows in the retail store.

The mound of butter waiting to go into croissants was about the size of a Fiat 500.

The circular from Fairway Market in Paramus calls this tilapia "pretty darn perfect."

  

Pass on Chinese fish

Does any other country have a worse food-safety record than China?
  
No. 

So, I was surprised to see that Manhattan-based Fairway Market in Paramus is selling farmed tilapia from China for $3.99 a pound.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch labels tilapia from the United States and Equador as "Best Choice."

Tilapia from China and Taiwan are called a "Good Alternative," but shouldn't Fairway be selling the best, not the second best? 

Fairway also mailed three coupons, each good for $10 off a purchase of $75 at the Paramus store.

That's a 13.3% discount, and I'm not sure it's worth a trip to Paramus, and having to endure all that New York attitude.