All the fish you see aren't created equal

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The Monterey Bay Aquarium rates the quality of wild and farmed seafood.

When I'm shopping at Costco in Hackensack, I watch other customers at the seafood case and make a mental note of what they buy. I go right for the fillets of wild-caught fish, but many others gravitate toward farmed products, which are cheaper.

This morning, I again chose wild Pacific True Cod fillets for $6.99 a pound -- a dollar more than farmed catfish. I plan to cut them up into smaller pieces, dip them in an egg-milk wash and bread crumbs, and bake them in the oven.

Costco's catfish is grown in the United States, its farmed tilapia comes from Costa Rica and its farmed salmon is from Chile and artificially colored using chemicals in the feed. All that information is on the store package labels I saw today.

The Seafood Watch sponsored by the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California recommends tilapia from the U.S. over that from Brazil, Costa Rica and other countries, and advises consumers to avoid farmed fish from China and Taiwan.

Any wild salmon or farmed salmon from the U.S. is recommended, but shoppers are advised to avoid farmed salmon from anywhere else. Here is an explanation of the ratings:

 Best Choices: Seafood in this category is abundant, well-managed and caught or farmed in environmentally friendly ways.


Good Alternatives: These items are an option, but there are concerns with how they're caught or farmed-or with the health of their habitat due to other human impacts.


Avoid: Take a pass on these items for now. They are caught or farmed in ways that harm other marine life or the environment.

Smoking out smoked fish

Most smoked fish contains preservatives, but not Costco's Kirkland Signature smoked wild sockeye salmon from Alaska, which now is packaged in two attached half-pound pouches for $15.39 -- the lowest retail price I've seen.

Today at Costco, I found smoked steelhead trout under the Ruby Bay label, and 12 ounces were $9.49. Unfortunately, the package doesn't tell you this is farmed fish, as I learned by calling the company, Acme Smoked Fish Corp.

The sliced fish -- the color of salmon -- has a pleasant, sweetish taste. Salt, natural green tea extract, natural hardwood smoke and nisin appear on the ingredient label. I was told nisin is a natural, antimicrobial or antibacterial agent.

Costco produce and juice

That wonderful organic spring mix from Earthbound Farm was back in the cold room at the Hackensack store this morning, and the price had dropped to $4.59 for a pound package. Cold weather in Mexico had been blamed for its absence last week.

The price of $6.99 for six large bell peppers from Israel, sold under the Sunset label, is competitive with the 99 cents a pound for smaller sweet peppers I found at Brothers Produce in Paterson on Monday.

Sunset-brand Campari tomatoes were still $5.49 for two pounds. Cheaper tomatoes simply can't match the taste of these small, round beauties.

I also picked up Naked Juice Co. smoothies at $6.99 for two 32-ounce bottles. The Mighty Mango contains two and a half mangoes, plus oranges, apples, banana and lemon.

Two pounds of Cabot sliced cheddar (medium) was a low $6.99.

Peruvian fish story

We tried a new restaurant close to home last night -- Uncle Paulie's Puro Sabor in Maywood, a Peruvian rotisserie chicken place with a full menu of beef, fish, rice, beans and root vegetables.

What Uncle Paulie's lacks is wild fish. When I learned the ceviche de pescado was made with farmed tilapia, I ordered another appetizer, boiled potatoes with cheese sauce. Other dishes were made with fillets; no whole fish, such as red snapper, was offered. Portions are generous and prices reasonable.

Don't miss the milky Peruvian hot sauce for the chicken or the homemade chicha morada, a traditional purple-corn punch, garnished here with finely diced apple ($2).

My wife and son both ordered chicken soup ($4) and couldn't finish the two pieces of chicken in the broth. Entrees also were too large to finish. We had the marinated one-quarter rotisserie chicken (dark meat) with rice and beans ($3); lomo saltado, pepper steak strips served over french fries with rice ($12); and tallarin verde con apanado, linguine with pesto and topped with "breaded top brasciole" ($11.50). I have had this dish in other restaurants and it was invariably served with fried fish. It would be great without the beef and topped with a fried egg "a la pobre."

Before we left, I spoke to the owner about the farmed fish. He said he wanted to keep prices low, but if I called ahead, he would get red snapper from the fish market down the street (Seafood Gourmet), make a ceviche for me and charge me accordingly.

My favorite Peruvian restaurants -- Pollos El Chevere in Passaic and Jaimito's in Clifton -- are a lot further from home. So if I get a hankering for an Asian- or Italian-inspired Peruvian dish, Uncle Paulie's is just a few minutes away. Though Uncle Paulie's is good, it can't replace those two winners. (Revised.)

What you should know about farmed catfish

I try to avoid farmed fish altogether. For example, farmed salmon is artificially colored, but many people buy it because of the low price. Now, I've read something about farmed catfish that has really opened my eyes.

In the April issue of the whole deal, a monthly publication from Whole Foods Market, the supermarket chain said: "Despite its popularity, typical catfish farming practices across the U.S. don't measure up to our standards. Fortunately, we found a farm that does! Our supplier partner in North Carolina raises catfish the natural way without antibiotics, hormones, algicides or land animal by-products in the feed."

What are animal by-products? They are bits of dead animals such as chickens, cows and pigs, and waste from catering businesses, restaurants and so forth that find their way into fish and animal feed. That's why it's so important to buy poultry and meat raised on a vegetarian diet.

I just Googled farmed tilapia and came across a number of entries reporting unhealthy fats in that popular fish. So stick with wild salmon (fresh or frozen), trout, sardines, anchovies and other fish.They are easy to find because markets are now required to label fresh seafood by country of origin and whether it is wild or farmed.

Go fishing with me

There is so much great fish out there. My favorite meals involve seafood, and I have developed a strategy for eating fish that are low in mercury and making fish a part of my daily diet.

I have read that the Japanese eat more fish per capita than other groups, but judge for yourself how close behind I am. In my refrigerator, there is a container of smoked, preservative-free wild salmon from Costco, salted cod with red pepper and stewed whiting from the Korean supermarket in Little Ferry, and more salted codfish my wife uses to prepare that great Jamaican breakfast, ackee and saltfish. In my freezer, I have frozen wild salmon, also from Costco.

Just about every morning, I assemble a fish sandwich for breakfast, using that wild lox, Moroccan sardines or canned red salmon and yellow fin tuna. Humus or made-at-home yogurt cheese is my preferred spread for the sandwich, which usually includes salad mix, sliced tomatoes with za'artar (a spice mixture available at Fattal's in South Paterson) and sliced Parmagiano-Reggiano cheese. A great, stick-to-your ribs breakfast, accompanied by green tea and a small bowl of kimchi.

This morning, I used the Korean-style salted cod to make an overstuffed omelet and ate it with Fattal's pita (toasted) and two kinds of kimchi. One dinner we had last week were small, whole sea bass with vegetables, which we enjoyed with basmati rice and black beans. The week before, we fried meaty ocean perch for dinner. Last night, I had a grilled mackerel at a Korean restaurant in Palisades Park. Yes. I really love fish.

Stick with wild-caught seafood if you can. Avoid too much bluefin tuna, lest you get hit with a mercury overdose, like the condition alleged by actor Jeremy Piven. I have read that farmed salmon is artificially colored, and that the salmon farmers can even pick from a palette of colors for their fish. In northern New Jersey, the variety of fish and the prices at H Mart in Englewood, Little Ferry and Ridgefield can't be beat. Fish is cheap. It's flown in from all over the world and even some of the fishing boats based on the Jersey coast roam hundreds of miles out to sea to bring home their catch. So don't overpay.