Loving food too much

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 "I love food."


"I know. Just love food a little less."


That pretty much sums up the exchange today between me and my doctor after my yearly physical. My weight -- 226 pounds, four more than in May 2009, but four pounds less than my recent peak -- prompted his advice that I'm eating too much, even though I go to the gym five days a week.


His words weren't exactly ringing in my ears when I drove to the other end of Englewood to see if I could pick up three fish dinners at Jerry's Gourmet & More. I was out of luck; I only found one dinner with fish among the restaurant-quality chicken and pork meals.

Jerry's was probably the wrong place to go after my physical. I had to fast for the examination and needed breakfast, and all the free samples of cheese, bread and olive oil were too hard to resist. I had a dozen or more small cubes of cheese, four or five pieces of bread dipped in extra virgin olive oil, crackers and yogurt, but didn't try the energy drink. 


I bought three of Jerry's small, chewy focaccias ($1.49 each) -- covered in marinara sauce and lots of chopped garlic (I had half of one to complete my breakfast at home). The Original Napoletana Pizza Margherita (like the one in photo above), with house-made fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, tomato, salt and extra-virgin olive oil, was $4.99, a bargain when compared to what a Neapolitan pizzeria charges.


For dinner tonight, I'll heat up Jerry's two-pound lasagna (meatless, $10.99) and steam a pound of French green beans from Costco.


Jerry's Gourmet & More, 410 S. Dean St.,
Englewood; 201-871-7108

Web site:
Jerry's Homemade

The perfect loaf of bread?

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My wife called today and said, "I'm in Englewood. Do you need anything?" She meant food.


Let's see. Should I ask her to pick up a few of Jerry's restaurant-quality dinners to go? How about cabbage kimchi from Gaboh Inc. or Korean dumplings from the place across the street from the firehouse? Or did I feel like having a few Colombian empanadas and hot sauce from the little bakery off Palisade Avenue?


Instead, I asked her to stop at Balthazar Bakery for its signature baguette -- still $2 nearly eight years after the place opened on South Dean Street.


Here is the short ingredients list: unbleached wheat flour, water, rye flour, sea salt, yeast and barley malt. That's it. The weight is 8 ounces and the taste is incomparable.

Balthazar Bakery,  214 S. Dean St., 
Englewood; 201-503-9717. Closed Sunday.

(Photo: Original Balthazar Bakery in Manhattan)

A recipe overheard at the gym

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I overheard two women at the gym discussing what they had served for dinner, and one mentioned a salsa that sounded intriguing. When I asked the women what kind of chicken they served their families, one said organic and the other said Perdue. 


The woman who serves organic chicken recommended a salsa made with tomatillos (photo) and watermelon, seasoned with cumin. That's all I remember, even though I asked her to repeat the recipe a couple of days later.


At Corrado's in Clifton, the tomatillos were rotten, but I found some nice ones at Compare Foods in Passaic. They also are available at Hackensack Market on Passaic Street in Hackensack. They are small, green tomatoes that come in a husk. The taste is unusual and pleasantly sour.


I chopped up four tomatillos (without the husk, stem or stem base) and a thick, half-slice of a large, seedless watermelon. I added two or three nice pinches of ground cumin, some fresh lemon juice, a little chopped jalapeno pepper without seeds, and chopped cilantro from the garden. I guess you could add ripe tomato or onion or both.



I had some with breakfast this morning, alongside my sardine, tomato and cheese sandwich. Wonderful. This salsa would be great with fish, too.

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.

More on Aleppo red pepper

Image via Wikipedia

The wonderful, crushed red pepper that enlivens Syrian food prepared in Aleppo, Syria, and at Aleppo Restaurant in Paterson can add a new dimension to dishes made in your own kitchen.


Click on the following link to learn more, then go buy some at Fattal's Bakery, two blocks from Aleppo Restaurant (Main and Thomas streets). At $3.96 a pound, it is a fourth of the price charged by this mail-order house.

I use it on eggs, hummus and wild salmon, but it's suitable whenever you want to elevate your food with a mildly spicy red pepper. I keep mine in the freezer.

Crushed Aleppo pepper

Fattal's Bakery, 975-77 Main St., Paterson;
open seven days.

Shopping notes

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Rotten tomatillos, tired-looking red peppers and squid-ink pasta for about $12 a pound. You may be surprised that I found all of those at Corrado's, the large ethnic supermarket on the Clifton-Paterson border that has a reputation for low prices. 

I had an errand in Totowa, and decided to stop in Paterson to pick up Middle Eastern spices and bread at Fattal's Bakery. I also needed grated pecorino romano cheese, which Corrado's sells for $6.99 a pound. I keep it in the freezer, and use it on pasta and to sprinkle over salads and focaccia.


Corrado's is one of the few supermarkets I know that stocks squid-ink pasta, but today, the only package I found was 8.8 ounces and cost $5.99. I passed. One side of an entire aisle is devoted to pasta, including 24-inch long spaghetti from Italy.

I picked up two plastic bags of grated cheese, each one about a pound. Five pounds of carrots were $1.99, and jalapeno peppers were 2 pounds for $1. But I'll have to go elsewhere for tomatillos. Corrado's still has low prices, but in some cases, the quality is low, too. You get nothing back for bringing your own bags.


At Fattal's, I picked up two packages of Syrian bread ($1.50 for 12 loaves); a variety of green and black olives ($2.99 a pound), Aryan yogurt drink ($3.79) and a half-pound each of cumin and coarse Aleppo red pepper ($3.96 a pound).


The cumin and mildly spicy red pepper are my main spices for seasoning several dishes, including wild salmon, eggs and hummus.

I didn't need sardines on this visit to Fattal's, but noted Corrado's charges $1.49 for the same Moroccan sardines you can get at the bakery for 99 cents.

Fattal's Bakery, 975-77 Main St., 
Paterson; 973-742-7125.
  
Corrado's  Family Affair, 1578 Main Ave., 
Clifton; 973-340-0628.