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I buy a great deal of food at Costco in Hackensack, but it still has a way to go to become the only store I visit.
This morning, I picked up three half-gallons of 1% organic milk ($8.99), but I have to go to ShopRite for lactose-free milk.
Five pounds of lemons from Chile were $5.99. Three pounds of wild-salmon burgers were $12.99, and Costco also stocks fresh and frozen wild sockeye salmon, wild-caught flounder and haddock, whole red snapper and other seafood, including prawns and crab, so I don't really have to buy fish anywhere else.
Sunset-brand Roma tomatoes were two pounds for $2.99, lower than they were at the beginning of the summer; and three, large burpless cucumbers, also from Sunset, were $3.49. All Sunset-brand vegetables are grown without herbicides. Earthbound Farm organic salad mix was $4.49 the last time I bought it, a price you can't beat elsewhere.
Three pounds of conventional bananas were $1.32. A pound of organic spinach was $3.99 -- great sauteed, in a salad or piled on top of a pizza or foccacia.
We're not eating poultry or meat now. If we were, I'd have to go elsewhere for antibiotic-free turkey and dark-meat chicken and Australian free-range beef. Costco only carries grass-fed ground beef and organic breast meat or whole chickens.
Drug-free chicken sausage, organic ravioli, and fresh and frozen pizza are just the tip of Costco's food iceberg.
The selection of bread and rolls is terrific, including two loaves of 100% whole-grain, sliced bread for $3.99. Ditto for spices, juice, cheese, vegetables and fruit, though some of the large sizes are not suitable for a family of three. Ketchup, mustard, diced tomatoes, pasta sauces, dried pasta, maple syrup -- it's all there -- plus everything you need for the clean-up.
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My wife returned from Jamaica on Saturday night with island specialties in her suitcase.
She unpacked a container of fried parrot fish, four plastic bags of fresh ackee from trees in the yard, breadfruit wrapped in aluminum foil, large avocados and two, 12-ounce bags of roasted Blue Mountain coffee beans ($19 for 12 ounces).
But it wasn't Jamaican food she wanted before we drove home. With our son, we stopped at Wondee's Thai restaurant on Main Street in Hackensack for a wonderful dinner of vegetarian duck salad (made with tofu, not poultry), spicy Panang curry with large shrimp, a special of Chinese watercress and rice.
This morning, she prepared Jamaica's national dish: ackee and salt fish with sweet and hot peppers -- the bland fruit serving as a foil for salted codfish. On the side, she served the roasted breadfruit, which had been sliced and fried in canola oil. A great breakfast.
Why buy any other beef?
ShopRite has another sale on Nature's Reserve-brand beef, a product of Australia that is free range and grass fed. There is a minimum purchase of four pounds at $4.99 a pound with a Price Plus store card.
The cut is whole beef tenderloin for filet mignon, which I've sliced thin for Korean barbecue or served as small steaks. When I bought this in the past, it required some trimming of fat.
The sale starts today and runs through Sept. 4. With such a low price for Australian beef , it doesn't make sense to buy beef raised conventionally with antibiotics and growth hormones, and fed who knows what.
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I'm not sure what I expected, but going without meat for six months hasn't resulted in anything dramatic -- except a sense of relief from not always having to worry how the poultry, beef, pork and lamb were raised before I got to them in stores.
My overall cholesterol dropped only four points -- to 176 -- probably because I started eating much more full-fat cheese than before. In the last month or so, I've switched to low-fat cheese and plan to resume eating aged Parmigiano Reggiano (photo), which is made with skim milk.
I don't think I saved money, because the seafood I substituted for meat often cost more, including Costco's wild sockeye salmon and farm-raised prawns from Vietnam that weigh about two ounces each (eight to a pound) and cost a small fortune.
Do I feel better? Yes. But I can't separate the effects of going to a gym five mornings a week for the past two months or so, and the lighter feeling of not being weighed down by meat.
I've always loved salads and grilled vegetables, and I've been eating them more frequently and incorporating greens and vegetables into sandwiches and frittatas or just eating them on their own.
Last Sunday, I picked up fresh mustard greens and two heads of arugula at the Tenafly farmers' market.
One morning, I quickly blanched the mustard greens, then poured some extra-virgin olive oil and Costco egg whites into a 10-inch, nonstick frying pan. When the eggs set on the bottom, I added the mustard greens, sliced beefsteak tomato and low-fat cheese; sprinkled on some salt and finished the frittata under the broiler. (Preparation tip: Chop greens into bite-size pieces to make frittata easy to portion and eat.)
Today, I made a breakfast sandwich with grilled eggplant and carrot, baked wild salmon with herbs straight from the fridge, cheese and fresh arugula, spreading toasted 100% whole-grain bread with Dijon mustard. Outrageously good.
A friend who is a faithful Costco food shopper invited me over for a lunch the other day and served me items from the warehouse store: A Greek salad with anchovies and crumbled cheese, and a fruit salad with mango, strawberries and other fruit. We had an appetizer of spicy hummus and drank coffee and seltzer.
For the last few weeks, I've wanted to add antibiotic-free poultry back into my diet -- Readington Farms chicken from ShopRite and turkey parts and duck from Goffle Road Poultry Farm in Wyckoff.
But I haven't done that yet, secure in the knowledge there are so many other good things to eat that don't involve meat.
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If you don't have an indoor, stove-top grill, you're missing out on simple dinners of fresh produce, moistened with extra-virgin olive oil and sprinkled with a little salt.
My all-vegetable dinner tonight included grilled eggplant from a farmers' market, thinly sliced carrots and fingerling potatoes -- from the size of a large marble to a thumb -- and ended with two small ears of super-sweet corn.
My nonstick grill with ridges is from All-Clad and covers two gas burners on my stove. I turn up each burner to medium, spray on canola oil and go to town. I boiled the potatoes for five to 10 minutes before grilling, then used the same water to steam the corn, which was from Costco.
As I grilled and turned the vegetables, I added the olive oil and salt. The eggplant flesh turns into custard. The other vegetables feel good in your mouth, with a nice bite. I drank a couple of glasses of red wine with them. Clean-up was easy.
Tomorrow, I can warm up the leftovers for a sandwich with Dijon mustard, low-fat cheese and fresh arugula from a farm stand.
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Three meals out in two days is unusual for me, but with my wife and son away, preparing food for one can get monotonous.
Breakfast at home: Sandwich of four canned fish salad -- light Italian tuna, red salmon, Moroccan sardines and anchovies, with chopped onion and garlic, cumin and Dijon mustard -- topped with cheese and fresh arugula.
Dinner at home: A foccacia from Jerry's in Englewood, with a little grated cheese and a lot of fresh arugula or organic spinach on top with extra-virgin olive oil and salt.
Snack at home: Forkfuls of canned fish salad or leftover foccacia.
Uncle Paulie's in Maywood
On Friday, I met two friends for lunch at Uncle Paulie's Puro Sabor, a Peruvian restaurant where we had the $7.50 lunch special, which includes soup or appetizer, entree and a soft drink.
I chose boiled potatoes in a cream sauce for my appetizer and squash stew with fried fish and a big mound of white rice, a tasty, filling meal. Uncle Paulie's is popular for lunch and the waitress had a hard time keeping up with drink requests. My food, especially the rice, could have been hotter.
Uncle Paulie's Puro Sabor, 109A W. Pleasant Ave.,
Maywood. 201-368-2400.
Man'na in Teaneck
Friday evening, I had dinner at a small Korean restaurant with traditional and fusion dishes, and counter service.
This is the home of the Korean value meal (small and large), which includes a main dish, salad, pasta salad, miso soup, kimchi or pickled radish, and water or soda.
I chose the bibimbap large value meal ($7.99) -- a big steel bowl with rice and chopped vegetables topped with a fried egg. (I told the counter worker I didn't want the usual ground beef with the dish.) You mix everything up and pour on hot red pepper sauce from a squeeze bottle. Lip-smacking good.
I also ordered a spicy kimchi taco ($1.50), but was surprised to find a little ground meat in it, because there is no indication of that on the menu. The Tex-Mex preparation included shredded lettuce and cheese.
Man'na Modern Asian Cuisine & Frozen Yogurt,
1168 Teaneck Road. 201-357-8782.
Iano's Rosticceria in Princeton
I drove down to Princeton on Saturday to sell old jazz LPs, and hoped to eat at Eno Terra, a restaurant in the neighboring hamlet of Kingston known for fresh, local food. I got there at noon, having skipped breakfast, and was told the enoteca that serves light fare wouldn't open until 2.
Back in Princeton, I briefly flirted with the idea of having an expensive lunch at Lahiere's, the well-known Contemporary American-French restaurant that has been there since 1919. Maybe a seafood risotto and a salad, I thought as I looked over the menu posted near the entrance.
Instead, I found a pizzeria with a beautiful grilled eggplant and fresh mozzarella salad that came with tomato and olives and a couple of small rolls ($7.50). I drank freshly made, unsweetened ice tea. I sat in a booth and looked at a proverb in Italian and English that is hanging in a gold frame on the wall: "You never age at the dinner table."
Next door at Twist, a self-service yogurt shop, I had some non-fat fruit yogurt topped with fresh berries (49 cents an ounce).
Iano's Rosticceria, 86 Nassau St.,
Princeton. 609-924-5515.
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The food and entertainment editor of (201) magazine will replace Bill Pitcher as food editor at The Record of Woodland Park.
Susan Leigh Sherrill of Montclair told other writers on Friday she is the daily newspaper's new food editor, according to the online edition of The Paramus Post.
"We had a nice chat with Susan and were pleased to learn that she had just been promoted to food editor of The Record," Mel Fabrikant reported on the weekly's site.
Sherrill opened Village Green Café and Caterers in 1989 in Ridgewood. In 2000, she sold the restaurant and embarked on a second career in community newspapers, becoming editor of The Ridgewood News in the fall of 2001. She later joined (201) magazine as food editor.
The Record, The Ridgewood News and (201) are publications of North Jersey Media Group, which is owned by the Borg family.
Sherrill hasn't been listed yet on Page 2 of the Better Living features section in The Record.
But her photo is shown on a blog she writes for NJMG. The newspaper employs a full-time restaurant reviewer -- a good thing, because if restaurant owners know Sherrill and give her special attention, any review she might do would be of questionable value to readers.
Her work appears online in the Table Talk blog:
http://blogs.northjersey.com/blogs/tabletalk/
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