Shopping notes

In one trip to Englewood today, I shopped at three of my favorite places for food -- H Mart, Balthazar Bakery and Jerry's Gourmet, where I sampled cheese and wine.

H Mart was almost empty, because the street was blocked by police for Veterans Day. I looked over the blue crabs, large Chilean sea bass fillets and fresh fish, then bought a Korean roll made with rice, vegetables and crab (not sure if it is artificial) and wrapped in seaweed ($4.99). I've sometimes heard this called finger maki. I also picked up plum tomatoes, a head of escarole and fresh collard greens. (25 Lafayette Ave., 201-871-8822.)

At Balthazar Bakery, I bought a quarter of the signature pain de siegle (sliced), a large, round, sourdough rye bread with a "B" stamped in the crust ($3.75 for a quarter). I looked longingly at the wonderful fruit tarts and other pastries, but bought none. (214 S. Dean St., 201-503-9717.)

At Jerry's, an employee was pouring Portuguese and Italian wines to go with the free cheese samples, and I tried them. I had hoped to find three complete dinners with wild fish, such as the Chilean sea bass I had recently, but had to settle for farmed salmon and farmed tilapia. The restaurant-quality dinners are only $6.99.

In the back of the store, there were a couple of cases of imported Pomi marinara sauce, from fresh tomatoes, in aseptic packages that don't need to be refrigerated. At two 26.45-ounce packages for $3.99, they were a good deal. Each would be more than enough for a half-pound of pasta. (410 S. Dean St., 201- 871-7108.)

Delivering food the old-fashioned way

I shop for food in probably half a dozen stores, so you'd think I would be drawn to one of those supermarket delivery services. But some of the stores I patronize regularly (Costco, Trader Joe's, Fattal's Bakery) don't deliver and I haven't warmed up to the ones that do.

I do speak regularly to the home delivery staff at the ShopRite in Hackensack, because they know exactly where everything is and whether it's in stock, saving me valuable time.

Ah, if I had the delivery services that were available to my mother, Grace Sasson, in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s in Brooklyn, life would be sweet. My mother self-published a cookbook of Sephardic Jewish recipes and made a lot of the food we ate -- including string cheese and baklava, which she learned from my father, the son of a pastry maker in Syria. We kept kosher and rarely ate out.

We had one refrigerator and two big freezers stuffed with food. One of her big time-savers was preparing a dish such as stuffed grape leaves or black-eyed peas with tender beef, placing them in a pot and putting the pot in the freezer. She only had to pull out a pot and place it directly on the stove or into the oven.

Just about everything she bought was delivered -- produce, fish, meat and Syrian bread from individual stores on nearby Kings Highway or Avenue U, and groceries from the C-Town supermarket near McDonald Avenue. She could call or stop by the store and leave her order. There was even a live-poultry market only a couple of blocks away.

One time, my father saw the fruit guy kiss my mother on the cheek, and went ballistic.

We spent the summers in Bradley Beach, on the Jersey shore, and my father would commute by train to his dry-goods store on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. (As a kid, I'd place a coin on a track and retrieve it -- flattened -- after the steam locomotive had left. ) After we picked him up, we would drive across the tracks to the farmer's market and buy 50-pound bags of potatoes and other items.
 
Luckily, we didn't have to go without fresh Syrian bread. A man took the train down from the city most days and hawked the pocket bread from a baby carriage he pushed down the center of the street in the sleepy, sun-spalshed community.

Fighting over leftovers

We're not fighting each other for the leftovers. We're fighting because my wife and son often spurn leftovers in favor of a new taste sensation every day. That not only causes conflict, it means I have to sweep the refrigerator and make a meal of them now and then.

My wife and 12-year-old were away this past weekend, so my dinner Saturday night were items from our home-cooked meals in the previous week or so: one fried flounder fillet, one shoulder lamb chop, one chicken sausage and a baked red potato. The only fresh item was a salad of organic spring mix.

Thankfully, my wife assembled her breakfast this morning from leftovers and anticipated my suggestion she finish a couple of spoonfuls of ackee and saltfish. Usually, I open the fridge, then look over and push around the containers, just waiting for my son to return from school and say he's hungry. Then I spring my question: "How about a chicken tacos or should I heat up that chicken leg quarter?"

For about a year now, we've been trying to prepare smaller quantities in an attempt to avoid the leftover issue altogether. We used to make a pound of spaghetti or other pasta each time to accompany meatballs or sausage or to combine with tomato sauce and sardines. Now, we make only a half pound and use only half of a 32-ounce bottle of sauce, but can't even finish that.

This morning, I wanted to defrost chicken for tonight, so I asked my wife if she and our son would be eating the Niman Ranch pork ribs left over from dinner last night, which I served with yellow rice, black beans and salad. She said I should take out only enough chicken for me, because she wants to cut her cholesterol.

We love these fully prepared, naturally raised ribs and I recall  that when I was buying them at Trader Joe's, I picked the biggest package there. I could have bought a smaller package, just enough for us to finish at one meal, but didn't -- maybe because I like to have a lot of comforting food around and fear running out.

 My father had an encyclopedic memory for leftovers and if he didn't see something from previous nights on the table, he would grill my mother, who prepared a home-cooked meal just about every day. Of course, he didn't consider that she served them for lunch to her three sons or visitors. He wanted to know what happened to all the leftovers.


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Traveling on your stomach at Costco

Image via Wikipedia

Costco in Hackensack has become one of my favorite places to shop for food -- despite the crowds, the frantic parking lot and some inconsiderate shoppers, who think nothing of leaving a cart up against your fender.

You never know what you'll find there or how far it has traveled. And no store in North Jersey I know of can match the prices for this quality food and produce. It's even a better deal when you consider the cash rebates from the American Express Costco credit card easily reimburse you for the annual membership fee.

The past two Fridays, I saw whole red snappers from Nicaragua in the fish case. Smoked wild sockeye salmon (preservative free) from Alaska is now sold year-round under the store brand, Kirkland. Last night, I finished the last fresh flounder fillet from Iceland we had fried Friday.

Last week, I bought a 12-pound box of oranges from South Africa. The antioxidant-rich acai berry juice in my fridge is from Brazil. For my espresso machine, I've also brought home a 4-pound bag of whole coffee beans grown in Africa. And I'm working on a big wedge of Manchego sheep-milk's cheese from Spain.

Costco sells a ranch full of beef and pork, but all of them are conventionally raised with antibiotics, except for organic ground beef. What you want is the grass-fed, free-range lamb from Australia, usually available as chops or boneless legs.

The store also stocks a lot of terrific food grown domestically, such as the one-pound package of Earthbound Farms organic spring mix I eat weekly.

Of course, there is also the possibility you'll buy and like an item, then find the store no longer stocks it. I recall fondly the fully prepared, drug-free lamb shanks in mint sauce from New Zealand that we enjoyed on a few occasions, but never saw again.

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Comforting stew chases the chills away

Now that the weather has turned cold, my thoughts turn often to a comforting stone bowl of spicy Korean soft-tofu stew, with a fresh egg cooking in the bubbling broth, and side dishes of rice and kimchi. But last night, I wanted something different and I knew what it was when I saw a large photo in the window of The Fresh Tofu Restaurant in Palisades Park.

I ordered the boiled hen soup with rice ($14.99) -- a great version of chicken soup -- and it warmed me up instantly on a night when temperatures were in the 40s. This is one of the many Korean dishes that aren't spicy. The waitress, Young, brought me seven excellent side dishes, or panchan: cabbage and radish kimchi, greens, roasted seaweed, bean sprouts, fish cakes and a sweetish vegetable I couldn't identify. I also got a small dish of salt in which to dip the chicken pieces.

Most Korean stews come with rice on the side, but in this one, the rice was stuffed into the small, whole chicken with garlic cloves, beans and nuts. Jujube -- a small, dark-red fruit that tastes a little like apple -- and chopped scallions were scattered on top. I found out too late that what looked like a piece of wood was to flavor the stew and wasn't meant for consumption.

The Fresh Tofu Restaurant, 268 Broad Ave., Palisades Park; 201-592-6400; serves lunch and dinner, including Korean barbecue and soft-tofu stew; call for hours.

A bountiful meal close to home

For my third birthday celebration meal, I invited friends to gather last night at Lotus Cafe in Hackensack to enjoy a bountiful dinner for eight from a special menu.

This nine-course meal of soup, seafood, beef, pork and vegetables ended with a sweet, warm rice pudding ($120). 

With tax and a $25 tip, the cost was under $19.50 per person. I brought my own bottle of  French champagne. The restaurant serves similar dinners for four and six people, and banquets for 10 people.

We started with lobster and cream corn soup and an appetizer of shrimp soong with pine nuts, which is eaten wrapped in a lettuce leaf. 

Our entrees were beef casserole in X.O. sauce, spicy shrimp and scallops (pepper-and-salty style), Emperor's pork loin, and a whole, fried striped bass that seemed to be swimming in sauce. 

Other dishes were Chinese squash and enoki mushrooms, and chewy, homemade braised noodles with chicken and spinach, and white or brown rice. Desserts were ice cream, pineapple chunks and lichee, and warm, eight-treasurer rice pudding with dates.

Everything was terrific. I live near Lotus Cafe, long one of my favorite Chinese restaurants, and we ordered Friday night meals from there when I was at The Record. 

Mr. Philip Su, the owner, shops for his seafood at Mitsuwa Marketplace, the big Japanese supermarket in Edgewater, and serves a mix of Taiwanese, Cantonese and Hong Kong-style dishes.

Lotus Cafe, 450 Hackensack Ave., Hackensack; 201-488-7070, open seven days for lunch and dinner.

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