A luxury hotel, dinner at Per Se, 'All That Jazz' and other superlatives

Butter Poached Nova Scotia Lobster at Per Se, which Chef Thomas Keller opened in 2004 as the New York interpretation of The French Laundry, his California restaurant.

Mediterranean Lubina or sea bass. Per Se's tasting menus use classic French techniques and what the restaurant calls the finest quality ingredients available.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

After decades of visiting Manhattan and returning home to sleep, I spent a weekend at a luxury hotel and got to see the incredible island city from a well-heeled tourist's point of view.

We heard a small band and singer Petra Haden at a jazz concert, saw the musical "Chicago" on Broadway and had breakfast, lunch and dinner at four restaurants, all within walking distance of our West 57th Street hotel, the Park Hyatt New York, which is near Carnegie Hall.

The highlight was dinner on Sunday night at Per Se, the widely acclaimed restaurant where two can easily spend nearly $1,000 on dinner, and that doesn't include wine.

On the evening my wife and I visited, Per Se offered a 9-course Tasting of Vegetables for $310 per person, including service.

An 8-course Chef's Tasting Menu also was $310 per person, but extra charges for additional courses with caviar, foie gras, hand-cut pasta with black winter truffles and Wagyu beef would bring that to $650, again including the tip.

An 'affordable' side

But we saw a more affordable side of Per Se, which is on the third level of the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle. 

When the restaurant opens for dinner at 5:30 p.m., five tables are offered on a first-come, first-served basis in The Salon, where you can order some of the same tasting courses a la carte.

That's what we did on a rainy Sunday night, when we were the first to arrive and got what a staff member described as "the best seat in the house" -- a couch behind a long table with a bird's-eye view of Manhattan at night.

The food, including the bread, was simply the best we have ever had. And the service from a large, young staff was nearly flawless.

As you'd imagine at an expensive restaurant, the food is rich, even when it is made with only a little butter and cream, two ingredients I usually try to avoid.

We ordered one salad and two tasting courses -- all beautifully composed -- a glass of Bordeaux and coffee for a total of $130.

Still, with complimentary small bites to start the meal, wonderful bread, and white chocolate and other sweets at the end, we were both stuffed.

Our meal at Per Se started with complimentary small bites, above and below. These orbs were stuffed with warm Gruyere Cheese, which melted in our mouths.

Cornets of Salmon were filled with cream.

Per Se bakes its own bread twice a night. These wonderfully crusty rolls were served with two kinds of extra-virgin olive oil from Tuscany and butter.

A Salad of Slow Roasted Green Garlic at Per Se. The cloves melted in my mouth.

Per Se serves lunch

When I said I couldn't imagine how anyone could finish eight or more courses at dinner, our server told us Per Se now serves smaller tasting menus at lunch, but only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

A 5-course tasting menu at lunch is $205 per person.

On Sunday evening, after we were seated on a comfortable couch and offered a choice of still or sparkling water, the first surprise is that Per Se doesn't offer a green salad.

So from The Salon menu, I ordered a Salad of Slow Roasted Green Garlic with Hard Boiled Squire Hill Farm's Hen Egg, French Potato Puree, Pearl Onions and Nasturtium Caper Vinaigrette ($30).

My entree was Mediterranean Lubina -- a farmed European sea bass -- which wore a Sweet Pepper "Barbajuan" like a top hat and came with Marinated Fennel, Cerignola Olives and Saffron "Beurre Blanc" ($36).

My wife's selection, Butter Poached Nova Scotia Lobster, was made with Anson Mills' Blue Barley, Caramelized Salsify Root, Brussels Sprouts, Glazed Pearl Onions and Red Wine Vinegar Sauce ($40).

I ordered a glass of Morgon for $19, the least expensive available, and a Cafe Latte for $5, for a total of $130. 

We were presented with a hand-written bill for $141.54, including tax of $11.54. I added an optional gratuity of $10.

I toasted Manhattan with a glass of Morgon. Our hotel, the Park Hyatt New York, is in the tall, black building, center.

The Salon is outside the main, two-level dining room at Per Se, rear. We were told there are 19 tables in the main room, which filled up quickly on the night we were there.

Tables in The Salon are romantically lit, and the food is guaranteed to seduce you.

When we declined dessert, including a 5-course tasting menu for $70, our server said we had to end our meal on a sweet note, and brought out this complimentary selection, which included white chocolate and caramels.

I ordered a Cafe Latte ($5).

The entrance to Per Se on the third level of the Time Warner Center in Manhattan.

Per Se, 10 Columbus Circle at 60th Street, in the Time Warner Center, New York, N.Y.; 1-212-823-9335.

Web site: Per Se is rated 3 stars by Michelin

Our king-bedded standard room at the Park Hyatt New York included a large bathroom with a heated natural stone floor, stand-alone tub, walk-in shower and twin sinks, below.

The room also had automated drapes and gauzy curtains, an iPad, flat-screen TV and a large, standalone bar with espresso machine and refrigerated drawer stocked with champagne, water and soft drinks. A half-bottle of Krug Champagne was listed on the bar menu for $180. The room service menu offered a bagel with a schmear for $8.

A remote control turns on a television in the bathroom's electric mirror.

Luxury for free

We received two free nights at the Park Hyatt New York, where the average daily rate is $675, after we spent $1,000 on the Hyatt Credit Card.

I applied for the no-fee credit card in December 2013, when we booked our rooms at the Hyatt Regency Montreal for the 2014 International Jazz Festival, and won the reward with that reservation.

At the Park Hyatt, our room on the 12th floor didn't have a view, but we were completely isolated from traffic noise and car horns.

We especially enjoyed the quiet, and soaking in the large stand-alone bathtub. We checked in on Saturday and checked out on Monday morning.

The modern luxury hotel opened in August on West 57th Street, across the street from the Russian Tea Room and near Carnegie Hall at the corner of 7th Avenue.

The entrance to the Park Hyatt New York on West 57th Street in Manhattan.

The Park Hyatt New York occupies the lower 25 of 90 stories in what is said to be -- at the moment -- the tallest residential building in Manhattan.

Park Hyatt New York, 153 W. 57th St., New York, N.Y.; 1-646-774-1234. 

Web site: Park Hyatt New York

Next: Landmarc Restaurant,
Cafe Europa and Le Pain Quotidien 

Organic quinoa with fava beans, organic whole wheat pasta with pesto

Organic quinoa with fava beans, diced tomatoes and whole garlic cloves is a one-dish meal that can be easily prepared in an electric cooker.

Organic whole wheat spaghetti from Italy in a rich pesto sauce.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

One of the filling side dishes I've come to rely on is organic quinoa prepared in an electric cooker.

This one-dish meal is assembled easily in an electric rice cooker with 2 cups of quinoa, 4 cups of organic chicken stock, a large can of organic diced tomatoes, a can of large fava beans and a couple of handfuls or more of peeled garlic cloves.

I measure with an 8-ounce cup, not the small cup that comes with the rice cooker.

Just add a couple of ounces of extra-virgin olive oil and a little salt, cover and plug in the cooker. 

The garlic cloves retain their shape, but turn creamy. You'll have plenty of leftovers for several meals.

Quinoa has fewer carbohydrates than brown rice or whole wheat pasta.

Most of the ingredients for organic quinoa with fava beans are available at Costco Wholesale.

Whole wheat pasta with pesto

Unfortunately, my Hackensack Costco doesn't carry organic whole wheat pasta, but it is widely available at ShopRite, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Market and Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood.

Costco does have one of the best prepared pesto sauces available, made with basil grown in Italy and sold under the Kirkland Signature house label ($7.99).

A few ounces of organic whole wheat spaghetti dressed with a couple of tablespoons of pesto makes a rich and filling dish.

The refrigerated pesto doesn't need to be heated, but should be added to the hot, drained pasta immediately.

Quinoa and whole wheat pasta are two of the substitutes I rely on to help me stick to my no-bread, no-pizza diet.

To boil organic whole wheat spaghetti, I use an oval pot long enough to accommodate the strands of dried pasta and a minimum of water, and I never salt it, knowing that the pesto or other sauce has plenty of sodium.

During the Can Can Sale at the ShopRite in Paramus, a 1-pound package of Luigi Vitelli Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti from Italy is only $1.25. 

In the same aisle at ShopRite, another brand of organic whole wheat spaghetti imported from Italy was $2.59 a pound. At Whole Foods Market, 1-pound packages of whole wheat pasta in several shapes are $1.49 each.

Here is food that goes from market to table in just minutes

Taylor Farms' Sweet Kale Chopped Salad is ready to go from bag to bowl with dried cranberries, roasted pumpkin seeds and even dressing.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Pop a frozen jumbo lump crab cake into the oven, grab a big fistful of pre-washed salad and pour yourself a glass of wine.

Dinner is served.

Convenience doesn't always have to mean food that is processed to death.

At Costco Wholesale and other stores, you can find quality food that goes from market to table easily, with a minimum of preparation.

One of the best seafood items at Costco are frozen Maryland Style Crab Cakes, which the package says are handmade with jumbo lump crab meat. 

For $21.99, you get six 3-ounce crab cakes (about $4 each). The first ingredient is crab meat and the last is bread crumbs.

Pair them with a Sweet Kale Chopped Salad, also from Costco, complete with dried cranberries, roasted pumpkin seeds and dressing ($4.99 for 28 ounces).

The ready-to-eat salad includes broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale and chicory.

Maryland Style Crab Cakes from Phillips Seafood Restaurants can be baked from frozen for 13 minutes to 16 minutes, turned once.

An open-face egg-white omelet with slices of reduced-fat Swiss cheese and smoked wild Alaskan salmon can be assembled and cooked in minutes. All the ingredients are available at Costco Wholesale.

Sweet Kale Chopped Salad with Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix, tomato and Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, all from Costco.

A Sweet Kale Chopped Salad with added pear, tomato and Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese in a creamy Italian dressing.

At H Mart in Little Ferry, are some of the savings exaggerated?

At H Mart in Little Ferry, is one 15-pound bag of white rice for $12.88, above, a better deal than two bags for $19.99 with a store card, below? I pay a few dollars more for Kokuho Yellow Label Rice because it is grown in California.

The label of the cheaper rice doesn't specify where it is grown in the United States.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

After a trip to H Mart in Little Ferry on Sunday, I looked over my receipt to see how much I had saved on clementines and a 16-pack box of spicy noodle soup.

A 5-pound box of Bagu Clementines from Spain were $5.99, and the receipt said I saved $4 over the "regular price" of $9.99.

But other stores list the retail price of clementines as $7.99.

A box of 16 4.2-ounce servings of Shin Ramyun, a spicy instant noodle soup that is MSG free, was $9.99, compared to the regular price of $16.99, a savings of $7.

You have to present an H Mart Smart Savings Card to get many discounts, and I get the feeling the Korean supermarket chain sometimes exaggerates savings.

In 2011, the box of Shin Ramyun contained 20 portions, not the 16 you find today, and the retail price was $15.99.

A year ago, the 16-portion box was on sale at the same time for $12.99 at the H Mart in Fort Lee and for $9.99 at H&Y Marketplace in Ridgefield.

The label of Kokuho Yellow Label rice says it is "100% California grown."

The Hukukome Rice makes no such claim.

At the Little Ferry H Mart, I also purchased a 1.6-pound package of prepared Stewed Tofu from Pinocchio Catering for $5.99 (the label listed the weight incorrectly as 4 ounces). This was a better buy than a smaller package from Jinga, another caterer, for $4.29.

Roasted Salsa Verde is a tasty accent with fish, eggs and more

Wild-caught fillets of Atlantic cod from Iceland poach in Roasted Salsa Verde from Whole Foods Market in under 10 minutes. Here, they are served with leftover mashed sweet potatoes for a hearty dinner. Pour yourself a glass of red wine and end the meal with a salad.

The boneless, skinless fillets of fresh cod are available at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack for only $7.99 a pound.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss the versatility of MSG-free Roasted Salsa Verde from Whole Foods Market, and a meatless soup-and-salad combination at the Suburban Diner in Paramus.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A 24-ounce bottle of Roasted Salsa Verde is plenty to prepare a dinner of wild cod fillets and an anytime frittata with sweet potatoes and smoked wild salmon.

And you can add the sauce left over from poaching the fish to mashed sweet potatoes or organic brown rice.

The Roasted Salsa Verde from Whole Foods Market is medium spicy and MSG free. A 24-ounce jar is $3.99.

The green salsa from Whole Foods is more expensive then the Mexican versions available at Hackensack Market, but I stopped using them when I saw that La Costena had added monsodium glutamate as a flavor enhancer to its salsa verde.

A 10-inch frittata with boiled sweet potato slices and smoked wild Alaskan sockeye salmon from Costco Wholesale. The mixture of egg whites and whole eggs includes grated Italian cheese, and I used slices of reduced-fat Swiss just under the layer of potatoes and sliced salmon.

At breakfast, leftover mashed sweet potatoes, above, and organic whole wheat pasta, below, are great bread substitutes.

At the Suburban Diner, 172 Route 17 north in Paramus, a large baby kale salad with chick peas and diced cucumbers and tomatoes can be served with tuna fish instead of the chicken listed on the lunch menu.

With a small bowl of meatless mushroom-barley soup, the lunch combo is $12.95.

Costco Wholesale celebrates organic food with instant rebates

Bare Fruit Organic Fuji Apple Chips are one of the organic foods that are reduced through Feb. 1 at Costco Wholesale.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss instant rebates on organic food at Costco Wholesale, and ShopRite's Can Can Sale, where the savings are few and far between.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Costco Wholesale is following a lifestyle magazine article on four organic suppliers with discounts in its warehouse stores.

On Tuesday, an employee handed me a flier listing savings on organic products as I entered the Hackensack warehouse store.

They included $2.20 off Sambazon Organic Acai Superfood Juice, $2.50 off Pasta Prima Organic Spinach & Cheese Ravioli and $3 off Mayorga Organic Cafe Cubano Whole Bean Coffee.

Inside the store, I found two large displays of organic food.

See:

The Costco Connection's article on organics

A display at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack included Kirkland Signature Organic Salsa and Chicken Stock.

I bought Paesana Organic Tomato & Basil pasta sauce.

The organic pasta sauce, which has no added sugar, will go perfectly with Organic Whole Wheat Shells from Whole Foods Market ($1.49).

The label of this Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil from Costco says it can be used for cooking, in smoothies and as a skin and hair moisturizer.

At the ShopRite in Paramus, farmed-raised tilapia fillets from China were reduced further for the Can Can Sale, but given the country's poor food-safety record, I would never buy them.

Few deals at Can Can Sale

True to its name, the biggest savings at ShopRite's Can Can Sale are on canned goods.

At the ShopRite in Paramus this morning, I found only a few bargains on other items:

Organic whole wheat pasta (89 cents to $1.25 a pound), Adirondack Seltzer in 12-ounce cans (12 for $2.50), Clementines from Morocco (5 pounds for $4.99), Olivio Light Spread ($2.50) and Alberto VO5 Shampoo ($1.99 for a 26.5-ounce pump bottle).

During the Can Can Sale, Luigi Vitelli Organic Whole Wheat Pasta from Italy is being sold for 89 cents, $1.19 and $1.25 a pound, depending on the shape, above and below.

At the register, two packages of organic whole wheat linguine and two of spaghetti rang up at $1.25 each. When I asked an employee to check the signs on the shelf, I was charged 89 cents for one package of linguine and given the second one for free.

ShopRite's shelves are filled with a lot of grossly overpriced pasta, above and below.

The larger pump bottles of Alberto VO5 Shampoo are a better buy than the smaller size.