Jeff at Wayne Costco Wholesale says, 'We just want to go home'

A bigger Costco Wholesale in Wayne opened last year across the road from the old one with an in-store liquor department that offers wines from Kirkland Signature, Costco's house brand, as well as imported champagne, below, unlike the Costco near my home in Hackensack. I shopped at the Wayne store in mid-December.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I never shop at the Costco Wholesale near my home in Hackensack on the weekends, when crowds are even bigger and more impossible than on weekdays.

That's probably why I didn't know the warehouse stores in Hackensack and Wayne close at 6 p.m. on Saturdays, compared to 8:30 p.m. during the week.

On Saturday evening, we stopped at the Wayne Costco on the way to a doo-wop concert at William Paterson University, hoping to buy Kirkland Signature wines and Starbucks cocoa, two items not sold in Hackensack.

But an employee named Jeff told us we missed the sign listing the closing hour as 6 p.m. on Saturday, even though another sign said the store was open until 8:30 p.m.

That later closing time is for the Costco gas station in Wayne, Jeff said.

Thinking my Hackensack store stayed open later on Saturdays, I asked why Wayne closed so early.

"We just want to go home," Jeff said.

Then, I said it would be great if Wayne stayed open until 8:30 on Saturday nights, like Hackensack, prompting Jeff to say:

"We make more money than they do."

Searching for the perfect lobster roll

Image by dpstyles™ via Flickr

Lobster and lobster-salad rolls.

Lobster is a rare and expensive treat, and the lobster roll is perhaps the easiest way to enjoy this wonderful, armor-plated crustacean.


Restaurants do all the work for you by cooking the live lobsters, cracking the shells and extracting the meat, then dressing it lightly and piling it into a hot dog roll.


We drove over to Panera Bread on Route 4 in Paramus on Wednesday night after I half-heard a TV commercial the night before.


What I thought was a lobster roll turned out to be a lobster sandwich, with lots of bread, some lettuce and only 4 ounces of lobster. 


I had planned to order one for each of us, but at a pricey $16.99 per sandwich, I quickly changed my mind.


We ordered soups, drinks, a single lobster sandwich for my wife and a smoked-turkey panini for my son.


At the register where I placed my order, I noticed a photo of the lobster sandwich showed a lot more meat than the one we got.


I tried some of the lobster and it was delicious. But I'm on a no-bread diet, so eating even half of the sandwich was out of the question.


The search for the perfect lobster roll continues.


I've heard that Picnic, the Restaurant, in Fair Lawn has a great lobster roll, but it's listed online only as part of a $40 fixed-price dinner. I'm sure you can get it at lunch, too.


I also checked the Web site of Luke's Lobster in Manhattan, where the Maine lobster roll is listed at $15. 


When we tried it in November 2009, the roll was $14 and contained 4 ounces of chilled lobster meat.


Soft-shell surprise


This morning, I was surprised to find fresh, wild-caught soft-shell crabs on ice at ShopRite in Hackensack.


I bought two at $3.99 each, dipped them in egg white and seasoned corn meal and pan-fried them in extra-virgin olive oil and Smart Balance spread for 3 minutes to 4 minutes on each side.


One of them made a great breakfast with two fried eggs, sunny side up. My wife and son split the other.


The store also had Coleman organic chicken legs for $1.99 a pound, less than antibiotic-free Readington Farm legs ($2.29 a pound) and even crappy Perdue legs ($2.19 a pound).


On Wednesday, my wife picked up six pints of Jersey Fresh blueberries on sale for $6.99 at the ShopRite in Rochelle Park. They are plump and sweet, and a better buy than the ones I got last week at Costco in Hackensack.


Soft-shell crabs for breakfast and warm, ripe peach slices with wild salmon for dinner. Don't you just love summer food?

Fire sale on Copper River wild salmon

Image via Wikipedia

The Columbia University campus in Manhattan, above, is expanding to the Riverside Drive viaduct near Fairway Market in Harlem.

Fresh Copper River salmon for $8.99 a pound?

That's got to be a mistake, I thought as I looked at the label of a shrink-wrapped foam tray holding a fillet in Costco on Saturday evening.

On May 21, when the first fresh wild salmon of the season from the famed Alaskan river arrived at the Hackensack warehouse store, it was priced at $13.99 a pound. The second fillet I bought a week or so later also was $13.99 a pound.

Usually, the Copper River salmon is gone in a couple of weeks and is replaced by fresh wild salmon from the northwestern United States, though often the place isn't specified, but last year, it was priced at $8.99 a pound.

I asked an employee, and he said as far as he knew, the label was correct. I mentioned the price for Copper River salmon was $13.99 a week ago, and he shrugged.

My deep orange-red fillet of sockeye salmon weighs 1.66 pounds, and was only 49 cents a pound more than the insipid, pale, artificially colored farmed salmon at the other end of the refrigerated seafood case.

Fairway's Harlem store

We attended a graduation in upper Manhattan on Saturday morning, so it was only natural to stop at Fairway Market on the way home -- the store I shopped in now and then before the Paramus outpost opened its doors in March 2009.

The New York store has old-fashioned outdoor produce displays -- there was a  big box of watermelons in the parking lot -- but this is no longer the store of $4.99 a pound coffee beans or $2.99 store-label pasta sauce.

Of course, you can say that about prices at just about every supermarket.

I hadn't shopped here in more than a year, but for a mid-afternoon Saturday, I was surprised at how uncrowded the store was.

Still, expecting a crush, I had dispatched my wife to the unique cold room -- essentially, a large, refrigerated room with the butcher and fish counters, dairy and other products -- for goat meat, while I went to get a couple of pounds of custom-ground coffee beans.

We always bought our goat meat at the Harlem store, usually frozen for under $3 a pound -- a better price than anywhere in North Jersey -- but the Parmaus store never carried it. On Saturday, we found fresh goat meat on the bone for $4.79 a pound, but only one package.

I also picked up two pounds of coffee beans (Turkish grind) for $7.99 and $8.49 a pound, and two, 32-ounce jars of Fairway vodka sauce for $4.49 each.

After I got my coffee, I went to the cold room to discover it had been completely made over. At the fish counter, I saw wild salmon on ice for around $15 a pound, but none labeled with the place of origin.

A woman mentioned she had a second home in Canada, near a salmon farm, and added: "You wouldn't believe what they put in there," a reference to feed pellets that color the fish artificially and antibiotics to prevent the salmon from getting sick in close quarters.

Mirroring changes inside the store, the neighborhood is being remade. The biggest potholes have been rearranged, catching us unawares as we left the store and drove to the West Side Highway.

And east of the parking lot, a huge construction project by Columbia University force the relocation of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que to 125th Street, from under the shadow of the Riverside Drive viaduct, and the demolition of many buildings.

Restaurant prices

Two of our favorite restaurants in Hackensack have raised their prices.

We had dinner Saturday night at Wondee's Fine Thai Food & Noodles, and were handed new menus with higher prices, but the new takeout menus haven't arrived yet.

For example, one of our favorite dishes  -- steamed whole fish with chili pepper, garlic and lemon juice -- is now $18, compared with $14.95 before.

With Greek fish houses charging $32 for a whole fish, this still is a bargain.

We had a great meal of spicy shrimp-and-mushroom soup; mock duck salad with fruit in a piquant tamarind dressing; soft-shell crabs in Panang curry, and vegetable fried rice.

Wondee's Fine Thai Food & Noodles,

296 Main St. Hackensack; 201-883-1700.

Lotus Cafe

I stopped at Lotus Cafe for a copy of its special fixed-price and banquet menu, and noticed dinners for four to 10 people have gone up, the former to $66 from $59 and the latter to $238 from $208. 

If you leave a 20% tip, a six-course dinner for four now is $20.95 per person, including tax. An 11-course banquet for 10 -- including Peking duck, prawns, filet mignon and a whole fish -- is $30.25 per person, tax included. 

This is among the best Chinese food in North Jersey. I've enjoyed the dinners for four and six people a number of times; the food is wonderful and the portions are generous.

I didn't look at the regular menu, which reflects the same quality, but expect prices have been adjusted there, too.

Lotus Cafe, 450 Hackensack Ave., in the Home

Depot Shopping Center, Hackensack; 201-488-7070.

Nature's bounty makes me smile

From Costco Wholesale, fresh wild salmon from the Copper River in Alaska (2013).

Say cheese.

As in the goat, cheddar, reduced-fat Swiss, buffalo mozzarella and the other wonderful cheeses I've been eating since I gave up bread and pizza a year ago, and lost 30 pounds.

I went from having a breakfast sandwich stuffed with smoked wild salmon, greens, tomato and whatever else would fit to a breakfast salad topped with canned sardines or salmon, a fresh wild salmon fillet or smoked fish and cheese.

This week, I finished off the fresh Copper River sockeye salmon I picked up at Costco in Hackensack.

I baked it quickly with fresh lemon juice, Aleppo red pepper and a mint-and-cilantro pesto without garlic or cheese.

I made a bed of organic spring mix or red-leaf lettuce, layered on thick slices of beefsteak tomato, crumbled some goat cheese and topped it with a wild salmon fillet right from the fridge. 

The dressing was extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, or oil and fresh lemon juice.

My own mint tea

I wash it down with mint iced tea -- using ShopRite pure instant tea mix, lemon juice and mint from the garden.

This year, we're growing regular and heirloom tomatoes, sweet green pepper, cucumber and red-leaf lettuce. A few year ago, we planted peach and fig trees.

Squirrels, peaches

We have yet to eat any peaches from the tree, though there are hopeful signs this year -- in other words, the squirrels have left most of the small, green orbs that have appeared in recent weeks.

Of course, my wife put mothballs in women's hosiery on the fence the squirrels use as a launching pad, and I sprayed the growing peaches with red pepper, soap and water. 

Fresh wild flounder

I went to Costco today to get my third fillet of fresh wild salmon, but had to settle for wild-caught flounder at $7.99 a pound. 

I'll bread the thin, Canadian fillets in chili spices and bake them (done in under 15 minutes).

We ate five seedless watermelons since May 8 ($7.99 to $3.99), so we've switched to red grapes, blackberries, mangoes and bananas.

I make melted-cheese sandwiches for my 14-year-0ld son, using Cabot sliced cheddar and either Syrian pocket bread or 100% whole-grain bread from Costco.

But the closest I can come for myself is a slice of beefsteak tomato topped with olive oil, Italian seasoning, pepper-jack cheese and pesto, and baked in the oven. It's not bad.

Fresh wild salmon with garden pesto

Image via Wikipedia

A dip-net fisherman on the Copper River in Alaska.

I went back to Costco in Hackensack in search of more fresh Copper River salmon earlier in the week, but there was none in the seafood case. However, on Friday, I found nearly a dozen shrink-wrapped fillets to choose from.

This time, I made a blender pesto from mint and cilantro growing in my garden, but didn't add any grated cheese to it (extra-virgin olive oil, two cups of mint and cilantro, handful of pine nuts, a little salt).

I cut the fillet into seven portions, squeezed on fresh lemon juice and sprinkled them with coarse, mildly spicy Aleppo pepper.

I set the oven for 375 degrees, but put the foiled-lined baking pan in before it reached that temperature, and set the timer for 20 minutes, but pulled the fillets out before the time was up and spooned pesto on each piece.

The portions I had for tonight's dinner were rich-tasting and moist.

I sprayed oil on the aluminum foil to keep the skin-on fillets from sticking, but some of the skin stuck. I peeled off two pieces and popped them in my mouth. Just delicious.

The wild Alaskan salmon was $13.99 a pound, but the Earthbound Farm organic spring mix I used to make a salad went up to $4.99 for a 1-pound container, still a dollar or two below what other stores charge.

Other produce prices at Costco have been dropping.

Charities stand vigil at checkout counter

Image via Wikipedia

Planting a tree.

At Costco in Hackensack, you're asked if you want to contribute to a children's hospital. At IKEA in Paramus, you can ring up your own purchases and, for $1, plant a tree.

At these and other stores, charities have their hands out -- and customers who might be spending liberally on food or throw pillows, don't want to seem cheap.

I haven't been asked to contribute to a charity at ShopRite recently, and I've never been asked at Trader Joe's or Fairway Market in Paramus. (The latter two also don't give you anything for a reusable bag.)

Last Friday, I shopped for food at Costco and was asked to contribute to a children's hospital whose name I can't recall. I gave $5.

The next day, I returned with my wife to make sure I bought the right silver ring she wanted for Mother's Day.

When I found myself behind shoppers with overstuffed baskets, I asked an employee who had a closed sign on her checkout counter if she would handle my single item -- the voucher for the ring.

Sure, she said, if I contributed $1 to the same hospital I gave to on Friday. Of course, I agreed, and upped that to $3.

I drove to IKEA today to get a $3.98 refund on two, unopened jars of herring that had loads of sodium in them, and picked up two throw pillows, snack crackers my wife asked for and imported tubes of crab pate and smoked cod-egg spread.

At the self-checkout, I was asked for my zip code and if I wanted to plant a tree for $1. How could a tree-hugger like me refuse?

I don't even know if that's in the United States or Sweden.

About that imported herring with loads of sodium. I e-mailed the company last week, expressing my concern, and have heard nothing.

Produce prices rise, quality slips at Costco

Image via Wikipedia

I dashed into Costco in Hackensack today for a few things, including organic spring mix and tomatoes. 

I also wanted a pound of Boskovich Farms organic spinach, but I could see many brown leaves in the two or three packages I picked up in the cold room. I passed.

The Earthbound Farm organic spring mix had a use-by date of May 4, so I took a one-pound package for $4.79.

The sign over the Sunset-brand Camapari tomatoes said the 2-pound package had jumped by 50 cents, to $5.99, but the first two packages I picked up showed rotting or a split skin. 

At checkout, the package of flawless orbs I chose rang up at the old price.

Recently, I bought two 1-pound packages of the same tomatoes at Fairway Market in Paramus for $5, saving a half-dollar. My wife complained they weren't as sweet as the ones from Costco.

I still haven't finished the three, large hothouse cucumbers I bought at Costco early last week. 

Parts were bitter or discolored, but I didn't have the energy to take them back and wait in line for a refund.

Vegetable stew, guacamole and rising prices

Image via Wikipedia

Wholly Guacamole is packed with avocados.

I keep on discovering new items and old favorites at Costco in Hackensack that help me forget I haven't eaten meat or poultry for more than a year.

A new favorite is Stonewall Kitchen Old Farmhouse Vegetable Stew, packed with potato and carrot chunks, and peas and other veggies that are fresh-tasting and firm to the bite. The ingredient label lists 10 vegetables, plus herbs and spices.

The delicious, milky looking broth contains no dairy. Two 20-ounce portions were $7.99, and they can be frozen.

An item I tried a couple of years ago is appearing more frequently at meals after my son fell in love with the guacamole at Rosa Mexicano in Hackensack, where the appetizer is prepared table-side. The restaurant's guacamole is priced at $12, but contains only two avocados.

Costco's Wholly Guacamole claims to have 15 Hass avocados "in every batch" or five in each of the three 16-ounce portions. It's a much better deal.

Check out the ingredient list: Hass avocados, jalapeno puree, dehydrated onion, salt, granulated garlic. That's it. And it's made in Mexico. I paid $8.49, and it's enough for three meals, plus it can be frozen.

I serve the guacamole after adding a liberal amount of Goya's spicy Salsa Taquera, though you can use chunky salsa or any other hot sauce.

Image by saguayo via Flickr

Rising prices

Costo's prices are trending upward for its own Kirkland Signature brand of smoked wild salmon and 100% whole grain bread.

Now, a pound of Boskovich Farms' organic spinach has jumped to $4.49, from $3.79; and three, long gourmet cucumbers went up 20 cents, to $3.99. 

I've also noticed substantial hikes -- about $2 -- in the price of apples and other fruit sold in 4- or 5-pound packages. 

Other items, such as 2 pounds of salted pollock from China for $6.39, have held the line. Frozen Pacific cod was $14.99 for 2 pounds, just under the price for fresh fillets you sometimes find in the fish case.

Two pounds of Sunset-brand Roma and Campari tomatoes have held steady at $4.99 and $5.49, respectively.  The price is high, but the tomato taste is intense.

Korean supermarket widens its appeal

Image by wallyg via Flickr

The Super H Mart in Ridgefield is the furthest from my home in Hackensack.

The H Mart in Fort Lee is the newest addition to a small chain of Korean supermarkets in North Jersey and, though it's not the closest to my home, it is becoming a favorite place to shop. 

Today, I picked up a box of 14 champagne mangoes from Mexico for $9.99 -- a better buy than the six I bought a week ago for $6.99 at Costco in Hackensack.

Fresh, wild-caught fluke was among more than a dozen kinds of whole fish fanned out on ice, including Spanish mackerel, pompano, red snapper and orata.

I couldn't resist the fluke's low price of $2.99 a pound, and I had my two-and-a-half-pound fish cut into steaks, which I'll cook with sake and other Asian flavors for dinner tonight.

Image by Sifu Renka via Flickr

Fluke is a flat fish that is also favored by sashimi lovers, and it provides welcome relief from the waves of artificially colored farmed salmon and high-mercury tuna served at sushi bars.

I met a Japanese woman who also was buying fluke, and she said her relatives back home were safe after the earthquake and tsunami.

To go with the fish, I bought stir-fried, translucent yam noodles called japchae ($4.49 for 16 ounces) and kimbap, a vegetable, fish and seaweed roll ($4.99 for 22 ounces).

A pound of Jinga-brand  firm tofu was 88 cents. 

The store also was selling fresh mozzarella for $5.99 a pound -- an item intended to lure American shoppers as well as first- and second-generation Koreans whose tastes go beyond their traditional diet.

Image via CrunchBase

I get coupons

Chipotle Mexican Grill sent me two gift cards, each of which will get me a free burrito and other food.

I had e-mailed the company with "reviews" from the yelp! site, most of which were critical and none of which acknowledged it is one of the few fast-food restaurants that serves antibiotic-free poultry, hormone-free beef and pork, and organic vegetables.

I also sent the company a post from this blog describing my own experience.

I also received coupons from Stonyfield Farms after I e-mailed the company about separation of solids and liquid in organic yogurt I bought at Costco.

On a scale of 1 to 10, this fish was a 5

Image via Wikipedia

Cleaning fish scales at home isn't easy or neat.

You can imagine my surprise as I prepared dinner Thursday night when I unwrapped a whole fish I had brought home from Costco and found out the scales had never been removed.

The fresh, wild-caught snapper from Brazil was only $6.99 a pound. It had been gutted, but not scaled, then placed on a tray under plastic wrap. The label said nothing about the scales.

I had already cut into three pieces before I realized I had to clean it. I used a chef's knife, and the scales flew everywhere. Later, my son complained I didn't do a very good job, and left scales on his tail section.

Image via Wikipedia

Uncooked bulgur wheat.

I cooked the fish with stewed tomatoes, extra-virgin olive oil, Meyer lemon and Italian seasonings, and served it with bulgur wheat and a salad. Under the skin, it was meaty and delicious.

This morning, I returned to Costco's Hackensack store with the label and got a refund of my $11.11. I also suggested in writing that in the future, the label tell customers they have to scale whole fish.

What's the logic of gutting the whole fish and trimming the tail, but leaving the scales intact?

Some produce prices are actually falling

Image by JasonUnbound via Flickr

Don't expect to see one of these in North Jersey anytime soon.

Costco Wholesale has some of the best produce prices around -- if you insist on high quality -- but the warehouse store hasn't been immune from price hikes. Now, some items are actually selling for less than before.

Today, at the Hackensack store, I bought a pound of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix -- one of the most delicious bunches of leafy greens around -- for $4.39. That's 20 cents less than I paid on March 1, and 60 cents below the high of $4.99.

This is a pre-washed mixture that you can layer in a sandwich or put in a bowl, dress and eat.

Another favorite, pre-washed Boskovich Farms' U.S.-grown organic spinach, was $3.79 for a one-pound package -- 20 cents less than before. I use this spinach directly from the package, adding it to just-cooked pasta and sauce, and mixing them together until the spinach is wilted.

But they were the exceptions. Gala apples were $5.99 for 5.5 pounds, but today, they were $7.49. Bananas were $1.47 for three pounds -- about a dime higher than before.

Other items have held the line, including Sunset-brand large Gourmet cucumbers, three for $3.79, and Campari tomatoes, two pounds for $5.49.

Nothing fishy

The fish case at Costco in Hackensack yielded fresh, whole, cleaned, wild snapper from Brazil for $6.99 a pound and fresh, wild-caught flounder fillets from Canada for $7.99 a pound. Both were packed today.

How to keep the almonds and lose the salt

Image via Wikipedia

Shelled almonds, like the raw, unsalted ones available at Costco.

I've cut down almost completely on bread and pizza to lose weight,  but find myself snacking frequently on crunchy roasted or blanched almonds from Costco in Hackensack.

But as I wrote in a previous post, salt in the almonds became a concern after I looked at the labels and discovered the more expensive Kirkland Signature Marcona blanched almonds from Spain have twice as much salt as the Kirkland dry-roasted almonds from California. 

Comparing salt

A 28-gram or 1-ounce serving of the Spanish almond contains 9% sodium, compared with 4% for the same serving size of the California almond (on the daily value scale). The former costs $7.99 for 17.63 ounces, while you'll pay $8.89 for 40 ounces of the latter. They are both delicious.

So I bought a three-pound bag of Kirkland Signature raw, unsalted almonds and added some of them to the jar of the Kirkland dry-roasted almonds, but I found the raw almonds weren't my cup of tea.

I fished them out, and put them in the oven for an hour at a low 250 degrees, and they took on a nice crunch. I then roasted the rest of the raw, unsalted almonds. When the salted almonds are finished, I'll just buy the unsalted ones, roast them and put them in the empty jar.

By roasting the raw almonds, I've eliminated salt from a favorite snack, which is delicious when paired with fruit and cheese, and saved money, too. Three pounds  of raw almonds cost only $9.99.

The label notes almonds are a heart-healthy food. They are described as U.S. #1, "supreme whole." 

Breakfast from Costco

My breakfast organic spring mix salad with wild lox, sheep's milk and reduced-fat Swiss cheeses, sun-dried and fresh Campari tomatoes, and sliced cucumber -- all of it came from Costco in Hackensack.

So did the Dijon mustard in my dressing of Greek extra-virgin olive oil and Italian balsamic vinegar. If you have to give up bread, a filling salad is one way to compensate. 

Dinner from H Mart

I found fresh, wild-caught whole whiting at H Mart in Fort Lee for $3.49 a pound on Monday, as well as bunches of fresh spinach for $1.79 each. 

I cut the two fish into two or three pieces and cooked them in Chinese cooking wine, sesame oil, fish sauce, soy sauce (with ponzu) and chopped fresh ginger.

I washed and then blanched the spinach in hot water, put it into a second pan with a little olive oil and seasoned it. 

I served the fish and spinach with organic brown rice cooked in organic chicken broth, both from Costco. (I let the rice soak in the broth in a rice cooker for several hours.)

We started off with kimbap -- seaweed-wrapped rolls of rice, vegetables and imitation crab meat. I found a 22-ounce package for $4.99 in the prepared-food section of H Mart.

When package information lets you down

Blue Hill Bay, sold at Costco Wholesale, is distributed by Acme Smoked Fish Corp.

Once in awhile, I am disappointed in a product I buy from Costco in Hackensack, and that's the case with smoked steelhead trout sold under the Ruby Bay label. 

In this case, though, it's the Acme Smoked Fish Corp. that is to blame -- for leaving out important information on the origin of the fish and distracting me and other shoppers with meaningless claims.

At Costco on March 1, I bought a 12-ounce package for $9.49 -- or about 80 cents an ounce. That compares to 96 cents an ounce for Kirkland Signature smoked wild Alaskan sockeye salmon, which contains no preservatives.

Wild sockeye salmon. (Wikipedia)

Unfortunately, the Ruby Bay package doesn't tell you this is farmed fish, as I learned by calling Acme Smoked Fish. However, I didn't ask where the fish was farmed. 

On Friday, I looked into Costco's fresh-fish case, and saw farmed steelhead trout. The label said it was from Chile and that it was colored artificially by chemicals in the feed. 

So, is Acme's steelhead also colored artificially? The label says it's "All Natural" and contains "No Preservatives."

Anyway, although the steelhead tastes good, it pales when compared with the smoked wild sockeye salmon. I have a few ounces of the former left, but once it's gone, I'll never buy it or any other Acme Smoked Fish Corp. product.

Triple washed is good enough for me

Image by thebittenword.com via Flickr

If you prepare family meals five or six times a week, as we do, convenience and speed are paramount. My wife and I don't have the time or patience to use long, elaborate recipes for dinner.

Two of the most convenient products I know are Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix and Boskovich Farms Organically Grown Baby Spinach, both sold at Costco and both pre-washed, so I don't have to use a salad spinner.

I literally grab some and place it in the bowl for an instant salad with my own prepared dressing, which I keep in the refrigerator. 

The triple-washed spinach makes a fine addition to pasta with garlic, anchovies and grated cheese. (The base of the sauce is chicken stock.)

For dinner tonight, I baked almost two pounds of fresh Pacific True Cod Fillets I bought at Costco in Hackensack on Sunday for $6.99 a pound, prepared instant mash potatoes and dressed a spinach salad. The meal was on the table in under 30 minutes.

On Sunday night, I marinated a pound and a half of farmed Tiger Prawns, also from Costco, then sauteed them with garlic and extra-virgin olive oil for about five minutes. I served them with Costco guacamole topped by Goya Salsa Taquera, leftover organic spinach-and-cheese ravioli and a spinach salad. 

The U-15 prawns come cleaned (under 15 to the pound) and cost $9.99 a pound.

A pound of organic baby spinach is $3.99. The last time I bought the organic spring mix at Costco, it was $4.79 or $4.99 -- still the lowest retail price I have found.

Say cheese at least 54 times

Image via Wikipedia

Costco sells Parmigiano-Reggiano and more than 50 other cheeses.

Or maybe 55 or 56 times. This afternoon, I tried to count all the cheeses offered in a long refrigerated case at Costco in Hackensack, but now remember, as I write this, there is more cheese in another case I didn't look at.

So let's just say the warehouse store with the high-quality food at low prices -- on everything from soup to nuts -- carries more than 50 cheeses, in slices, wedges, wheels and blocks, as well as grated and shredded.

They are imported from Italy, Ireland, England, France and other countries or made in the United States for foreign dairies.

I love cheese, but have tried to avoid the full-fat ones, so I've gravitated toward skim-milk Parmigiano-Reggiano ($11.99 a pound) and Grana Padano ($8.99 a pound), both from Italy, and reduced-fat Jarlsberg Lite slices ($8.99 for two pounds).

Occasionally, I've brought home sheep's milk Manchego from Spain ($8.29 a pound), but I don't think I'm ready for a French cheese I saw today -- La Delice Saint Faron Triple Cream cow's-milk cheese ($9.49).

I plan to try a new cheese every two weeks, now that I have cut down on bread and pizza, and lost more than 20 pounds. So I bought Bufala Mozzarella from Italy, four balls of buffalo-milk cheese in milky water, for $11.99 (17.6 ounces).

Others I noticed today were Smoked Gouda ($5.49 a pound); Cave-Aged Taleggio from Italy ($8.29); and Cabot White Cheddar, aged for 14 months ($7.99 a pound). 

Fresh mozzarella was $3.99 a pound and grated Pecorino Romano from Italy was $10.99 for two pounds.

Image via Wikipedia

Price fluctuations

Costco's smoked wild sockeye salmon, sold under the Kirkland Signature label, is now $15.39 a pound, and Earthbound Farm organic spring mix has edged up to $4.99 a pound, but no other food store can match these prices.

Items that have held the line include fresh, wild-caught haddock fillets from Iceland ($8.49 a pound); Legal Sea Foods Alaskan King Crab and Sweet Corn Chowder ($9.79 for two 20-ounce containers) and organic, triple-washed spinach ($3.99 a pound). 

Annoying practices

I stopped at H Mart, the Korean supermarket in Fort Lee, did my shopping, waited in the checkout line and started to leave the store when I noticed all the large bags of rice against the window.

A 20-pound bag of Kokuho Yellow Label, a California-grown rice we use, was on sale for $10.99, almost half-price, and the sale ended that day. Even though we needed white rice, I didn't want to wait on line again, and left, thinking if I returned in a week, this rice or another one would be on deep discount.

No such luck when I returned Wednesday, so, after keeping an appointment, I drove to H Mart in Little Ferry. The best I could do was the same 20-pound bag for $16.99.

A friend looking for snow melt said Home Depot in Hackensack only had 50-pound bags -- too much for him to handle. So he went to Pathmark in the same shopping center to do some food shopping and checked out, only to find smaller bags of snow melt on the other side of the register.

When he asked, he was told the store wasn't big enough to display them inside. Give me a break.

Salt in Costco Wholesale almonds, Trident Seafood fish sticks

Image via Wikipedia

Blanched almonds, like those sold at Costco Wholesale.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A half-dozen or so roasted almonds are one of my favorite snacks -- alone or with fruit and cheese -- and I rely on Costco Wholesale in Hackensack for these crunchy treats.

But in looking at labels, I've discovered that the more expensive Kirkland Signature Marcona blanched almonds from Spain have twice as much salt as the Kirkland dry-roasted almonds from California.

A 28-gram or 1-ounce serving of the Spanish almond contains 9% sodium, compared with 4% for the same serving size of the California almond (on the daily value scale). 

The former costs $7.99 for 17.63 ounces, while you'll pay $8.89 for 40 ounces of the latter. They are both delicious.

I believe Costco sells a 3-pound bag of raw, unsalted almonds, but I've never bought them or checked out the label. Next time.

Update (2015)

For the last couple of years, we've been buying the raw almonds at Costco to cut down on our sodium intake, and roasting them in the oven at 275 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes.

After they cool, we put them in a container on our kitchen counter and dust them with plenty of ground Saigon Cinnamon, also available at Costco.

Cover via Amazon

Fish shtick

Costco is the only retailer I know that publishes a magazine, and the February 2011 issue  of Costco Connection has an upbeat story on Trident Seafoods, the Seattle, Wash., company that supplies fish sticks and other products to the warehouse store.

I read about The Ultimate Fish Stick from Trident and asked my wife to pick up a package this week. Four pounds or 60 breaded fish sticks are $12.99. 

I prepared some last night. I found them tasty, but think the name is overblown. 

They are finger-length and cut from fillets of snow-white Alaska pollock, the largest wild fishery in the United States. 

Pollock tastes like cod, but is cheaper. Salted pollock, for example, retails for about half the price of salted cod.

A sad footnote is a 2008 incident that killed 120,000 wild king salmon when they were caught in pollock nets, according to "Four Fish, The Future of the Last Wild Food," a new book by Paul Greenberg.

The Trident package calls the fish sticks "crunchy" and "more fish, less breading." They are 65% fish, but they weren't crunchy. 

I didn't preheat the oven to 475 degrees, so that may have been a problem, though I baked them for much longer than indicated in the directions. 

Costco also sells Trident's tilapia-fillet fish sticks, but the package doesn't say whether they are made from farmed fish. They appear bigger than the pollock fish sticks. 


I've seen wild-caught tilapia at H Mart, the Korean supermarket chain, but most tilapia is farmed. It also is called St. Peter's Fish.