Eating alone

Image via Wikipedia

My wife and son are away, freeing me from having to prepare dinner for three this week.

So I've been eating this and that for breakfast and dinner, and keeping our meatless pledge.

Our last meal together was Sunday night, when I served lobster ravioli with pesto sauce and king crab-and-corn chowder -- all from Costco in Hackensack -- along with toasted Balthazar Bakery bread and a salad of organic greens. (Photo: Basil leaves.)

We went to Lotus Cafe in Hackensack for dinner Saturday night -- tofu and spinach soup, large shrimp in chili sauce, lo mien with vegetables and snow pea tips with fresh garlic.

On my own Monday, I had a sardine sandwich for breakfast and fish and pasta for dinner -- spinach egg noodles with pesto and steamed Pacific flounder (from frozen).

This morning, I grazed for breakfast on leftover dips from Aleppo Restaurant in Paterson, smoked salmon fillet, sardines, cheese, a toasted bagel, sliced tomato with za'atar thyme mixture and kimchi, all washed down with black tea.

Dinner came from H Mart in Englewood, where I found a spicy fish-and-tofu soup ($4.99) and rolls of rice, vegetables, imitation crab and seaweed ($3.49). I ate the soup with steamed yellow rice I prepared.

Shopping and tasting notes

Image by Tony the Misfit via Flickr

When you live in Hackensack, as I do, it doesn't make sense to do takeout from Aleppo, my favorite Middle Eastern restaurant in Paterson. But on the way home from Morristown yesterday on Route 80, it was an easy detour to buy our dinner and stock up on Syrian bread, sardines, canned hummus and other items. (Photo: Great Falls in Paterson.)

My first stop was the parking lot in front of Fattal's Bakery on Main Street. I bought 10 cans of sardines (99 cents to $1.09 each); three dozen fresh pocket breads ($1.50 a dozen), canned hummus ($1.09), hot peppers ($2.99 a pound) and homemade spinach-and-cheese pies ($8.99 for six).

At Aleppo, less than two blocks away at Main and Thomas streets, I asked Halla the waitress for a bowl of lentil soup -- a delicious puree scented with cumin and served with small pieces of fried bread and lemon. I also ordered takeout -- fried whiting with rice, the hot pepper dip called muhammara, hummus and fried cheese turnovers.

The fish, oily rice, dips and turnovers made another satisfying, meatless dinner. Tomorrow will mark our third week without chicken, beef, pork or lamb, and I still haven't run out of menu ideas. I've actually dropped a few pounds and can fit into my old jeans again.


Thursday night, we enjoyed Boca-brand soy burgers with cheese on yeasty Balthazar Bakery potato-onion rolls. I made a Syrian-style fingerling potato salad: extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice, cumin, allspice, coarse Aleppo red pepper and salt to taste, and also served an organic green salad.

I'm not sure where we'll be eating tonight -- our weekly dinner out -- but I have lobster ravioli and corn-and-crab chowder in the freezer for Sunday dinner.

Although we haven't been buying meat, I've noticed ShopRite hasn't put free-range, grass-fed Australian beef on sale for weeks, but continues to discount conventionally raised U.S. beef and chicken.

Monotony is setting in

Image via Wikipedia

My 12-year-old son was the first to use the word "monotony" to describe the meatless, fish-heavy meals we have been preparing at home for the past two weeks. Today, that word echoed in my head as I made my weekly trip to Costco in search of more variety.

I picked up Boca-brand soy burgers and frozen Maryland crab cakes at the Hackensack store, but passed on frozen mahi-mahi fillets and frozen Icelandic fish and chips, because I still have lots of frozen Pacific flounder and frozen Alaskan sockeye salmon, which I steamed in an Asian sauce and served with instant mashed potatoes and salad last night.

I walked warily past the Australian lamb I used to love to see what was in the fresh fish case, and startled a woman with a warning about the farmed salmon she was looking at. Damn. No fresh, wild-caught haddock, thick, meaty fillets that would be great fried -- my son's favorite preparation.

So, it looks like Maryland crab cakes (without the garnish shown in the photo above) and lots of frozen vegetables for dinner tonight. I'm not proud. If you have an idea for a meatless dinner, please pass it along.

A hearty fish soup for dinner

Image by Lil' El via Flickr

I was planning to prepare veggie patties or lobster ravioli for our meatless dinner last night, but my wife surprised me with a thick, delicious, Jamaican fish tea.

That's right, fish tea is fish soup -- filled with pieces of king fish steaks, fingerling potatoes, carrots, dumplings (boiled dough), hot peppers and chayote. Almost any fish would do as well. (Photo: king mackerel.)

Two bowls full, toasted baguette and wine made a lovely dinner, supplemented by two items I picked up at H Mart in Englewood -- finger maki (vegetables and rice wrapped in seaweed) and stewed pollack with peppers.

My wife used Grace-brand fish tea mix from Jamaica as the base for her soup (ShopRite in Englewood has a nice selection of Jamaican food products). The fish-flavored soup mix contains MSG. (Originally, I wrote it didn't have monosodium glutamate.)

This soup would be fairly easy to make. First, prepare two packages of  fish soup mix, according to the directions, then add the ingredients that take the longest to cook first -- carrots and potatoes. When they are tender, add remaining ingredients, plus some garlic.

Jerry's 'Meals To Go' went fast

Image via Wikipedia

If you've ever had one of the complete dinners called "Meals To Go" from Jerry's Gourmet in Englewood, you know what a delicious bargain they are. What I didn't know is that the Italian specialty store drops the price to $4.99 from $6.99 at 4 p.m.

A restaurant-quality meal -- entree, vegetable, pasta and other side dishes -- is already a steal at $6.99. At $4.99, well ... they really fly out of the refrigerated case, as I found out when I showed up a little after 5 p.m. today and they were gone. My consolation prize was free samples of a half-dozen cheeses Jerry's puts out every day.

I remember well the  "Meal To Go" with Chilean sea bass (photo), and others with flounder and other seafood, which we have been eating in place of meat since Sunday.

Tonight, I took a cup of  leftover Mexican green sauce with a little fish in it, added six eggs, tomato, red pepper and onion, and poured the mixture into a large, non-stick frying pan with hot extra-virgin olive oil. I put pieces of sliced yogurt cheese on top, and let it cook on the stove for about 15 minutes. I finished it under the broiler.

We ate the frittata with leftover spaghetti and sardines in tomato sauce and broccoli rabe from our dinner last night.

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