We're loving Costco Wholesale more, but visiting the warehouse less

Triple-washed Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix is ready to go from the package to your plate, and Costco Wholesale's price is the best in northern New Jersey.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

The price of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix, the world's best store-bought salad, hit a low of $4.29 a pound last week at Costco Wholesale.

And the Teterboro warehouse has added more organic products under the Kirkland Signature house label, including marinara sauce and pignoli nuts.

Still, we're cutting our visits to once every two weeks from once weekly, because the Teterboro Costco, like the smaller Hackensack warehouse it replaced, is just too popular.

The Teterboro Costco opened in mid-October in a Route 46 shopping center that is a work in progress, and parking is always tight.

And the store itself is far larger than the Hackensack warehouse, so we're still familiarizing ourselves with where everything is.

But even with all that extra room, the warehouse always seems to be crowded, and that may be because Costco signed up more than 1,000 new members in the days after the Teterboro warehouse opened. 

The one salvation is that check-out seems faster and more efficient than it was in Hackensack, and the receipt checkers at the door don't hold you up when the warehouse is busy.

Costco Wholesale sells smoked wild Alaskan sockeye salmon two ways, including this fully cooked fillet made with brown sugar that doesn't require refrigeration before it is opened. 

The slow-smoked salmon fillet from Trident Seafoods lists only 1 gram of sugar for a 2-ounce serving. The 1.5-pound fillet I bought in December was $15.97, and carried a use-by date of 2021.

Smoked salmon 2X

One must be kept refrigerated, and tastes like salted slices of raw fish -- good in omelets, salads and eaten out of hand.

The other, with a shelf-life of more than 5 years, is both sweet and salty, and tastes great on its own or in salads.

The Wild Alaskan Smoked Sockeye Salmon from Kirkland Signature and Trident Seafoods both use the same heart-healthy fish, but the resulting product couldn't be more different.

The thicker, skin-on sockeye salmon fillet from Trident Seafoods tastes closer to canned fish. Add it to a salad for a light dinner with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil.

Pitted olives, shaved Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, Campari Tomatoes and cucumbers over Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix, all dressed in extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

An organic spring-mix salad with organic pignoli or pine nuts.

Pine nuts are one of the ingredients in Costco's wonderful prepared Basil Pesto, so they make a terrific garnish for Organic Whole Wheat Shells with Pesto and Black Truffles. The small $10 bottle of truffles from the Teterboro warehouse didn't have much flavor, but that may because I didn't have enough for the pound of pasta I prepared. On a travel show I saw recently, a waiter in a restaurant in Italy shaved a couple of ounces of large black truffles over a single dish of pasta.

Snowy fillets of fresh wild-caught flounder after they were poached in pre-heated Roasted Poblano Salsa made creamy with no-fat Greek yogurt. The fish was $7.99 a pound at Costco Wholesale, and the salsa came from Whole Foods Market, where the 365 Everyday Value brand contains no added sugar.

Price checks

My wife made our last visit to the Teterboro Costco on Wednesday, about two weeks after her previous trip. 

She brought home: 2 pounds of Campari Tomatoes, the only way to get through a winter without Jersey tomatoes ($4.99); 10 pounds of California carrots ($6.49); 5.5 pounds of Gala Apples from Washington State ($9.99), and that 1-pound tub of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix ($4.29).

The price of the organic salad mix fluctuates throughout the year, but the highest I've seen at Costco is $4.99, compared to $6.99 at ShopRite supermarkets.

Three large, long hothouse cucumbers were $3.49. They carried a label with a weight of 2 pounds, but were fatter than usual and on my kitchen scale hit 3.3 pounds.

A 2-pound bag of Organic Green Beans -- washed, snipped and ready to use -- was $5.99.

Raw, sodium-free California Almonds were $17.99 for a 3-pound bag. We roast them and dust them with cinnamon for snacking. 

A 5-pound bag of large limes from Mexico was $5.79. Six Hass Avocados from Chile were $3.99.

Two 3-liter bottles of Pure Olive Oil, a cooking blend that includes extra-virgin olive oil, was $27.99 or about $4.67 a liter.

Olive oil doesn't contain genetically modified ingredients (GMOs), unlike many others for cooking, including soy, canola and corn oils.

Organic Whole Wheat Fusilli from Whole Foods Market dressed with no-added-sugar Botticelli Marinara Sauce from ShopRite, and sardines and anchovies from Costco Wholesale. I also added a few ounces of red wine, extra-virgin olive oil, red-pepper flakes, granulated garlic and other seasonings to the sauce before I heated it up.

Rebates on way

In the next few weeks, I'm anticipating the arrival of rebate checks from American Express and Costco that more than cover my annual executive membership fee of $110.

A regular membership is $55 a year.

The American Express rebate is 2% for purchases at Costco, and we also earn cash back at restaurants, gas stations and other stores.

On top of that, we get a 1% rebate from Costco on everything we buy in the Teterboro warehouse.

Now, it's easier than ever to keep unhealthy red meat off of your table

Wild-Caught Gulf Shrimp were on sale last Friday at Whole Foods Market in Paramus, where you'll find the best seafood counter in all of northern New Jersey. An employee deveined the shrimp for me, and at home, they cooked in minutes in olive oil, fresh lime juice and seasonings.

For a delicious and healthy dinner, I added the wild shrimp to leftover antibiotic-free farmed salmon from the new Costco Wholesale in Teterboro.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

There is no end to reports on just how bad red meat is for you, and 95% of the time, the animals are raised under horrific conditions on antibiotics and hormones that are harmful to humans.

But if you stop eating meat and poultry, as I did more than five years ago, there are so many great alternatives, including an abundance of heart-healthy shrimp, salmon and other seafood.

My two main sources for fresh fish, both whole and fillets, are Costco Wholesale and H Mart, a chain of Korean supermarkets.

But I don't hesitate to buy wild shrimp or other seafood when it is on sale at Whole Foods Market, usually at prices that are near or equal to the others.

Not at Costco

For one thing, you can't buy wild-caught shrimp at Costco, and at H Mart, finding wild shrimp from Mexico is hit or miss. 

Last week, 16-20 count previously frozen wild-caught U.S. shrimp at Whole Foods in Paramus were on sale for $15.99 a pound (that's $5 off per pound).

You can't minimize the value of a seafood counter with workers willing to devein your shrimp, a difficult job. 

Even with the right knife, it's easy to cut your fingers. 

The shrimp at Whole Foods were 16 to 20 per pound, so I purchased 1.5 pounds, and after cooking them, they were as tender as could be. 

And if you do eat poultry, Whole Foods is a terrific source for such soup ingredients as antibiotic-free turkey necks and backs, which you'll find in the freezer case near the butcher counter ($1.99 a pound).

Skinless-and-boneless Atlantic Salmon fillets are from farmed fish raised in Norway without antibiotics. The fillets, from Costco Wholesale in Teterboro, poach in under 10 minutes in Mexican-style salsa with fresh lime juice ($8.99 a pound).

In a simple dressing of extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, a salad of butter lettuce and organic spring mix, both from Costco, is a nice way to end a meal.

'Greenest of the Green'

If you're concerned about contaminants in fish, you should take a look at a new list of seafood that is sustainable, low in mercury and rich in heart-healthy Omega-3 fatty acids.

The Safina Center at Stony Brook University calls the list "Greenest of the Green".

Wild Alaskan salmon and sardines, two of my favorites, are on the list.

You can find wild Alaskan salmon -- fresh, frozen or smoked -- at Costco Wholesale. 

We prepare organic whole wheat pasta with sardines every week or two.

All the dessert I need: Honey Crisp Apple, sodium-free almonds I roast at home and dust with cinnamon, and Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese from Italy.

Antibiotic-free farmed Atlantic Salmon served on a bed of mashed sweet potatoes, Kabocha squash and peeled garlic cloves.

After boiling, draining and mashing white-fleshed sweet potatoes and squash, both with their skin, I added more extra-virgin olive.

I used an unfiltered extra-virgin olive oil from Spain to mash the potatoes and squash, plus as many seasonings as I had on hand, including curry powder, cinnamon, red-pepper flakes, black pepper, cumin, garam masala and a little sea salt.

Organic Chopped Vegetable & Barley Soup from CedarLane is so thick you can stand up a spoon in it. I buy it at Costco Wholesale.

From the store to the plate with only a few simple steps in between

ISLAND SALAD: Using cooked conch I brought home from H&Y, a Korean supermarket in Ridgefield, my wife produced a colorful and delicious salad, adding minced garlic; chopped onion, sweet and hot peppers, and lime juice. The result reminded me of the spicy Conch Salad I once had in the Bahamas, where they say "conk."

AFTER DINNER: A quick after-dinner salad made with triple-washed Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix, tomatoes from our garden, extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. You can turn this salad into a main course by adding smoked wild salmon and shaved Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, both available at Costco Wholesale.

COMFORT FOOD: Mashed organic sweet potatoes from Trader Joe's, organic carrots from Costco Wholesale and Kabocha Squash from H Mart in Englewood were boiled with peeled garlic cloves for about an hour, below. Sweet potatoes, mashed or baked, are a great bread substitute that you can eat to your heart's content.

NO NEED FOR BUTTER: Drain, return to the pot and add extra-virgin olive oil and as many seasonings as you have on hand, including curry powder, cinnamon, black pepper, red-pepper flakes, a little sea salt and whatever else you like, then mash. I make enough to provide side dishes for several breakfasts and dinners or as a snack at midday.

GOOD BUY: At Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, 10-pound bags of conventional sweet potatoes cost about 79 cents a pound.

BAKED PLANTAINS: A baked sweet potato, with a little organic salsa, and baked -- not fried -- sweet plantains, all served alongside an egg-white omelet stuffed with smoked wild salmon and reduced-fat Swiss cheese. Most of the ingredients are from the Hackensack Costco.

BOTTLE-AND-CAN PASTA: Organic whole-wheat spirals in marinara sauce with drained and rinsed anchovies, sardines, red wine, extra-virgin olive oil and seasonings, including red-pepper flakes and ground garlic. Instead of grated cheese, I added panko bread crumbs as an accent. I used a 44-ounce jar of pasta sauce, one can of anchovies, three cans of sardines in tomato sauce and a 1-pound package of Luigi Vitelli-brand Organic Whole Wheat Fusilli from ShopRite ($1.25), enough for several meals.

-- VICTOR E. SASSON

At Costco Wholesale, price of fresh wild salmon drops to under $10

Fresh Wild Sockeye Salmon from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack grilled on the stove top and served with salsa and chopped garden herbs.

The price for wild sockeye salmon at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack dropped to $9.99 a pound this week from $13.99 a pound on June 23.

Editor's note: We're back from a vacation in Canada and Vermont, and preparing the simple foods that say, Welcome home. We noticed that wild salmon, rotisserie chicken and other items at a Costco Wholesale in Montreal were priced higher than in our Hackensack Costco.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

This week, we returned from a vacation in Canada to find a dramatically lower price -- $9.99 a pound -- on fresh wild sockeye salmon at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

Even at the old price of $13.99 a pound, this sockeye is cheaper than the wild salmon sold at the Costco Wholesale on Bridge Street in Montreal.

In fact, many of the items we saw in the Montreal Costco on June 29 were more expensive than the same or similar product at the Hackensack Costco.

At the moment, the U.S. dollar is worth about $1.20 against the Canadian dollar. 

In Montreal, we bought six Ataulfo Mangoes ($6.99 Canadian), 3 pounds of bananas ($1.99 Canadian) and Vita Coco Coconut Juice ($17.89 Canadian), all for snacks in our hotel room.

I also bought 20 Stanfield's Briefs in black, gray and white ($19.99 Canadian for a package of five).

Made in Canada, they are 100% cotton. And they're the most comfortable men's briefs I've ever found. 

Changing money

When we visited the Montreal Costco last year, we paid a 3% surcharge on everything we bought in the form of a foreign-currency transaction fee imposed by American Express.

This year, we bought Costco Cash Cards in U.S. dollars online to pay for our purchases, and it looks like we got a discount of about 20% on all of our purchases at the Montreal Costco, including the photo service.

The U.S. dollar was worth about $1.20 Canadian during our visit.

I also brought a Capitol One Visa Card with no foreign-currency transaction fee to charge nearly everything else.

At the Hyatt Regency Montreal, where we stayed, the front desk gave me $46 Canadian in exchange for $40 U.S. -- less than the $48 I expected.

At an ATM machine, I withdrew $40 Canadian and my New Jersey bank debited my account $33.50 U.S. 

I used the machine after walking into the bank, where a teller told me I would have to pay a one-time fee of $5 Canadian to change money.

This Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese from Italy at a Costco Wholesale in Montreal is around $10.90 Canadian a pound, which is about what I pay for the same cheese in Hackensack, but the Ambrosi brand is aged longer, 30 months v. 24 months.

At $22.99 Canadian for 2.2 pounds, the Castelli brand of Parmigiano Reggiano costs about $10.45 Canadian a pound, and also is aged for 30 months.

In Montreal, Kirkland Signature Egg Whites come in four 500-gram cartons for $8.49 Canadian, compared to the six 454-gram or 16-ounce containers we bought in Hackensack for $9.99, up from $7.99 a year ago.

Costco's popular but low-quality Rotisserie Chicken is $7.99 Canadian in Montreal, compared to $4.99 in Hackensack.

Ingredients include salt, rice starch, sugar, tetrapotassium pyrophosphate and sodium triphosphate. The birds also are raised on antibiotics that are harmful to humans.

In Montreal, 2-pound packages of Jersey Fresh Blueberries were a good buy at $5.19 Canadian.

At $15.90 Canadian a pound, this fresh wild sockeye salmon cost more than the Alaskan fish offered in Hackensack, where the fillets cost $14.99 a pound and $13.99 a pound in June. This week, sockeye salmon dropped to $9.99 a pound in New Jersey.

Artificially colored farmed salmon in Montreal, where the price is given for a kilo or 2.2 pounds.

At the end of June, regular gas at the Costco in Montreal was about $4.67 Canadian a gallon ($1.22.9 per liter). Premium was over $5 a gallon.

One item I would love to see in Hackensack is this Vegepate, made from sunflower seeds, vegetables, soy sauce, spices and other ingredients. I tried a free sample and thought it contained meat.

You get three 227-gram pates for $6.99 Canadian.

Onions, carrots and potatoes are the vegetables used.

After our return to New Jersey on Tuesday afternoon, the first dish I prepared at home was a pound of organic whole-wheat capellini in bottled marinara sauce with added anchovies, red wine, extra-virgin olive oil and seasonings. At the table, I added grated Pecorino Romano Cheese and chopped herbs from the garden, including mint and parsley.

For breakfast the next morning, I ate two Costco organic brown eggs with leftover capellini, a great bread substitute.

For breakfast today, I had trouble completely folding this Egg Whites omelet stuffed with shredded Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, za'atar thyme mixture and salsa.

Tonight, leftover fresh wild sockeye salmon right out of the refrigerator crowned a dinner salad.

New Armenian grill in Hackensack, good buys at Maywood's Market

Armenian lavash is a soft, thin, unleavened flat bread. The large menu at Lavash City lists wraps made with the bread and many other dishes.

Editor's note: Today's post includes a new restaurant on Main Street in Hackensack, good buys at a premium supermarket in Maywood and a so-called farmers market I haven't patronized for years.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The newest restaurant on Main Street in Hackensack is an Armenian grill that offers the usual kebabs as well as dozens of homemade soups, salads and cold appetizers.

Lavash City Grill & Bakery, which opened a couple of weeks ago at 331 Main St., serves lunch and dinner in a completely renovated space.

Armenian cuisine is said to have strong ties with Turkish, Georgian and Persian cooking.

The restaurant offers kebabs, shawarma, rotisserie chicken and pilafs.

Owner Anna Yeritsyan says she prepares soups, salads and other dishes "from scratch."

"Nothing comes from cans."

Details

Lavash City Grill & Bakery, 331 Main St., Hackensack; 201-464-5445.

Open 7 days for lunch and dinner, BYO, parking at meters and in free lots for shoppers nearby.

"No store has this price," boasts a Maywood's Marketplace sign with rough wedges of aged Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese from Italy, sometimes referred to as the "King of Cheeses" (the name is misspelled on the sign).

Maywood's Marketplace

I got a Maywood's Marketplace flier with the newspaper, and the cover showed a "super special" on Parmigiano Reggiano, the crumbly aged cheese from Italy that is one of my favorites.

Eaten out of hand, with fruit or in a salad, this cheese, made with part-skimmed milk, is hard to top.

At $9.77 a pound, the price undercuts even Costco Wholesale. In fact, the Hackensack warehouse store was out of the cheese last week.

I stopped at the Maywood market on Thursday and picked up wedges of the aged cheese, selecting two that had rind only on the end.

Others had rind on two sides.

When I got the wedges home, I cut them into smaller chunks, and found the cheese soft, crumbly and full of flavor.

Some cooks dice the rind and put it in their pasta sauce for added flavor, but it doesn't completely dissolve.

Wine, corn and salmon

I also bought three bottles of wine from Italy -- Il Carnevale di Venezia Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Grigio -- at $4.99 each.

Five ears of fresh corn were $2.

I noticed the flier also offers wild king salmon for $13.99 a pound, another good buy that beats Costco, which was selling those fillets for $16.99 a pound just last week.

The sale prices in Maywood are good through June 24.

Part of the produce section at Maywood's Marketplace, one in a dwindling number of small, premium supermarkets in Bergen County. Another is Cafasso's Fairway Market on Anderson Avenue in Fort Lee.

Details

Maywood's Marketplace, 78 W. Pleasant Ave., Maywood; 201-843-8361.

Open 7 days, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Parking lot. 

Web site: Worth the detour

The Giant Farmers Market is at Main and Berry streets in Hackensack. The parking lot is behind the store, on River Street.

The Main Street entrance is far from appetizing. I stopped patronizing this store years ago after finding much better quality at H Mart, the chain of Korean supermarkets in Little Ferry, Englewood, Fort Lee and Ridgefield.

The floor in front of the fish counter and in other parts of the store is dirty or cracked or both. The credit-card minimum for fish is $10. In the rest of the store, the credit-card minimum is $5.

A sign with bags of apples offers a so-called special on sweet peppers.