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CALIFORNIA EATING: Good buys this week included California fruit at ShopRite, above, and Mexican mangoes bursting with sweetness at H Mart.
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GRASS-FED FILET MIGNON: On Monday, I went to ShopRite, 224 Route 4 east in Paramus, to buy naturally raised, grass-fed Nature's Reserve Australian beef, which was on sale for only $6.99 a pound with a store card, and picked up California peaches for 99 cents a pound and apricots for $2.99 a pound that ripened after a day or two on the kitchen counter.
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MISSING QUALITY: At the Paramus ShopRite, Pat LaFrieda sells "restaurant quality" beef, but makes no claim the meat was raised naturally without harmful antibiotics and growth hormones.
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LESS IS LESS: There is nothing on the package of Pat LaFrieda Original Blend Chopped Beef that tells you whether it was naturally raised, above.
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A REASON TO SMILE: Laura's Lean Beef, on the other hand, boasts that it was raised without harmful hormones or antibiotics, lending credibility to the "all natural" label.
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SUNDAY DINNER: Fresh wild-caught whole Black Sea Bass were $5.99 a pound at H Mart, 260 Bergen Turnpike, Little Ferry. Here, I plated the fish with two side dishes, brown bulgur wheat with small beans and sauteed cabbage with sweet peppers.
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ASIAN-INSPIRED SAUCE: In a covered pan, I poached four Black Sea Bass in a sauce of boiling organic chicken stock, soybean paste, sake, minced garlic, five-spice powder, ground ginger and ground star aniseed powder.
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SWEETEST MANGOES: In Little Ferry, I enjoyed free seafood samples while I waited for my fish to be cleaned at the nearby fresh fish counter. Last Sunday, the Korean supermarket also was selling Northwest Cherries for $3.99 a pound, and a box of 14 large, super-sweet Ataulfo or Honey Mangoes from Mexico for $8.99, a savings of $4.
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--VICTOR E. SASSON
