After end of fresh wild salmon season, a consolation prize at Costco

Fresh Whole Farmed Sea Bass from Costco Wholesale, prepared with organic diced tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and red wine, were ready in only 15 minutes.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In the last few weeks, Costco Wholesale in Hackensack has received a small amount of fresh wild salmon fillets and sold out immediately.

I've missed getting any, and now the four-month season for this wonderful wild-caught fish from Alaska and other northwestern states is over (early June to late September or early October).

So, on Thursday afternoon, I picked up my consolation prize:

Three Fresh Whole Farmed Sea Bass from Greece ($8.99 a pound), and prepared them for dinner with olive oil, garlic, red wine and a few other ingredients.

Once the sauce was prepared, the fish, also called branzino or bronzino, cooked in a covered pot in only 15 minutes.

Dynamite fishing

Costco's label tells you nothing about how this farmed fish is raised in Greece, an island nation where dynamite has been used indiscriminately to catch wild fish for decades.

Of course, that led to over-fishing and high prices for wild fish that were evident when I ate in restaurants on a visit to Greece in the 1990s.

In 2006, farmed whole branzino from Greece or Italy was so common in upscale Manhattan restaurants, The New York Times called it "the fish that ate New York." 

In recent years, whole farmed fish from Europe has appeared on many menus in North Jersey, too.

The irony of dynamite fishing is that Greeks who came to the United States opened expensive restaurants they call fish houses, and started charging as much as $50 a pound for whole fish and more for lobster and other seafood.

A 2012 European Union article about branzino farming doesn't say whether antibiotics or preservatives are used in raising the fish.

But the article says fishing accounts for only about 10% of the sea bass production worldwide. Click on the following link:

Sea bass are voracious predators   

I scored the flesh in three places, and cut the fish in half. I used a little sea salt from a grinder on the fish, but none in the sauce: Olive oil, minced garlic, red wine, organic diced tomatoes, chopped scallions and fresh lime juice, boiled and reduced before I put the fish on top and covered the pot.

When I put the leftovers away, I remembered chopped fresh mint, rosemary and parsley from our garden that I had in the refrigerator, and added it to the fish. I finished my meal with a big Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix salad dressed with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

At the Hackensack Costco, a sign reminds members the warehouse is closing on Oct. 13, but not that the store will reopen as a Costco Business Center. One employee said the warehouse, without a food court or pharmacy, is expected to reopen to members next March.

Costco prices

Costco's food prices remain low when compared to ShopRite and other traditional supermarkets in North Jersey.

A 1-pound package of prewashed organic baby spinach was $3.99 this week; a pound of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix was $4.49 or $4.59.

Three half-gallons of 2% lactose free milk were $7.99, and three liter bottles of organic carrot juice were $6.99.

Organic bananas are $1.99 for 3 pounds, and the same amount of conventional bananas are a low $1.39, beating every other store I know.

Before the fresh wild salmon season ended, the price for sockeye fillets was $8.99 a pound -- only a dollar more than artificially colored farmed salmon.

This week, ShopRite's sales price of $1.99 with a store card does beat Costco's regular price for a 59-ounce container of Tropicana Orange Juice (four for $10.99).

Sampling a little Turkish delight in Cliffside Park

The gorgeous machine used to brew strong, copper-colored Turkish tea at Istanbul Borek & Kebab in Cliffside Park.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Before Turkish restaurants and pizzerias proliferated in Paterson's Middle Eastern bazaar and spread all over Bergen County, I enjoyed kebabs, refreshing salads and exotic dips closer to home at Kervan in Cliffside Park.

In February 2001, David Corcoran of The New York Times reported Kervan Kebab House had been in business for 16 years "in a big, bright storefront just off the main street of this vibrantly diverse town atop the Palisades two miles south of the George Washington Bridge."

See: Homage to Anatolia

Today, another Turkish restaurant, Istanbul Borek & Kebab, operates in that big, bright storefront, and I stopped in for lunch on Tuesday.

The space has been completely made over in dark wood, tile and stone, and the dining room and bakery cases are flooded with light from big, plate-glass windows overlooking a construction site across the street.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner

The menu is extensive and includes Lahmacun and Pideler, Turkey's spin on pizza, with toppings as diverse as ground lamb, mashed potatoes, pastrami and cheese.

The restaurant opens at 6 a.m., or 7 a.m. on Sundays, and serves a Turkish breakfast of cheese, olives, tomato, cucumber, boiled egg, bread, butter, jam, honey and heavy cream for $9.95.

A premium breakfast includes Turkish sausage and pastrami for $13.95.

Cookies, cakes and pastries fill cases along one wall of the restaurant.

Istanbul specializes in savory pastries filled with spinach or potato, above. Others are stuffed with cheese, ground meat or noodles and cheese.

Friend doesn't show

I had planned to meet a friend there and sample salads and appetizers, but he wasn't feeling well and canceled.

So, I ordered one of the restaurant's specialties, a half-portion of a savory pastry, Kol Boregi, filled with cheese and another half-portion filled with potato ($7.50 for both).

I also tried a bowl of delicious pureed red-lentil soup, Mercimek Corbasi, which was served with a lemon wedge ($4.95), and a large glass of strong, unsweetened Turkish tea ($2.50).

Adding sugar is recommended.

I squeezed the lemon wedge over the wonderful red-lentil soup. The restaurant's name is on bowls, plates, and salt and pepper shakers.

I couldn't resist a couple of bites of Turkish bread.

Baklava, a classic dessert. The best are made with pistachio nuts and honey.

The check comes in a book-like box.

The restaurant opened in June.

Casual service

Despite the oppressive heat and humidity on Tuesday, a couple of customers ate at outside tables. Inside, only a handful of tables were occupied.

But the three employees I saw tended to stay close to the register, and sometimes, it was hard to get their attention.


Istanbul Borek & Kebab, 360 Lawton Ave., Cliffside Park; 201-945-5055. Open 7 days for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Halal meat. BYO, street parking at meters.

A new way to kill chickens

Image by V'ron via Flickr

Is the sun setting on inhumane methods at factory chicken farms?

Pennsylvania-based Bell & Evans raises chickens without antibiotics and gives them room to roam, according to its Web site. 

Now, the producer is adopting a method to kill chickens that is called far less stressful than the conventional practice of hanging them by their feet and slitting their throats while they are still alive.

Below is a link to a story in The New York Times on the new method. Contrast it with the video from the Humane Society of the United States taken inside Perdue Farms that you'll find in a previous post, Video: Humane Society sues Perdue Farms.

New way to help chickens cross to the other side

Whole Story, the official blog of Whole Foods Market, has a video showing some of the farms where it buys meat and the supermarket chain's animal-welfare standards:

What makes our meat different

On Sunday afternoon, I purchased $20 worth of frozen organic chicken feet and discounted antibiotic-free chicken quarters -- priced at $1.50 to $2.04 a pound -- at Whole Foods in Paramus, and used a $5-off coupon at checkout. It's nice to get a deal on food that is good for you.

Pulled this way and that for dinner

Image by avlxyz via Flickr

A great Thai salad is made with long, pasta-like strands of green papaya.

When Saturday rolls around, we start asking each other where we want to go for our one dinner out each week.

This past Saturday, I had just read a mouth-watering article online about restaurants that serve chewy, hand-pulled Chinese noodles in soups and stir-fries, but I really didn't feel like driving into Manhattan. Then, I remembered that Lotus Cafe in Hackensack served hand-made noodles.

I also recalled the Cuban seafood restaurant we saw on Bergenline Avenue in West New York, and how much we wanted to try it. Again, that would take some driving.

When the discussion came up, I suggested we go to Lotus Cafe for noodles, but my 13-year-old son said he didn't want Chinese food. He had been wanting to return to our favorite Thai restaurant, Wondee's in Hackensack. In the interest of not arguing, I gave in.

We had a wonderful meal, of course. We ordered our usual: steamed shrimp & pork dumplings for my son and wife; wonton soup with roasted pork for my son, and spicy shrimp with lemon juice and button mushrooms for me and my wife.

We also ordered som thum -- a crunchy, green-papaya salad with lemon juice, green beans, tomato and ground peanuts and shrimp. 

Our entree was pla ma now -- a whole sea bass covered with minced chili peppers and garlic, and swimming in a spicy broth I love to spoon over steamed rice ($15.95). Wondee's has some of the lowest prices on fresh whole fish.

It was a great meal, as usual, and we took home a big can of shrimp chips from Thailand and one of the homemade desserts -- a coconut-milk custard -- from the display in the simply decorated dining room. Our total bill before the tip was $61.85, including the take-out items.

I called Lotus Cafe this morning and was told it no longer has someone to make noodles in-house, though I've found the noodle dishes there still taste terrific. 

So, I'm planning to hit a couple of those hand-pulled noodle places in the city on Sunday, when you don't have to feed the meters and can park just about anywhere.

Here is the link to The New York Times article on hand-made noodles, missing the usual list of addresses and telephone numbers (use Google to get that information):

The Long Pull of Noodle Making

Wondee's Fine Thai Food & Noodles, 296 Main St.; 
Hackensack; 201-883-1700. BYO. Parking in rear.

Lotus Cafe, 450 Hackensack Ave., Hackensack, 
in the Home Depot Shopping Center; 201-488-7070. BYO.

Turn your back on refrigerated hummus

Image via Wikipedia

If you love hummus, read this New York Times story (link below), then go out and buy canned hummus from Lebanon and make your own with tahini, olive oil, lemon juice and garlic powder. With all the money you'll save, you can buy some fresh Syrian bread to scoop up your tasty, homemade dip.


I buy my canned hummus at Fattal's Syrian Bakery in Paterson (975-77 Main St.), a one-stop shopping experience for fresh bread and everything you'd want to eat with it. Lebano Verde is the brand I favor, and a 15-ounce can was 99 cents the last time I was there 10 days ago. 

I garnish my hummus with more olive oil and cumin or Aleppo red pepper, and use it as a sandwich spread when I'm not scooping it up with bread. Here is the link to the story:

 Hummus with peanut butter?

(Photo: Hummus served in Haifa, Israel)

More hype from New York-based Fairway Market

Fairway Market on opening day in Paramus.(Wikipedia)

If you're not reading the Fairway Market sales flier, you are missing out on one of the slickest marketing campaigns for a supermarket in North Jersey.


Farm-raised shrimp, conventionally raised prime beef -- all of it looks terrific, and there are photos of the humans behind each department at its Paramus store with a quote or two for good measure. 

None of this can obscure the truth -- that Fairway is selling a lot of pretty ordinary food, except for Murray's drug-free chicken, wild seafood  and organic items.


There are some gems, though. 

Whole porgy and whiting for $2.99 a pound is the lowest price I've seen on these fish (the sale starts today). Organic, Fair Trade coffee at $4.99 a pound is a steal. Three pounds of herbicide-free, Campari tomatoes for $5 is another great buy.

Capt. Tony Maltese, a licensed commercial fisherman, is shown and identified as the director of seafood. 

But above his name there is a quote from R.W. Apple Jr., a reporter for The New York Times whose appetite was legendary and who roamed the world to write about food. 

What is this quote doing in the flier and who is the "we" Apple refers to? 

The quote is in bigger type than the attribution, so unless you look closely, you may think the "we" is Fairway and the person being quoted is Capt. Maltese. It's not clear. (Could Apple have covered the opening of a Fairway store in New York before he died and spoken to Maltese?)

"We pay serious attention to the fact that where a fish was caught, how a fish was caught and when it was caught is at least as important as how it is best cooked."

It gets better. Ray Venezia, Fairway's third-generation butcher, also is pictured in the flier.

"It's really very simple. We cut every piece of meat as if we were going to serve it to our own family."

That doesn't say he actually brings home the conventionally raised beef, pork and lamb Fairway sells. In fact, the store sells only American lamb, not the grass-fed, drug- and hormone-free lamb from Australia that you can find at Costco and ShopRite, generally at lower prices than American lamb.


Fairway also doesn't carry naturally raised beef from Australia.

Fairway Market, 34 E. Ridgewood Ave., Paramus; 201-444-5455. Open 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

Big portions of Italian food in Nutley

Image via Wikipedia

We had to take my wife's laptop to an authorized repair shop in Nutley (above) yesterday, so we timed it to arrive at American Bistro on Washington Avenue around 4:30, when it opens for dinner Tuesday through Sunday.

Despite the name, the strong suit here is seafood and traditional Italian dishes, served on large oval plates, easily enough for two to share. 


After me, my wife and son were seated, a waitress brought over a platter of free cold antipasto, which included some gorgeous, fatty slices of what I thought was salami. We were about to fall on it when I remembered we aren't eating meat. I picked it up and asked her if she could bring us a meatless version.


She returned soon with grilled vegetables, marinated red pepper, hot peppers, cheese and  mushrooms -- wonderful with fresh bread, crackers and toast. We ordered one lobster bisque to share ($9) and received two standard-size bowls of a rich and creamy soup


We didn't know about the big portions. We ordered trout fillets ($20), fillet of sole with a crust of potatoes ($24), and linguine in a spicy, fra diavolo sauce with lump crab meat ($22). We would have been satisfied by just two of the three dishes, and took home lots of leftovers.

My son's trout was encrusted in nuts and served with sauteed grapes, which were delicious; a parfait of thinly sliced sweet and white potatoes and green beans. My moist fish came with a big julienne of vegetables, and my wife's linguine was in a properly spicy sauce with lots of crab meat (diavolo is devil in Italian).

When the bill came, I noticed that big glasses of soda were $4 each, which I thought was a bit much. (A glass of wine is $7 and up). But everything else was fairly priced given the freshness, quality and portion size.

David Corcoran, who reviewed American Bistro in 2001 for The New York Times, sent me the name in response to an e-mail looking for an Italian restaurant in the Newark area. Thanks, David. American Bistro still is a reliable spot for great food and service. Click on the link below for its Web site:

American Bistro

Getting more fish in your diet

Image via Wikipedia

Here is something my friend Sue brought to my attention from The New York Times. We've been eating fish and seafood non-stop since taking a meatless pledge weeks ago. 

Tonight, we had excellent lobster ravioli from Costco and the last of the fried fish my wife brought back from Jamaica, and Sunday night, I prepared spinach egg noodles from Corrado's with a homemade tomato sauce filled with anchovies and leftover red snapper and sardines (as in sardines with steamed rice).

Click on the following link for a sardine-and-Swiss chard recipe and other advice: Getting more fish in your diet

Times review of Aleppo Restaurant in Paterson

Image via Wikipedia

Here is David Corcoran's review of Aleppo Restaurant, my favorite place in Paterson, that appears online and on Sunday in The New York Times. It will make your mouth water. (Photo: The Citadel of Aleppo, Syria.) Click on the following link:

A gentle introduction to Syrian cuisine

Shout-out for your favorite food blog

The New York Times blog called 'the local' gives a shout out today to "Do You Really Know What You're Eating?" Here's the link:

http://maplewood.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/the-day-santas-sharks-soccer/

Twenty rules about eating?

I'm passing along an article in The New York Times on rules about eating from readers. It cites author Michael Pollan's 20 favorite rules and asks readers to submit more.

The rules are folksy and lighthearted. None of the rules say you should try to avoid eating animals that are raised on factory farms, on a mixture of  antibiotics, growth hormones and animal by-products, additives that have an impact on human health. Here's the link to the Times piece:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/10/11/magazine/20091011-foodrules.html