At Lodi warehouse, a good buy on wild jumbo shrimp from Argentina

Fish First Inc. operates the seafood counter inside the International Food Wine & Liquor Warehouse in Lodi.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

When it comes to seafood, wild-caught is your best choice, especially in shrimp.

That's why I jumped at the chance to buy a 4.4-pound box of wild Langostino from Argentina at the International Food Warehouse in Lodi this morning.

The seafood counter is operated by a friendly South Korean fishmonger under the name Fish First Inc., and his motto is, "Eat Fish, Live Well!"

You could argue with describing these head-on jumbo shrimp as langostino, a type of lobster.

But you can't argue with the price, $10 a pound. A 2-kilo box was $44.

At Costco Wholesale, farmed Tiger Shrimp from Southeast Asia run about $15 a pound, and there is no information on what they are fed or where they are raised.

I just bought wild-caught Gulf Shrimp on sale for $15.99 a pound at Whole Foods Market in Paramus.

Good until 2017

The Argentine Red Shrimp I bought today were caught in July and frozen, and they have a use-by date of July 2017, according to the box.

I'll probably thaw some for dinner soon, rubbing them with fresh lime juice, extra-virgin olive oil and a little sea salt, and grill them on my stove top, head and all.

They were listed in a flier that came with today's newspaper, and prices are supposed to be good through Nov. 10.

The colorful carton is in several languages. 

Another good buy are 5-ounce packages of non-organic and organic greens and salads at $1.99 each. But look carefully at expiration dates. I bought Fresh Attitude Arugula with a use-by date of Nov. 2 and an Organic Girl Salad with a use-by date of  Oct. 30.

Olive oil 

Despite the name, the International Food Wine & Liquor Warehouse has few, if any, bargains on wine, beer or spirits.

The store does stock tins or bottles of extra-virgin olive oil from Italy, Greece, Spain, Lebanon and other countries.

But often price signs are missing, and tins don't provide any information on whether the oil is from one country or a blend from several Mediterranean sources.

Today, I saw one 3-liter tin for under $20 that was called "Mediterranean Jewels," but also said, "Product of Italy."

Details

Fish First Inc., 370 Essex St., Lodi; 201-291-2320. Call for hours.

International Food Wine & Liquor Warehouse, 370 Essex St., Lodi; 201-368-9511. Open 7 days.

Butter is still bad for your heart, health experts say

When I compared Smart Balance Spread with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, above, to Original Smart Balance in June, I overlooked another reason to buy the former: Less saturated fat. Reducing saturated fat can be good for your heart, if you replace it with unsaturated fat, according to Consumer Reports On Health.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Headlines such as "Butter is Back" in The New York Times and "gleeful" news articles urging people to eat more bacon were premature, according to Consumer Reports On Health, a monthly newsletter.

Those reports were based on a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine that "suggests ... saturated fat, long thought to be a major contributor to heart disease by raising LDL (bad) cholesterol, isn't a dietary demon after all," the July 2014 newsletter states.

"The study got a lot of us hoping we could chow down on buttery croissants and fried chicken without any risk to our hearts," Consumer Reports said.

Not me. I never use artery clogging butter or cream, especially not in my cooking, which relies exclusively on heart-healthy extra-virgin olive oil. 

And when I eat out, I ask the kitchen to use olive oil, not butter, to prepare my food. 

I looked at several brands of butter at ShopRite in Paramus the other day. Saturated fat in one tablespoon was 35% to 37% -- more than four times the saturated fat in Smart Balance Spread with Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Many missed the 'correction'

British researchers looked at 72 previous studies "on the role of fat in heart disease and concluded that the evidence didn't support the advice to cut back on saturated fat, which comes primarily from animal sources [meat, poultry and cheese], and to eat more saturated fat, which comes mainly from vegetables, nuts and fish," the editors said.

"Well, not so fast. That report got a lot of attention, but less noticed was the authors' correction a week later.

"Turns out that when it came to unsaturated fats -- the kind in olive oil and fish -- they had goofed. Their correction shows that consuming that kind of fat does help protect against heart disease." 

Grilled wild sockeye salmon with a reduction of extra-virgin olive oil, chopped fresh garlic, diced organic tomatoes, red wine, organic chicken stock and fresh herbs. The fish was $10.99 a pound at Costco Wholesale, and most of the other ingredients also came from the Hackensack warehouse store.

Extra-virgin oil also forms the basis of a pasta sauce for organic whole-wheat fusilli with sardines. After reheating leftovers, you can drizzle more olive oil on the pasta at the table.

Two organic brown eggs fried sunny side up in extra-virgin olive oil with smoked wild salmon and Aleppo pepper. I served them with garlic mashed sweet potatoes, also made with extra-virgin olive oil and seasonings.

Eat more unsaturated fat

Consumer Reports says the study by British researchers "had other shortcomings to muddy the message about dietary fat."

"For example," the newsletter states, "our experts say that it left out research showing that the benefits of cutting back on saturated fat depend on what you replace it with.

"If you stop eating butter and cheese but start eating a lot of sugar or processed foods, you're unlikely to do your heart or your health in general much good," says Maxine Siegel, R.D., who heads Consumer Reports research on food and nutrition.

Considerable research shows that if saturated fat is replaced with unsaturated fats, the risk of heart disease goes down, Consumer Reports says, adding:

"It still pays to watch your intake of saturated fat, Siegel says. "Aim for no more than 7% to 10% of total calories from the stuff (about 140 to 200 calories, if you consume 2,000 calories per day).

A tablespoon of ShopRite butter contains 100 calories, all from fat.

"But equally important is to replace saturated fat with heart-healthy alternatives, such as unsaturated fats, fruit, vegetables and whole grains -- not refined carbs such as those in white bread, sugar and many snacks."

Drugs and tests

Consumer Reports on Health also discussed other research on preventing heart disease:

"Aggressive new guidelines from the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology mean that 13 million more Americans -- including almost all men ages 60 to 75 and more than half of women in that age range -- should now take a cholesterol-lowering drug, such as atorvastatin (Lipitor and generic) or rosuvastatin (Crestor).

"A number of leading medical groups have questioned the usefulness of several heart-disease screening tests, including EKGs and exercise stress tests, long part of an annual checkup for millions of Americans, as well as newer and often heavily advertised tests, such as CT scans of the heart."

Filling side dish goes with anything

Wild-caught Canadian flounder fillet from Costco Wholesale takes only 5 minutes to cook in bottled Mexican green salsa with organic diced tomatoes once the sauce is bubbling. Here it is served over organic quinoa made in an electric cooker.

Two organic eggs with shredded cheese and Aleppo pepper over quinoa. The yolks taste great when you break them and eat them with the whole grain from Bolivia.

I made the quinoa with a can of diced organic tomatoes to add moisture, but I often drizzle extra-virgin olive oil on the side dish and whatever I'm eating with it, such as this frittata with pesto, tomato slices and sun-dried tomatoes.

I made another pesto-tomato frittata this morning and ate it with the last of the quinoa, which I prepared on Feb. 26. I reheat the quinoa in a microwave for about 2 minutes.

I start the frittata on the stove and finish it under the broiler on a low setting to brown the top and avoid burning the sun-dried tomatoes. I used 2 organic eggs, liquid egg whites, shredded cheese and low-fat milk, a total of about 2 cups.

Breakfast sides included tomato wedges with za'atar thyme mixture and kimchi.

The quinoa I bought from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack has a long name, but couldn't be simpler to prepare.

A serving of Organic Nature's Earthly Choice Premium 100% Whole Grain Quinoa has fewer carbohydrates than white or brown rice or whole-wheat pasta.

Quinoa, a good source of protein, is gluten- and wheat-free.

Especially at breakfast, the quinoa is a great substitute for the bread I no longer eat.

In an electric rice cooker, I combined 2 cups of quinoa, 4 cups of chicken broth or water, one can of organic diced tomatoes and extra-virgin olive oil, and plugged it in.

That lasted me about four days.

The package has two recipes: Mediterranean Quinoa Pilaf and Quinoa Summer Salad, but I haven't tried them.

Qunioa is pronounced KEEN-wah.
  

New package doesn't stop salad rotting

This delicious Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix comes in a new package, below, but the dark leaves can still rot days before the use-by date on the front label.

The new package eliminates a flexible plastic sealing strip.

Editor's note: Today, I take a second look at the new Earthbound Farm salad package and discuss food shopping in South Paterson.

The new Earthbound Farm organic salad package is more environmentally responsible, eliminating a flexible plastic sealing strip I'd cut with a scissor and recycle with plastic bags. 

But I'm still finding that the dark leaves in the Organic Spring Mix or Organic Half & Half salad can rot days before the use-by date.

I buy my 1-pound package of Earthbound Farm salad at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, where the price of $4.99 or less beats all competitors. 

The way Costco stores the salad, and the temperature it is stored at, may be the problem. 

The first time I brought home the new plastic tub, I tore off a strip of plastic and thought it wasn't much of an improvement over the old, which was sealed with a flexible strip of plastic.

The next time, I saw the word "HOLD" on the tub and "LIFT HERE" on the cover, and easily separated the two without tearing away anything.  

Starbucks Hot Cocoa mix at Costco Wholesale.

Starbucks Hot Cocoa Classic mix, another item I found at Costco, makes a rich cocoa drink when you use the recommended two heaping tablespoons and 8 ounces of milk.

One of Paterson's most popular produce stores is in the Farmers' Market.

I made a special trip to Paterson this morning to get good deals on salted cod fish at Corrado's Family Affair and on Moroccan sardines at Brothers Produce.

I also bought yogurt drink, yogurt, Syrian cheese and extra-virgin olive oil at Fattal's Bakery.

Corrado's, which is on the Paterson-Clifton border, has raised the price of a 1-pound package of salted cod fish to $7.99 from $6.99.

This salted cod fish is a product of Canada.

 

I bought 7 packages of the salted cod, which freezes beautifully.

I also picked up a half-liter bottle of Corrado's Balsamic Vinegar, which contains no artificial color ($2); some red and yellow sweet peppers and a few mangoes.

I wanted to buy a liter bottle of Corrado's Extra Virgin Olive Oil, but the label said only it was imported from Italy and packed in Italy, not that it was made from Italian olives.

Is this oil made from 100% Italian olives?

At Fattal's, on Main Street in Paterson, I found a 3-liter bottle of Laziza Extra Virgin Olive Oil for $17.59 that is labeled "Product of Tunisia."

I also bought Romi's Syrian Cheese ($6.99 a pound), which is made in Paterson; Romi's Plain Lowfat Yogurt ($2.99 for 32 ounces), and a gallon of Merve Ayran Yogurt Drink ($7.79).

At Fattal's, not all of the large bottles of extra-virgin olive oil are a full 3 liters.

At Brothers Produce on East Railway Avenue, I bought 18 cans of Al Shark Moroccan Sardines for $1 each.

I noticed the can holding Al Shark Morroccan Sardines in Spicy Oil is now slightly smaller than the regular sardine can. 

Many of the extra-virgin olive oils at Brothers are blends from several countries, even one 3-liter can that says, "From Kalamata" (Greece).

Many Corrado's shoppers fill their tanks before their shopping carts.

Corrado's Family Affair, 1578 Main Ave., Clifton; 973-340-0628.

Fattal's Bakery, 975-77 Main St., Paterson; 973-742-7125.

Brothers Produce, 327 E. Railway Ave., Paterson; 973-684-4461.   

How I reduced salt in a favorite dish

Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Spaghetti with sardines and anchovies.

You'd expect a dish with two small but mighty ocean fish to be salty, but pasta with canned sardines and anchovies really piles it on.

There is sodium in nearly every ingredient, including the imported Colavita whole-wheat pasta I sometimes use.

The first way to cut salt in the recipe is to stop salting the water used for boiling the pasta.

In the past, I'd pump up the flavor by dumping  sardines and anchovies and all their oil into the sauce, but now I drain the cans and add extra-virgin olive oil, which has no sodium.

A 2-ounce can of anchovies has 860 milligrams of sodium or 36% of the recommended daily intake of 2,400 milligrams. 

The anchovies dissolve completely, but give the sauce a hearty, non-fishy flavor.

A 4-ounce-plus can of the Moroccan sardines I use has 603 milligrams of sodium.

But the only way to avoid more sodium in the sauce is to make it yourself.

Today, I looked at the labels of a dozen bottled pasta sauces at the Hackensack ShopRite, and typically saw more than 300, 400 or even 500 milligrams of sodium listed for a serving size of one-half cup.

The nutritional label of Mario Batali Tomato Basil sauce.

I found the lowest salt content in Chef Mario Batali's Tomato Basil pasta sauce -- only 180 mg per half cup -- but other Mario Batali sauces have a lot more sodium.

When I serve pasta with sardines and anchovies, I like to add grated Pecorino Romano, a sheep's milk cheese, so that's another source of sodium.

Not using salt in the pasta water and draining the cans of fish are good first steps, but I think I have to go further.

I could cut the amount of sardines -- to two cans from three or four per pound of pasta -- as well as use less bottled sauce and more extra-virgin olive oil.

I could also stop adding anchovies, but the sauce wouldn't be as robust. I can skip the grated cheese.

And I can console myself about the high sodium content of the dish by always drinking a glass or two of red wine with it.

At least that would be good for my heart.

Get out that indoor grill

Image by moria via Flickr















If you don't have an indoor, stove-top grill, you're missing out on simple dinners of fresh produce, moistened with extra-virgin olive oil and sprinkled with a little salt.

My all-vegetable dinner tonight included grilled eggplant from a farmers' market, thinly sliced carrots and fingerling potatoes -- from the size of a large marble to a thumb -- and ended with two small ears of super-sweet corn.

My nonstick grill with ridges is from All-Clad and covers two gas burners on my stove. I turn up each burner to medium, spray on canola oil and go to town. I boiled the potatoes for five to 10 minutes before grilling, then used the same water to steam the corn, which was from Costco.

As I grilled and turned the vegetables, I added the olive oil and salt. The eggplant flesh turns into custard. The other vegetables feel good in your mouth, with a nice bite. I drank a couple of glasses of red wine with them. Clean-up was easy.

Tomorrow, I can warm up the leftovers for a sandwich with Dijon mustard, low-fat cheese and fresh arugula from a farm stand.

 

Dining, food and shopping notes

Image via Wikipedia

The upscale Greek fish house called Nisi Estiatorio in Englewood offers a $17 lunch that compares favorably with the three $24.07 lunches I enjoyed recently in Manhattan. Nisi's lunch is three courses, like its pricier competition, and the fish is just as fresh. The restaurant serves olives and bread drizzled with olive oil.

I started with house-cured salmon in ouzo (the menu didn't say if this was farmed or wild-caught fish). My entree was a red-snapper fillet grilled simply with the skin on and served with an emulsion of extra-virgin olive oil and lemon with capers, and a side dish of sauteed greens, including Swiss chard. Dessert was rich Greek yogurt with berries. A terrific lunch.

Nisi Estiatorio is at 90 Grand Ave., Englewood; 201-567-4700.

Organic spinach at Costco

I stopped at Costco in Hackensack this morning to see if I could find organic spinach. A one-pound package was $3.99, compared with $6.99 at ShopRite.

Summer salads

I made a couple of salads over the weekend to see me through the week. 

I took a half-pound of whole fava beans (photo) I bought frozen at Jerry's in Englewood, boiled them and dressed them in extra-virgin olive oil and fresh lemon juice, adding salt and Middle Eastern spices to taste, including cumin and Aleppo red pepper from Fattal's in Paterson.

I did the same with a half-pound of gourmet fingerling potatoes from Costco. Both the fava beans and potatoes taste great stuffed into warm pocket bread.

Skate wing for dinner


After lunch at Nisi in Englewood, I stopped at the Korean supermarket called H Mart to look over the fresh fish. I found skate wing for $2.99 a pound and, although the fishmonger said I don't have to do anything to it before cooking, I suspect the one-pound-plus piece I bought contains a bone.


At the Greek restaurant Anthos in Manhattan, where I had skate wing as part of a three-course lunch for $24.07 last Friday, it is listed on the a la carte menu at $29.

Wild salmon at Costco

There was plenty of fresh, wild sockeye salmon at Costco this morning for $8.99 a pound, its color a vivid contrast with the farmed, artificially colored salmon at the other end of the case. Costco also sells previously frozen, wild sockeye that has been naturally smoked without preservatives for $14.99 a pound, a price that would be hard to match elsewhere. Unlike the fresh sockeye, the smoked version is available year-round.

I originally wrote the smoked salmon was $4.99 a pound. That was incorrect.

The Can Can Sale at ShopRite

Image via Wikipedia

The Can Can Sale at ShopRite isn't what it used to be, but there are still several bargains to be found that allow you to stock up on favorite items.


It's been a couple of years since ShopRite would knock off $2 from the price of canned red salmon from Alaska, selling it for $2.99 during the Can Can Sale. I used to buy 10 cans at a time. Now, the best you can do is a 50-cent discount on Bumble Bee-brand red salmon, or $4.59.


On Monday, at the Hackensack ShopRite, I found five dozen cans of Adirondack seltzer (lemon-lime and mandarin orange) for $1.99 a dozen -- a savings of $1.50. This brand has a lot more fizz and a lot more flavor than the store brand or others in large, plastic bottles, and doesn't go flat as fast.


Extra-virgin olive oil from Italy, sold under the ShopRite name, is $4.99 for the 33.8-ounce bottle -- a discount of $3. This oil isn't a blend from Italy, Greece, Turkey and other countries; the olives were grown in Italy and the oil was produced there, the store says.


I bought three bottles for dressing salads, frying eggs, dipping bread and other every day uses.


I also picked up Goya beans -- black, red kidney and so forth -- at three cans for $2.

If you think deciphering parking signs in Manhattan is difficult, the Can Can sale shelf tags would challenge a Talmudic scholar.

In the produce section, I found a 16-ounce plastic tub of Earthbound Farm organic spinach leaves. I looked over the shelf tags and found one that read something like this,  "EFB baby spinach, $4.99, $1 off." When I got home and looked over my receipt, the spinach had rung up at $6.99.


This morning, I returned to the store and the produce section, and looked at the shelf tag again. I said to the man stocking produce nearby that I had been overcharged, but he said the sign was for the 11-ounce package, not the 16-ounce one I had selected. Indeed, I had missed the the number "11," which appears on the sign in red.

I left the store with two 64-ounce containers of Florida's Natural orange juice (two for $5) and a dozen 4 Grains cage-free brown eggs, which are from chickens that receive no antibiotics or animal byproducts ($1.69).

An unusual breakfast in South Paterson

Image via Wikipedia

I dashed out this morning for bread, sardines, canned hummus, spinach pie and Lebanese extra-virgin olive oil from Fattal's Syrian Bakery in Paterson, then went looking for breakfast.


I drove a few blocks to Luna Bakery & Sweets (1071 Main St.), and asked for a Turkish breakfast (thick bread, hard-boiled egg, cheese, tomato and cucumber, and strong tea). 

Not wanting to turn a customer away, the Syrian baker served me tea; strained yogurt with nuts, which I ate with a spoon; a round, thin, flat bread spread with the thyme-based za'atar mixture; dough and cheese baked into a boat shape, and a pizza made with Syrian and mozzarella cheeses that was dusted with mint and a little red pepper. 


There was enough food for two and I took a few items home. After I told the baker my parents were from Aleppo, he said he was a native and described the many changes he's witnessed. Change also was evident around his business in South Paterson, he said, but he believes the quality of his dough has kept him afloat.


Across the street, the shuttered Syrian bakery Mondial is getting a makeover and a stylish, brick restaurant called Grill House is expected to open soon. On Getty Avenue, near Main Street, a storefront that once claimed to have the best falafel sandwich in the world has closed.



At Fattal's (975-77 Main St.), the sardines from Morocco and canned Lebanese hummus can't be beat (99 cents a can). Three liters of La Ziza-brand Lebanese extra-virgin olive oil rang up at $17.49. Six of Fattal's long, sesame-seeded spinach pies are $8.99, and freeze beautifully.


I turned off Getty at East Railway Avenue to check out produce in the Farmers' Market. But I ended up buying a small dogwood tree at Brothers Produce for $10, and driving home. 

(Photo: Aleppo, Syria)

Can free samples make you sick?

Image by iirraa via Flickr

After reading my previous post on free samples at Whole Foods Market in Paramus, a friend sent me an e-mail:

"Meaning to tell you, some weeks ago I stopped at Jerry's and had lots of samples, including bread in balsamic vinegar. I think that's what made me sick that night. Those little bowls of vinegar and oil must be bacteria hives."

Interesting. I have never had a problem after eating free samples at Jerry's in Englewood or any other store, or never linked how I felt to those samples or the possibility of bacteria. Jerry's is well-patronized and the samples go fast -- especially around lunch time. 

Neither balsamic vinegar nor olive oil require refrigeration. Would bacteria grow from their exposure to air?

Jerry's puts out a lot of different cheeses, so I have made it a habit to carry pills for lactose intolerance. I used one at Whole Foods yesterday to try an $11.99-a-pound selection.

I'd like to hear about other shoppers' experience with free samples.

Going meatless: Hits and misses

Image via Wikipedia

I've started to look for meat substitutes in nearly every food store I visit. Is this a sign we are wavering on our meatless pledge -- now more than six weeks old? Will we be going back to eating meat? Well, we've discussed it, but that's where it remains.


I was happy with some of the items I found at Whole Foods Market in Paramus, but not with Westoy vegetarian stir fry strips ($3.39), which turned out to be seitan. I thought seitan was made of soy, but these strips are made of wheat protein and provide "the same texture and mouth feel that a piece of chicken or beef would have with only half the calories and only 1.5 grams of fat," the box states.

I stir fried the strips with organic red Swiss chard. I didn't especially like the color, texture or taste, but when my wife ate the leftovers, she thought the strips tasted fine, and I won't be returning a second, 8-ounce box for a refund.

On Thursday, I visited New King Fung Supermarket on Kinderkamack Road in River Edge to return a Japanese bowl with an errant brush mark, and took a closer look at its prepared soy items, most of them shrink-wrapped and kept cold.

Another shopper showed me vegetarian chicken and vegetarian duck ($3.99 each), but the ingredients included MSG as well as soy and mushrooms so I passed. I bought sweet-and-spicy soy chunks, fried triangles of tofu, spicy soy discs and fried Japanese tofu ($2.49 or less), plus a vegetable with dark green leaves that resembles bok choy.

For dinner Friday night, we steamed white rice, and I heated up the sweet-and-spicy soy chunks. I blanched the vegetable and sauteed it with Chinese rice wine, soy sauce, mirin and sesame oil. The soy triangles were pan fried with a sauce of chilis and shrimp. A nice meal.

The jumbo Black Tiger Shrimp I bought at Costco were some of the best I have ever had. I marinated them in the juice of a big lemon, extra-virgin olive oil, garlic powder, black pepper, no-salt organic seasoning and salt for an hour or so, then pan fried them in more olive oil until they curled up and turned white. 

I plated them and the sauce was thick with spices -- perfect for sopping up with crusty bread. My 12-year-old son was raving. We ate the shrimp with bow tie pasta in pesto sauce (Costco).

Trader Joe's is still on my list

Image via Wikipedia

Before we pledged to eat meatless meals more than two weeks ago, Trader Joe's was a reliable source for uncured, preservative-free bacon, hot dogs and cold cuts, and incredible, naturally raised, fully cooked St. Louis-style ribs from the Niman Ranch -- all at good prices.


When I found myself in Westwood yesterday, I dropped into the Trader Joe's there to see what else might help us diversify our homemade dinners.

I went looking right away for one of our favorites -- sliced yogurt cheese with jalapeno ($4.69) -- and discovered shredded soy three-cheese blend ($3.79), and other soy cheeses for future shopping trips. I also picked up some great hand-made tortillas -- flour and whole wheat ($2.49 each) and habanero lime ($2.69).

And I bought another bottle of raw organic agave sweetener ($2.99) , which is terrific over yogurt or pancakes, and Trader Joe's premium extra-virgin olive oil ($7.99 for 32 ounces). The front label says imported from Italy, but on the side, it lists four countries for the product: Italy, Spain, Argentina and Greece.

Web site: Trader Joe's

Looking for bargains at Whole Foods

Image by Matt Stratton via Flickr

Before I picked up a rotisserie chicken at Whole Foods Market in Paramus on Friday, I walked through the store looking for sale items. (See earlier post, "A beautiful rotisserie chicken").

There are some incredibly high-priced items, such as one liter of extra-virgin olive oil from Sicily for $27.99. sold under the label of a restaurant, Frankies 457 in Brooklyn. I asked a couple of employees how much of that goes to organized crime. A 32-ounce bottle of Rao's marinara sauce was on sale for $7.99 -- you save $3. I passed on both.

Did you know artisinal pasta is made in New Jersey? Two pounds of dried pasta from Westmont, N.J., was on sale for $6. Whole Foods' wonderful dried organic pasta from Italy wasn't on sale, unfortunately. It was $1.99 a pound.

I needed cilantro (photo) for tacos (my wife found none at ShopRite in Englewood). An organic bunch was $1.69, which seemed reasonable. When I got home, I chopped it up immediately and put it it a container with chopped white onion -- the classic taco garnish used in Mexico. I have found cilantro lasts far longer when combined with onion. (See earlier post, "Lamb tacos in 45 seconds").

Spicing up our breakfast

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"That was a great breakfast," my 12-year-old son said as he got up from the table today after polishing off two pocket-bread halves stuffed with organic greens, hummus and fava beans. (Photo: Hummus at Maxim Restaurant in Haifa, Israel.)

My breakfast sandwiches also held greens and hummus, but I added a fat Moroccan sardine and a slice or two of plum tomato sprinkled with the thyme-based mixture called za'atar. We both ate some taboule salad, the last from the container I bought at Costco in Hackensack. Everything else but the greens came from Fattal's Bakery (and market) in Paterson.

This breakfast was fragrant with Middle eastern spices -- cumin, coarse Aleppo red pepper, allspice -- and lemon, garlic and extra-virgin olive oil in the hummus with tahini I made from a can (Lebano Verde brand).

As we ate, we discussed how my son's bean, bean and bread sandwich made such a great vegetarian meal and how I would be happy giving up meat as long as I could eat sardines and other seafood. After I finished, I put another half of Fattal's Syrian bread into the toaster to warm and assembled a hummus and fava bean sandwich. Absolutely wonderful.

Fattal's Bakery, 975 Main St.; (973) 742-7125;

Paterson; open seven days.