At H Mart, fish dinner for four can cost under $10, free seafood samples

On Sunday, my wife baked five fresh wild-caught whole porgy with olive oil, fresh lime juice, onions, tomatoes, sweet peppers and fresh garlic.

Our side dish was cabbage sauteed with sweet peppers.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss food shopping at H Mart in Little Ferry, ShopRite in Paramus and Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, and the meals you can assemble with ingredients from them.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I never know what I'll find when I shop for fresh fish on the weekends at the H Mart in Little Ferry or how low the price will be.

On Sunday, I found whole porgy nestled in ice for only $1.79 a pound, and five of them rang up at $8.40.

While I waited for the fish to be cleaned and scaled, I chatted with other customers and went over to tables offering free seafood samples.

I also picked up nearly 2 pounds of Gaichoy or Baby Mustard Greens on sale for only 78 cents a pound with a store card.

Today, my wife prepared them for dinner with olive oil, chopped fresh garlic, sea salt and Organic No-Salt Seasoning, all from Costco Wholesale.

At H Mart in Little Ferry, free weekend seafood samples are conveniently placed near the fresh-fish counter to give customers something to do while their catch is being cleaned. Samples include seafood pancakes, foreground; boiled octopus, smoked farmed salmon and broiled eel.

The Korean supermarket at 260 Bergen Turnpike in Little Ferry also sells a wide array of dried seafood, above and below, and I expect many of them are for use in soups or stews.

Customers can only hope H Mart management will decide to renovate what is the shabbiest store in the chain.

ShopRite in Paramus

At ShopRite in Paramus on Tuesday, I bought a large Golden Pineapple for $2.99, and two 15-ounce containers of Smart Balance Light Spread made with Extra Virgin Olive Oil on sale for $2.99 each, a discount of 60 cents.

Smart Balance has gone on sale for as little as $1.89 with a store card, but I haven't seen that repeated in many months.

At ShopRite in Paramus, 26-ounce bottles of Colonna Pasta Sauce are on sale for 69 cents each, but the Garlic & Onion and Meat-Flavored contain high fructose corn syrup. Vodka Sauce lists heavy cream as the second largest ingredient. I'll pass on all three.

The 40-ounce bottle of Victoria Marinara is $8.49 at the Paramus ShopRite, 224 Route 4 east, but you can get two 40-ounce jars of the same sauce for $8.99 at Costco Wholesale on South River Street in Hackensack.

I continue to perfect 10-inch egg-white omelets, cooking fresh spinach in a little oil in a separate pan before transferring it to the omelet and folding it. Other ingredients include smoked wild salmon and reduced-fat sliced Swiss cheese from Costco, which also sells 100% egg whites.

A big breakfast omelet stuffed with smoked salmon and spinach, served with leftover organic brown rice and broccoli, allows me to skip lunch.

This morning, I prepared an organic whole-egg omelet with salted fish, fresh spinach and Mateo's Gourmet Salsa, the last from Costco Wholesale, above and below.

The omelet is ready to be folded.

Memories of Italy

Image by Alex Bikfalvi via Flickr

Sunset over the Adriatic Sea.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss the pleasures of eating out in Italy, and compare Costco Wholesale and B.J.'s Wholesale Club.

More than a month after I came home, I found notes about one of the meals I had on my vacation that reveal the pleasures of dining out in Italy.

All of the restaurants I visited in Milan, Venice and Gallarate were nicely or beautifully decorated. Service was polished, and food was cooked to order.

During my visit to Venice, I stayed on Lido island, a beach resort on the Adriatic Sea that allows motor vehicles. I was on a quiet end of the island, with a panoramic view, and my hotel was across the way from a bus stop. Downtown and ferries to other islands were only two kilometers away.

My first dinner on Lido was at a seafood restaurant called La Sfera. I sat inside and looked around. The ceiling was covered with beautiful textiles, and the walls were adorned with paintings and gorgeous sconces.

I chose a fixed-price, 26-euro menu (about $35) and had a wonderful meal:

My spaghetti with clams also had red pepper, garlic and parsley, and some of the freshest bivalves I've encountered. The entree: nine grilled sardines (smaller than the fresh ones from Portugal I see in North Jersey), with a side of sauteed spinach. I finished with a cup of espresso.

La Sfera, Via Lepanto, 19, Lido di Venezia; 041.5261722.

Costco v. BJ's 

I tried to prepare the wild-salmon burgers I bought at BJ's Wholesale Club on Tuesday, but when I opened the box, I found two plastic bags, each with five frozen salmon burgers that were fused together. 

The Costco salmon burgers are in a single, large plastic bag, without additional packaging, and easily break apart when frozen. The burgers are made from fillets, according to the package.

Costco's Trident-brand salmon burgers weigh a total of 3 pounds ($12.99), and BJ's World Catch-brand salmon burgers weigh 2.5 pounds ($11.99).

I also wrote that on my second visit to BJ's, I saw frozen, wild-caught shrimp from Mexico and the U.S. for $11.99 a pound, and that Costco only sells farmed shrimp and prawns. 

But today, previously frozen, wild Pacific brown prawns from Mexico were available at Costco for $8.99 a pound.