Size matters at Costco Wholesale's Business Center in Hackensack

Whole frozen lambs from New Zealand, above, and 20-pound boxes of linguine and other pasta, below, are typical of the sizes available at Costco Wholesale's Business Center in Hackensack. The warehouse offers discounts on pallet-size purchases and delivery to small businesses, including restaurants and caterers.  

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

For the Costco Wholesale member who runs out of egg whites and organic spring mix, the reopened warehouse in Hackensack is ideal.

Parking is no longer a problem, because many of the customers are small businesses who order online and get delivery.

But as a Business Center, this Costco stocks only a limited number of the food products you'll find at the enormous, far busier warehouse in Teterboro.

Still, today in Hackensack, I picked up several items we ran out of since our last Teterboro shopping trip, and found others unavailable.

Food court pizza

The food court's reopening has been delayed, however, and I couldn't pick up, as planned, a freshly baked 18-inch combination veggie pizza for $9.95.

Employees in Hackensack said two things of interest: 

Prices at the Business Center don't always match those at Teterboro warehouse, and may be lower. 

I found one item, a 1-pound container of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix, was 50 cents higher on March 15, opening day in Hackensack. 

On Monday, the same spring mix was $4.29 or what we've paid several times in Teterboro.

No treasure hunt

And the Hackensack staff won't be moving items around to create the "treasure hunt" that Costco's regular warehouses are known for, even though that practice frustrates longtime members.

Other purchases today were 3 pounds of bananas for $1.39 (organic bananas aren't available); and four cartons of Egg Beaters 100% egg whites ($9.39).

The parking lot at the Costco Wholesale Business Center, 80 S. River St., Hackensack, a little before 1 p.m. today. This warehouse closes on Sundays.

This pallet sale could give you a couple of decades of oil changes.

Commercial refrigerators for restaurants and caterers.

Log Cabin Syrup comes in 128-ounce bottles, above, but nearby, Costco members will find something far superior, Kirkland Signature Maple Syrup from Canada, below.

Bagels, English muffins and sliced bread also are available.

The 16-portion box of Shin Ramyun, a Korean-style instant spicy noodle soup, usually is on sale for a better price at the H Mart in Little Ferry less than 2 miles away.

H Mart also sells 50-pound bags of Kokuho Rose Yellow Label White Rice grown in California, but here Costco might have the edge on price over the Korean supermarket. On Sunday, I bought a 15-pound bag of the same rice on sale for $9.99 at the Little Ferry H Mart, and my receipt listed the retail price as $19.99. The Hackensack warehouse also stocks another Korean item, Kirkland Signature Roasted Seasoned Seaweed.

You'll find 10-pound bags of couscous, above, and 15-pound bags of quinoa, below.

I'm out of Nature's Intent Organic Quinoa, and almost grabbed this 15-pound bag before realizing it is conventionally grown in Peru, compared to the 4-pound bags of Organic Quinoa for about twice the price per pound in Teterboro.

Nature's Bakery Fig Bar is my favorite skip-lunch snack, but today, I decided to try another one, picking up KIND Fruit & Nut Variety Pack (18 bars for $17.99).

The Hackensack warehouse is offering six cans of Season Skinless & Boneless Sardines in Pure Olive Oil for $6.99 after an instant coupon. These are ideal for pasta with sardines in bottled sauce (three 4.375-ounce cans for 1 pound of pasta). I didn't see pasta sauce or cans of organic diced tomatoes in Hackensack today.

A 3-pound bag of sodium-free Whole Almonds from California ($17.99) can be roasted and dusted with cinnamon (1 hour and 20 minutes in a 275-degree oven).

You'll also find the superior Kirkland Signature line of spices in Hackensack, including Saigon Cinnamon, next to 3-pound containers for restaurants and caterers, below.

An enormous refrigerated room, bigger than anything at the old Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, above and below, contains frozen meat, individual racks of lamb, whole eggs and cartons of egg whites; milk, organic spring mix, chopped salad and other items.

On refrigerated shelves outside the cold room I found two of our favorite items, Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto, made with Italian basil ($7.99); and 3-pound bags of Christopher Ranch Whole Peeled Garlic Cloves ($7.39).

A 2-pound "gourmet medley" of greenhouse-grown Tomatoes from Sunset were $6.49. I tried them in my organic spring mix salad. A 2-pound container of Sunset Campari Tomatoes were $4.99.

Cut-up goat on the bone in 15-pound boxes, New Zealand racks of lamb in 19-pound boxes, whole ducks and other frozen meat is available.

Frozen goat meat from Australia is sold in 35-pound boxes, too.

Fresh seafood isn't sold in Hackensack any longer, but you'll find bags of frozen salmon burgers, wild Alaskan salmon, mahi-mahi and other fish from Trident and Kirkland Signature, Costco's house label.

You'd have to do a lot of Mexican cooking to use a 100-ounce can of tomatillos.

At Mantra in Paramus, mandatory 18% tip ruins a great meal

The interior of Mantra on Route 4 west in Paramus.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I couldn't resist an e-mail from Groupon offering dinner for 4 at a stylish Asian Indian restaurant in Paramus for $75, including a bottle of wine.

The voucher said the restaurant, Mantra, would serve us 2 appetizers (up to $11 each), 2 orders of bread ($4 each), 4 entrees (up to $28 each) and 1 bottle of house wine ($28).

I bought the deal and printed out my voucher, which said I should tip "on the total bill (Groupon value, plus anything else you order)."

But Groupon didn't do its homework.

Mantra automatically adds an 18% gratuity for "parties of 4 or more," though most restaurants do that only for groups of 6 or more.

Boldly flavored sauces of tamarind and cilantro.

And on Saturday night, if I expected the gratuity to be applied to the discounted price of the food and bottle of wine ($75), I was in for a rude awakening.

Mantra applied the 18% tip to the total value of food and wine ($148) -- $26.64. 

Groupon replied to my e-mail, saying the "Groupon value" is not what I paid for the voucher; it is the total original value of the meal.

My $75 voucher cost me only $52 after a credit of $18 and a special $5 discount. So, my total cost was $52 plus $26.64.

At first, the waiter gave me a bill for $26.64, labeled "an 18% service charge," and only brought me an itemized bill when I asked for it.

That listed all the dishes we had ordered, plus the bottle of wine, and their full value. There was no mention of the $75 Groupon voucher on either bill.

A Crab Chaat appetizer, bound by thinly sliced cucumber, was as delicious as it looked.

Our entrees were Lamb Vindaloo, Goat Curry, Fish Curry and Lobster Masala.

I usually don't order a full bottle of wine, and if I do, I don't tip on it.

I have enjoyed many promotional $24.07 three-course lunches during Restaurant Week in Manhattan, and have never been asked to tip on the full value of the meal ($40 to $45).

Garlic naan.

Some of the meat in the Lobster Masala was sinewy and tough.

When our appetizers of Mango Shrimp ($9) and Crab Chaat ($10) were brought to the table, they tasted as good as they looked, and I began thinking we'd return to Mantra, with or without a discount voucher.

My son wanted to order lamb chops, but they were $30 and the waiter said we couldn't order entrees averaging $28; each one had to be $28 or under.

Our entrees were Lamb Vindaloo ($19), Goat Curry ($20), Lobster Masala ($28) and Kerala Fish Curry ($26). Two bowls of rice were included.

This is the best Indian food I've ever had and the service couldn't be faulted, but getting muscled for an 18% gratuity on the total value of food and wine left a bad taste in my mouth.

I won't be returning to Mantra.

These tables remained empty during our visit to Mantra.

Mantra, 275 Route 4 west, in the Shoppes at IV, Paramus; 201-342-8868.

Web site: Hey, big spender

Whose supermarket guru?

Image via Wikipedia

All of us want to save money when we shop for food, but we also want to avoid poultry and meat from factory farms, some farmed seafood and produce treated with a lot of pesticides.

However, none of this is discussed in "Save at the Supermarket," an article in the January & February 2010 issue of AARP The Magazine. The author is Phil Lempert, identified as the Supermarket Guru, who appears regularly on the Today Show and The View.

Lempert doesn't mention the antibiotics, hormones or animal by-products used to rush the growth of chickens, cattle, pigs and other animals; he doesn't discuss the merits of wild v. farmed seafood, which could be artificially colored or carry contaminants; and he doesn't recommend Australian beef and lamb, free-range, grass-fed products that are usually cheaper than their conventionally raised U.S. cousins

So whose Supermarket Guru is he?

I wrote a letter pointing out some of these omissions, and AARP The Magazine informed me it did not have room to publish it.

This is the same issue with an article on fish that omits the benefits of sardines.

Whole Foods Market discusses the use of antibiotics in animals on its blog: No antibiotics -- ever