'Honey, I forgot the milk'

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The imported Pecorino Romano sheep's milk cheese sold at Costco has more sodium than the aged Manchego from Spain, but costs less.

My wife brought home a lot of food from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack on Monday, but forgot organic milk and egg whites.


When I returned on Tuesday for the milk and eggs, I  picked up seven other items, and ended up spending nearly $84.


I'm the only one in the family who doesn't eat meat, so I bought fish: fresh, wild-caught haddock fillets from Iceland for dinner tonight and salted Pacific cod, both $7.99 a pound.


A 2-pound package of strawberries from Mexico were $4.99, and 3 pounds of bananas were the usual $1.39. A dozen 6-ounce cups of Stonyfield Organic Low-Fat Yogurt with Fruit on the Bottom were $7.89.


I wanted a sheep's milk cheese to enjoy with fruit and had two choices, Villacenteno Manchego, an aged cheese from Spain, at $8.29 a pound; and aged Kirkland Signature Pecorino Romano from Italy at around $5.50 a pound (I don't remember the exact price).


I looked at the Nutrition Facts labels and chose the Spanish cheese, which has less sodium than the Pecorino Romano, but different serving sizes made figuring that out a challenge.


The  Manchego went perfectly with slices from a wedge of Spanish fig cake with nuts I picked up at Fairway Market in Paramus the other day.


At Costco, I also picked up another 5-pound box of Sunset Beefsteak Tomatoes for $6.99 (10 tomatoes). They are greenhouse grown and vine ripened.


I prefer the superior taste of Sunset's Campari Tomatoes, but refuse to pay $5.49 for a 2-pound package.


Three half-gallons of Kirkland Signature Organic 1% Milk were $8.99, and the price has held steady for many months. Six 16-ounce containers of Kirkland Signature Real Eggs were $9.59.

More on those ridiculous little signs

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I must be a glutton for punishment. When I needed a half-gallon of lactose-free milk for my morning coffee, I drove over to ShopRite in Hackensack, the supermarket with hard-to-read or missing price signs, and found myself in front of the organic milk section again.

I stooped, I squinted, I bent at the waist, trying to make out the prices for several brands on the small signs. Another problem cropped up Friday: The brand of organic, low-fat, lactose-free milk I wanted had a use-by date of the next day, and there were no store employees anywhere nearby to see if there was more in the back. Plus its price sign was missing, as it was on my last visit.

So, I selected the Lactaid-brand, but its price sign also was missing. At the register, I learned it was $4.99 -- 80 cents more than the brand I wanted. 


On the way to the register, I stopped at the courtesy counter to report the missing price signs. We'll see what, if anything, happens.

Why go back to the same ShopRite? It's the closest one to my home, and I had seven or eight bags of plastic bags and food wrappers I wanted to recycle.

Clueless employees at Costco

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Yes, the man on the customer side of the meat case said yesterday, I work for Costco. I said I'd like to see more meats without antibiotics sold at the warehouse store in Hackensack. I explained that antibiotic-free pork was especially important, because hogs reportedly receive more drugs than any other animal raised for food.

I'm not sure if he understood me. "The big thing now is kosher," he said, referring to the cases of kosher food that have appeared in the past few months. I replied that even kosher poultry and meat often are raised with antibiotics, which prevent illness in close quarters and speed the growth of animals.

The problem with consuming animals raised with antibiotics is that humans are becoming more resistant to antibiotics prescribed by doctors.

I'm grateful that Costco carries organic ground beef, some organic chicken and free-range, drug-free Australian lamb, but they are far outweighed by the enormous, conventionally raised steaks, slabs of ribs and  large cuts of beef (photo). The source of its 3-pound rotisserie chickens, with many added flavors, is a mystery.

Last night, I enjoyed three of those grass-fed Australian lamb chops, cooked rare in about 12 minutes, with a couple of glasses of under-$4 shiraz from the liquor store next to Costco. Tonight, we're frying fresh, wild-caught Canadian flounder fillets I picked up yesterday at Costco for $8.49 a pound. I also picked up herbicide-free Sunset tomatoes, organic milk, organic salad greens and a new item, organic diced tomatoes, all at low prices.

My trip yesterday had been postponed from Monday, a holiday when lines were unusually long. Yesterday, the snow was still falling when I arrived at 4 in the afternoon. I could park anywhere and the store was relatively empty, with hardly any waiting at check-out. Hooray.