Enjoying Cinco de Mayo samples at Whole Foods Market

Around lunchtime today, Whole Foods Market employees in Paramus prepared free samples of ground beef and swordfish tacos to promote Mexican food and beer on the Cinco de Mayo holiday.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Whole Foods Market in Paramus doesn't offer many free samples, compared to some other stores, but that doesn't slow down its customers.

I was standing in line today for a sample of swordfish taco with avocado sauce when the woman in front of me stretched out her left arm and grabbed a small plate with a beef-taco sample.

Employees were making tacos in large flour tortillas and cutting them into small pieces, but they didn't always hold together.

The swordfish taco was made with fresh, wild-caught fish that was selling for more than $20 a pound at the store's wonderful seafood counter.

I went to Whole Foods for more 0rganic 100% whole wheat pasta from Italy ($1.39 a pound). I picked up two boxes of shells and a package of spaghetti.

Whole Foods Market, 300 Bergen Town Center, Paramus; 201-226-1244.

The produce section of Trader Joe's in Paramus.

Trader Jose?

Trader Joe's always has a few free samples and hot coffee, but today in the crowded Paramus store, none of them had a Mexican theme.

I tried strawberry lemonade, a flat bread with mushrooms, seedless watermelon and small cups of black coffee.

I bought Garlic Chipotle Salsa ($2.99), Salsa Verde ($1.99), and a 32-ounce bottle of 100% Blueberry Juice from concentrate and another of 100% Red Tart Cherry Juice, not from concentrate ($4.99 each).

Also, a medium seedless watermelon ($3.99), a 14-ounce package of small Persian Cucumbers ($1.99); Trader Joe's uncured, preservative-free Beef Hot Dogs ($4.49) and Applegate Organic Beef Hot Dogs ($4.99).

A pound of organic 100% whole wheat spaghetti was $1.39 and meatless Vegetable Masala Burgers were $2.49 for four.

Trader Joe's, 404 Route 17 north, Paramus; 201-265-9624.

The Protein Bistro Box from Starbucks Coffee, 360 Essex St. in Hackensack, makes a great breakfast or light lunch: Cage-free egg, white Cheddar Cheese, multigrain muesli bread with honey peanut butter and fruit.  

The Protein Bistro Box costs $4.95, plus tax, but I got one for free by using rewards on my Starbucks Card, and had it at home for breakfast today.

For Cinco de Mayo, I also had Organic Wholly Guacamole from Costco Wholesale mixed with corn salsa from Trader Joe's and topped with Valentina Mexican Hot Sauce (Black Label) from Hackensack Market on Passaic Street.

Tito's Burritos and Beyzaleda Turkish Food

Image via Wikipedia

I had business in Morristown on Friday and a friend offered to buy me lunch at Tito's Burritos on Washington Street.

I ordered the swordfish taco ($4.25), hold the cabbage. This is a lot of money for one taco, compared with the Mexican joints I used to frequent in Passaic city, but you usually can't get fish of any kind there. However, Tito's does sell Jarritos, the Mexican soda made with sugar.

The swordfish came in a hard taco shell wrapped in a flour tortilla -- not the usual two corn tortillas -- and the chopped fish was in a cilantro-lime sauce. So this is more of a California or Hawaiin version. It was tasty, though.

On Saturday night, we dropped into Beyzaleda Turkish Food in Cliffside Park for dinner, but the vegetarian options were limited, so we ordered lentil soup; a salad of chopped tomato, cucumber and onions in a light dressing; and ezme, the coarse walnut-and-pepper salad. 

This was a properly spicy ezme salad, and the other items were wonderful. Still, the 16-seat, halal  restaurant was out of another salad and of the rice with beans pictured on the menu. The waitress kept pushing the hummus, but we declined.

The soup and chopped salad came with wedges of lemon, and we got small basket after small basket of homemade puffy bread. But the Turkish pizza we wanted isn't prepared on Saturdays and the potato or parsley omelet we asked for is made only in the morning. Our meatless pledge prevented us from trying a special kabob wrapped in bread.

Tito's Burritos, 26 Washington St., Morristown; 
973-267-8486. Open seven days. Second location in Summit.
www.titosburritos.com

BeyzaledaTurkish Food, 633 Anderson Ave., 
Cliffside Park;  201-840-1245. Open seven days.