We take the meatless pledge at Wondee's

One of the many meatless dishes at Wondee's in Hackensack.

Arrayed before us at Wondee's in Hackensack last night were bowls of wonton soup with pork, a wonderfully crispy duck-and-fruit salad and red pork cooked two ways with bok choy.

We've been wanting to cut down on how much meat we eat -- chicken, pork, beef and our favorite, Australian lamb -- and this meat-heavy Thai meal seemed like the right time to pledge to do it. My wife and son had ordered the wonton, but I chose a tofu soup.

Along with the duck salad, I also ordered grilled tofu with a peanut sauce and a small salad. The waitress noted Wondee's vegetarian menu offers a tofu version of the duck salad, which we choose often. We also could always have the crunchy green-papaya salad.

We agreed that starting today, we would eat only meatless meals, but we wouldn't give up heart-healthy seafood. (We ate three fish dinners last week, and my breakfast usually is canned fish salad, sardines or smoked wild salmon.) Eggs also are allowed. My weight is getting out of hand, and I hope eliminating animal fats will help me lose some.

On Saturday afternoon, I bought two pounds of wild-caught shrimp at Fairway Market in Paramus for our dinner tonight. But we are out of chicken, lamb and beef, though we do have two opened packages of Applegate Farm preservative- and drug-free sliced ham and turkey my wife takes to school in sandwiches.

This morning, I had two eggs with Aleppo red pepper -- fried sunny side up in extra-virgin olive oil -- and served them over Colombian corn cakes with cheese (arepas) that I picked up at Hackensack Market. Stewed Korean tofu (H Mart) and a quartered tomato with za'atar thyme mixture were on the side.

For Monday night, we have a vegetarian dinner imported from India in the cupboard (from Target's new store in Paramus) that we've enjoyed many times. Tuesday? We'll see. Maybe I can find those terrific haddock fillets at Costco that we fried up last week.

Wondee's Fine Thai Food & Noodles, 
296 Main St., 201-883-1700;  parking in rear
http://www.wondeenj.com/

Are there bad-produce days?

Image by wallyg via Flickr

If humans have bad-hair days, do supermarkets have bad-produce days? I certainly thought so yesterday when I stopped at H Mart in Little Ferry to pick up some greens for dinner (photo shows Ridgefield store).

I have purchased collard greens from this large Korean market several times, but yesterday, the leaves were blemished. As I strolled along the aisle, looking at the large selection of leafy greens and Chinese vegetables, nothing looked very appealing -- wilted, shriveled and so forth.

Another shopper, an American woman, came over and asked the produce stocker if there were more eggplants in the back, explaining the ones she saw were soft. Same for the red peppers. He said no. She went back and managed to find some firm eggplant. I spoke to her and she suggested Thursday wasn't a good day to shop there for produce.

Finally, I saw two heads of fresh spinach at $1.29 each that looked as if they had been put out that day, and grabbed them.  I had already picked up a 5-pound box of large Spanish clementines for $6.99, rejecting smaller Spanish clementines nearby that had seen better days and were priced $1 higher. That was odd -- two prices for the same item.

The selection of delicious prepared food was as good as ever: stewed tofu seasoned with a red-pepper sauce ($3.99) and stewed Alaskan pollack with onions and hot peppers ($4.99).

For dinner, I cut, rinsed and blanched the spinach leaves, then sauteed them in a little extra-virgin olive oil and seasoned them with salt, black pepper and mixed organic spices (Costco).

I served them with an imported vegetarian Indian dinner for two of basmati rice, coconut curry sauce and spiced chickpeas ($3.99 at Target in Paramus) and home-made baked crab cakes, using a pound of lump crab meat from Costco.