They really stand behind their products

I guess the the FedEx guy didn't know I was home when he literally tossed a large carton on my front steps this afternoon. Once I saw the return address, I hoped Calphalon had replaced the 10-inch, non-stick sautee pan whose blackened interior I could no longer get clean.

I had returned the Calphalon One pan with a short note, saying I would be happy if Calphalon would just clean it. (I want to say and write Calaphon.) But inside the carton was a smaller carton with a replacement. We often used the pan to make omelets and frittatas that we started on the stove and finished in the oven.

This year, I also returned two cooking knives to Gerber Legendary Blades; though usable, the handle of one was warped and pulling away from the steel, and the handle cover of the other had deteriorated. After a while, the company returned both Balance Plus knives, saying it hadn't made them since 1988. But it also sent along a catalog and a gift certificate that allowed me to order two beautiful pocket knives with genuine horn handles.

In a previous post, I wrote about having to fight Pfaltzgraff for a refund after I returned a dinnerware set from China that had been recalled for high levels of lead and cadmium. Pfaltzgraff could learn a thing or two about customer service from Calphalon and Gerber. Maybe the company should be renamed Falsegraff. See post, "If it's made in China, is it safe?"

Just where does our meat come from?

I haven't seen Australian lamb shoulder chops at my usual source, ShopRite, for many months, but there they were in glorious color as a weekly special in the Stop & Shop circular. At $3.69 a pound with the store card, they are a cheaper alternative to Australian lamb chops at $8.99 or more per pound, and they're grass-fed and raised without antibiotics.

When I visited the Super Stop & Shop in Teaneck on Saturday, I couldn't find them on the shelf, but the butcher brought out a large cardboard box from the freezer and then a second box. I asked if the boxes had anything on the outside about antibiotics, and he said no, only that the contents were from Australia.

The box also had a seal from Mountain States/Rosen Company and an address at the Hunts Point Cooperative Market, the huge food-distribution center in the Bronx. An Internet search showed Mountain States/Rosen represents three brands of naturally raised American lamb and veal, none of which I have ever seen in North Jersey markets.

Inside the boxes were four Australian lamb shoulder chops, looking a lot bonier than the ones in the Stop & Shop circular, arranged on a foam tray and shrink-wrapped. The butcher hit some buttons on a machine and slapped a label on the package before handing two of them to me.

When seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked rare, the lollipop-like Australian lamb chops melt in your mouth. These shoulder chops probably aren't as tender, but they have a distinctive taste and will make terrific fall meals. Here is a link to the Web site that describes how the animals are raised and lambs' nutritional value.

http://www.australian-lamb.com/

Alaskan wild salmon for breakfast and dinner

Here it is October, and I am still enjoying fresh wild salmon from Costco. The price is the same as the Northwest sockeye fillets I started buying in June ($8.99 a pound), but now this Alaskan fish is coho, a variety with less of those beneficial Omega-3 fatty acids.

I'm wild over this salmon because of its deep color, great taste and how you get a nutritious meal after only 10 to 15 minutes in the oven, seasoned with salt, Aleppo pepper (coarse, red, with a little heat) and fresh chopped herbs. I like my fillet on the rare side.

I cut my $11 fillet into six portions. For dinner the first night, we baked red potatoes in the microwave, heated up organic mixed vegetables and made a salad of organic greens. The remaining three fillets went into the fridge, ready for my mid-morning sandwich on toasted whole-grain bread with pesto, organic greens, sliced tomato with the herb mixture called za'atar, and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

Free-range beef is ready for its close-up

The grass-fed, free-range beef from Australia is going on sale again at ShopRite. The deep discount, $3 off per pound with a Price Plus Club, will be available tomorrow through next Saturday (Oct. 4-10). The final price, $3.99 a pound, is not the lowest of the year; I bought some for $2.99 a pound. 


The color photo in the ShopRite circular shows slices from the Nature's Reserve "whole beef tenderloin for filet mignon," prepared medium rare. In truth, you'll have to do a lot of trimming to get the steaks to look like that. The tenderloins come in a plastic sleeve with some blood, and weigh 6 to 8 pounds. The beef, raised without antibiotics and growth hormones, is chewy with a pronounced beefy flavor.


I cut a bunch of small steaks from my tenderloin and sliced the rest thin for Korean barbecue (it went into a freezer bag with Korean marinade you can get at H Mart).


ShopRite will also be discounting USDA Select whole beef tenderloin for $4.99 a pound with the store card. This is a rare case where a naturally raised product is sold for less than the conventionally raised one, complete with antibiotics and growth hormones. Imagine the Australian cattle roaming grassy fields and the USDA animals confined in feeding pens in an effort to get them to market as soon as possible.

Tell me more about food, less about decor

Few restaurants in North Jersey tell you where the food they serve comes from, perhaps fearing that if you knew, you'd run for the exit. Exceptions include Tasteatery in Fort Lee and Green Door Cafe in Tenafly.

That's one of the reason I almost always choose seafood, preferably wild-caught seafood, when I dine out with my wife and son. Where seafood is not available, I take a leap of faith, figuring one meal of mystery meat or poultry won't kill me and trusting that most restaurateurs put their customers first and profits second.

Now, The Record of Hackensack reports in its Starters feature, Bistro 55 has opened in Rochelle Park, in the space once occupied by South City Grill. Yes, this is part of the South City [Restaurant] Group, which has been the subject of nearly overwhelmingly positive stories in the newspaper since restaurant reviewer Elisa Ung slammed South City Prime in March 2008 for "too-rare steaks and rotten sushi."

In today's Better Living article about Bistro 55, writer Amy Kuperinsky tells us a great deal about the origin, or provenance, of some of the food served, quoting the chef: drug-free chicken from the Goffle Road Poultry Farm in Wyckoff; sea scallops from Viking Village, the fishing cooperative in Barnegat Light; and antibiotic-free veal from Vineland. Still, the restaurant serves burgers made from grain-fed -- not grass-fed -- beef.

On the very next page of the Better Living tabloid today, Ung reviews Bazzini in Ridgewood, and in typical fashion, tells us virtually nothing about the origin of the food, except to note one entree she tried was "organic or free-range chicken." The veal in the meatballs? The New York strip steak? Your guess is as good as mine.

The most dangerous room in the house

I have long felt the kitchen is the most dangerous room in the house, given the controversies over cookware, dinnerware and the industrial methods applied to how much of our food is grown or raised. (See last post, "If it's made in China, is it safe?")

There is plenty of good, healthy food on sale, but it is usually only a fraction of what a normal supermarket carries. I have visited Costco, Super Stop & Shop and ShopRite in the past week or two and watched what other consumers select.

Drawn by low prices and deceptive TV advertising, a lot of people are buying that crappy Perdue chicken and passing up healthier alternatives -- chicken raised on vegetarian feed and without antibiotics.

Fairway Market occasionally puts Murray's free-roaming chicken on sale, but ShopRite rarely discounts its drug-free Readington Farms poultry. Yet ShopRite will turn around and offer drug-free Australian beef at bargain-basement prices. Stop & Shop has a line of natural food called Nature's Promise -- poultry, beef and pork, among other items -- and sometimes offers discounts. Whole Foods Market frequently puts its naturally raised food on sale, but prices are still higher than most competitors.

This afternoon, there was an online auction at dailywish.amexnetwork.com offering $50 back on a purchase of $100 or $25 back on a $50 purchase at Whole Foods Market, but it sold out quickly.

Can supermarkets promote unadulterated food better? I think so. A consistent sales policy -- discounting both conventional and naturally raised food -- would go a long way toward that goal. I don't mind paying more for food that costs more to produce, but give me a break once in a while.

And the media, which depend on supermarkets for precious advertising dollars, virtually ignore the challenge of shopping for food these days, lest they have to criticize these food giants for sales policies that seduce consumers into making the wrong choices.