Here are 3 recipes -- a Pasta with Yogurt, Korean-style Haddock and Kimchi Stew, and Monkfish with Spinach -- all from Victor's Healthy Kitchen on YouTube

 

From Victor's Healthy Kitchen (YouTube): Costco's Basil Pesto and inexpensive wine

In Hackensack, a Costco with no crowds, spicy food warms us at Bangkok Garden

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

In the nearly two years since the old Costco Wholesale warehouse in Hackensack reopened, members have found an oasis of calm at what is now called a Business Center.

Another Costco member I know describes the reimagined Hackensack warehouse as a combined restaurant supply house and consumer store.

On Tuesday, I was out of organic spring mix -- which serves as my daily salad -- and organic spinach, and I had a 2-pound bag of organic coffee beans I wanted to grind for my daily brew at home.

When I bought the beans on sale at the Costco Wholesale in Teterboro, that warehouses' two coffee mills were busy.

So on Tuesday, I drove to the Costco Business Center, and parked in the uncrowded lot.

After grabbing a shopping cart and showing my membership card at the door, I headed for an enormous cold room in the back of the warehouse.

That's where shoppers find milk, eggs, OJ, yogurt and many other items they are familiar with from the busy Teterboro warehouse.

I picked up a 1-pound tub of organic spring mix and another of organic spinach (only $3.69 each), paid with the Costco Visa credit card -- which is also a cash rebate card -- and took my coffee beans for a Turkish grind in the mill, which has been moved into a corner of the Costco food court.

No fuss, no muss. See video on brewing coffee at home, below:

SOME LIKE IT HOT: On a chilly and rainy Saturday, me and my wife warmed up with a few spicy dishes at Bangkok Garden Thai Restaurant, 261 Main St., Hackensack. Our main dish was called Pla Nung, a steamed whole striped bass ($26.95). But instead of the Thai brown bean sauce topping, we asked for a chili pepper-garlic sauce on the side.

ON A SCALE FROM 1 TO 10: As with the chili-garlic sauce we got with our fish, the server asked us how hot we wanted the dressing on the Som Tam Malakaw ($8.95) or crunchy Green Papaya Salad on a scale of 1 to 10. When I asked for 5, she cautioned me, so I revised that down to 3, and that was plenty hot for us.

SWEET & SPICY: We also shared an appetizer of Tod Mun Pla or Fish Cakes ($6.95) served with a Thai sweet and spicy chili sauce and ground peanuts. The menu says the chewy, deep fried  cakes are made with minced "fresh water fish." My wife also had a bowl of Thai Wonton Soup ($4.50 for small), made with chicken, not pork.

See: Our May 2017 visit to Bangkok Garden

Details

Bangkok Garden Thai Restaurant, 261 Main St., Hackensack; 201-487-2620. 

Open 7 days, liquor license, metered parking on street or in rear lot (25 cents for 30 minutes).

Website:

A Beautiful Setting for Thai Food

Eating In + Eating Out: Victor's Healthy Kitchen on YouTube; Fattal's, Lotus Cafe

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

After I gave up meat and poultry more than 5 years ago, I had to come up with recipes for fish, eggs and pasta for the nights my wife prepared a chicken, pork, beef, lamb or goat dish.

I've described the preparation of these meatless dishes in my blogs, The Sasson Report and Do You Really Know What You're Eating?

Now, I've started to post videos on a YouTube channel called Victor's Healthy Kitchen, showing how easy it is to assemble meatless meals at home.

I cook in large quantities, using leftovers to cut down on meal-preparation times in the next several days, but all of my recipes can be adjusted for one or two people.



I am also posting videos from the stores where I shop, including Costco Wholesale, Whole Foods Market, ShopRite, Trader Joe's, H Mart and H&Y Marketplace.



I am trying to buy as much organic or non-GMO food as I can to cut down on the pesticides, chemicals and harmful antibiotics that we ingest.

My visits to the Whole Foods Market in Paramus have increased to take advantage of lower prices for organics, fish and shrimp after the merger with Amazon, and Costco seems to be adding organics every day.

ShopRite also has christened a new line of organic and non-organic food, as well as antibiotic-free poultry, called Wholesome Pantry.

On Monday, on the way home from doing an errand in Bernardsville, we stopped in Paterson to shop at Fattal's, and pick up takeout from Aleppo Restaurant, at Main and Thomas streets (falafel, muhammara, salad and bread).

During our one dinner out last week, we saw the first women servers at Lotus Cafe in Hackensack in the nearly 30 years I've been going to the Chinese restaurant.

Spinach & Cheese Pies are among the savory baked goods offered at Fattal's, a bakery, grocery, butcher shop and cafe that also sells gold jewelry at 975 Main St., Paterson, in the Middle Eastern Shopping District called South Paterson.

At Fattal's, I picked up a half-gallon of Merve Ayran Yogurt Drink flavored with mint ($5.49).

Al Shark-brand Moroccan Sardines in tomato sauce, in red boxes, are 99 cents each, compared to skinless-and-boneless sardines in soya oil for $1.69 a can.

Some of the offerings in Fattal's small cafe, below.

On the way home from Fattal's and Aleppo Restaurant on Monday afternoon, we stopped at the Aldi Supermarket on Main Street in Hackensack to take advantage of a sale on a 1-pound package of triple-washed Organic Spring Mix ($3.49), a great salad with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

See Victor's Healthy Kitchen for a video on how to prepare organic sunny side up eggs and smoked wild salmon, which I served over leftover organic whole wheat spaghetti with sardines and anchovies.

Homemade Tuna and Sardine Salad with diced onion, sweet peppers and celery dressed in Dijon mustard, lemon juice and cumin, plus a non-fat Greek yogurt sauce with cucumber, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil called tzatziki.

We had dinner last Saturday night at Lotus Cafe in the Home Depot Shopping Center, 450 Hackensack Ave., Hackensack (201-488-7070). Our whole butterflied Striped Bass with Scallion & Ginger was enough for two with leftovers, but took 20 minutes to steam ($28.95).

A seasonal item, Sauteed Chinese Star Squash ($11.95), above, and brown rice, below, completed our delicious meal.

This hot chili pepper paste is available on request.

Eating Out + Eating In: At Rosa Mexicano, BCD Tofu House, why I 'cook ahead,' more

VIVA MEXICO! A delicious pan-seared Striped Bass Filet with crisped skin and Roasted Asparagus, above, and crunchy Wild Jumbo Shrimp swimming in a spicy green salsa, below, were two of our entrees from a fixed-price New Year's Eve menu at Rosa Mexicano. The fine-dining restaurant in Hackensack makes just about everything from scratch.

Veracruz-style Alambre de Camarones are Wild Jumbo Shrimp, which were marinated in garlic vinaigrette, and grilled with onions and serrano chiles. They were served with achiote rice, and salsa verde picante.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

I have a special place in my heart for Rosa Mexicano, the Mexican restaurant that is approaching its 10th anniversary in Hackensack's premier shopping center.

When the fine-dining restaurant first opened, I attended demonstrations by the chef, who showed how salsas, moles, tortillas and other items were made from scratch.

A complimentary Mexican breakfast usually was served.

On New Year's Eve, three of us had a special four-course dinner there ($44 each), and I still think the two-tiered dining room -- decorated with wood carvings, textiles and folk masks -- is one of the most beautiful around.

Our delicious dinner showed once again that Rosa Mexicano, which serves food that reflects the sophistication of authentic Mexican cuisine, could never be confused with a typical mall restaurant.

The four-course, $44-per-person menu included Rosa Mexicano's signature Guacamole, made "spicy" in a molcajete at our tableside, above and below, with avocado, jalapeno, tomato, onion and cilantro.

Although only one avocado is used, the guacamole was thick and chunky. I like to eat mine in one of the restaurant's handmade corn tortillas.

Our appetizers were Flautas de Pollo or crispy corn tortillas filled with shredded chicken in a chili sauce, above, and vegetarian Empanadas stuffed with Huitlacoche or corn truffles, below.

The restaurant's handmade corn tortillas come to the table still warm, and prove addictive.

I toasted the new year with a bottle of Negra Modelo ($7), one of Mexico's great dark beers.

Our son's entree was a Grilled Skirt Steak marinated in guajillo chiles and tequila.

We shared one of the desserts, Churros, above, but couldn't finish them. And the huge slice of Tres Leches Cake (for two) we took home languished in the fridge for a couple of days before I threw it out.

The dining room was packed on Sunday evening, but the food and service were as good as always, and our waiter quickly replaced my cup of coffee, which I complained was lukewarm.

AT BCD TOFU HOUSE: I once read that the red-pepper powder and flakes used so widely in Korean cuisine originally came from sun-dried chili peppers grown in Mexico, but whether that is true or not, another one of our favorite restaurants is BCD Tofu House in Fort Lee. A couple of weeks ago, I ordered a winter special, Oyster Rice with whole soybeans and a small Soft Tofu Soup with Seafood ($17.99, plus $1 for seafood tofu soup). I poached my egg yolk in the bubbling tofu soup, and ate it over the Oyster Rice, above.

When a server at the Korean restaurant set down my rice, oysters and soybeans, he also put down an hourglass timer, and told me to wait five minutes for the dish to finish cooking in the covered stone bowl.

A small whole croaker, dipped in batter and fried; cabbage kimchi and other side dishes are included with the meal, and if you finish them, they'll be replenished on request (but not the small fried fish).

Details

Rosa Mexicano is in The Shops at Riverside, formerly Riverside Square, in Hackensack. Website: Viva Mexico!

BCD Tofu House, 1640 Schlosser St., Fort Lee; 1-201-944-2340. Website: Some Like It Hot

COOKING AHEAD: Preparing food in large quantities is what I like to call "cooking ahead." That means leftovers are available for several other meals, cutting down on the time I need to spend slaving over a hot stove. Above, a dinner of leftovers -- a wedge of sweet-potato frittata, cod, and oven-baked scallops and lobster tail -- was ready in minutes. See how-to videos: VICTOR'S HEALTHY KITCHEN

A pound of organic whole wheat fusilli prepared in a red sauce with sardines and anchovies provided plenty of leftovers, including this breakfast topped with an egg-white omelet stuffed with smoked wild salmon and pesto.

This breakfast of cabbage with salted codfish helped me weather today's snowstorm. Leftover organic quinoa and sauteed organic spinach completed the meal.

PRE CAN CAN SALE: In a preview of the winter Can Can Sale,  which starts on Sunday, 12-ounce and 16-ounce boxes of Ronzoni Whole Grain Pasta (whole wheat) were only 59 cents each with a store card on Tuesday at ShopRite, Forest Avenue and Route 4, Paramus.

Twenty-four ounce jars of Botticelli Pasta Sauce from Italy were $1.99 each, a discount of $2. They contain no added sugar.

In a search for yogurt that has less sugar, I stopped at this display of Dannon Activa, sold in packs of four 4-ounce cups. Normally $2.85, they were reduced to $1.99, but you could save another 50 cents per 4-pack, if you bought 5 or 20 cups. I grabbed two 4-packs, and raced for the checkout counter.