Shop Rite

[John]

I was in Woodbridge the other day and stopped in the new Shop Rite. This one is even bigger and better than the one in Clark. I found out that each Shop Rite is individually owned and operated. This one, along with 21 others are owned by Foodarama Supermarkets.

These Shop Rites feature a gourmet product line called World Class. I was pressed for time, but was given samples of some of their sausages and they were quite tasty. They also sold franks loose behind the counter. This was the first time I've seen this in N.J. I bought a few to take home and they are as good as any all beef frank I've tried. And I've tried many. I tried to get some info on this product line. I was told that World Class products are made in Linden, N.J. at a food comissary owned by Shop Rite. Produced by trained chefs, they also sell pre packaged meals. I will try some of their other products next time I'm in there. Is anyone familiar with this product line?

[Rosie]

Where in Woodbridge? Can you give us the address? Thanks.

[John]

The Woodbridge Shop Rite is located on rt 1 and rt 35 in the old strip mall that used to have Caldor's and the movie theatre. I believe their grand opening was last week.

[Fat Guy]

The World Class product line is world class! (You can have that one for free.)

[Dave the Cook]

The World Class product line is world class! (You can have that one for free.)

Reminding us all that you get what you pay for.

[Rail Paul]

John -

ShopRite is a cooperative, with local owners banding together to share common services, like produce buying, meat wholesaling, deals with suppliers like Dietz & Watson, and advertising. The co-op name is Wakefern.

Foodarama is one member. Sunrise, which owns the West Caldwell and Parsippany stores, is another member, with different owners from Foodarama. Ronetco, which owns Netcong and four (?) other stores is yet another member. Village, Mayfair, etc are also members, I believe.

They share a single labor contract, with local adjustments.

I believe Pathmark was an original ShopRite member, but left to form its own brand back in the 1970s.

[John]

Thanks for the info!

[NJ2FLA]

I just noticed there is a Wold Class Shop Rite off Route 287 (I believe exit 12) in Bound Brook. Here is an article about Foodarama Foodarama - it looks like they are a publically traded company. Really neat store. They have a day care center for kids, a Dunkin Donuts, Bank, Cellular Store, kosher section.

My brother used to work at the store in Bloomfield which is owned by a guy named Mark Greenstein.

[menton1]

I'm up in Bergen County, so I am unfamiliar with the Foodaramas and the World Class house brand. But I knew that they were a separately owned cooperative operation; Here we have the Glass Shoprites, and the Inserra Shoprites. There is no comparison. The Glass ones are the best run with the nicest service. I will never go to Inserra again-- I once got a raincheck for an item out of stock, and when I went to Inserra in Emerson, they refused to honor it! (Which is against Shoprite policy). Glass has the new Shoprite on Rte 4 in Paramus, a huge store with very good merchandising and very nice employees.

[dodge621]

there is also a Shop Rite in New Milford - pathetic it is so ugly.

Paramus is pretty good

[201]

There's a Shop Rite on River Road in Fair Lawn where I go to find some specific things. I can grab Mexican soda and Polish apple juice in the same aisle... which is pretty nice. How does one tell the "Glass" stores from the "Inserra" stores?

On their website, Shoprite lists some Partners in Caring. Anybody have any idea what that's all about?

Funny anecdote: I like to call the Shoprite in Lincoln Park the "Communist Shoprite" because the entire stripmall it's in is painted a battleship grey with a red trim. Inside there are catwalks and spotlights and one can just imagine that armed guards aren't too far away! It takes a little imagination to see it that way, but it's fun for me.

[Rachel Perlow]

Figured this was as good a place as any to put this...

First, menton, is the Englewood Shop Rite a "Glass" Shop Rite?

Second, Sea Scallops (fresh, not previously frozen, no water added) are on sale at Shop Rite this week for $7/lb. We had them for dinner tonight and they are really, really good (sweet, no metallic taste, no water oozing out of them). I think we'll be having them again later this week!

I prepared them by quickly sauteing over high heat with butter and olive oil, finishing with lemon juice & zest and a little cold butter, salt & pepper. Served with curry flavored cous cous and roasted asparagus (also on sale for $1/lb).

I should have removed the abductor muscle, as that was the only chewy bit. I only sauteed them for about 2 minutes, with about 1 minute off heat stirring in the butter & lemon juice.

[menton1]

Yes, Rachel, the Englewood, Paramus-Route 4, and the Rochelle Park ShopRites are the ones that are Glass-owned. Nice operation. I did see the ad for the sea scallops, and may get them later in the week. I didn't know about removing the adductor muscles; never did that with scallops. I just wish they sold scallops with the shells, they are so interesting and beautiful.

P.S. Rachel, could you please give us back your dog as your avatar? He is sooo cute!! (Jason also!)

[Rachel Perlow]

The abductor muscle is that little bit of extra flesh on the side of the scallop. You can see one there, clinging to the scallop in the bottom center of the picture, and kind of curling off the scallop at the left-center, worth the trouble to remove.

I suppose it's too much to ask to get the in the shell scallops with roe still attached at a supermarket. However, since the usual variety of scallop available anywhere but a premium fish store is a water and chemical added product, dripping with water and tasting of copper, I was very happy.

I was waiting at the fish counter while the counter girl was scaling some fish for another customer (yes, freshly scaling a fish! the fish dept at this store is way better than I remember) and I mentioned that I was interested in the scallops on sale. She said, "I just packed them up, they really look good." And, indeed, there to the left, pre-wrapped (egads!) were packages of the scallops portioned out and wrapped in plastic (1 lb average packages, ranging from .75-1.25). I didn't like this, as I wanted to smell the scallops. But, since she assured me they were very good and when I picked up a package there was no water oozing in the package I decided not to wait and just picked up a pound.

Got home and unwrapped them onto a paper towel lined plate. They smelled clean and sweet and even after sitting for several minutes on the paper towel, it barely got moistened. They got much wetter from the quick rinse I gave them, but of course I dried them before sauteing for two minutes at high heat and finished with butter & lemon juice. They were tender, sweet, so much better than 99% of the scallops I have been served in restaurants (on par with the kind of scallops you'd order freshly fried at Denville or Maywood Seafood).

Hmm, maybe next time panko-fried?

P.S. Rachel, could you please give us back your dog as your avatar? He is sooo cute!! (Jason also!)

What? Don't like my pride flag Jello mold? (see Avatar story thread) Actually, I may be changing it soon, but not to Bailey, sorry. Meanwhile, here's a link to the thread about naming your pet's after food items, where there's a nice picture of Truffle and Bailey.

[jo-mel]

Rachel -- I now realize what your AVATAR is, but I still see it as a beautiful, wavy, palette of color.

I never take that abductor muscle off scallops. DH has a bias against scallops, going back to the time when he was a kid, and what were sold as scallops --- were actually skate wing cut-outs. I can prove that they are scallops when he sees that muscle. He still can't shake that bias, tho.

Your beautiful presentation of the scallops, along with the asparagus and couscous will be next Friday's dinner. (Always shellfish on Fridays) Thanks!!

[tommy]

I never take that abductor muscle off scallops.

to me, it taste and stank like fish. i also find the texture unappealing. is this really a good thing?

[KattyKid]

Here in the Lehigh Valley, Pa we had two Shop-Rites til they shut down - no reason why. They both did well and were cheaper than the others - Giant, Weis/Kings , Wegmans and Redners. I miss them. I EMailed them and asked why but got the answer that they were close by in Phillipsburgh, NJ and various Pocono locations. Guess they aren't comming back

[johnnyd]

I suppose it's too much to ask to get the in the shell scallops with roe still attached at a supermarket. However, since the usual variety of scallop available anywhere but a premium fish store is a water and chemical added product, dripping with water and tasting of copper, I was very happy.

You can ask your local fish counter-person for "dry" scallops which are untreated with tripolyphosphate. They run twice the price, but really worth it. If you ask enough times, they might get around to getting some. MANY purveyors claim all their scallops are "dry" vs "wet" but you can tell wet scallops by the milky watery stuff that develops in their container. Dry scallops freeze beautifully.

I tried my hand at diving for scallops here on the maine coast and was told the only part of the scallop allowed on-shore was the abductor muscle. We had to shuck our catch and throw the roesac, shells etc. over the side while we made for port. Deviation from this meant a loss of license... if caught! A friend who visited from Europe was horrified, so we smuggled a few live ones in a cooler so she could prepare them her way. Dee-lish!

[Rachel Perlow]

Wait, is the abductor muscle the big actual scallop or the little tough chewy part attached to it? I thought it was the latter.

You can ask your local fish counter-person for "dry" scallops which are untreated...

That's exactly why I was so excited to post about these. That's what Shop Rite is selling this week. As I posted above, "Sea Scallops (fresh, not previously frozen, no water added) are on sale at Shop Rite this week for $7/lb." Mmmmmm.

[johnnyd]

The little chewy thing is a tendon that attaches the abd-muscle to the shell. Both sides (top/bottom) also grow onto the shells. These things actually cause the scallop to "swim" through the water. It's really quite cool watching them clap the shells together as they dart along, then they stop and settle on the bottom wherever they land. As they lie on the sand, the shells separate about a half inch and a membrane stretches between them. This is a filter for tasty bits they eat. When they sense little food, off they go.

Dry scallops freeze well! Buy 'em quick! They must be canadian, I bought four huge scallops at $13/lb Sunday for ceviche but this purveyor deals locally as a strict rule.

[menton1]

Just for the record, I thought that the adductor muscle was the actual edible part of the scallop. Perhaps you folks are referring to something other than this muscle as far as a part that is removed before eating--

(By the way, an abductor is someone lurking in the darkness, ready to do his evil deeds!!)

[FistFullaRoux]

Just so you know, I had to look at this three or four times before I realized something. Shop Rite is an actual grocery store chain in the northeast. Shop Rite is also the name of a convenience store chain in Louisiana.

That's why I couldn't figure out why you people were buying scallops from a convenience store.

I need coffee. Now.

[johnnyd]

You say tomayto

and I say tomahto,

You say adductor,

and I say abductor!

adductor!

abductor!!

grocery!

convenience!!

Let's call the whole thing good!

Let's Eat!

[pbrodsky]

Rachel - Keep the jello mold - I like it.

[jo-mel]

(OK -- So it is the Adductor muscle's little chewy thingy that holds the whole shellfish together. And it is this little thingy that we are talking about. Tough, flavorless, but non-the-less shows, to me- that this is a scallop and not a cut-out from a skate wing.

It has the same purpose as the little 'tendon' you must sever when opening a clam or oyster, I suppose.)

----------------------------------------------------------------

I'm all wrong. I wrote the above, then did a little googling.

- From onhore/offshore fisheries ---Between the shells are the soft body parts which account for about 40 percent of a scallop's total weight. The large white muscle in the centre which opens and closes the shells is called the "meat" and is the only part of the sea scallop eaten in Canada.

That much I know. BUT--- on another site, someone asks what the little orangy thing is that is attached to the muscle (I guess this is what we are all talking about) The person answering that question seemed to think that it is a siphon.

Now I'm lost again.

Edited April 26, 2004 by jo-mel (log)