Seabra's Market

[Jason Perlow]

A&J Seabra's Supermarket

260 Lafayette St, Newark, NJ

(973) 589-8606

I can't beleive that we haven't had a dedicated thread for Seabra's until now. I guess its time we remedied that.

Seabra's is one of my favorite food shopping destinations in all of New Jersey. If you're looking foir Iberian and Brazilian foodstuffs of all kinds, this is THE place to go.

Seabra's is a full service supermarket, that happens to includes a Portuguese/Brazilian butcher and a Portuguese/Brazilian deli, in addition to a fish market. Plus its got all the cheeses and dried sausages and all the canned and jarred stuff you would expect in terms of Spanish, Portuguese and Brazilian cuisine. A&J Seabra, the import company that Seabra's runs, gets in a lot of exclusive items and is the master distrubutor for many of the brands of stuff you see used at Portuguese and Brazilian restaurants in the Ironbound. They also run several restaurants, including Seabra's Rodizio, Seabra's Marisqueria and Seabra's Mediterranean Manor, just to name a few.

Here's a big display for several flavors of Sumol, a Portuguese fruit soda brand and one of my favorites. The classic orange is the best, but the Passion Fruit and Pineapple are also very good.

Guarana Triunfo, a new sugar cane Guarana soda imported and distributed by Seabra. In Brazil, its marketed as the brand "Xereta", but the can art and everything you see was designed for the American market -- as you can see by the labelling, it says "Prohibited for sale in Brazil" because of the special packaging. I think the stuff is excellent, and I even prefer it to Antarctica, the most popular Brazilian Guarana, which they also sell. Seabra's also sells Guarana Brasilia, which is made locally in Newark. Diet Triunfo is apparently due to be imported soon as well.

The hard cheeses section.

Bacalao, dried salt cod. You can smell this stuff from over 10 feet away.

Olives

The price on the Portugese Presunto, similar to Prosciutto or Serrano, is very attractive.

The Tony Bourdain section.

Some nice prices on beef cuts here.

You can get freshly made Brazilian Linguica sausage as well as some nice cuts of lamb and pork.

Need large amounts of cured ham or chourico sausage? No Problem.

Chourico

Even MORE kinds of chourico, and this is only a small sampling.

Good deals on beef primals.

Mmmmm. Cracklins. The ultimate bar snack.

Extreme Chourico Closeup.

Edited May 22, 2006 by Jason Perlow (log)

[PicnicChef]

looks fabulous. I'm making a trip!

[jpr54_]

I made the trip-

not far from North Arlington-

I was alittle disappointed in the sanition of the plsce-

I hope it passed its most recent inspection.

[Jason Perlow]

jpr, what bothered you exactly? The smell of the balalao? As I understand its perfectly okay to keep that stuff out in the open, but it does stink a bit.

[jpr54_]

jpr, what bothered you exactly? The smell of the balalao? As I understand its perfectly okay to keep that stuff out in the open, but it does stink a bit.

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it was the cases where the meats were displayed-

i did buy olives-and some bottled/canned goods.

joanne r. aka jpr54_

[Rachel Perlow]

I guess it's not just Asian markets that don't seem as aseptic as mega-chain supermarkets, check out this thread: Dirty Ethnic Markets, Am I culturally prejudiced?.

[jpr54_]

I AM NOT CULTURALLY PREDJUDICED!!!!!!!!!

I have a masters degree in public health and a b.a in home economics

I shop every week at han ah reum in ridgefield every week and have no hesitation on buying anything in the market.

I shop in Jersey City-Indian market as well-

When I see a market which is not up to standard I will not purchase food, etc. there

joanne r. aka jpr54_

[richl2214]

I hate being bumped by old Portugeuse ladies with their carts in Seabras.

I'd also have to agree with jpr54_ here. The word "sanitary" doesn't come to mind when I visit their fish or meat department. That dried baccala does make my stomach turn very easily but it's not that it's the warm to tepid fish floating in styrofoam containers that raise my eyebrows. My girlfriend is Azorean-Portugeuse and comes from Ironbound. She won't shop there at all.

They have decent stuff but if I am going to buy fish in Ironbound I wouldn't go to Seabras, I'd go to Popular Market on Ferry St. where the turnover of fish is huge.

Regardless, Ironbound to me is not worth the effort or inconvenience to drive to in order to go to the market. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too much traffic nowadays.

Edited May 24, 2006 by richl2214 (log)

[Rachel Perlow]

Whoa, calm down, jpr, nothing personal, I was just reminded of that other thread by your post.

[titmfatied]

I have a masters degree in public health and a b.a in home economics

I shop every week at han ah reum in ridgefield every week and have no hesitation on buying anything in the market.

When I see a market which is not up to standard I will not purchase food, etc. there

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Couple questions.

What was it about the meat cases? Were they too warm?

Totally offtopic but I'm dying to ask someone with your education this: The olive bar at Wegman's, is it safe? One part of me thinks these are cured products that I shouldn't have to worry about. Another (very scared) part of me thinks of sneezes and fingers being used to grab olives. Even if people use the spoons provided they allways leave them laying on top of the olives which means to me that they may as well be picking them out with their fingers. Even scarier is the cart with all the Baba Ghanouj and Hommus dips those look like incubating trays to me. Am I paranoid or is there legitamate concern?

And finallly what's the name of the Indian market in JC?

[pete ganz]

I hate being bumped by old Portugeuse ladies with their carts in Seabras.

I'd also have to agree with jpr54_ here.  The word "sanitary" doesn't come to mind when I visit their fish or meat department.  That dried baccala does make my stomach turn very easily but it's not that it's the warm to tepid fish floating in styrofoam containers that raise my eyebrows.  My girlfriend is Azorean-Portugeuse and comes from Ironbound.  She won't shop there at all.     

They have decent stuff but if I am going to buy fish in Ironbound  I wouldn't go to Seabras, I'd go to Popular Market on Ferry St. where the turnover of fish is huge.     

Regardless, Ironbound to me is not worth the effort or inconvenience to drive to in order to go to the market.  WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too much traffic nowadays.

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Don't know about fish, but Seabra's is the place to go for pork. They raise their own pigs and never inject it with tenderizers like some supermarkets. Rich, try the one in Kearny on Schuyler Ave. if you don't want to go to Newark....same items, and I've never had an issue with the cleanliness.

[Jason Perlow]

The pork is amazing (particularly the fresh linguica sausage) and I've never had any kind of problem with beef I've bought there.

I don't go to Seabra's to buy fish. But Pork and Beef? Totally.

[richl2214]

I hate being bumped by old Portugeuse ladies with their carts in Seabras.

I'd also have to agree with jpr54_ here.  The word "sanitary" doesn't come to mind when I visit their fish or meat department.  That dried baccala does make my stomach turn very easily but it's not that it's the warm to tepid fish floating in styrofoam containers that raise my eyebrows.  My girlfriend is Azorean-Portugeuse and comes from Ironbound.  She won't shop there at all.     

They have decent stuff but if I am going to buy fish in Ironbound  I wouldn't go to Seabras, I'd go to Popular Market on Ferry St. where the turnover of fish is huge.     

Regardless, Ironbound to me is not worth the effort or inconvenience to drive to in order to go to the market.  WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too much traffic nowadays.

←

Don't know about fish, but Seabra's is the place to go for pork. They raise their own pigs and never inject it with tenderizers like some supermarkets. Rich, try the one in Kearny on Schuyler Ave. if you don't want to go to Newark....same items, and I've never had an issue with the cleanliness.

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Been to the one on Schuyler and it is much better to me. That's were we shop for meats. You are correct on the pork situation there.