Seabra Foods

Back when I lived in Newark I was spoiled by the easy availability of Portuguese specialty foods. Today I found myself on Ferry Street with a little time to kill and a short list of grocery items I wanted to pick up:
chourico
piri-​piri sauce
marmelada
Portuguese olive oil
I came across Seabra Foods, which looked like an upscale, smaller version of the Seabra’s I used to shop at. How could I resist? The produce looked great, but I was of no mind to bring produce home via PATH train. So I walked straight to the butcher counter, where I was offered samples of the different varieties of chourico they had. I wanted the standard version: the one you’d use to make chourico and clams or slice into a pot of caldo verde. (It’s also good as a snack, with a glass of wine). The proper name of the stuff is Chourico Serrano, and they had an excellent example for $ 5/​lb. (Each sausage is about ¾ lb.)
I easily crossed the other items off my list, and threw in impulse purchases of tinned fish in olive oil and a big bottle of passion fruit Sumol. I spent just over $ 20.
So for quality, price and pleasant shopping experience Seabra Foods is somewhere between three and four stars. It’s a small supermarket, but it’s very clean, well laid-​out, and they have most of what you’d want to find in a Portuguese market. The location easily assures the fourth star from me: it’s an easy, short walk from Newark Penn Station, making it a convenient stop for this New Yorker’s occasional Newark adventures, which always seem to center around food and Ferry Street.
Tonight I’ll be making chourico and clams. Yum.