Monday, November 28, 2011

Hospital salad bar offers pie

Shin Ramyun
Image via Wikipedia
I took a good look at the ingredients listed on the package of my son's favorite ramyun.


Editor's note: This morning, I made a second visit to the cafeteria at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, and stocked up on one of my son's favorite breakfasts.


You never know what you'll find on the cafeteria salad bar at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center -- besides salad, that is.


This morning around 9, the salad bar held more than a dozen slices of pie, and no salad. Although I don't eat pie, they looked as if they were filled with cream cheese.


The first-floor cafeteria -- called the Garden Cafe -- is used by doctors, nurses and other hospital employees, in addition to visitors and other members of the public.


On my initial visit to the cafeteria about three weeks ago, I saw a tray of whipped cream with fresh strawberry slices on the fruit salad bar.


Today, walnuts and small cookies were nestled in the whipped cream, in addition to fresh strawberry slices.


A doctor I spoke to after my first visit said the cafeteria is one of the biggest profit centers at the hospital. 


He also said that when the menu was revamped to offer healthier choices, many employees complained, and the person in charge of that effort was let go.


Korean ramen


One of my 14-year-old son's favorite breakfasts is instant Shin Ramyun Noodle Soup (Gourmet Spicy), a Korean version of ramen, but he ate the last one in the cupboard this morning.


I bought this soup for him a few years ago, because it has one of the lowest sodium contents of such instant soups -- 43% of the recommended daily allowance. 


This morning, after cardiac rehab at the hospital in Englewood, I stopped at H Mart to pick up more. 


The Family Pack offered five 4.2-ounce packages for $4.99 or about $1 each, so I bought a box of 20 for $14.99 or about 75 cents each. They weren't on sale.


Using a Japanese-made soup spoon with fork tines, my son usually eats all the noodles and a little of the soup, throwing away much of the broth.  


The ingredients list is long, but "no MSG is added." 


Some of the ingredients are wheat flour, palm oil, powdered beef fat and beef stock; carmel, corn syrup, dehydrated vegetables, garlic, ginger, powdered sand-lance concentrate (a fish), sugar and tocopherols (antioxidant).


The ramyun is made in the U.S.A. by Nongshim America Inc., and has a "best before" date of November 2012.


I also picked up two H Mart prepared items, stir-fried vermicelli noodles with vegetables ($3.50) and radish kimchi ($2.75), each in a 16-ounce package.


I get the impression H Mart prepared food is cheaper than items from Jinga in Maspeth, N.Y., that are sold by the supermarket chain.


H Mart, 25 Lafayette Ave., Englewood; 
201-871-8822. Open seven days.


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