By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR
Another snowstorm put a damper on our Sunday night plans to celebrate the Chinese New Year at Lotus Cafe in Hackensack.
Luckily, we live within the restaurant's delivery zone, and I picked up the phone and placed our order.
We ordered one Year of the Sheep Special (hold the lamb), a four-course meal for $29.95, and supplemented that with three other dishes.
A second helping of Lotus Cafe fish and vegetables, without brown rice, included snow pea leaves, Chinese broccoli and crunchy snow peas and water chestnuts. |
Our Chinese New Year Special, a fixed-priced four-course meal, included a Lobster Spring Roll and Chinese mustard. |
Fish, vegetables, brown rice
For the Chinese New Year Special, I chose Hot and Sour Seafood Soup and Flounder with Snow Pea Leaves.
Other entree choices were filet mignon, duck either of two ways or jumbo shrimp.
For an appetizer, we got a Lobster Spring Roll and Grilled Chicken Skewers. Dessert was ice cream.
We also ordered Beef with Mustard Greens and Chili Pepper ($14.95), Prawns with crunchy Snow Peas ($16.95) and Chinese Broccoli with fresh garlic ($9.95).
All of the food was delicious, and I washed it down with the bottle of Yuengling Original Black & Tan beer I was planning to take to the Hackensack Avenue BYO.
And we have leftovers for breakfast and dinner today.
Lotus Cafe, 450 Hackensack Ave., Hackensack, in the Home Depot Shopping Center; 201-488-7070. BYO.
Sweet potatoes are less starchy
Sweet potatoes, baked or mashed, are a cornerstone of the no-bread, no pizza, no meat diet I've been following for five years.
They're less starchy than yams or conventional potatoes, and widely available at ShopRite, Trader Joe's and Costco Wholesale.
The first two offer both conventional and organic sweet potatoes, and Trader Joe's has the best deals.
I often eat sweet potatoes for breakfast to supplement prepared food from Korean supermarkets and homemade dishes.
Earthbound Organic Spring Mix and Sunset-brand Romana Tomatoes dressed in organic extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. |
Comfort food from the Jamaican kitchen includes fried sweet plantains and boiled green banana as foils for the hot peppers in a breakfast of ackee (a bland fruit) and salted Alaskan pollock. |
Have you tried Lan Sheng in Wallington?
ReplyDeleteNo. Have you? Was it reviewed in the paper?
DeleteI see from Google it's a branch of an NYC restaurant that got 1 Michelin star.
Delete