Searching for the best kimchi in North Jersey

At H&Y Marketplace in Ridgefield, fresh fish are displayed on plenty of ice.

Women making kimchi in the store offer samples to customers.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Several weeks ago, the Oh family closed their celebrated kimchi factory in Englewood, promising to reopen at a Korean supermarket in Ridgefield.

The family chose H&Y Marketplace, not the much larger Super H Mart down the road.

The Oh family's handmade kimchi is preservative- and MSG-free, and the best commercial product in North Jersey.

I've been eating their spicy, fermented cabbage, radish and cucumber kimchis for more than a decade, and always had a bottle in the refrigerator.

So, on Saturday, I drove to H&Y Marketplace, which I haven't visited since the store opened a couple of years ago, and discovered it's the perfect place for Arirang Kimchi.

The smaller market is far more manageable than H Mart, and on weekends, customers are offered free samples of Korean food made in the store -- including pork sausage, seaweed-wrapped brown rice and kimchi.

Other samples were raw conch, and homemade tofu, also available with black sesame seeds.

Fluke Tang ($9.99) is a container of fresh fish and other seafood, as well as vegetables, for making soup at home.

I saw kimchi being made in the store, but it wasn't Arirang kimchi.

At customer service, I was told the store had invited Arirang kimchi to set up shop, but it still hadn't happened.

I purchased a half-gallon of the Kimganae Kimchi being made in the store ($9.99), and jumped in the car to buy rice and spicy soup at the Super H Mart.

I had to park in the back of the large lot, and the store was a madhouse, compared to H&Y Marketplace.

I usually shop at H Marts in Englewood and Little Ferry, and it took awhile to find the rice and soup I wanted, fighting the crowd all the way.

At the Super H Mart, a 15-pound bag of Kokuho Yellow Label Rice from California was on sale for $10.99, a savings of $3, but other H Marts discount it more.

A 16-serving box of Shin Ramyun spicy instant noodle soup was $11.99, also a savings of $3. Previously, I wrote the box contained 20 servings.

Update

Vicky Oh of Arirang Kimchi says construction in one of the stores at the H&Y mall in Ridgefield has just started.

She expects Arirang Kimchi to open in December or January.

H&Y Marketplace is at 1 Remsen Place, off Broad Avenue, in Ridgefield. Telephone: 201-943-7400.

A Syrian lunch brings back warm memories

A spicy dip of sweet and hot peppers at Aleppo Restaurant in Paterson.

The Arabic Salad is dressed with olive oil, lemon juice and mint.

We stopped for a tasty lunch of dips, salad and fried fish at my favorite South Paterson restaurant before heading over to see the Great Falls, now part of the National Park system.

Aleppo Restaurant, at Main and Thomas streets, was quiet before the start of Ramadan on Thursday night.

We ordered muhammara, a spicy dip made from sweet red peppers and crushed hot Aleppo pepper ($4); arayes, meat-filled, grilled pocket bread ($6); hummus with tahini ($4), and a large chopped Arabic salad dressed with olive oil, lemon juice and mint ($8).

Four of us also shared an entree of beautifully fried, meaty whiting fillets with fluffy white rice ($10). 

 

My son's favorite dish is grilled pocket bread stuffed with seasoned meat.

Two meaty whiting fillets came with fluffy white rice.

As I was cutting into the fried fish, I was flooded with memories of my Syrian-born mother's Sephardic Jewish kitchen in Brooklyn, where she fried fish for lunch on Friday afternoons. 

Occasionally, she would ask me to go to the fish market on Kings Highway, a few blocks from our home, and bring back fresh flounder or sole fillets, which were wrapped in white paper and placed in a brown paper bag.

One of my strongest food-shopping memories is going with my mother to buy chicken at a live-poultry market on McDonald Avenue, but I didn't like the strong smell and never returned.

Our Friday night dinner always included a whole chicken with potatoes, a platter of white rice and a bowl of sour sauce with small meatballs, which were eaten over the rice.

Aleppo Restaurant's creamy hummus is made with plenty of tahini.

The meal starts with fresh, chewy pocket bread, pickles and hot peppers.

At our lunch on Thursday, I broke my no-bread diet to scoop up hummus and muhammara with thin, chewy pocket bread, even to wrap and eat a pickle or two.

I finished the meal with a cup of thick, medium-sweet Turkish coffee (939 Main St., Paterson; 973-977-2244).

Don't forget Fattal's

I don't leave South Paterson without visiting Fattal's Bakery on Main Street.

You'll find string cheese at Fattal's, bottom. I recall seeing my mother braiding fresh cheese near the stove in our Brooklyn kitchen after she softened it in hot water. 

Fattal's Bakery is about 2 blocks away from Aleppo Restaurant, and it has its own parking lot, so we drove over for cans of Moroccan sardines and a pack of crushed Aleppo pepper (975-77 Main St., Paterson; 973-742-7125). 

Fattal's also has a butcher, spices by the pound, a pastry counter and a small lunch area.

Aleppo pepper is $6.99 a pound. 

Al Shark sardines still are 99 cents a can.

Does size matter?

Both of these bottles of extra-virgin olive oil at ShopRite are marked 1 liter.

 On Wednesday, I went to the Englewood ShopRite for more Summer Can Can Sale items, including 1-liter bottles of ShopRite extra-virgin olive oil from Italy for $4.99 each and Classico Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce at two bottles for $4.

I also picked up two pints of Jersey Blueberries for $4 after seeing them for $3.49 a pint earlier in the day at the Paramus ShopRite. 

$5.99 takeout dinner

Red snapper with pasta, vegetables and stuffed mushroom.

I've been pleasantly surprised when stopping at Jerry's Gourmet and More in Englewood in the late afternoon on Wednesdays to find several Meals To Go -- restaurant-quality takeout dinners for $7.99.

After 4 p.m., they are marked down to $5.99. I picked up four dinners -- Red Snapper Marechiaro (2), Shrimp Fra Diavolo and Pork Loin.

You can see the size of the meaty red snapper fillet in the photo above -- about one-third of a dinner plate. Wonderful.

The woman at the register said she believes Jerry's is preparing more Meals To Go than in the past, when they would be gone by early afternoon. Bravo (410 S. Dean St., Englewood; 201-871-7108).


Seeing red

I always try to have a bottle of Arirang Cabbage Kimchi in the fridge.

Korean-style side dishes: H Mart's stewed tofu and seasoned bean sprouts, Arirang kimchi from Englewood and Italian olives, $3.99 a pound at Jerry's Gourmet & More.

Two organic eggs with Aleppo pepper and leftovers from New Zen Kitchen in Teaneck.

Scenes from Costco

The canned fish aisle at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

$5.99 watermelons as far as you can see.

Her oversized shopping cart runneth over.

I went to Costco Wholesale in Hackensack today for more fresh wild sockeye salmon fillets ($8.99 a pound).

I plan to prepare them with ripe peaches, and will let you know how it turns out.

I also splurged on four 6-ounce cans of Bumble Bee Fancy Lump Crab Meat from Indonesia ($14.69).

The crab meat will go into my canned-fish salad with pink salmon and yellow-fin light tuna, also from Costco, along with Dijon mustard, fresh lime juice, cumin and chopped red onion or celery.

Cereal with sugar

Jersey Blueberries over Trader Joe's Bran Flakes.

I bought a second box of Trader Joe's Raisin Bran, and looked more closely at the label ($2.79 for 20 ounces).

I was surprised to see "sugar" listed as one of the ingredients. Sugar also is used in Trader Joe's Bran Flakes cereal ($1.99 for 17.3 ounces).

At least, they aren't sweetened with high fructose corn syrup.

A welcome sight at Trader Joe's in Paramus were small sweet potatoes, which I haven't seen at Costco for several weeks.

I bought two 2-pound net bags of these North Carolina-grown beauties for $1.69 each.

Vegan kimchi, breakfast fish, beef update

Image via Wikipedia
Vegan Kimchi is now available in Englewood.

With its heavy reliance on beef, you wouldn't think Korean cuisine attracts any vegans, though vegetarians who eat fish and eggs can find plenty to eat.


Now, an Englewood-based company has introduced a vegan cabbage kimchi that is made without the usual salted shrimp and anchovy sauce.


The ingredient list for Arirang-brand Vegan Kimchi is short: Napa cabbage, daikon redish, salt, red pepper, garlic, ginger, water, sugar and scallion. No additives or preservatives are used.


The nutritional label on Arirang's standard cabbage kimchi, called mahk kimchi, says there are 160 milligrams of sodium in 1 ounce of the traditional, fermented product or about 7% of the daily recommended amount.


Without salted shrimp and anchovy sauce, the peppery Vegan Kimchi probably has even less sodium. It is available in 19-ounce jars where it is made:


Gaboh Inc., 191 W. Englewood Ave., Englewood; 201-503-1314.


Fish for breakfast, dinner


I had another terrific egg-and-fish breakfast at The Golden Grill in Teaneck.


Last time, I ordered the restaurant's fish cakes with my eggs, but this time, I asked for whiting, two eggs over easy and hash browns, but no toast. 


There were two hot, crispy fillets of fried whiting on top of my potatoes, and I could break off pieces and soak them in the wonderful yolks. Everything was even better with a liberal amount of Cholula Mexican hot sauce from a bottle on the table.


The breakfast special is $6.95, and tea was an extra $1.25. A great, meatless breakfast.


Last night, I had one of the great, meatless Meals To Go from Jerry's Gourmet in Englewood -- a multi-course, restaurant-quality dinner for sensible appetites.


The centerpiece was a small, wild-caught grouper fillet in roasted-pepper sauce, served with a thick artichoke frittata, five or six shrimp, roasted potatoes and a big, stuffed mushroom -- a total of 12 ounces.


Even though I gave my wife the penne with pancetta in cream sauce that came with my meal in exchange for a tangle of cooked thin, white asparagus from her meal, I was pleasantly full with the addition of a small salad I made.


Our other meals from Jerry's were barbecued chicken wings and roasted tilapia.


For years, the Meals To Go were only $6.99. But now Jerry's has raised them to $7.99, still a good deal and one of the best takeout values in North Jersey. 


The prepared meals are in a refrigerated case in the main part of Jerry's, though they are usually gone by early afternoon. Don't reheat the food in the plastic container; plate it first before popping it into the microwave.


The Golden Grill, 1379 Queen Anne Road, Teaneck; 201-837-1078.


Jerry's Gourmet and More, 410 S. Dean St., Englewood; 201-871-7108.


Australian beef update


After I published my last post, O say can you taste the grass?, I was contacted by Meat and Livestock Australia Ltd. (MLA) with corrected information on how beef is raised Down Under.


MLA said cattle raised for Nature's Reserve beef, a brand sold at ShopRite supermarkets in North Jersey, receive some growth hormones, even though they are free range and grass fed.


Originally, MLA said neither the beef or the lamb I wrote about contained growth hormones. Now, it says only the grass-fed lamb is hormone-free. 


Related posts

• Beef isn't the only choice for Korean BBQ (doyoureallyknowwhatyoureeating.blogspot.com)
• Kimchi is the star of a Korean meal for 10 (doyoureallyknowwhatyoureeating.blogspot.com)
• When meat divides a family (doyoureallyknowwhatyoureeating.blogspot.com)

Costco is catering to Korean customers

Image by The Toad via Flickr

Costco has always been popular with the growing population of Korean-Americans in North Jersey (the discount merchant has warehouses in their native country). But now, the store in Hackensack is starting to stock kimchi and ramyun -- two staples of the Korean diet.

For a couple of years now, I've watched Korean customers load their carts with enormous packages of beef and farmed salmon (they don't seem to appreciate the benefits of wild fish and naturally raised beef and pork). 

But several weeks ago, there were samples of a new item -- cabbage kimchi -- being given out. I looked at the label and MSG was among the ingredients, so I continue to get my kimchi at Gaboh Inc. in Englewood, where the Arirang kimchi is made without that artificial flavor enhancer. And last week, I saw a woman with a big package of  instant ramyun bowls. I asked her if she thought the noodle soup was cheaper at Costco than at H Mart, the chain of Korean supermarkets in Bergen County, and she said yes.


This afternoon, my wife returned from Costco with 20 packages of Nong Shim-brand spicy instant ramyun that my son has been eating for a couple of years, because of the relatively low sodium content (photo). At $12.99, it works out to about 65 cents per serving, compared with $1 at H Mart for a package of five.

Improvising a breakfast frittata

A couple of days ago, I saw a recipe for a frittata with kimchi on the Arirang kimchi Web site and this morning, I started pulling items from my fridge to see what I could improvise. I eat kimchi as a side dish most mornings, so why not incorporate it into the main dish, I thought.

I had a jar of Arirang cabbage kimchi I bought in Englewood, egg whites, drug- and preservative-free bacon, thin-sliced Swiss cheese and a little leftover sauteed spinach from dinner Friday night.

Image via Wikipedia

I chopped up spinach, kimchi and cheese, put them into a bowl, added the liquid egg whites -- enough to fill a 12-inch non-stick frying pan -- and seasoned them with salt, pepper and an organic  spice mixture from Costco. I also sliced a plum tomato.


I added a couple of ounces of extra-virgin olive oil to the pan and poured in the egg mixture. After it cooked a while and the edge was set, I placed three strips of bacon on top, along with tomato slices, salting them individually (the tomato, not the bacon). The frittata spent about 8 to 10 minutes on the stove and another 6 to 8 minutes under the broiler, until it was sizzling all over and the cheese oozed.

Image via Wikipedia

I ate it with warm Syrian bread, hummus and seasoned tofu from H Mart in Little Ferry. I liked how the kimchi still had some crunch, but realized I had put way too little into the egg mixture. Next time, I'll add enough so its presence shouts, not whispers.