Working up an appetite on stroll down Broad Avenue in Palisades Park

Freshly made blood sausage, called soondae, is available at Moo Bong Ri, 108 Broad Ave. in Palisades Park, but you don't have to be a meat eater or love spicy food to enjoy a wide variety of Korean specialties in neighborhood restaurants, caterers, coffee houses and karaoke bars.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I've loved Korean food for nearly 20 years, but that doesn't make it any easier to pick a restaurant on Broad Avenue in Palisades Park.

The street has the biggest concentration of Korean food businesses in North Jersey.

On Saturday evening, with my wife and son out of town, I was free to choose a place to eat instead of returning to So Gong Dong, our favorite soft-tofu house, at 118 Broad Ave.

I walked up and down on both sides of Broad Avenue -- reading menus and looking over the shrink-wrapped packages of noodles, grilled fish and side dishes in catering shops -- and couldn't decide on whether to dine out or do take out.

I was reminded of how competitive and perishable the Korean restaurant business can be, noticing that many past favorites are closed or under new ownership.

I especially miss one place that offered a simple grilled fish accompanied by traditional side dishes of kimchi, tofu, seaweed and other delectable tidbits.

In the end, I went home empty handed, prepared a large pot of organic whole-wheat pasta with sardines in red sauce, and washed it down with a couple of glasses of red wine.

This Caffebene at Broad and West Homestead avenues, and a second Caffebene in Fort Lee, won't accept credit cards for purchases of coffee and food under $10.

Crome Signature Bakery and Cafe, 306-310 Broad Ave., is by far the biggest Korean coffee house I've seen in Palisades Park.

Cap Udon, a small restaurant at 198 Broad Ave., offers inexpensive meals, including $6.99 lunch specials. Specialties include noodles and kimbap, the addictive Korean seaweed-and-rice rolls.

So Moon Nan Jip, 238 Broad Ave., is widely considered one of the best restaurants for enjoying family meals of shrimp or thinly sliced meat cooked on the table over charcoal. You also get rice, about 10 side dishes and red-leaf lettuce for wrapping. There is a two-order minimum for cooking on the table.

Palisades Park enforces metered parking on Broad Avenue from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., except on Sundays. The touch-screen meters are tri-lingual. You can find free parking on side streets.

Hansang in Pal Park stands out with a generous array of side dishes

After we placed our lunch order at Hansang Korean Restaurant in Palisades Park, the server brought over complimentary side dishes of kimchi, tofu, vegetables and seaweed, arranging them in a circle around a thin seafood pancake, above and below.

The side dish of tofu, upper right, was served warm.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

With up to three dozen restaurants, caterers, coffee shops and other food businesses, Broad Avenue in Palisades Park is the natural starting point for any serious exploration of Korean food.

But you'll find more Korean restaurants on another borough street, Bergen Boulevard, and that's where I met two friends for lunch on Monday.

None of the Bergen Boulevard restaurants I tried several years ago are still there. 

I went inside three of the new or newish Korean places on Monday, and all looked promising.

Hansang, where we had lunch, laid out a total of nine complimentary side dishes, a larger number than most of the Korean restaurants I frequent regularly. 

Our entrees were Bibimbap with Octopus, Kimchi Stew, and Soft-Tofu Stew with Seafood, the last two made spicy ($11.99 to $13.99).

There was so much tasty food we couldn't finish our side dishes or panchan.

I had a few minor complaints:

We were seated next to what turned out to be a noisy service counter.

The complimentary seafood pancake wasn't cut into wedges, making it hard to share.

And the stone-plate bimbimbap -- rice and shredded vegetables topped with octopus -- came without an egg or gochujang, a spicy red-pepper paste that is supposed to be served on the side.

Hansang served a white or water kimchi, lower left, instead of the traditional cabbage kimchi with red pepper.

Bibimbap with Octopus was served on a hot stone plate.

A Soft-Tofu Stew with Seafood included an unusually large clam and head-on shrimp.

Kimchi Stew.

Details

Hansang Korean Restaurant, 520 Bergen Blvd., No. 8, Palisades Park; 1-201-592-1770. Open 7 days for lunch and dinner. 

In Little Seoul, a restaurant breaks the mold

Crab Cakes, above, and Caesar Salad, below, at the Korean-owned Crown Restaurant in Palisades Park. The restaurant opened on the site of a shuttered Greek diner.

The delicious salad came with a wedge of lemon and a crisp.

Dozens of restaurants, bakeries and caterers line Broad Avenue in Palisades Park, offering a wide array of dishes from Korea's healthy and colorful cuisine.

A few weeks ago, a new restaurant finally emerged from prolonged construction on the site of a shuttered Greek diner at Broad and East Brinkerhoff  avenues. 

Don't expect another diner or another mainstream Korean restaurant.

The menu at Crown Restaurant and Lounge offers tacos, pasta, pizza, salads, crab cakes and lettuce wraps, in addition to traditional Korean favorites.  

We had dinner there Saturday night, taking advantage of Happy Hour specials and ordering from a menu in use from 5 p.m. to the 2:30 a.m. closing.

Appetizers include grilled artichokes, hummus, a cheese plate and ceviche.

I started with a Happy Hour pint of Guinness Stout for $3.50, half the usual price, and a House Salad ($8).

My wife order another Happy Hour special, 10 Korean Wings in chili sauce for $6.

We shared a Classic Caesar Salad ($9), which I liked better than the one we had last weekend at Red Parrot Bistro in Englewood.

We ordered an entree called Lettuce Wrap ($13) -- Romaine lettuce leaves with cooked chicken, cucumber and mango.

Our other entrees were Crab Cakes ($16), which came under a blanket of salad, and Fish Jerky ($18), a Korean dish known as Jwee Po.

I was told rice was available on request, but the restaurant doesn't serve any of the side dishes or panchan that usually come with a Korean meal.

House Salad came with oil-and-vinegar dressing on the side.

Carrot and celery sticks are served with Korean Wings.

Lettuce Wrap with chicken, cucumber and mango.

Fish Jerky comes with chewy dried squid, left, and peanuts.

We were happy with all of our food, though I felt the sweet, leathery Fish Jerky with chewy squid and peanuts on the side is the kind of bar food that doesn't belong on a dinner menu.

It's a dish best consumed with many pints of cold beer or a bottle of soju. 

The young Korean-American men and women on the wait staff are eager to please, though the waiter taking our order showed his inexperience when he asked me which dressing we wanted with our Classic Caesar Salad.

Crown doesn't offer the low prices of a Korean soft-tofu house, but it's food is priced at about the same level as a meal in a cook-on-the-table barbecue restaurant, such as So Moon Non Jip, which is across the street.

I was disappointed Crown's menu didn't offer any fresh fish fillets or whole fish, a weakness I have found at most Korean-owned restaurants, which sell tons of squid, octopus, shrimp and shellfish. 

The restaurant serves breakfast from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. and lunch starting at 11:30, then closes for an hour at 4 p.m.

The Crown Restaurant interior is warm and inviting.

I was happy to see the closing of the Golden Eagle, a Greek diner, which town fathers allowed to operate around the clock.

However, many years ago, Palisades Park passed an ordinance ordering the growing number of 24-hour Korean restaurants to close for a few hours every night.

Crown Restaurant was under construction for 18 months, one of the employees said. I'm glad it's finally here.

It's also one of the few restaurants in the Little Seoul section of Palisades Park with a free parking lot. 

The entrance off the parking lot.

Crown Restaurant and Lounge, 243 Broad Ave., Palisades Park; 201-969-2796.

Web site: Crown Restaurant and Lounge

 

A fresh take on hand-made noodles

Image via Wikipedia

Dozens of Korean restaurant line Broad Avenue in Palisades Park, above, and some are on the second floor of buildings or enclosed malls, like the one on the right.

Two Korean restaurants, Son Ja Jang and Bunsik Nara, share the same address on Broad Avenue in Palisades Park. 


I walked into the latter in error on Sunday evening, but didn't have to go back out into the rain. A waitress pointed me to a door in the back that leads to Son Ja Jang, a Korean-style Chinese restaurant known for its hand-made noodles.


The simply decorated, L-shaped dining room has only one window -- into the kitchen, and through it you can see a cook stretching and pounding the noodle dough on a counter, loud enough to be heard through a closed door.


I ordered a big bowl of spicy soup with hand-made noodles and seafood ($9.99), and started eating my side dishes, cubed radish kimchi and half-moons of Korean pickles.


Then I saw a waitress deliver two large, divided bowls to men at a table across the way. My waiter said the bowls hold hand-made noodles on one side and seafood or meat on the other, so I know what I'm going to have next time.


My soup had a beautiful, deep-red broth perfectly seasoned with red pepper, and hand-made noodles with shredded vegetables and seafood -- one large mussel, one large clam, a shrimp and several pieces of chewy squid.


This was a deeply satisfying dish and I lifted the bowl to my lips to drain every last drop of the spicy broth. Another seafood noodle soup, labeled "very hot" on the menu, is $10.99, and may be a larger portion.


The noodles were thicker than the hand-made ones at Chinese Mandarin Restaurant, but not as elastic or as chewy. (See post, My order causes a commotion.)


I dipped some of the noodles into a small portion of salty black bean paste that came with my kimchi.


A specialty at Son Ja Jang is jajangmyun -- hand-made noodles bathed in spicy black bean paste with onions and ground meat.


Son Ja Jang Restaurant, 232 Broad Ave., Palisades Park;
 201-944-7777. Look for a sign over a glass door leading
 to doctors' offices. 

My order causes a commotion

Image by Susan NYC via Flickr

A noodle maker like this one is at work in Palisades Park.

What is that racket coming from the kitchen?


Not long after I placed my order, I could hear a pounding behind me. I stopped eating my kimchi and Korean pickles, put down my chopsticks and jumped up.


I walked over to the open kitchen doors and saw a cook, dressed all in white with his arms spread out to the side, holding a thick rope of noodles, then pounding them on the counter in front of him.


I was lured to the Mandarin Chinese Restaurant in Palisades Park on Friday night by signs in second-floor windows: "Hand-made noodles."


The restaurant is across a side street from my favorite soft-tofu restaurant, So Gong Dong.


But the signs don't tell the whole story. When you order the hand-made noodles at this Korean-owned Chinese restaurant, they are made to order.


The restaurant uses hand-made noodles in more than a dozen dishes, including the noodles with spicy bean sauce I ordered ($8.95).


About five minutes after the pounding from the kitchen ended, the waitress brought me a bowl of long, wonderfully elastic and chewy noodles and a smaller bowl of black-bean sauce with onions and, I learned too late, ground beef.


I also got side dishes of cubed radish kimchi, pickles and raw onion, and more bean sauce.


There was too much bean sauce and it was a bit too salty for me, but I finished the hand-made noodles and plan to return to try them in a seafood-and-vegetable sauce or in hot soup.


This simple dinner of noodles, kimchi and pickles proved to be very satisfying, and all I needed a few hours later was fruit and cheese.


The pleasant Chinese decor includes some tables behind screens and others near the windows. 


Broad Avenue in Palisades Park once was a bustling street crowded with families looking for their next restaurant meal, but lately it has a faded look.


There are a surprising number of empty storefronts, including the Orange Tree clothing store, which is being renovated.


The Golden Eagle Diner has been surrounded by plywood walls for months, and any construction seems to have been halted. 


A few blocks away, a glass office-and-retail building is going up on the site of the old post office. 


Mandarin Chinese Restaurant, 110 Broad Ave., 
Second Floor, Palisades Park; 201-313-0121.