A restaurant makes you forget the recession

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A selection of panchan or banchan, side dishes served with every Korean meal.

When I first started going to North Jersey's Korean restaurants nearly 15 years ago, the value was outstanding.

Lunches and dinners often included six or more side dishes or panchan -- small, colorful portions of vegetables, tofu, fish and meat that were arrayed around your main dish.

Yong Su San in Englewood Cliffs served 10 such dishes, including a small broiled mackerel, until it closed.

But as food prices rose and especially after the recession hit, the number of side dishes declined. 

So Gong Dong, our favorite tofu house in Palisades Park, now serves four, which is pretty much the norm nowadays, though I occasionally encounter six or seven. 

Though the value isn't as good as in the past, a belly busting meal of soft tofu with seafood, rice and side dishes is only $10, including tax.

So I was bowled over Thursday night, when we made an unplanned stop at Pine Hill, a Korean restaurant in Paramus, and the waitress brought out 10 side dishes after we placed our order. That wasn't all.

My bibimbap, a rice dish made in a stone bowl, came with miso soup, and a waiter later brought us a stone-bowl egg souffle.

Only two of the side dishes disappointed -- some iceberg lettuce with dressing and a portion of tired-looking corn kernels that was a poor imitation of mixed vegetables. 

I loved the taste of the cabbage kimchi, and the waitress brought a second dish when we finished the first. There also was cooked tofu in batter, shredded radish, greens and, yes, a small, whole mackerel.

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Sone-bowl bibimbap with a raw egg yolk.

I asked the waitress to hold the ground beef from my rice-and-vegetable dish, which was topped with a fried egg and cost $13.95. I couldn't finish it.

My wife's soft-tofu stew with seafood was $10.95, but she complained there wasn't enough shrimp in it. My son loved his spicy soup of egg, noodles and bone-in short ribs ($13.95). Both of those dishes came with steamed rice.


Pine Hill Restaurant, 123 Paramus Road, Paramus; 201-843-0170. 
Open for lunch and dinner.

Eating out here and there

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Three meals out in two days is unusual for me, but with my wife and son away, preparing food for one can get monotonous.


Breakfast at home: Sandwich of four canned fish salad -- light Italian tuna, red salmon, Moroccan sardines and anchovies, with chopped onion and garlic, cumin and Dijon mustard -- topped with cheese and fresh arugula. 

Dinner at home: A foccacia from Jerry's in Englewood, with a little grated cheese and a lot of fresh arugula or organic spinach on top with extra-virgin olive oil and salt. 

Snack at home: Forkfuls of canned fish salad or leftover foccacia.

Uncle Paulie's in Maywood

On Friday, I met two friends for lunch at Uncle Paulie's Puro Sabor, a Peruvian restaurant where we had the $7.50 lunch special, which includes soup or appetizer, entree and a soft drink. 

I chose boiled potatoes in a cream sauce for my appetizer and squash stew with fried fish and a big mound of white rice, a tasty, filling meal. Uncle Paulie's is popular for lunch and the waitress had a hard time keeping up with drink requests. My food, especially the rice, could have been hotter. 


Uncle Paulie's Puro Sabor, 109A W. Pleasant Ave., 
Maywood. 201-368-2400.


Man'na in Teaneck


Friday evening, I had dinner at a small Korean restaurant with traditional and fusion dishes, and counter service.


This is the home of the Korean value meal (small and large), which includes a main dish, salad, pasta salad, miso soup, kimchi or pickled radish, and water or soda. 

I chose the bibimbap large value meal ($7.99) -- a big steel bowl with rice and chopped vegetables topped with a fried egg. (I told the counter worker I didn't want  the usual ground beef with the dish.) You mix everything up and pour on hot red pepper sauce from a squeeze bottle. Lip-smacking good.


I also ordered a spicy kimchi taco ($1.50), but was surprised to find a little ground meat in it, because there is no indication of that on the menu. The Tex-Mex preparation included shredded lettuce and cheese.


Man'na Modern Asian Cuisine & Frozen Yogurt,
1168 Teaneck Road. 201-357-8782.


Iano's Rosticceria in Princeton

I drove down to Princeton on Saturday to sell old jazz LPs, and hoped to eat at Eno Terra, a restaurant in the neighboring hamlet of Kingston known for fresh, local food. I got there at noon, having skipped breakfast, and was told the enoteca that serves light fare wouldn't open until 2.


Back in Princeton, I briefly flirted with the idea of having an expensive lunch at Lahiere's, the well-known Contemporary American-French restaurant that has been there since 1919. Maybe a seafood risotto and a salad, I thought as I looked over the menu posted near the entrance. 

Instead, I found a pizzeria with a beautiful grilled eggplant and fresh mozzarella salad that came with tomato and olives and a couple of small rolls ($7.50). I drank freshly made, unsweetened ice tea. I sat in a booth and looked at a proverb in Italian and English that is hanging in a gold frame on the wall: "You never age at the dinner table." 

Next door at Twist, a self-service yogurt shop, I had some non-fat fruit yogurt topped with fresh berries (49 cents an ounce).


Iano's Rosticceria, 86 Nassau St., 
Princeton. 609-924-5515.

Today's food coverage in The Record

In The Record's Better Living section today, on F-2, we read about an "authentic" Greek place that serves burgers, mozzarella sticks and Buffalo wings. I and many other North Jerseyans shop frequently at Korean markets, but an item about Korean black garlic lists no Korean store that stocks it.

These two food reports, an illustrated recipe and a story about wine ($12 a bottle and higher) are all the newspaper could muster on a Wednesday, when readers in the past could feast on an entire Food section.

The Food section was dropped by Publisher Stephen A. Borg, who promised readers food coverage "every day." Unfortunately, despite an occasional house ad touting "every day" food news, there is no food coverage on Thursdays and a vast majority of Saturdays. Monday's coverage usually consists of a single recipe for vegetarians.

http://eyeontherecord.blogspot.com/

We'll eat, talk and shop for food

Please join me for an exploration of some of North Jersey's great ethnic food enclaves.

Initially, I will be conducting walking tours of Middle Eastern and Korean restaurants and food shops that will begin with a great lunch. Later, I'll be adding a Latino food tour, starting with lunch at the best Cuban sandwich shop in Hudson County.

I will need a minimum of four people for each tour. Please contact me for details at vsasson@hotmail.com.

At $9.99, this meal remains a bargain

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Soft -tofu stew.

I'm not sure how it happened, but Korean soft tofu has become my son's favorite meal to eat out. When he was asked where he wanted to go for his birthday last weekend, he immediately directed me to our favorite tofu house in Palisades Park, the second-floor restaurant called So Gong Dong.

I have been eating soft tofu for more than 10 years and like it spicy. The tofu stew, steamed rice and free side dishes are enough for me, but my son likes to order dumplings or beef barbecue, too. Three years ago, So Gong Dong charged $7.99 for the tofu stew and six side dishes. Today, the meal is $9.99 (including tax), but only four side dishes are served. Still, this meal gives us a feeling of well being and we consider it a bargain. Ten varieties are available, including plain, oyster, beef and pork.

It's a great introduction to Korean food, because you can order it four ways, from "no spice" to "more spicy." Koreans call it sundubu tchigae and it's healthy and filling. First, you get the side dishes: crunchy cabbage kimchi, cucumber kimchi, bean sprouts and raw squid in a spicy red sauce. They are replenished without prompting. The tofu stew arrives at the table in a stone bowl, bubbling furiously, hot enough to cook the raw egg you're given to break into it. A second hot stone bowl is filled with steamed white rice.

Some people spoon the rice into a smaller bowl and then cover it with tofu stew. Others dip a spoonful of rice into the reddish broth or alternate the bland rice with the spicy stew. You can empty the stone bowl with rice and loosen the stuff that sticks to the bottom with tea or you can empty the bowl and peel off the toasted remainder. There is no right or wrong way to eat the meal.

Look around. The other customers seem happy. You often see families or couples enjoying themselves.  You'll know the married couples when you see the man reading the newspaper during the meal. When you get the bill, the $9.99 is rounded up to $10, but no tax is added. The other prices, such as $7.99 for dumpings, also are rounded up a penny.

So Gong Dong, 118 Broad Ave.,
Second Floor, Palisades Park; 201-313-8900.