Trying a new dish at the tofu house

Tofu Soup Ramyun at So Gong Dong in Palisades Park.

Editor's note: On the menu today is a new dish at So Gong Dong in Palisades Park, a shrinking milk gallon, a new brown rice mixture and a couple of my pet peeves when eating out.

In the decade or more that I've been eating Korean soft-tofu stew, my order has rarely varied.

I usually order my stew with clams, oysters, mixed seafood or head-on shrimp, and ask for it to be made "more spicy."

I've tried soft tofu at restaurants in Ridgewood, Fort Lee and elsewhere, but always come back to So Gong Dong, a second-floor tofu house in Palisades Park.

So Gong Dong has undergone some changes in recent months, including an expanded menu.

One of the additions is Tofu Soup Ramyun, which adds those krinkly ramyun or ramen noodles to a big bowl of tofu stew.

The serving is about twice as large as the stone bowl of tofu stew, but you don't get a stone bowl of steamed white rice to eat with it. 

The cost is $10.99, including tax, compared to $9.99 for a meal of tofu stew, rice, fresh egg, and four side dishes, including cabbage kimchi and bean sprouts. 

Side dishes and fresh eggs at So Gong Dong.

A large grilled vegetable-and-seafood pancake is $11.99.

I dived into the side dishes on Saturday night, we asked for more, and when my Tofu Soup Ramyun arrived, broke an egg into the hot broth.

Later, I ate the soft-boiled yolk over the noodles for a taste treat. This was a nice change of pace, and a little lighter than eating a large portion of white rice.

So Gong Dong, 118 Broad Ave., 2nd Floor, Palisades Park; 201-313-5550. Free parking on side streets.

Leftover wild king salmon and organic brown rice show up for breakfast.

Trying a new fish 

At Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, fresh wild-caught sockeye salmon has given way to wild king salmon -- a change that might appeal to shoppers who prefer the mild taste of farmed Atlantic salmon.

King salmon ($11.99 a pound) doesn't have the robust flavor or deep orange-red color of sockeye.

My wife bought a fillet of just under 1 pound, started it in a non-stick pan, then finished it in the oven with roasted pineapple salsa.

It was cooked through, but remained moist.

Of course, wild king salmon gets its color naturally from eating shrimp and krill in the ocean, unlike artificially colored farmed salmon.

The Lactaid container, left, is many ounces shy of a gallon, right.

Trying a new milk

In the last couple of months, I've been buying a large container of Lactaid Lactose Free 1% Milk when it was on sale at ShopRite, thinking it was a full gallon.

The large container is $6.19 on sale, compared to $3.39 for a half-gallon of ShopRite Lactose Free Milk. 

Instead of getting a better deal, I have been getting a lot less milk than in two half-gallons -- only 96 ounces in the Lactaid container, compared to 128 ounces in two half-gallons from ShopRite.

So, I was unwittingly paying more -- 1 cent-plus per ounce -- by  buying Lactaid on sale.

Half-gallons of premium orange juice sold in supermarkets long ago shrank to 59 ounces, but CostcoWholesale still sells a full-half gallon of Tropicana.

An uncleared outdoor table at It's Greek To Me.

Losing my appetite

I agreed to meet a friend for lunch today at It's Greek To Me in Englewood, a restaurant my family patronized frequently before we moved to Hackensack.

But when I sat down at one of the outdoor tables, I noticed the mess on the next table, including several olive pits on the shiny metal surface.

There is no greater turnoff in a restaurant than uncleared dishes and the associated mess.

A waiter brought menus, then a busboy cleared the dishes and olive pits, but failed to clean the table itself.

When my friend arrived, I got up and suggested we eat at Baumgart's Restaurant, across Palisade Avenue. 

Sushi rolls at Baumgart's Restaurant.

Stir-Fried Asparagus with Crispy Tofu and brown rice.

When I was looking over the menu at Greek To Me, I noticed that entrees begin at $15 and several whole fish are offered at "market price" -- including red mullet -- an apparent reaction to the closing of Nisi Estiatorio, a high-end Greek fish house that operated a few blocks away on Grand Avenue.

Now, Greek To Me has become a pricy restaurant.

Then, I ordered Stir-Fried Asparagus with Crispy Tofu and brown rice at Baumgart's, stared at the small portion and muttered, Is that all I get for $9?

For 99 cents more, I could buy a full meal at a Korean tofu house.

   

Korean 7 Grains mixture stands in for bread at breakfast.

Trying a new brown rice

On Sunday, I picked up a 10-pound bag of 7 Grains, a Korean mixture of brown rices, small beans and barley, using an H Mart 30th anniversary coupon.

The bag was on sale for $13.99 at the Englewood H Mart, but cost only $9.99 with the coupon.

The only negative is that 7 Grains must be soaked for 3 hours before you prepare it in an electric rice cooker or pressure cooker.

I used the former, and loved the mixture's nutty taste with organic eggs and leftover collard greens.

Jersey Fresh or fresh deception?

The smaller peach, upper left, is from South Carolina and labeled "Cotton Hope."

At the Paramus ShopRite this morning, I found boxes of South Carolina and New Jersey fruit below a sign for "Jersey Fresh" peaches at $1.49 a pound.

Many of the South Carolina peaches, labeled "Cotton Hope," were in boxes carrying the name of Sunny Slope Farms in Bridgeton.

The other peaches were yellow and carried yellow labels with a number, but no name. Did I get any Jersey Fresh peaches?

My only other purchase was a gallon of Lactaid 1% Lactose-Free Milk, which was on sale for $6.19 (a savings of 60 cents) -- for the second or third week in a row -- or less than the cost of two half-gallons of ShopRite Lactose-Free Milk at $3.39 each.

At the supermarket, organic lactose-free milk prices are defying gravity

Lactose-free milk at Walmart in Teterboro (2016).

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

At $4.99 or more for a half-gallon of organic, lactose-free milk, avoiding cramps and gas from eating dairy is getting expensive.

This summer, I started buying conventional, lactose-free, 2%-milk at the expanded grocery section of the Target in Hackensack, where a half-gallon of the store brand cost as little as $2.89 in August.

I was at the ShopRite in Englewood to fill prescriptions on Tuesday, and saw organic, lactose-free milk for as much as $5.19 a half-gallon. Instead, I bought the non-organic store brand for $3.39.

Lactaid, one of the first widely available brands of lactose-free milk, explains on its Web site: 

"Lactose intolerance is the inability to digest a sugar called lactose that’s found mainly in milk and dairy products.

"Normally, the small intestine produces an enzyme called lactase , which breaks down lactose into two simple sugars, glucose and galactose, that can be absorbed into the bloodstream.

"People whose bodies don’t make enough lactase can’t fully digest lactose, causing mild to uncomfortable side effects.

"Some people have a higher chance of being lactose intolerant. These groups include Hispanics, African-Americans, Asians and people of Jewish descent. It also affects adults more than children, since the body produces less lactase enzyme as people age."

Gas, cramping

Signs and symptoms are gas, cramping, bloating and diarrhea (sounds like my recent hospital stay, with constipation standing in for diarrhea).

Lactase, the enzyme that breaks down lactose, also is available in a pill, which you can eat before or with such problem foods as cheese. I buy mine at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, but the warehouse store doesn't carry lactose-free milk.

Although Lactaid milk has been widely available for a decade or more, you never see lactose-free milk served at Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts or in restaurants, forcing you to carry lactase pills or drink coffee black, as I do when I'm not at home.

Some yogurt and yogurt products are said to be naturally lactose free, including a sliced yogurt cheese available at Trader Joe's with and without jalapeno peppers.

Doctors talk food

In all the years I've been going to Dr. Glenn Brauntuch, my general practitioner in Englewood, he's never asked me what I eat, commenting only when I started gaining weight and urging me to eat less.

"I love food," my 228 pounds protested last year.

"Just love it less," he replied.

I was a food writer and news copy editor for a daily newspaper until 2008, so any food talk usually involved restaurant recommendations or complaints.

A decade or more ago, Brauntuch detected my heart murmur -- the swooshing sound of blood passing through my aortic valve, which was calcified and wouldn't close completely.

Heart murmurs aren't related to diet, he said, so I didn't have to stop eating milk, yogurt and other dairy food.

Open-heart surgery

Last Friday, my sluggish valve was replaced during open-heart surgery at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center. 

When I was discharged on Tuesday, I was given a sheet of paper from the hospital outlining what I should and should not eat -- the most comprehensive advice doctors have ever given me about food.

Foods to avoid include high-fat bakery goods, fried vegetables or those made with butter, cheese or cream sauce; fried fruit or fruit with butter or cream;  butter; whole milk and other dairy products; smoked meat or poultry; frankfurters, sausage, cold cuts and other cured meats; too many egg yolks and all canned beans.

Except for canned beans, I've avoided all of those foods for many years, preferring heart-healthy fresh fruit and vegetables; wild-caught, cold-water fish (salmon, sardines and so forth), and almonds.

In the past year, I've lost 30 pounds with a regimen of five weekly visits to the gym, weight training twice a week and virtually eliminating bread and pizza. And I was out of the hospital only four days after surgery.

More on those ridiculous little signs

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I must be a glutton for punishment. When I needed a half-gallon of lactose-free milk for my morning coffee, I drove over to ShopRite in Hackensack, the supermarket with hard-to-read or missing price signs, and found myself in front of the organic milk section again.

I stooped, I squinted, I bent at the waist, trying to make out the prices for several brands on the small signs. Another problem cropped up Friday: The brand of organic, low-fat, lactose-free milk I wanted had a use-by date of the next day, and there were no store employees anywhere nearby to see if there was more in the back. Plus its price sign was missing, as it was on my last visit.

So, I selected the Lactaid-brand, but its price sign also was missing. At the register, I learned it was $4.99 -- 80 cents more than the brand I wanted. 


On the way to the register, I stopped at the courtesy counter to report the missing price signs. We'll see what, if anything, happens.

Why go back to the same ShopRite? It's the closest one to my home, and I had seven or eight bags of plastic bags and food wrappers I wanted to recycle.