Portuguese food delivery in Hackensack could be our new Chinese

Grilled Codfish or what the Portuguese call Bacalhau Grelhado from Fire Pit Barbecue in Hackensack.

Fire Pit Barbecue also delivered an aluminum tray holding a whole barbecued chicken (cut up), yellow rice and black beans.

Editor's note: After two solid days of eating out in Manhattan's expensive restaurants and trying to avoid butter, cream and other high-cholesterol and high-calorie food, we returned home, looking forward to simpler meals.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

How tired are we of having Chinese food delivered? Don't ask.

We've been loyal customers of Zen Kitchen in Teaneck, but our last few deliveries haven't been up to par.

My wife complains the food we've received lately is "greasy," and we have a hard time getting dishes prepared simply with fresh garlic.

So, after we returned on Monday from spending the weekend in a luxury Manhattan hotel, I called Fire Pit Barbecue on Essex Street, a mile and a half away from our home in Hackensack.

The restaurant's name doesn't hint the menu is filled with Portuguese-style barbecue and other favorites, plus wraps, soups and salads.

Pork with shrimp

When I ate meat, I always loved ordering Pork with Clams at Portuguese restaurants in Newark's Ironbound.

Fire Pit Barbecue in Hackensack lists Pork Cubes with Shrimp on its menu ($16), and Shrimp, Meat and Cod Fish Cakes ($1 to $1.50 each).

For dessert, you'll find Flan and Rice Pudding ($3 each).

I ordered three items from the online menu and had them delivered:

A whole BBQ Chicken with two side dishes ($14), a half-order of BBQ Spare Ribs ($9) and Grilled Codfish with Potatoes, Peppers and Onions ($19).

The whole chicken and grilled codfish came in aluminum trays with barbecue and spicy sauces -- generous portions that were enough for three to four people.

They were a better value than the half-order of spare ribs.

I loved the smoky taste of the salted codfish, and the vegetables that came with it. We got three portions of fish and vegetables from the tray.


Fire Pit Barbecue, 357 Essex St., Hackensack; 201-489-3473. Portuguese food. Eat in, take out and delivery. 

Online menu is being revised and might not match price increases. A second Fire Pit Barbecue is in Kearny.

Web site: http://www.firepitbbq.net/

The Grilled Codfish delivered by Fire Pit Barbecue was smothered in green peppers, onions and garlic, and came with steamed broccoli and carrots, and white potatoes, all in a generous pour of extra-virgin olive oil.

Back to egg whites, whole grains

When we checked out of our hotel last Monday, we didn't go to breakfast in Manhattan, but returned home late in the morning and prepared our own meal. 

Open-face omelets made with 100% egg whites and seasoned with Aleppo pepper, za'artar thyme mixture or grated Pecorino Romano, a sheep's milk cheese from Italy, above and below, and served with organic quinoa or an organic quinoa-brown rice combination, both from Costco Wholesale.

Two Costco Wholesale Organic Eggs fried in olive oil with bits of Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, served with mashed sweet potatoes and Kabocha squash made with extra-virgin olive oil. How sweet it is.

Last Sunday evening in Manhattan, the Michelin 3-star restaurant Per Se in the Time Warner Center didn't offer a green salad. On Wednesday, on the way home, I stopped at Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood for a Kale Salad with dried cranberries, pignoli nuts and shredded cheese ($3.99), added the salad to Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix and Campari Tomatoes, and dressed them in extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Enjoying the crunch of fresh vegetables

Three out of four dishes we enjoyed last weekend at Wondee's Fine Thia Food and Noodles in Hackensack came from its Vegetarian Menu, including sauteed tofu with fresh basil leaves, onions, scallions and fresh chili (Kraprow Tofu, $11), above.

Crispy tofu goes into a refreshing salad with shredded carrot and fruit, all dressed with lime juice and chili paste (Yum Rod Pedt, $10), above. You can wrap the salad in lettuce leaves.

Steamed jumbo shrimp with crunchy broccoli in a sweet-and-sour chili sauce comes from Wondee's regular menu. The dish is called Koong Lard Prig ($17).

This soup, filled with crunchy cabbage and other vegetables, is a vegetarian version of a spicy shrimp-and-mushroom soup on the regular menu. Thome Yum Vegetable is $3.50.

We have been ordering almost all of our takeout dishes from Zen Kitchen in Teaneck made with fresh garlic, avoiding the ubiquitous brown sauce, which is filled with sodium. Here, Sauteed Mixed Vegetables with Fresh Garlic ($7.95) is served over brown rice, which is provided at no extra charge. Wondee's charges $2.50 for a small bowl of brown rice.

Bean Curd with Vegetable Country Style from Zen Kitchen ($7.95).

Wondee's Fine Thai Food and Noodles, 296 Main St., Hackensack; 201-883-1700. BYO, free parking in rear lot. No delivery. Closed Mondays.

Zen Kitchen, 1443 Queen Anne Road, Teaneck; 201-837-7322. Delivery charge is $1.50.

Why do Chinese takeout veggies stay green?

Takeout Chinese-style Jumbo Shrimp with Mixed Vegetables.

Stir-fried vegetables from our favorite Chinese takeout shop arrive a bright green and stay green even after a night or two in the refrigerator.

The vegetables we prepare at home turn bright green when we blanch them in hot water, but they often turn gray if left to steam in a covered pot or after refrigeration.

For many years, I've been blanching collard greens, spinach, broccoli and other vegetables; draining the pot, adding olive oil and seasonings, and allowing them to cook for a few more minutes over a low flame.

But the secret to bright green vegetables appears to be blanching combined with stir-frying.

On Sunday, I bought fresh mustard greens at H Mart in Englewood for 48 cents a pound, brought them home, cut them up and washed them.

I dug out a wok, which I haven't used in many years,  and stir-fried the leafy greens with garlic and a little rice wine and soy sauce.

Mustard greens brighten after being stir-fried in a wok.

However, after a night in the fridge, some of the greens turned an unappetizing gray.

Should I have blanched them briefly in hot water before stir-frying them?

I called New Zen Kitchen in Teaneck, where we have gotten our Chinese takeout for more than five years, and asked how they cook Mixed Vegetables with Fresh Garlic.

I was told the vegetables are blanched in hot water before they are stir-fried with fresh garlic, which is my preferred preparation.

Most of the cooking or softening of the vegetables is done in the hot water. 

Steamed frozen cod with sake, soy sauce and lime juice.

A Sunday dinner of cod and mustard greens.

The Trident-brand frozen cod fillets came from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack. 

Even when frozen, cod is one of the meatiest fish around after it is steamed, breaking into large, tender pieces.


New Zen Kitchen, 1443 Queen Anne Road, 
Teaneck; 201-837-7322. Open 7 days.

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.

The highs and lows of takeout food

P.F. Chang's in Hackensack packed my takeout, but forgot a Fried Rice Combo.

The next day, leftover brown rice and vegetables went perfectly with an omelet.

P.F. Chang's asked me to return to the restaurant to get the Fried Rice Combo, but when I asked for a credit, it was delivered to my home in about 10 minutes. 

We enjoy dining out on the wonderful Chinese food at Lotus Cafe in Hackensack and having takeout delivered by New Zen Kitchen in Teaneck.

But on Saturday night, we decided to try P.F. Chang's, an upscale chain restaurant where I've enjoyed lunches of brown rice and stir-fried vegetables with garlic.

I didn't know whether the restaurant delivered, so I drove to The Shops at Riverside mall on Hackensack Avenue, a couple of miles from my home, and entered the separate takeout entrance.

I learned two things right away. Delivery is available to Hackensack and nine other towns for $3, and P.F. Chang's does a brisk takeout business.

$74 for four

I looked over the takeout menu, ordered too much and waited more than 30 minutes for our dinner for four, which cost more than $74.

I noticed the employee at the takeout computer would look through the bag and make sure each ordered dish was included before handing it to the customer, but he didn't do that with me.

He said the kitchen included an extra rib in the appetizer we ordered, because I had waited so long.

When I got home and unpacked the bag, our P.F. Chang's Fried Rice Combo ($10.95) was missing.

Pickup or delivery?

I called the restaurant. The takeout employee actually asked me to come back and pick up the missing item, but finally agreed to deliver it at no charge. 

Our other dishes were a starter of Chang's Spare Ribs ($9.45), Philip's Better Lemon Chicken ($13.75), Sichuan Shrimp ($15.45) and four vegetables stir-fried simply with garlic ($4.95 each for a large portion). 

Only the spinach is listed -- under "side dishes" -- as being prepared with garlic, but I asked for Brussels sprouts, green beans, and asparagus done the same way, because I've found their usual sauces too salty.

Bargain dishes

These vegetable side dishes are among the few bargains on a pricey menu.

We liked everything we had, but P.F. Chang's can't match the whole fish available at Lotus Cafe or its delicious multi-course dinners from a special price-fixed banquet menu.

Lotus Cafe is a BYO in the Home Depot Shopping Center on Hackensack Avenue, only a hop, skip and a jump from P.F. Chang's.

Lotus Cafe, 450 Hackensack Ave., Hackensack; 201-488-7070. 

Web site: http://www.lotuscafenj.com/
 

After a long day out of the house on Monday, I walked into the kitchen and saw a Costco Wholesale pizza box on the counter.

I was so hungry, I threw out my diet and attacked a half-slice of vegetable pizza without bothering to heat it up (see photo above).

My wife brought it home from the warehouse store's small food court in Hackensack, where 18-inch pies cost only $9.95.

The slices are so big, the store cuts each one in half.

She had ordered half vegetable and half pepperoni, and there was no surcharge, as there is at many pizzerias.

I usually like to heat up the slices to crisp them, but didn't bother this time. And I limited myself to one half-slice.

A two-topping pizza costs the same as a single-topping pizza.

On Tuesday, I had a great takeout meal of fish and vegetables for only $7.99 from Jerry's Gourmet and More in Englewood (see photo below).

I ate everything but the pasta, which was made with sausage.

The dinner included baked tilapia, a fresh fava-bean salad with asparagus, and stuffed zucchini with cheese.

The pasta course was orecchiette with tomato sauce and ground sausage.

Other Meals To Go included chicken wings, chicken cacciatore and tilapia francese.  In the past, I've bought Jerry's dinners with wild-caught flounder and mahi-mahi.

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

Web site: http://jerryshomemade.com/