Rosa Mexicano in Hackensack: Another victory over mediocre food

Rosa Mexicano in Hackensack has the best corn tortillas outside of Mexico. What other Mexican restaurant in North Jersey hand forms and grills its own tortillas? The thin, soft tortillas are made in the dining room and are still warm when they are brought to your table.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Nearly seven years after a branch of New York-based Rosa Mexicano opened in Hackensack, the restaurant continues to impress by making nearly everything from scratch.

And don't forget that gorgeous dining room, one of the nicest in North Jersey, filled with Mexican textiles, pottery, wall sconces and even a waterfall in the wall.

I became a big fan of free cooking demonstrations, along with a complimentary light breakfast, the restaurant offered after the August 2008 opening.

Although they have ended, the restaurant still delivers the bold flavors and complex sauces of authentic Mexican food, with its native, Spanish and French influences.

Special fiesta menu

To celebrate Cinco de Mayo on Tuesday, we made a reservation for dinner at 5 and were shown past revelers in the bar to a booth overlooking the dining room.

The special 3-course Fiesta Menu includes a shared appetizer, an entree priced from $16 to $25, and a shared dessert for a total of $30 a person.

The fixed-price meal must be ordered by everyone at the table, although I saw the parents of two small children in the next booth negotiating some sort of compromise with their server.

Spicier guac?

We started with Guacamole en Molcajete, which is made on a cart that is rolled up to your table, and asked for it spicy, but the woman mashing the single avocado with jalapeno, tomato and onion held something back.

I like eating this delicious guacamole, normally $14, mixed with the made-from-scratch salsa nortena you get with chips or wrapped in one of the restaurant's handmade corn tortillas.

Salmon Poblano was available as part of a Cinco de Mayo Fiesta Menu, which offers a three-course meal for $30 a person.

Alambra de Camarones, made with wild shrimp, was among 10 entrees on the fiesta menu.

Another entree on the fixed-price menu, Tampiquena de Carne Asada, a grilled skirt steak, came with a Chihuahua cheese enchilada.

 Salmon, shrimp, steak

Of our three entrees (normally $23, $24 and $25), I liked my wife's Salmon Poblano best, because it was moist and packed with flavor, even though she asked for it cooked through.

The salmon is described as a "natural" fillet served over Tuscan kale, chorizo and grilled corn in a poblano cream sauce.

(Poblano means in the style of Peubla, where the Mexican Army defeated the French on May 5, 1862, the unexpected victory that is celebrated to this day on May 5 or cinco de Mayo.)

Our son raved about the tenderness of his Tampiquena de Carne Asada, a grilled skirt steak marinated in guajillo chili and tequila, and topped with a roasted tomato sauce.

The wild shrimp in my Alambra de Camarones were terrific.

Grilled on a skewer, they were served over cilantro-mint brown rice and a roasted tomato-jalapeno caper sauce.

The only off note was the brown rice, whose kernels were hard.

A bottle of Negro Modelo, a dark Mexican beer, was $6, and a bottle of Boing Mango juice was $4.

Although Tuesday was the last day for the special fiesta menu, Rosa Mexicano's regular dinner menu offers a fixed-price meal for $25 that includes a choice of entrees up to $20.

If you really like your guacamole spicy, make sure the message gets through to the server who prepares it at your table.

Our entrees came with rice and refried black beans for the table, above and below.

A treat is to spread the refried beans on one of the warm tortillas. Add a little salsa for a humble taco.

We left the shared dessert, Churros en Bolsa, to our son. The fried dough was coated in sugar and served with chocolate and fruit dipping sauces. This dessert is normally $8.50.

Details

Rosa Mexicano Restaurant, 380 Hackensack Ave., (at Route 4) in The Shops at Riverside; 201-489-9100. 

Open 7 days for lunch and dinner. Happy Hour promotions suspended during fiestas. We eat early, because a parking space in the surface lot is often hard to find.

Valet parking available Thursdays through Saturdays.

Web site: A victory over mediocre Mexican food

Restaurant, shopping and cooking notes

El Califa in Mexico City serves a wonderful taco al pastor. The ingredients include spit-roasted pork, fresh pineapple and a soft corn tortilla. They're served three to an order.

In Mexico, tacos are street food. Even in restaurants, such as El Califa in Mexico City, they are served simply -- your choice of meat or poultry in a soft corn tortilla with chopped onion and cilantro, and great hot sauces on the side.

At Rosa Mexicano in Hackensack, fish, chicken or steak tacos are transformed into a meal. I joined two friends for lunch there Friday, and we ordered chicken and fish tacos, and enchiladas Suizas. (I didn't pay the bill, but recall each dish was around $11 or $12.)

My tender white fish had been marinated in achiote, orange and garlic and came with onions in a small skillet. I also got a wedge of lime, a small serving of creamed corn, another of smoky beans and a little red salsa. 

Larger bowls of herbed rice and refried beans, and a covered basket of warm tortillas were meant to be shared. We asked for a green salsa and some sour cream. 

I assembled my own tacos with the soft corn tortillas made in the dining room -- smearing some refried beans and sour cream on one, adding a little fish and onion, pouring on a salsa or two. One of my friends added rice to her chicken tacos. It was a satisfying lunch in a restaurant that makes just about everything from scratch.

Rosa Mexicano, 390 Hackensack Ave., Hackensack,

in The Shops at Riverside; 201-489-9100.

Gammiok in Fort Lee

On Saturday night, we stopped for dinner at Gammiok, the stylish Korean restaurant in Fort Lee.

Most Korean restaurants serve four or more complimentary side dishes with every meal, but Gammiok is different. 

It highlights its kimchi service -- cabbage and radish kimchi are brought to the table in a small vase and sauce comes in a separate container. The cabbage kimchi is cut with a scissors and placed on a plate with the radish kimchi, then the sauce is poured on top.

Gammiok also is alone in serving a basket of fresh, crunchy cabbage leaves and twisted, hot green peppers that aren't for the faint of heart.

Our appetizer was a thick, seafood and scallion pancake ($9.95) -- one of the non-spicy dishes on the menu -- that the waitress cut like a pizza.

Our entrees were comforting stone-bowl bibimbap ($13.95) -- steamed rice topped with vegetables, ground beef and a raw egg. I asked the waiter to hold the meat on mine, and fry all the eggs. 

You get a mildly spicy red sauce and a second sauce to pour on top before mixing all the ingredients together, making sure to scrape up bits from the bottom of the hot bowl. A wonderful meal.

For takeout, we ordered a container of Gammiok's cabbage kimchi ($7).

Gammiok Restaurant, 485 Main St., 

Fort Lee; 201-242-1333.

Littlenecks in Hackensack

Littlenecks, those well-known, wild-caught clams, were available on Sunday at the Costco in Hackensack, and they made a great appetizer for a dinner of crab cakes and baked potatoes.

The clams were $2.99 a pound, but came in a bag that weighed just over 5 pounds. That's a lot of shells, but a manageable amount of clams for two (my wife doesn't eat them).

Preparation couldn't be easier. Keeping them in the bag, I rinsed them briefly, then carefully emptied the live clams into a pot. I poured inexpensive Japanese sake over them, just to cover the bottom of the pot, turned up the heat and covered it. Wine white is just as good.

When the clams open, they release salty water to mix with the sake, and they're done. I eat mine with a spritz of fresh lemon juice, my son with hot sauce. Then, I drink a cup or two of the delicious sake broth. 

Also at Costco, I found salted Alaskan pollock, two pounds for $6.39, an inexpensive stand-in for salted cod. I hesitated to buy the pollock last week, because it is from China, which has a poor food-safety record, but I picked up some Sunday to try it.

King whiting

My wife found whole king whiting at the H Mart in Englewood last week for $3.99 a pound and asked the fish monger to clean and gut them and cut off the heads.

At home, she rolled the whole fish in flour and fried them. In a separate pot, she cooked sliced carrot, onion and hot peppers in vinegar and water, and poured the vegetables over the cooked fish.

That's called "escoveitch [of] fish" in the Caribbean.