A world of flavors in N.J.-N.Y.C.: Italian, Korean, Chinese, Jewish

A wood-burning oven at A Mano, 24 Franklin Ave., Ridgewood, gives its deliciously smoky flavor to more than the authentic Neapolitan pizzas.

Editor's note: I had hoped to bring you more photos with this post, but a bug in my iPhone continues to prevent me from uploading images to my computer via Google+.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

When a friend suggested lunch at a Neapolitan-style pizzeria in Ridgewood, I figured I could order a nice salad instead of a pie.

I've been on a successful no-bread, no-pizza diet for years, and didn't want to break it.

On Friday, A Mano in Ridgewood came through with a salad of one of my favorite greens, peppery arugula, topped with a little cheese, and fresh artichokes imported from Italy and wood grilled in the restaurant ($11.99).

Delicious.

My friend had a Garlic and Shrimp Pizza ($18.99) washed down with a large bottle of San Pellegrino sparkling mineral water ($4.99).

Ridgewood probably has more restaurants than any other town in North Jersey, and we walked by several that were empty or had only a few customers at lunchtime Friday.

That was the case at A Mano, where the staff outnumbered the customers. 

Soft Tofu with Pork, prepared Medium Spicy, at So Gong Dong, 118 Broad Ave., Second Floor, in Palisades Park. The stew is bubbling and steaming when it comes to the table, hot enough to poach a fresh egg that is included with your complete meal. You also get rice and side dishes ($9.99)

Seafood pancake and side dishes

What's not to like about a complete meal centered around a healthy soft tofu stew with vegetable side dishes, steamed rice and a fresh egg, all for just $9.99?

For a change of pace on Saturday night at So Gong Dong, I ordered a Pajun, a non-spicy grilled seafood-and-scallion rice-flour pancake with side dishes, including seaweed in gochujang, a spicy red-pepper sauce ($11.99).

The pancake is made with tender squid and shrimp, and served with a dipping sauce.

My wife and mother-in-law each had tofu stew -- one Medium Spicy and the other Little Spicy -- and shared an order of Steamed Dumplings, which contain pork ($8.99).

In the years we've been patronizing So Gong Dong, the food and service have been great, the menu has been expanded and the prices have stayed reasonable.

But on Saturday, when we ordered a tofu stew to take home, we discovered the restaurant has switched to a cheap, flimsy plastic container for the hot stew that can easily open, if the bag tips over in your car.

We narrowly averted that mess; others may not be so lucky.

Crunchy cabbage kimchi, above, and non-spicy bean sprouts, below, are two of the five side dishes at So Gong Dong, and second and third helpings are served willingly, if you have the room. You also get a stone bowl filled with steamed white rice.

Originally called So Gong Dong, the popular tofu house also is known as So Gong Dong Tofu & BBQ and SGD Dubu, with branches in East Hanover, Cherry Hill, Hartsdale, N.Y.; and Glenview, Ill.

On the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Grand Street, between Eldridge and Allen streets, above and below, once was part of a district of dry goods stores selling sheets, curtains, bedspreads and lace tablecloths. Today, the neighborhood is part of a widely expanded Chinatown.

This afternoon, at the Chinese-owned Great Bakery, 303 Grand St., I purchased two Macau-style Egg Tarts for $1.10 each. They were topped with a little burnt sugar in contrast to plain Egg Tarts.

Nearby Sara Delano Roosevelt Park is a magnet for the homeless.

At Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery, 137 E. Houston St., you can get a Sweet Potato, Spinach or Vegetable Knish, in addition to the traditional Potato and Kasah knishes. But at $3.75 each, you're in for sticker shock. Cash only. Outside, the big sign over the doors spells "Schimmel" without the "c," so maybe it should be Yonah Schlemiel Knish Bakery.

Take a number at Russ & Daughters, a popular appetizer shop at 179 E. Houston St. I saw a young couple sitting on a bench outside and working their way through a bagel stuffed with an inch-thick layer of cream cheese and a little smoked salmon. Hold the bagel and revolting amount of cream cheese, and give me the salmon, but I'll bet this famous shop doesn't offer the wild-caught variety that is available at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack. 

At home, I keep it simple and rely on great ingredients from Costco, including 100% Egg Whites and Mateo's Gourmet Salsa for this omelet stuffed with fresh spinach.  

Home cooking with Costco

I've really gotten to like the 32-ounce jar of Mateo's Gourmet Salsa ($4.97) I buy at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack as a garnish for omelets, baked sweet potatoes and organic brown rice, and to mix with guacamole.

Another great Costco ingredient for egg and pasta dishes is Kirkland Signature Parmigiano Reggiano, an aged cheese made with part skim milk that is sold shredded in 16-ounce plastic containers ($8.49, that's $3 off, until May 3).

Om Wednesday, my wife also picked up our usual 1-pound package of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix, and it rang up at $4.29, the lowest price I've seen in a couple of years.

At BCD in Fort Lee, the soft tofu in that spicy soup is 100% organic

A large green-lipped mussel emerging from the Seafood Tofu Soup at the popular BCD Tofu House in Fort Lee.

A beautifully battered and fried yellow croaker is the standout among the complimentary side dishes served at BCD Tofu House, an international chain based in South Korea. The others are excellent cabbage kimchi, spicy raw squid and iced sour pickle slices any Jewish deli would be proud of.

Editor's note: Calling all garlic lovers. On Friday, we stopped at BCD Tofu House in Fort Lee for a belly busting lunch, and on Saturday, we had dinner at Wondee's in Hackensack, our favorite Thai restaurant, where we tried to ignore the tattered carpet.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I absolutely love the food and service at BCD Tofu House in Fort Lee, but could do without the crowds and the wait for a table.

Having said that, I always look for an excuse to eat there, as I did on Friday afternoon, when I was returning from taking photos of an Edgewater apartment building that was destroyed by fire.

My visits have been infrequent since the restaurant was recommended to me in 2012, but this time, I immediately noticed the place-mat menu declaring only 100% organic tofu is used in the signature soup.

The menu also notes prices have stayed the same now that House Foods-brand organic tofu has been added.

Tofu is made from soybeans, one of the major crops that are being genetically modified. 

Organic tofu is GMO free as are some non-organic tofus that carry a seal from the Non GMO Project, including the House Foods Firm Tofu sold at Costco Wholesale.

On Friday afternoon, the restaurant was packed when we arrived around 1:30, but we got a table in about 5 minutes.

I ordered Seafood Tofu Soup, my wife had Pork Tofu Soup, both prepared "Hot," and we shared a Seafood Pancake.

BCD prices

BCD's Tofu Soup or Soondubu Jjigae is $10.99 at lunch (10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.) and $12.99 at dinner, including six side dishes, steamed white or brown rice and a fresh egg to crack open and poach in the bubbling broth.

That's a dollar or two more than So Gong Dong in Palisades Park, our usual go-to place, but BCD serves more free side dishes and the quality of seafood used in the soup is superior.

One of those free side dishes is a beautifully fried small fish, a yellow croaker, that is so good I ate the whole thing, including the head.

So Gong Dong has nothing like it.

The range of spiciness available at BCD are Plain, Mild, Regular, Hot and Danger. Tofu Soup is one of the world's great comfort foods.

BCD, an international chain based in South Korea, also has a more extensive menu of such traditional favorites as stone-bowl bibimbap, spicy raw crab, pork belly and cold noodles called naegmyun.

The complete Tofu Soup meal served at BCD Tofu House is the best in North Jersey. Now, if they only took reservations.

 

Two of the complimentary side dishes at BCD Tofu House are slices of fried tofu, front, and marinated green beans and mushrooms. The Haemul Pajeon or Korean Seafood Pancake, below, serves four, and we took home leftovers ($8.99).

Seafood Soondubu is $10.99 at lunch.

BCD Tofu House has a playroom for children that parents can monitor from the dining room. 

A takeout order of Pork Soondubu included a fried yellow croaker, above, and Chinese broccoli and bean sprouts, photos below.

Inspired by our delicious lunch at BCD Tofu House, I made Tofu Soup at home on Saturday, using ground red pepper, roasted black sesame seeds, Pulmone-brand Tofu Broth Seasoning and, from Costco, organic chicken stock, firm tofu, and skinless and boneless hake fillets.

BCD Tofu House, 1640 Schlosser St., Fort Lee, hidden away in Fort Lee Towne Center, a small shopping center with a Korean bakery, gym and other businesses; 201-944-2340.

Web site: A dish loved the world over

Ocean of Garlic at Wondee's in Hackensack combines deep-fried shrimp, squid, small scallops and mussels sauteed with black pepper and minced fresh garlic and served with pickled cabbage and other vegetables ($18).

At Wondee's, focus on food

I've always judged restaurants by food and then service, because you can't eat the wallpaper.

At Wondee's Fine Thai Food and Noodles, the food and service are still great nearly 18 years after Chef Wandee Suwangbutra opened on Main Street in Hackensack.

I have to just keep on reminding myself I can't eat the carpet at my favorite Thai restaurant.

The restaurant's floor is raised in the back so you have to step up, if you enter through the door off of the rear parking lot.

Then, the floor slopes in places and is flat in the front, but the carpet throughout is worn, faded and crudely patched with tape.

The chairs also have seen better days. The interior is a liability lawsuit waiting to happen.

Two favorites

Wandee is at the top of her game, especially when preparing two of my favorites, Ocean of Garlic and the classic Green Papaya Salad.

The seafood in the Ocean of Garlic is deep-fried, but not greasy, and tender, and I love the contrast with the crunchy pickled vegetables.

The Green Papaya Salad is served over a large romaine lettuce leaf so you can tear some off, wrap up the crunchy strands and pop them into your mouth. 

Now, if only Wandee's landlord could invest in a new carpet for the restaurant, loyal customers like me can focus completely on the wonderful Thai food.

Thai Fried Rice is made with shrimp, pork, egg, scallions and bell pepper ($10.50)

Som Thum or fresh Green Papaya Salad packs plenty of crunch and plenty of heat from chili peppers ($8).

Geuw Nam or Wonton Soup with roast pork and vegetables ($3.50 for small).

Coconut Juice with pulp ($3).

Wondee's is a BYO.

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

Dining in and dining out: A welcome return to the familiar

One of the first dishes I prepared at home after returning from a vacation in Montreal was a gooey frittata with egg whites, sliced Swiss cheese, shredded Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, plum tomatoes and pesto, all from Costco Wholesale.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I've been having fun looking in our refrigerator and kitchen cabinets, and preparing meals at home after eight days of eating out in Montreal restaurants.

Some of the wonderfully rich food we ate on vacation undoubtedly contained butter and cream, two things I never cook with.

Now, I'm back to organic quinoa, brown rice and whole-wheat pasta, wild salmon, a simple green salad with every dinner, lots of fruit, reduced-fat cheeses and cooking with extra-virgin olive oil.

Organic whole-wheat capellini with organic diced tomatoes, chopped fresh garlic, capers and anchovies. For a pound of pasta, you need a lot of liquid so I also used a 32-ounce bottle of Classico pasta sauce, red wine, extra-virgin olive oil, red-pepper flakes and dried herbs. I also rinsed the capers and anchovies to reduce sodium in the dish.

Use a big pot if you want to, but you'll need only a few inches of water to boil a pound of capellini, also known as angel-hair pasta, and never salt the water. There is plenty of sodium in your other ingredients, especially if you use bottled pasta sauce.

Whole whiting is an inexpensive wild-caught fish with a center spine and a minimum of other bones, making it ideal for picking up and eating like fried chicken. Here, I served the fried fish with leftover organic quinoa prepared in an electric rice cooker with a can of organic diced tomatoes, salt, and olive and sesame oils. My wife bought the fish for $3.99 a pound at the H Mart in Englewood.

I had three bottles of Archer Farms Roasted Salsa Verde from Target in my kitchen cabinet. The mild salsa, made with tomatillos, jalapeno pepppers and green chiles, is ideal as a sauce for leftover organic quinoa, added before you reheat it in a microwave, above, or spooned onto a simple egg-white omelet with reduced-fat cheese in the last minutes of cooking, below.

Unlike bottled green salsas made in Mexico, Archer Farms Roasted Salsa Verde contains sugar.

Fresh wild sockeye salmon, cut into serving pieces, poaching in Roasted Salsa Verde, which serves as both a cooking medium and a sauce for rice, quinoa, pasta or other side dish. I added salt and optional Aleppo pepper to the fish before I put them into the boiling salsa and covered the pan, cooking them for about 8 minutes. Also optional is fresh lime juice added to the salsa before heating it up. 

When I plated the fish with reheated leftover quinoa, I added chopped oregano and mint from our garden, above and below.

My wife bought the wild sockeye salmon at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack on Tuesday for $10.99 a pound. The label didn't specify where in the United States or which river the fish comes from. Tonight, I ate cold leftover salmon and salsa with ripe peach slices.

This morning, I enjoyed one of my favorite breakfasts, pasta and eggs, in this case leftover whole-wheat capellini and two organic brown eggs, sunny side up, from Costco Wholesale with shredded Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, Aleppo pepper and chopped oregano, mint and basil from outdoor and indoor plants.

Six 12-ounce pints of sweet Jersey Fresh Blueberries -- called a "flat" -- are on sale for $6.99 through Saturday at the ShopRite in Paramus. One of the produce guys said the blueberries can be frozen in a Ziploc bag, and thawed out on the counter overnight. I'm trying that. Golden pineapples are two for $5 and a half-gallon of ShopRite Lactose Free Milk is on sale for $3.29, a savings of 20 cents.

Complete dinner for $10

The first restaurant meal my wife wanted after we returned from Montreal was Korean soft tofu, with a fresh egg, four side dishes and steamed rice.

At So Gong Dong in Palisades Park, the place-mat menu lists the complete meal for $9.99. On the check, it is rounded up to $10 and includes the tax.

Soft tofu is addictive, and you can order it as spicy or as mild as you want.

The stew is brought to the table with your choice of meat, seafood, kimchi or soybeans, bubbling furiously, and a fresh egg is provided for poaching in the steaming broth.

My Rich Soybean Soft Tofu contained whole soybeans.

Rich Soybean Soft Tofu at So Gong Dong in Palisades Park.

Cabbage kimchi is one of the four side dishes that come with the meal, and you can ask for as much as you can eat. Hot or cold tea also is included.

Pickled radish and jalapeno pepper.

Besides soft tofu, we also ordered a seafood pancake ($12), but took most of it home. The simple dining room has tables to accommodate multigenerational Korean families.

The expanded place-mat menu also offers pork and beef barbecue, dumplings, ramyun, bibimbap and other traditional Korean dishes.

So Gong Dong, 118 Broad Ave., 2nd Floor, Palisades Park; 1-201-313-5550. Open 7 days. Free parking on side streets. 

Other So Gong Dongs are in Manhattan and Hartsdale, N.Y.

Chasing Whole Foods' 99 cents turkey drumsticks

The homely monkfish on a well-iced display at Whole Foods Market in Paramus. The huge mouth is perfect for hunting in deep waters. The store pledges that all the seafood it sells is free of antibiotics and preservatives, and that fresh fish is delivered six days a week.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss a Black Friday food sale I always shop, whole wheat pastas and a spicier stew at my favorite Korean tofu house.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

I had to make two trips to Whole Foods Market in Paramus before I found a parking space in a lot that was packed with Black Friday shoppers besieging other mall stores.

On the second trip, after 7 on Friday evening, I found several empty spaces not far from the entrance, and only a handful of shoppers inside the organic supermarket.

I picked up two packages of naturally raised turkey drumsticks for 99 cents a pound, and another two packages of turkey backs and necks for $1.99 a pound.

I couldn't find any 16-ounce boxes of organic whole wheat pasta shells sold under the store's 365 Everyday Value label for $1.39.

So, I bought two 16-ounce packages or 365 Everyday Value Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti.

Whole Foods sells organic whole wheat pasta made in Italy -- linguine, spaghetti, shells and other shapes -- for $1.39 a pound, but Italian brands of organic whole wheat pasta on the same shelf go for more than $5 or $6 a pound.

A new ingredient in So Gong Dong's "more spicy" soft-tofu stew are chopped, hot green peppers, above. The broth is hot enough to soft boil a fresh egg that comes with the meal. Excellent cabbage kimchi is one of four free side dishes, below. We also ordered a seafood pancake.

Turning up the heat

I found a new ingredient in the Oyster Soft Tofu I ordered on Saturday evening at So Gong Dong in Palisades Park, our favorite Korean tofu house in North Jersey.

I asked for my soft-tofu stew "more spicy," as usual, and when it came to the table, I noticed chopped green chilies sprinkled on top.

They added a new level of heat to the stew I hadn't encountered before at the second-floor soft tofu parlor, which also serves an array of other traditional Korean dishes, including barbecue and bibimbap.

Soft tofu is comforting and a bargain, and it's not uncommon to see three generations happily enjoying the meal, including infants that have to be fed by their parents.

For $9.99, a complete soft-tofu meal includes the stew, a second stone bowl of steamed white rice and four side dishes, including bean sprouts, two kimchis and a fiery preparation of raw squid.

We asked for and received a second set of side dishes, and a third portion of the wonderful cucumber kimchi.

As a comfort food, soft tofu is especially good in the chilly months of winter. It's also available "no spicy," "little spicy" and "medium spicy." 

I love poaching the fresh egg that is provided, breaking the soft yoke over the rice and eating them together.

We also ordered pajun, a seafood-and-scallion pancake that serves four ($11.99).

On the bill, prices are rounded up a penny and include tax ($10 and $12).


So Gong Dong, 118 Broad Ave., Second Floor, Palisades Park; 201-313-5550. Open 7 days. BYO. Free parking on side streets.

Two organic brown eggs sprinkled with shredded Parmigiano Reggiano cheese from Costco Wholesale and served with Thanksgiving leftovers.

So Gong Dong in Pal Park: Now there are three

Soft-tofu stew at So Gong Dong in Palisades Park.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

We had another belly busting dinner at So Gong Dong, the standout soft-tofu house in Palisades Park, home to dozens of Korean restaurants.

On Saturday night, three of us had soft-tofu stew, steamed rice, four side dishes and a fresh egg ($9.99 each, including tax), and I ordered steamed dumplings for the meat eaters ($8.99).

I just managed to finish my Oyster Soft Tofu, which was hot enough to soft boil two small eggs that I ate over the rice. Delicious and comforting.

A seafood pancake.

I noticed a change on the place-mat menu: Three So Gong Dongs are listed now:

• 118 Broad Ave., Second Floor, Palisades Park; 1-201-313-5550.
• 6 St. Marks Place (between 2nd and 3rd avenues), Manhattan;  1-212-533-5363.
• 411 N. Central Ave., Hartsdale, N.Y. (Westchester County); 1-914-397-1790.

Fiery raw squid and raw garlic is one of the free side dishes that come with every soft-tofu stew. The others are cabbage and cucumber kimchis and bean sprouts, and servers will gladly bring you a second set.

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