I'll always remember Sandy

For breakfast on the last of five days without power in Hurricane Sandy's wake, I warmed up grilled sweet potatoes and an omelet with pesto, even though I had made them the day before and, without refrigeration, left them out in a covered pan all night.

Using a battery powered lantern, we grilled sweet potatoes, above, and used liquid egg whites to make omelets on our gas stove, below. We could light the stove with a match.

The hurricane hit on Oct. 29 and we got power back on  Nov. 3, but Internet, TV and our land-line telephone weren't restored for another two days.

A tree fell in Brooklyn (President Street).

A restorative meal of sushi at Baumgart's in Englewood.

Fried oysters, above, and mussels, below, at Legal Sea Foods in Paramus.

North Woodland Street in Englewood.

The one gas line I waited on in Teaneck was only a half-block long.

There's nothing like a great salad to give you a nutritional lift.

I celebrated the return of electricity and my birthday on Nov. 4 with a lavish, four-course seafood meal at Marea on Central Park South in Manhattan, which showed few outward signs of the hurricane that flooded parts of the island.

The Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Subway riders got updates on the restoration of service.

Dinner for one on Central Park South.

In Hackensack, a tree landed on the hood of a car.

This Chinese takeout finishes on top

Image by neilfein via Flickr

The best Chinese takeout in Teaneck isn't on Cedar Lane, above.

Every North Jersey town, big and small, seems to have a storefront that churns out Chinese takeout food from one of those huge menus, the ones that are bigger than place mats.

But only Teaneck's West Englewood section has Zen Kitchen, where the quality of ingredients and the preparation clearly are a cut above the rest. It delivers to Teaneck and 11 other towns.

Besides Chinese food, Zen offers Japanese and Thai items; sushi, and seafood and vegetable rolls, but I've been disappointed occasionally when I've strayed from the Chinese items.

On Friday night, I ordered a small, barbecued spare ribs for my wife and son ($7.75), Jumbo Shrimp in Black Bean Sauce ($11.95), House Special Fried Rice ($8.50), Dry Sauteed String Beans ($7.95) and Bean Curd with Vegetables, Country Style ($7.95).

All the vegetables retained their crunch. Triangles of tofu were fried, and the ubiquitous brown sauce was kept to a minimum. The shrimp were plump and delicious, and, again, there was just enough black bean sauce.

In the more than five years we've been ordering from Zen Kitchen, I've tried whole fish, steamed or fried; and I've enjoyed its soy chicken and beef dishes, which are especially tasty to a non-meat eater.

For breakfast this morning, I heated leftover vegetables in the microwave, topped them with an egg-white omelet and went to town.

Zen Kitchen charges $1.50 for delivery to Teaneck, Bergenfield, New Milford, Englewood, Tenafly, Loenia, Hackensack, Paramus, Bogota, Ridgefield Park, Maywood and Cresskill.

The front of the current menu carries coupons, including 15% off orders over $30. 

Zen Kitchen, 1443 Queen Anne Road, Teaneck; 201-837-7322. 

Open seven days to 10:30 or 11:30 p.m. 

Credit card minimum is $8.

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.

Madre's Cuban Cuisine in Teaneck

Guarapo is a Cuban drink made from sugar cane.

For our single weekly restaurant meal last night, we went to Madre's Cuban Cuisine, a new restaurant on Cedar Lane in Teaneck. We were the first to arrive for dinner, but when we left, people were waiting for tables.


Our food was good but not great so we probably will return to Casual Havana Cafe on Main Street in Hackensack or Las Palmas in West New York when we want roast pork, black bean soup and other Cuban specialties.


Madre's is owned by a Dominican family, but the chef  is described as a "20-year veteran" of Cuban food, according to The Record, so we don't know if he is actually Cuban.


We ordered chicken and black bean soups, mofongo with chicken, a Dominican dish of mostly plantains; lechon asado, roast pork with yellow rice and black beans; and yuca con mojo, yuca in a garlic sauce.


Soft yuca with garlic sauce is Cuban comfort food, but the version we got was hard and fibrous. 


I liked the mofongo, but my wife and son turned thumbs down, despite a tasty, light tomato sauce. (My 12-year-old son was pouting because I wouldn't order tostones, twice-mashed and fried plantains.) 


The roast pork was moist; it would have been better if  some of  the crackling skin had been served with it. 


We did love the complimentary plantain chips we got at the start of the meal, especially the light "lulu" sauce with cilantro and vinegar that came with them. The check was under $50 before the tip.


The BYO is at 477B Cedar Lane, Teaneck, 201-357-5190.

Two terrific spots for Chinese food

I can't tell you how many people feel lukewarm about Lotus Cafe, the Chinese BYO tucked into a corner of the Home Depot-Pathmark Shopping Center in Hackensack. In a way, that's good, because I won't have too much trouble getting a table there again to enjoy its unusual food.

The noodles and soup noodles are terrific, so don't bother schlepping into Chinatown. One of my favorites is zar jiang mein, fat, homemade noodles topped with a robust meat sauce ($6.95). Today, for lunch, I polished off a platter of noodles in abalone sauce ($8.95), with spinach and mushrooms, enough food for two.

But Lotus Cafe has a huge menu, including such intriguing dishes as X.O. beef casserole, squid & pork rendezvous; and chicken, shrimp or vegetarian soong, which is eaten wrapped in lettuce leaves. If you have a special occasion to celebrate or just want to splurge, ask for the extraordinary banquet menu, which lists multi-course meals for four to 10 people.

We once tried the eight-course dinner for six ($95) and were dazzled by the seafood and tofu chowder, three-cup chicken casserole, crispy duck, South Pacific prawns, beef with chili pepper, fillet of sole, Chinese broccoli and Eight Treasure rice pudding (the restaurant granted my request for it, even though ice cream or fruit is the usual ending to that dinner.)

For take-out, we have relied for the past three years or so on Zen & Kitchen in Teaneck.

What other Chinese take-out place can deliver a whole fish, fried or steamed? This is another big menu, with Thai food, soup noodles, sushi and bento boxes. We usually stick to the Chinese items, including vegetables prepared with fresh garlic instead of the gloppy garlic sauce and terrific ribs. Zen's delivery area includes Hackensack, Paramus, Cresskill and Ridgefield Park.

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

Zen & Kitchen, 1443 Queen Anne Road, Teaneck; 201-837-7322.