Free ice cream caps a Korean lunch in Leonia

Dolsot Bibimbap is filling Korean comfort food with rice, vegetables, ground meat, fried egg and a mildly spicy sauce (gochujang) prepared in a hot stone bowl. Above, a meatless version served at Dok Ka Bi Restaurant in Leonia.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

Editor

Palisades Park, Fort Lee and Leonia are three neighboring towns with a wide selection of Korean restaurants for fans of the colorful and often spicy cuisine.

On Thursday, I met a friend for lunch in Leonia, which has only a handful of places to choose from.

At my first choice, Miga, we opened the door a little after 1 p.m., only to find a line, and were told the wait for a table was 10 to 15 minutes.

But my friend didn't want to wait. 

We strolled down Broad Avenue to Dok Ka Bi Restaurant, which replaced the Leonia Cafe, for a filling lunch with four free side dishes, a small bowl of soup, iced tea and ice cream for dessert.

Excellent cabbage kimchi is one of four free side dishes served at Dok Ka Bi, above and below.

Made from acorn powder, this seasoned gelatin is easier to eat with a spoon than with chopsticks.

Crunchy turnip pickles, above, and bean sprouts, below.

Big menu

The restaurant has an extensive menu, but we didn't see any lunch specials.

I chose one of my favorite Korean dishes, meatless Dolsot Bibimbap, a rice-based mixture of seasoned vegetables topped with a fried egg, and served with gochujang, a red-pepper paste, on the side, allowing you to make it spicy or not ($11.99).

Unfortunately, the restaurant doesn't serve brown rice or Mixed 7 Grain, a combination of brown rices and beans.

My friend had a Bulgogi Box with kimbap (seaweed-rice-vegetable-and-egg rolls) and fried dumplings ($14.99).

We were served excellent cabbage kimchi, three other free side dishes, iced tea and a small bowl of hot soup.

When we finished the kimchi and bean sprouts, a waiter brought us more. I enjoyed all of my food, and was pleasantly full.

Before we got the check, the server brought us two small bowls of what looked like strawberry ice cream, but I turned mine down (I'm on a diet).

Hot soup.

The Bulgogi Box includes slices of marinated beef, upper right; kimbap, upper left, and salad.

Judging by the 10-to-15-minute wait for a table on Thursday afternoon, Miga is the most popular Korean restaurant in Leonia (344 Broad Ave., near Fort Lee Road).

Dok Ka Bi Restaurant, 374 Broad Ave., Leonia; 201-947-5799. Two hours of free parking on street and in municipal lot.

H Mart helps me make a quick dinner

Prepared Korean food with homemade, stir-fried collard greens.

Dinner on Monday night was stewed, wild-caught Alaskan pollock; thin, pan fried slices of whiting, stewed tofu and collard greens -- all from H Mart in Englewood.

The Korean supermarket has a terrific selection of prepared food, fresh fish and an array of fresh greens for stir-frying.

The stewed pollock and tofu are made with red pepper, but the whiting is so bland it needs gochujang, a red-pepper paste in a squeze bottle, and it has a few small but annoying bones.

Pan-fried whiting with gochujang, tofu and store-bought guacamole.

Pan-fried whiting, left, and a variety of Korean pancakes.

H Mart's kimchi selection, but I prefer to buy Arirang Kimchi where it is hand-made a couple of blocks away at 191 W. Englewood Ave. in Engflewood.

On Sunday, my wife picked fresh, wild-caught whole sea bass for $5.99 a pound at the Englewood H Mart at 25 Lafayette Ave. in Englewood.

I seasoned mine, rubbed the skin with olive oil and fresh lime juice and roasted it in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Reduced-fat cheese, lettuce and smoked wild salmon.

On Monday, I picked up bulgogi marinade and two heads of red-leaf lettuce for a Korean barbecue dinner the meat eaters in the family were planning to have.

My wife thinly sliced free-range Nature's Reserve whole beef tenderloin for filet mignon, which she is marinating before cooking it on a stove-top grill. 

The cooked beef slices are dipped in gochujang and wrapped in lettuce, along with rice and kimchi, before they go down the hatch. 

I sometimes grill shrimp as a substitute for the beef. 

You can use lettuce wraps for other dishes, such as canned fish salad with diced celery and apples, Dijon mustard, lime juice and ground cumin.

Or just use lettuce to wrap slices of reduced-fat cheese and smoked wild salmon with whole-grain Dijon mustard. 

H Mart's stewed tofu and pan-friend whiting are $6.99 each, collard greens were 99 cents a pound and stewed tofu usually is $4.99.

Lettuce wraps with canned fish salad.

 

Why I love spending money at Costco

Image via Wikipedia

The interior of a Costco in South San Francisco, Calif.

Editor's note: How many food retailers publish their markup or try to sell for as little as they can? That's part of the philosophy behind Costco Wholesale. Today, I also discuss a sour note during an otherwise great Korean dinner at Gammeeok in Palisades Park.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I am spending more and more of my food dollars at Costco Wholesale, lured by high quality and low prices -- plus cash rebates that more than cover the annual membership fee.

Now, an article in in the January 2012 edition of Costco Connection -- called a lifestyle magazine for members -- explains the history and philosophy behind the warehouse store.

The writers say Costco's well-known strategies are "keeping markup to no more than 14 percent over cost (15 percent for Kirkland Signature products); providing a money-back guarantee on products and membership fees; focusing on a narrow selection of products in a wide range of categories; proceeding with steady, but cautious growth; and never selling seconds or other inferior good."

Costco also pays "above-average salaries," and offers health insurance to most employees. 

The history of Costco Wholesale is traced to a new retail concept established by Fed-Mart in 1954 in San Diego, then to the Price Club, which opened its first store in 1976 in San Diego. Costco, which opened its first store in Seattle in 1983, merged with Price Club in 1993.

Today, Costco sells the highest quality food outside of Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's, and its prices are often unbeatable.

We paid for rice

Rice is an integral part of every Korean meal, but when we used a Groupon at Gammeeok in Palisades Park on New Year's Eve, we were charged $3.74 for two small bowls of the starchy staple.

The Groupon was for pork-filled dumplings, a seafood pancake and beef barbecue -- two appetizers and an entree that normally cost $37.85. The Groupon was $18.

But if you ordered that same meal at any other Korean restaurant, you'd get free rice. I suppose the discount coupon we used at Gammeeok made a difference.

My wife and son shared those dishes, and they especially liked the hot, thick, crisp pancake with tender bits of squid and other seafood.

I ordered a stone-bowl bibimbap, and asked the kitchen to hold the ground beef and cook the raw egg that are usually placed over steamed rice and shredded vegetables ($13.95). 

You also get a mildly spicy red paste called gochujang that you add before mixing everything up and eating it with a spoon. It's my favorite Korean comfort food.

Free side dishes

Of course, we got four free side dishes: napa cabbage leaves, hot green peppers, shredded radish kimchi in vinegar and Gammeeok's wonderfully spicy cabbage and cubed radish kimchi, which are sweeter than most.

We had three small plates of cabbage and radish kimchi, and ordered a large container of the cabbage kimchi to go ($6.95). I brought a bottle of French sparkling wine to toast the new year during our meal.

Our meal for three cost $46.41, including the $18 I paid for the Groupon, a $9 tip and tax. 

UPDATE: This restaurant is no longer in business, and the original New Jersey branch in Fort Lee was closed by a fire.

Related articles

• Costco's accent is becoming more pronounced (doyoureallyknowwhatyoureeating.blogspot.com)
• Kimchi is the star of a Korean meal for 10 (doyoureallyknowwhatyoureeating.blogspot.com)

Pizzeria is displacing Vietnamese restaurant

Image by aldenjewell via Flickr

Fort Lee street scene in 1951.

Mo' Pho in Fort Lee was the second Vietnamese restaurant from Chef K.T. Tran, specializing in the anise-flavored soup called pho.


But the restaurant at 212 Main St. has closed, and the facade is being renovated by the owner of a pizzeria and restaurant.


I described a bowl of pho this way:


"When Joe the waiter set down my bowl of pho with shrimp, I leaned close to the anise-scented beef broth and breathed deeply. Wonderful. You'd be hard put to find a soup that matches the aroma of this one." 


An Italian-American restaurant replacing a Vietnamese one is counter to the trend in Fort Lee, where Korean restaurants have proliferated in recent years.


Several blocks down Main Street, the facade of So Kong Dong also is being renovated, but the Korean soft-tofu restaurant remains open for business.


Side dishes galore 


On the way to a Suzanne Vega concert on Thursday at Bergen Community College in Paramus, we stopped for a soft-tofu stew dinner at Pine Hill Restaurant.


I continue to be impressed by how many free side dishes this Korean restaurant serves, while others have cut back noticeably.


After we ordered seafood soft-tofu stews ($10.45 each), the waitresses set down 10 small dishes on the table between me and my wife.


Our side dishes included fish cake, stewed tofu, kimchi, bean sprouts, iceberg-lettuce salad, yams in sweet syrup, steamed greens and half of a broiled small fish.


Unlike Korean restaurants specializing in soft tofu, Pine Hill serves a stone-bowl egg souffle, instead of a fresh egg to cook in the soup. 


And the waitress brought us a bowl of nutty brown rice, instead of usual steamed white rice, plus a second dish of cabbage kimchi when we asked for them.

Pine Hill Restaurant, 123 Paramus Road, Paramus; 
201-843-0170. Open for lunch and dinner.

A restaurant makes you forget the recession

Image via Wikipedia

A selection of panchan or banchan, side dishes served with every Korean meal.

When I first started going to North Jersey's Korean restaurants nearly 15 years ago, the value was outstanding.

Lunches and dinners often included six or more side dishes or panchan -- small, colorful portions of vegetables, tofu, fish and meat that were arrayed around your main dish.

Yong Su San in Englewood Cliffs served 10 such dishes, including a small broiled mackerel, until it closed.

But as food prices rose and especially after the recession hit, the number of side dishes declined. 

So Gong Dong, our favorite tofu house in Palisades Park, now serves four, which is pretty much the norm nowadays, though I occasionally encounter six or seven. 

Though the value isn't as good as in the past, a belly busting meal of soft tofu with seafood, rice and side dishes is only $10, including tax.

So I was bowled over Thursday night, when we made an unplanned stop at Pine Hill, a Korean restaurant in Paramus, and the waitress brought out 10 side dishes after we placed our order. That wasn't all.

My bibimbap, a rice dish made in a stone bowl, came with miso soup, and a waiter later brought us a stone-bowl egg souffle.

Only two of the side dishes disappointed -- some iceberg lettuce with dressing and a portion of tired-looking corn kernels that was a poor imitation of mixed vegetables. 

I loved the taste of the cabbage kimchi, and the waitress brought a second dish when we finished the first. There also was cooked tofu in batter, shredded radish, greens and, yes, a small, whole mackerel.

Image via Wikipedia

Sone-bowl bibimbap with a raw egg yolk.

I asked the waitress to hold the ground beef from my rice-and-vegetable dish, which was topped with a fried egg and cost $13.95. I couldn't finish it.

My wife's soft-tofu stew with seafood was $10.95, but she complained there wasn't enough shrimp in it. My son loved his spicy soup of egg, noodles and bone-in short ribs ($13.95). Both of those dishes came with steamed rice.


Pine Hill Restaurant, 123 Paramus Road, Paramus; 201-843-0170. 
Open for lunch and dinner.

We brake for soft-tofu restaurants

Image via CrunchBase

A video shows how one Korean home cook makes soft-tofu stew (see link below).

Was it my idea to look around for a soft-tofu restaurant that offers better food and service than the second-floor tofu house in Palisades Park that has served us so many satisfying meals in recent years?

We tried Gamasot Restaurant in Fort Lee last April and Book Chang Dong in Palisades Park this month. On Saturday, we waded into the crowded dining room at So Kong Dong in Fort Lee -- and found it differs from our favorite, So Gong Dong, in more than how the second word is spelled.

The Fort Lee restaurant is where I first tried this Korean comfort food six or seven years ago, but I stopped going there after receiving terrible service on a night when the place was packed. I just happened to be comparing So Gong Dong and So Kong Dong for an article on inexpensive restaurants in The Record.

There is conflicting information on whether So Kong Dong and So Gong Dong are affiliated, but the well-dressed woman at the register Saturday evening said they don't have the same owner. I've heard from Korean friends that So Gong Dong is a section of Seoul where soft-tofu houses predominate. 
 

Both interiors resemble traditional inns, but the Fort Lee restaurant has a showcase of beautiful Korean dolls. It is popular with families, and on Saturday, it filled up quickly between 5 and 6 p.m., and people were waiting for tables.

So Kong Dong offers a variety of soft-tofu stews, steamed rice, five side dishes, a fresh egg and tea for $9, including tax, $1 less than its Palisades Park rival. But if the small parking lot is filled, as it was on Saturday evening, you have to pay 50 cents for one hour of parking in the municipal lot across the street.

I liked the taste of my soft-tofu stew with oysters, which I ordered "very hot (spicy)," but it wasn't bubbling as furiously as I prefer for cooking the fresh egg. My wife and son said their pork version didn't taste as good as at our favorite place. 

They also ordered "Korean BBQ ribs" ($14.99), the same price for what the Palisades Park restaurant lists as "prime beef."

Fort Lee doesn't offer Korean dumplings (mandoo) or a rice-flour seafood pancake (pajun) that you'll find in Pal Park for about $10 each. The dining room of the former and the wait staff both seem smaller. Portions at both places are the same, and both are BYO.

Fort Lee serves one more side dish or panchan and that's a delightful, mildly spicy water kimchi. The others are the same at both places -- cabbage and cucumber kimchis, bean sprouts and spicy raw squid. 

Both places uses a beef or beef-bone broth, although I came across a You Tube video showing a woman making a seafood-vegetable broth at home (see link below).

So, our favorite soft-tofu restaurant remains on top. We plan to revisit Gamasot in Fort Lee soon, and that should do it.

Video shows how to make soft-tofu stew

So Kong Dong Restaurant, 130 Main St., Fort Lee; 201-585-1122.

Restaurant So Gong Dong, 118 Broad Ave., Second Floor, 
Palisades Park; 201-313-8900.

Sik Gaek BBQ & Seafood Grill

 My 12-year-old son's eyes bulged as he watched a waiter pluck a live octopus from a tank, slap it on a plate and serve it to a customer.

We were seated at a table with a skillet of shrimp cooking over a round gas burner last night at Sik Gaek BBQ & Seafood Grill in Flushing, N.Y. -- a few hours before we picked up my wife at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Hey, if we had to go through the hassle of driving to JFK, we might as well reap a food reward on the way there.

Sik Gaek pulses with shouted greetings from the servers and loud Korean rock music. Many customers gather around huge pots of steaming seafood cooking on their tables and wash down shellfish, lobster, shrimp, squid and more with Korean beer, soju or sake.

As my son watched the tanks of live seafood, including lobsters and sea urchins, I faced a line of hungry people that began forming soon after we arrived around 7:30. One of the waiters brought over a platter of Korean dumplings for them.

After we were seated on short stools, a waiter turned on the table burner, put a frying pan with oil over the flame and cracked two fresh eggs into it, cooking them over easy. That was our first side dish. Following that were rice cakes in spicy sauce and some of the best cabbage kimchi we have ever had. We got two more kimchi refills during the meal, plus white rice, which costs $1 a serving.

We couldn't manage one of those big pots of seafood (photo above is generic), which run from $30 and up, so we ordered barbecued shrimp ($19.99) and a whole mackerel in spicy sauce ($14.99) and drank iced water from a bottle on the table.

The shell-on shrimp, with heads and tails, cooked on a bed of coarse salt in a glass-covered pan. They were terrific, head and all, dipped in mild or spicy sauce. The mackerel -- which was butterflied and grilled in the kitchen -- was mild, juicy and fresh, the skin nicely charred. We took home leftovers of both entrees. The meal ended with small cups of refreshing cucumber juice.

I asked a waiter the meaning of the restaurant's name and he replied it would too complicated to explain. In any language, it's a wild scene, with great seafood and service.

Sik Gaek BBQ & Seafood Grill, 161-29 Crocheron Ave.,
Flushing, N.Y.; 718-321-7770; open seven days. 
Web site is in Korean.