Lotus Cafe feast is my calm after the storm

Filet Mignon Casserole with Chestnuts and Cellophane Noodles at Lotus Cafe.

Sizzling Jumbo Shrimp with Asparagus in Sweet White Sauce.

Lotus Cafe in Hackensack is celebrating the Year of the Snake (4711) with a special prix-fixe menu -- a bountiful four-course dinner for $28 per person.

You won't find snake on the Chinese New Year's menu -- which is being served through Feb. 24 -- but the food is seductive, nonetheless.

Late Saturday afternoon, after we had cleared our driveway and sidewalks of more than a foot of snow from a nor'easter, we set out for the unassuming BYO, which is only a couple of miles away.

I brought a chilled bottle of sparkling Spanish white wine that I bought in late December, but didn't open on New Year's Eve.

Fillet of Flounder in Ginger Sauce with Snow Pea Leaves.

Braised Half Tangerine Duck on soft pancakces.

After I popped the cork, the four of us started our meal with an appetizer of Lobster Spring Roll and  5-Spice Chicken Skewer.

I don't eat chicken and asked for two spring rolls (a $2 supplement), but was rewarded with twice as many tender, fresh lobster bits among the vegetables.

The second course was soup, either Pork and Winter Melon Consomme or Seafood Hot and Sour Soup, both delicious.

The special menu offers four entrees, and we ordered one of each. The portions were generous enough to be shared:

Filet Mignon Casserole with Chestnut and Cellophane Noodles, Fillet of Flounder in Ginger Sauce with Snow Pea Leaves, Braised Half Tangerine Duck and Sizzling Jumbo Shrimp with Asparagus in Sweet White Sauce.
 

An appetizer of Lobster Spring Roll and 5-Spice Chicken Skewer.

Seafood Hot and Sour Soup.

Tender Snow Pea Leaves in a bowl of brown rice.

Owner Philip Su personally removed the duck meat from the bones, and plated it on top of thick, soft pancakes -- Peking duck style.
 
I gorged on the beautifully cooked flounder, tender snow-pea leaves and jumbo shrimp, and plucked chestnuts, caramelized tangerine skin, mushrooms, garlic and cellophane noodles from the other entrees.

This was another unsually good, belly busting meal from Lotus Cafe, a small, unassuming restaurant that has been pleasing customers for decades.

Ice Cream Filled Sweet Rice Mochi.

The front of the dining room at Lotus Cafe.

I have two small complaints: The spring roll was deep fried, but not drained properly, and tasted oily. 

I asked for fruit instead of ice cream for dessert, but the restaurant didn't receive its order of lichee and pineapple that day. 

Lotus Cafe, 450 Hackensack Ave., in the Home Depot Shopping Center, Hackensack; 
201-488-7070. 

BYO, large parking lot. Reservations recommended on weekends.

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• The Symbolism Of A Chinese New Year Eve Dinner

At Teggiano Ristorante in South Hackensack

Image by JonathanCohen via Flickr

Teggiano Ristorante will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year, but I won't be there raising a glass of chianti to its future health.

Oh, there was nothing wrong with the food we had Saturday evening and the service was good, though a bit slow. But this long-established Italian restaurant misses being a place you want to return to time and again to tuck into a great plate of pasta and a glass of red wine.

The restaurant is named after the hometown of Chef-Owner Luigi Bruno, who offers a menu of standard appetizers, pastas and entrees.

We ordered a salad for two, two entrees, a side dish of sauteed spinach, a glass of chianti and soft drinks, and the bill totaled more than $90. Luckily, I had a coupon for a 20% discount I received by joining the restaurant's e-mail club.

I had hoped the salad of baby greens, goat cheese and dried cranberries ($12.50) wouldn't have too much dressing, but it had too little, with nothing left on the plate to sop up with the half a piece of rather ordinary Italian bread I ate. My son loved the toasted garlic-bread slices in the same basket.

My wife and I shared a broiled seafood combination that came with a small portion of ziti in a plain tomato sauce ($28.95). The red snapper fillet, shrimp, scallops, king crab leg and claw, lobster tail and baked and stuffed clams were moist.

Our son enjoyed but couldn't finish his broiled filet mignon (hold the mushrooms), served with big chunks of roasted potato and ziti ($24.95). The spinach in the side dish we ordered was fresh, but the portion was tiny -- just about three forkfuls ($5).

I didn't notice the price of the chianti, but the glass was full. I expected the food to fly out of the kitchen, because only two others tables were occupied during most of our visit, but we had to wait, first for the salad and then for the rest of the meal.

Teggiano Ristorante,  310 Huyler St., South Hackensack; 
201-487-3884. Web site: Established 1986

Food gifts from Jamaica

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My wife returned from Jamaica on Saturday night with island specialties in her suitcase.

She unpacked a container of fried parrot fish, four plastic bags of fresh ackee from trees in the yard, breadfruit wrapped in aluminum foil, large avocados and two, 12-ounce bags of roasted Blue Mountain coffee beans ($19 for 12 ounces). 
 
But it wasn't Jamaican food she wanted before we drove home. With our son, we stopped at Wondee's Thai restaurant on Main Street in Hackensack for a wonderful dinner of vegetarian duck salad (made with tofu, not poultry), spicy Panang curry with large shrimp, a special of Chinese watercress and rice.

This morning, she prepared Jamaica's national dish: ackee and salt fish with sweet and hot peppers -- the bland fruit serving as a foil for salted codfish. On the side, she served the roasted breadfruit, which had been sliced and fried in canola oil. A great breakfast.
 

Why buy any other beef?

ShopRite has another sale on Nature's Reserve-brand beef, a product of Australia that is free range and grass fed. There is a minimum purchase of four pounds at $4.99 a pound with a Price Plus store card. 


The cut is whole beef tenderloin for filet mignon, which I've sliced thin for Korean barbecue or served as small steaks. When I bought this in the past, it required some trimming of fat.




The sale starts today and runs through Sept. 4. With such a low price for Australian beef , it doesn't make sense to buy beef raised conventionally with antibiotics and growth hormones, and fed who knows what.

More free-range Australian beef on sale

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The new ShopRite sales circular offers Nature's Reserve free-range, grass-fed boneless rib eye steak from Australia for $4.99 a pound with a PricePlus card, $6.99 a pound without. The sale starts Sunday, and there is a 5-pound limit.


Last week, ShopRite had a sale on Australian whole beef tenderloin for filet mignon, also $4.99 a pound with the card. That beef also was free range and grass fed. Generally, it is less fatty than conventionally raised beef, and care should be taken not to overcook it. That means you probably shouldn't cook it past medium.

ShopRite answers competitors

Image by joshuapaquin via Flickr

The ShopRite sales flier delivered with my newspaper this morning answers the beef sales of three competitors, noted in my previous post, How low can they go on beef prices?

USDA choice, top round London broil is on sale for $1.49 a pound and Certified Angus Beef London broil is going for $1.99 a pound, both with a Price Plus card. This is conventionally raised beef, so you'll also be eating antibiotics, growth hormones and, probably, animal byproducts (bits of dead animals, kitchen scraps and so forth in cattle feed).

We're not eating beef right now, but if we were, I'd go to ShopRite and check out its price for Australian free-range, grass-fed filet mignon, which is raised without any of the nasty stuff and sold here at lower prices than U.S. beef.

How low can they go on beef prices?

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Three supermarket circulars came with the newspaper this morning, offering beef for $1.47 to $5.99 a pound.


The A&P flier declares: "We will not be undersold!" USDA choice, boneless top round London broil is on sale for $1.47 a pound. Choice is one of the three grades U.S. agricultural officials assign to beef: prime, choice and select.



The Pathmark circular offers USDA choice New York strip steak for $4.99 a pound ("save up to $5 a pound").


At Fairway Market in Paramus, "whole, fully trimmed beef" for filet mignon is on sale for $5.99 a pound, but there is no indication whether this meat was raised in the U.S. or what grade it might be. Fairway usually features USDA prime beef in its circulars (prime has the most fat or marbling), but the absence of that phrase in today's circular might prompt you to ask questions at the store.


Only the Pathmark flier says anything about how the beef was raised. Its steaks are "Western grain fed." You can assume the beef sold by the three stores was raised conventionally with antibiotics, growth hormones and animal byproducts.


Contrast these sales with the $3.99 to $4.99 a pound charged by ShopRite  when it has a sale on free-range, grass-fed beef  from Australia. In March, A&P and Pathmark had Australian leg of lamb on sale for $1.99 a pound -- the lowest I had ever seen.

Fire sale on free-range beef

I rushed out at 8 this morning, without a shower or breakfast, to the ShopRite in Rochelle Park for the sale on free-range, grass-fed beef from Australia for only $2.99 a pound with a Price Plus Card or $4.99 a pound without. This beef is raised without antibiotics or growth hormones and sold under the Nature's Reserve label.

This actually was a fire sale on surf and turf, because live lobsters were going for $4.99 a pound with the Price Plus Card. I picked up three for dinner tonight, all just under 2 pounds each. Sale prices are good until June 20.

The whole beef tenderloin I bought weighs 4.57 pounds and is irregularly shaped, so I'll be able to get some filet mignon steaks from the thick end. I'll cut the rest as thin as possible, place the meat in freezer bags with Korean bulgogi marinade and use it over the next few months to prepare a barbecue meal at home, wrapping the cooked meat in red-leaf lettuce leaves and serving it with rice, kimchi, sliced garlic and an egg souffle.