Little Ferry H Mart cuts back on free samples, stays mum on new store

These part-time employees at the H Mart in Little Ferry dispensed free seafood samples on the weekends for about a year, but last Sunday, they were gone for good, a store employee said. 

This empty space was where free samples of seafood were available, not far from the main fresh-fish counter, including seafood pancakes, crab meat, boiled octopus, smoked farmed salmon, broiled eel and broiled mussels topped with fish eggs. A few free samples, including meat, were available elsewhere in the store on Sunday.

The Korean supermarket occupies about half of the former Valley Fair building, which dates to the 1960s. A cyclone fence now surrounds most of the structure as workers clean the steel supports under the building, though it's not known whether the work is related to the company's plan to build a new store in the vacant half.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The shabbiest H Mart in Bergen County is long overdue for a complete makeover.

The store takes up the back half of an enormous 1-story building on Bergen Turnpike in Little Ferry that began life as a Valley Fair discount store.

The parking lot floods regularly, the dingy lunchroom closed years ago and the entrance to the Korean supermarket looks awful.

Still, the store attracts customers by offering fresh seafood, an unmatched variety of Asian greens, fresh produce and prepared Korean food -- much of it at low prices.

On Sunday, for example, a box of 16 small, yellow Ataulfo Mangoes was on sale for $8.99 with an instant coupon, reduced from $14.99.

Jackfruit was only 99 cents a pound.

I called H Mart headquarters in Lyndhurst on Monday, but couldn't find anyone who could tell me whether plans for a new store in the vacant half of the Valley Fair building are going forward.

A package of Stir-Fried Vermicelli, left, a yam-flour noodle Koreans call japchae, was $5.99 at the Little Ferry H Mart, 260 Bergen Turnpike.

Baby Bok Choy were cut to 68 cents a pound at H Marts in Englewood and Little Ferry.

A spicy preparation called Stewed Tofu was $4.99 at the Little Ferry H Mart. Prepared food is made in-store or supplied by such outside Korean caterers as Jinga.

A snack I enjoy at home is a small plate of reheated japchae with spinach and other vegetables topped with crunchy kimchi from my refrigerator.

Stewed Alaskan Pollack sections with skin and bones ($7.99 at H Mart) and Stewed Tofu served with leftover  Kabocha squash mashed with olive oil, and sauteed cabbage and sweet peppers.

The seafood counter at the H Mart in Englewood, where whole wild-caught whiting usually are $3.99 a pound.

A large tray of Kimbap -- a Korean roll filled with rice, vegetables, egg and imitation crab made from pollack, right front -- was $6.79 at the Englewood H Mart, 25 Lafayette Ave. Trays of sweet dessert Rice Cakes, rear, are 50% off after 4 p.m.

Starbucks Coffee, Chipotle Mexican Grill and H Mart -- all in one stop

Three trays of takeout from H Mart and an Edamame Hummus Wrap from Starbucks Coffee, top left. You'll find the Korean supermarket and the busy Starbucks in Fort Lee's Linwood Plaza shopping center.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Linwood Plaza, Fort Lee's biggest and busiest shopping center, offers an array of eat-in and take-out food, ranging from kimbap to sushi to burritos.

The large Fletcher Avenue strip mall is especially busy at lunchtime, when you can pick up Korean lunch boxes or stop for a meal or takeout at Starbucks Coffee, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Linwood Pizza or Hachi Sushi.

Last Monday, I used my Starbucks Card rewards to pick up a free light lunch, the Edadame Hummus Wrap ($5.95).

Zucchini, bell peppers, spinach and a garlic-herb cheese spread are rolled up in a spinach tortilla, with a roasted tomato sauce and sesame-flax crackers on the side.

When eaten, the sections of the tortilla wrap were both creamy and crunchy. The roasted tomato sauce complemented the wrap, but was a bit too salty.

At H Mart, I picked up trays of Kimbap, Japchae and Dried Persimmon.

Kimbap is an addictive roll of rice, egg, shredded vegetables and imitation crab (made from a wild-caught fish), all wrapped in seaweed ($6.79).

The roll comes with Korean pickles and sliced jalapeno peppers with seeds, which are really hot.

Japchae are yam-flour noodles stir fried with vegetables, best served hot ($5.99). 

Dried Persimmon are intensely sweet ($5.99 a pound), and like all dried fruit delicious when eaten with a crumbly Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese.

The Korean supermarket also has a coffee bar with tables and chairs where you can eat a lunch box or other prepared food.

Linwood Plaza, Fletcher and Linwood avenues, Fort Lee. 

Food shopping, leftovers for breakfast, a diabetic's nightmare

Sahara-brand Clementines are on sale for $4.99 at ShopRite in Paramus, but as the name suggests, the 5-pound boxes are from Morocco, not Spain.

The Paramus ShopRite also has 1-pound packages of Sunset's incomparable Campari Tomatoes for $3.99, compared to 2-pound packages of the same tomato for $4.99 or less at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

Editor's note: Food shopping is hard work and stores take a lot of short cuts on signs and other aids. Today, I also discuss assembling a quick, nutritious breakfast from leftovers, and a Trader Joe's holiday sales flier that contains so much sugar my teeth ache just reading it. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The food we buy in our local supermarkets and warehouse stores comes from all over the world, meaning there is no substitute for reading labels.

That may look like a good price for clementines, but are they from Spain or Morocco? I prefer the Spanish ones.

Australia is known for low prices on grass-fed beef, but one of the producers, Clayton's, follows organic practices and another, Nature's Reserve, doesn't.

I've been buying Campari Tomatoes for years, but for some reason, the ones that come in Costco Wholesale's 2-pound packages taste better than those in the 1-pound packages sold by competitors.

ShopRite confused two Australian producers on the sign at left that I saw on Thursday. Three 1-pound packages of Nature's Reserve Grass-fed Ground Beef were $14.97. Clayton's Organic Ground Beef was $5.99, right.

Six enormous California Pomegranates are $14.99 at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack. Each one yields 2 cups of pomegranate seeds. The seeds from ShopRite's smaller and cheaper pomegranates weren't as good.

Going clockwise, a breakfast of leftovers includes sauteed Chinese broccoli with lots of chopped garlic, sweet potatoes mashed with extra-virgin olive oil; and two items purchased from H Mart in Englewood, stewed-tofu and japchae, translucent noodles with vegetables. I often use gochujang, a vinegared red-pepper paste, on tofu.

On leftover patrol

My personal record at breakfast is clearing five containers of leftovers from our crowded refrigerator.

You won't ever catch me skipping breakfast or stopping for one of those artery clogging breakfast sandwiches at a fast-food place.

But you will find me leaving enough time in the morning to reheat a plate of healthy, simply prepared food, often supplemented by an egg-white omelet with reduced fat cheese or organic whole eggs fried sunny side up.

Most of my breakfasts include leftovers that used ingredients from Costco Wholesale, Whole Foods Market and H Mart.

H Mart, a small Korean supermarket chain, is known for its prepared tofu and other side dishes, and fresh produce and fish, such as the whole king whiting my wife bought on Friday for $4.99 a pound, dusted with cornmeal and fried for dinner.

Chinese broccoli, mashed sweet potatoes and tofu make way for a Jamaican specialty, ackee and salt fish, accented with Valentina Mexican Hot Sauce (Black Label).

An egg-white omelet with a slice of reduced-fat Swiss cheese, Aleppo pepper and za'atar thyme mixture joins more tofu and organic brown rice with organic lentils. 

Organic 100% whole-wheat pasta shells, prepared with bottled sauce, anchovies and sardines, joins japchae and two organic eggs fried sunny side up with grated Pecorino Romano Cheese.

Trader Joe's sugar fixation

The latest edition of Trader Joe's Fearless Flyer is labeled, "Holiday Guide 2014."

The 24-page sales flier, which I receive in the mail, is filled with promotions on so many sugary treats and full-fat cheeses I had to resist the urge to schedule a physical after reading it.

Caramels, fondue, chevre with truffles, scallops wrapped in bacon, egg nog ice cream, chocolate, cupcakes, shortcake, marzipan and cookies pose a real minefield for diabetics and even people who are just watching their weight and cholesterol.

I'm someone who doesn't add sugar to coffee, doesn't eat dessert and hates the taste of bottled pasta sauces with added sugar.

There is not much that interests me in this flier.

Kimchi service makes this Fort Lee Korean restaurant a standout

At Gammeeok in Fort Lee, servers bring a tall bowl of cabbage and radish kimchi to your table, cut it, plate it and pour on extra sauce, which is both spicy and sweet, above and below.

The kimchi service -- unique to Gammeeok -- isn't the only reason to go there. The restaurant turns out terrific versions of such Korean classics as bibimbap and seafood pancakes.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The good news is that the kimchi at Gammeeok in Fort Lee is as good as ever -- an appealing combination of sweet, spicy and crunchy.

We had dinner there on Saturday night after an absence of more than a year, and Gammeeok is still our favorite place for bibimbap, a non-spicy dish that is true Korean comfort food.

I ordered another non-spicy dish, Seafood Joen, a  pancake with tender squid and shrimp that is fluffier than other versions I've tried ($14.95).

My teenage son ordered two entrees that could have fed three to four people, and finished everything, including a small bowl of white rice.

He loved the stone-bowl bibimbap ($13.95), as well as the grilled beef short ribs or Galbi ($22.95). 

The kimchi served here is so good it is available to go.

OB, a Korean beer, is $4.50.

Korean short ribs (galbi or kalbi) will delight meat-eaters ($22.95).

The seafood pancake is thick and fluffy, and includes tender squid, small whole shrimp and scallions, and comes with a dipping sauce ($14.95).

Stone-bowl bibimbap comes with a mildly spicy red-pepper paste (gochujang) that you spoon on top before your stir up ground meat, vegetables and rice ($13.95). We asked the kitchen to cook the egg, and you can have a bibimbap without meat.

A vinegary tangle of shredded radish is one of the complimentary side dishes.

Every table gets large, crunchy leaves of Nappa cabbage and fresh hot peppers, rear.

Valet parking is available at dinner, but you also can park on the street. No need to feed the meters after 6 p.m.

Details

Gammeeok, 485 Main St., Fort Lee; 201-242-1333. Open for lunch and dinner. No American Express  Cards. 

I used a coupon I found in The Record giving $10 off a $30 order, $15 off a $50 order and $20 off an $80 meal.

Web site: Good food, good service

The next night, I had three Korean specialties at home, all purchased from H Mart, 25 Lafayette Ave., Englewood: Jinga-brand translucent, yam-flour noodles called japchae, with vegetables and tofu, front (19 ounces for $5.99); stewed wild-caught Alaskan pollock, left rear (16 ounces for $16.99); and stewed tofu, right rear (11 ounces for $3.99).

Couldn't this place be a little more generous?

Spicy Kalbi Tang at Pine Hill Restaurant in Paramus.

The Korean restaurant serves grilled mackerel pike among the free side dishes.

Pine Hill Restaurant is the only Korean restaurant I know in Paramus -- which is the mall capital of North Jersey -- and it's far from the dozens of places that jockey for customers along Broad Avenue in Palisades Park.

Pine Hill also sets itself apart by serving at least 10 of the free side dishes that make a Korean meal so special.

But when four of us had dinner there on Saturday night, I began to wonder if serving more side dishes than most other Korean restaurants is enough.

Pine Hill has seen better days. Though clean, the interior was carried over from another restaurant, and hasn't ever been updated. 

The dinner menu lists a lot of sushi rolls and raw fish, but not that many entrees for non-meat eaters such as myself. 

No grilled fresh fish is available outside the mackerel pike in one of the side dishes.

Translucent Korean noodles are made from yam flour, not wheat.

After a waitress took our order, a tray was brought over and the small side dishes were arrayed on the table -- vegetables, fish and meat.

Pine Hill has some of the best cabbage kimchi around, both spicy and crunchy. The two mackerel pike were delicious.

Greens included fresh spinach. But the salad was iceberg, not the spring mix I've seen elsewhere. And slices of ham came with another cabbage side dish.

One of the complimentary side dishes or panchan.

A good Korean restaurant staff doesn't wait for the customer to ask for more panchan, but at Pine Hill our empty side dishes weren't replaced until I called over the waitress, who was chatting with other servers near the register.

I asked specifically for more kimchi and greens, but was disappointed we didn't get another set of the fatty mackerel pike.

For my entree, I ordered translucent noodles with vegetables called japchae, but asked the kitchen to hold the meat ($11.95).

A side dish of vegetable tempura.

The others had Stone-Bowl Bibimbap ($13.95), a rice, vegetable and ground-beef dish topped with a fried egg. A squeeze bottle of gochuhang, red-pepper paste, allows the diner to vary the spiciness.

The bibimbap came with a small bowl of soup, and an egg souffle in a stone bowl was brought for the table.

My teenage son asked for Spicy Kalbi Tang (also $13.95), a stew with beef short ribs, as hot as the kitchen could make it. It came with a small bowl of steamed white rice.

The food was good, and we had a filling dinner for about $16 each, including tip and tax.

But the relatively new Woochon Restaurant in Palisades Park serves as many side dishes, and they are of higher quality, so we might be going there the next time we want Korean food. 


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

Woochon Restaurant, 280 Broad Ave., Palisades Park; 201-242-9999. Open for lunch and dinner.

 

A free introduction to Korean food

A customer stops for a free sample of Korean noodles at H Mart in Fort Lee.

If you haven't already discovered the vibrant flavors of Korean food, H Marts in Bergen County provide an easy way to try the cuisine without spending money on a restaurant meal.

On the weekends, H Marts in Fort Lee, Englewood, Little Ferry and Ridgefield provide free samples of fruit, Korean noodles, rice cakes, seaweed-vegetable rolls and other food, and not all of it is spicy.

On Sunday, I sampled translucent noodles called japchae at the main Fort Lee store, as well as dried fish, fruit, rice cakes and a seaweed-egg omelet.

The woman offering the free noodle samples attracted customers with a sing-song, "Japchae ... kimbap sushi ...japchae."

Translucent noodles with vegetables were $5.49.

Vegetable, rice and seaweed rolls (kimbap) contain egg and imitation crab.

H Mart also is a great place to buy fresh fish, and prices are among the lowest around. 

All seafood is labeled with country of origin and whether it is wild or farm-raised.

At the H Mart fish counter in Fort Lee, wild carp trumps farmed pompano from China.

I found whole, wild-caught whiting from the United States at the H Mart Fresh in Fort Lee for $4.49 a pound, and we had it for Sunday dinner, along with fresh broccoli and organic brown rice with organic diced tomatoes prepared in an electric cooker.

We love whiting for its minimum amount of bones and its maximum of flaky, white fish. I also bought japchae and kimbap at H Mart Fresh.
 
A farmer's market was operating on Sunday across the street from H Mart Fresh, the smaller of the two H Marts in Fort Lee. The last day for the outdoor market is Nov. 18.

Whole pan-fried whiting with broccoli and organic brown rice.

H Mart, 112 Linwood Plaza, Fort Lee; 201-947-7800. H Mart Fresh, 1379 16th St., Fort Lee; 201-944-9009.

For other store locations, consult the Web site:

H Mart

  

How a trip for Costco Wholesale limes cost me $200

My basket at the end of an impromptu shopping trip to Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss an accidental shopping spree at Costco, sales policies at ShopRite and H Mart, and more ideas for meatless meals.

 

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

All I needed was limes, so I didn't even have a list when I dropped into Costco Wholesale last Friday.

But when I got to the checkout line, I had put $200 worth of items in my shopping basket, including two pairs of beautifully tailored wool pants from Italy ($49.99 each).

My clothes are too big now that I've lost weight, so they were an essential purchase.

As were two LED floodlights that are supposed to last more than 20 years ($25.99 each). I have four floodlights above my garage door that burn out frequently.

When I got to the Hackensack warehouse store, I remembered my teenage son asking for AA batteries, so I picked up a package of 48 from Kirkland Signature, the store brand ($12.99).

I also need something for Sunday dinner, so walked over to the seafood case, and found 5 pounds of Littleneck clams ($3.49 a pound).

I stopped buying those wonderful Sunset-brand Campari Tomatoes when the price for 2 pounds soared past $5, choosing Sunset beefsteaks that averaged $1.20 to $1.30 a pound.

But at $4.49, these tasty little orbs were impossible to resist.

And I was almost out of fruit, so picked up bananas (3 pounds for $1.39) and apricots (3 pounds for $5.99). 

A 5-pound bag of Persian Limes from Mexico were $4.99 -- perfect for broiled seafood, iced tea, canned fish salad and fruit salad.

Blueberries

Those sweet Jersey blueberries appeared in the market early this year and now, they've been almost totally supplanted by fruit from Michigan and Canada.

On a previous trip to Costco on July 31, I picked up a 2-pound package of fresh, sweet blueberries from Michigan for $6.49 (32 ounces).

This past Wednesday at Costco, I bought another 2-pound package of blueberries for $6.49 (32 ounces), but these are from Canada.

At the Paramus ShopRite on Wednesday, a pint of Canadian blueberries (12 ounces) was $2.99, and an 18-ounce package of Jersey blueberries was $5.99.

The day before at the same ShopRite, a pint of blueberries was $3.49.

Good luck trying to figure out when ShopRite and other supermarkets put food on sale.

Some of the prepared food available at H Mart in Fort Lee, made by the Korean supermarket or by such outside suppliers as Jinga and Pinocchio Catering.

Seasoned vegetables for bibimbap, left, and noodles without meat.

H Mart takeout

I went to the H Mart in Fort Lee on Wednesday to pick up prepared items for a Korean dinner at home, and found almost nothing on sale, compared to the Little Ferry H Mart, where I usually shop.

At checkout, the clerk said the Fort Lee store stopped giving customers a 10-cent credit for bringing in a reusable bag "last year," and claimed that was also the case in Little Ferry.

But he was wrong. My receipt from a visit to that store last Sunday, when I bought lobsters, shows I was given the 10-cent credit.

Lobsters at the Fort Lee store were $6.99 a pound, compared to the $4.49 a pound I paid on Sunday in Little Ferry. 

Rice, ramyun on sale

On that trip to the Little Ferry store, I also picked up two sale items:

A 15-pound bag of Kokuho Yellow Label rice grown in California for $7.99 or $7 off the regular price, and a 20-portion box of Shin Ramyun Gourmet Spicy instant noodle soup for $15.99 or about 80 cents a portion. 

At the Fort Lee H Mart, I bought Seasoned Vegetables for Bibimbap ($6.49), and Japchae, vermicelli noodles made from yam flour ($4.49).

I also picked up a small bunch of collard greens (99 cents a pound) and young carrots (99 cents).

A dinner of homemade bibimbap with carrots and collard greens.

Vermicelli noodles with a smoked wild salmon omelet for breakfast.

Bibimbap at home

To make the bibimbap, I prepared 2 cups of organic long-grain brown rice in an electric cooker and added the seasoned vegetables, sesame oil and gochujang, a Korean red-pepper paste.

Whole eggs, egg whites and milk went into the omelet.

I finished the open-face omelet under the broiler.

Frittata at home

I chopped up sweet red, orange, yellow and green peppers, removing parts that were beginning to spoil, and a little onion and Enoki mushroom, adding them to whole eggs and egg whites, milk and pieces of Reggiano Parmigiano cheese.

I poured the mixture into a 10-inch non-stick pan in which I had heated up a couple of ounces of olive oil, then added a layer of smoked wild salmon from Costco. 

After the omelet was set, I put it under the broiler.  The milk gave it a fluffy interior.