Kimchi is the star of a Korean meal for 10 in Palisades Park

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Palisades Park has the biggest concentration of Korean restaurants in North Jersey, from soft-tofu and barbecue houses to restaurants specializing in hand-made noodles.

Editor's note: This branch of Gam Mee Ok closed, but the stylish original still thrives in Fort Lee.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I put together a group of 10 to check out Gam Mee Ok in Palisades Park, a branch of the popular, 24-hour restaurant in Fort Lee with a unique kimchi service.

The stylish restaurant, hidden away on the second floor of a building on Broad Avenue, opened without fanfare early this year. 

The original Gam Mee Ok (pronounced GAM-yo) is in Manhattan.

A server brings cabbage and radish kimchis to the table in what looks like a small vase, cuts the long pieces of cabbage with a scissor and places them in a dish, adding more red-pepper sauce from a metal tea pot.

The cabbage kimchi, in particular, combines a pleasant sweetness with the usual spicy notes, adding an unusual accent to the meal.

The restaurant doesn't serve the variety of free side dishes found at most other Korean places, but does put out cabbage leaves and hot green peppers.

During our meal, we also got shredded radish kimchi and bowls of the restaurant's signature beef-bone soup, a bland, milky white broth you season with salt and chopped scallions from containers on the table.

Dumplings, kalbi

Other members of the group tried a variety of dishes from the open kitchen, including steamed pork-and-vegetable dumplings ($7.95) and barbecued kalbi or short ribs ($16.95), which they ate out of hand or wrapped in the tender cabbage leaves, instead of the usual red-leaf lettuce.

I ordered a seafood pancake ($12.95), as well as dolsot bibimbap ($13.95), a one-dish meal of rice, vegetables and egg served in a hot stone bowl, asking the kitchen to hold the ground beef and cook the raw egg that usually come with it.

You add a mildly spicy red-pepper sauce call gochujang and mix up all the ingredients before eating it with a spoon. True comfort food.

My wife and son tried a spicier version of bibimbap with kimchi and pork, and loved it (also $13.95).

I also tried a ring from a large squid served on a hot metal plate, but found it too chewy ($19.95). We brought our own wine and beer to this BYO.

We paid about $23 each, including tax and a 20% tip. I also took home a large container of Gam Mee Ok's delicious cabbage kimchi ($7.44).

There is seating for about 40 between wood-beam walls that display modern art. The sound system played jazz from WBGO-FM in Newark. Cool.

Details

Gam Mee Ok, 110 Broad Ave., Second Floor, next to Chinese Mandarin Restaurant; 201-945-6300.

BYO, free parking on side streets.

Breakfast with a soul-food accent

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Big demographic changes haven't obliterated the flavor of Teaneck. 

Editor's note: The bill of fare today includes an eye-opening breakfast in Teaneck, a strong contender in the battle of Korean soft-tofu houses and a visit to Whole Foods Market that didn't break the bank.

The Golden Grill is one of those places that have been there "forever."


It's a lively spot on a stretch of Queen Anne Road that is filled with glatt kosher food businesses -- a restaurant that reflects an older Teaneck, as does the French patisserie down the block.


When I walked in a little before 10 on Friday morning, the place was nearly full, and the two waitresses were overwhelmed, serving predominately African-American men. 


Looking over the menu, I immediately realized this is my kind of breakfast place, with combinations of two eggs and home fries or grits accompanied by whiting, a homemade fish cake or sardines. Toast and a small glass of juice are  included.


I made the mistake of ordering an egg-white omelet and a fish cake, and I was charged the a la carte price for each, a total of $10.95. Combo breakfasts are about $7.


I loved the tasty fish cake, especially with a splash or two of hot sauce from the bottle on the table, and the potatoes were the best home fries I've ever had. I told the waitress to hold the toast.


Still, the servers couldn't handle the crowd or change gears for the tea me and a friend had ordered; they kept on coming over with a coffee pot to refill our cups instead of a pot of hot water. 


The Golden Grill also serves lunch.


The Golden Grill Family Restaurant, 1379 Queen Anne Road, 
Teaneck; 201-837-1078. Free street parking, credit cards accepted.


More information: The Golden Grill


Organic soft tofu


We found a Korean soft-tofu stew restaurant with a difference -- actually, a few things that set it apart from the places that sling soondooboo jigae in Palisades Park and Fort Lee.


The Organic Tofu House in Ridgewood has an unusually large menu of soft-tofu stews and other Korean specialties, including hot stone-bowl bibimbap, barbecue and stir-fried vermicelli noodles, as well as slightly lower prices.


This is a great place for people who want Korean comfort food and don't eat meat. 


The tofu-stew broth is vegetarian, and the stir-fried, yam-flour noodles are made with vegetables, not meat. Vegetable dumplings and vegetable-and-seafood pancakes also are available.


Unfortunately, service is weak, especially when compared to other Korean restaurants. 


The small restaurant wasn't busy on Saturday evening, but the waitresses were in no rush to refill our tea glasses or to replace the free side dishes we finished before our stews were ready.


Four of us received the standard set of four small side dishes, and the quality was good -- cabbage kimchi, crunchy bean sprouts, fried tofu slices with onion and a small iceberg-lettuce salad. We also got an extra salad.


At our favorite soft-tofu house, So Gong Dong in Palisades Park, the four side dishes are replaced without prompting, and glasses are kept filled. In Ridgewood, I had to ask for more kimchi and more hot tea. Other side dishes weren't replaced.


The Ridgewood menu lists 19 soft-tofu stews, including some you don't see elsewhere, such  as curry, cheese, dumpling, tuna, "real" crab meat and chicken, and they can be made plain to very spicy.


Almost all are priced at $8.99, compared to $9.99 at So Gong Dong, but the latter price includes tax. Portions in Ridgewood are smaller.


In addition to organic soft tofu, the restaurant uses "alkaline water," which has health benefits, according to the menu. 


My wonderful, very spicy oyster stew was bubbling furiously in its stone bowl, so I could crack a fresh egg into it and cook the yolk softly, breaking it deliciously over steamed white rice.


I was pleasantly full from the side dishes, tofu stew and white rice. I split a second white rice with my son at no extra charge.


We also ordered sliced, marinated prime beef short ribs or kalbi, which came with wonderful grilled onions ($14.99). I tried the onions, not the meat.


Organic Tofu Stew House, 88 Godwin Ave., Ridgewood 
(in a strip mall near Whole Foods Market);
 201-251-7734. Closed Sundays.


Whole Foods in Paramus


On Saturday afternoon, we stopped at Whole Foods Market in Paramus to pick up some fruit for me and steaks for the rest of the family's Sunday dinner.


I was happy to find conventional Macoun apples and a 5.33-pound tote bag of Bosc pears, the latter from Red Apple Orchards in Geneva, N.Y. Both were a reasonable 99 cents a pound.


My wife picked up three naturally raised beef chuck shoulder steaks for $10.14 ($6.99 a pound), and the store brand of uncured, preservative-free and antibiotic-free sliced bacon ($3.99 for 12 ounces).


Sardine crisis


Ten cans of those plump Moroccan sardines (99 cents a can) lasted only about 10 days.


I know I used four cans to make a pound of whole-wheat spaghetti with sardines in a red sauce last week, but I'm not sure what happened to the rest. 


All I know is I wanted to make canned fish salad the other night and could find only yellow-fin tuna and pink salmon in the cupboard.


So, I dashed out to Paterson today and picked up another two dozen cans of Sultan-brand sardines at Brothers Produce, 327 E. Railway Ave., in the Farmers' Market.


While I was there, I bought yellow, red and green peppers (99 cents a pound) and three romaine hearts, also 99 cents.


At Fattal's Syrian Bakery, 975-77 Main St., I picked up a package of fresh Syrian bread ($1.50); a half-dozen store-made, 6-inch meat pies ($8.99) and a 15.8-ounce jar of fig marmalade with anise from Lebanon ($2.39).


Related article

• Driving here and there for my weekly fix (doyoureallyknowwhatyoureeating.blogspot.com)

Chef Ji leaves Moon Jar in Fort Lee

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Fermented Korean rice wine is called makgulli or moon jar.

Chef Ji Cha, who competed on Gordon Ramsay's "Hell's Kitchen" a couple of years ago until sidelined by an injury, has left Moon Jar in Fort Lee.

The restaurant remains open under the Moon Jar name, but is serving only dinner and drinks. Without Chef Ji's stylish enhancements, the all-white setting seems even more austere than before.

Chef Ji's fusion menu has been replaced by one that hews closer to traditional Korean food, but the kitchen brought back her BBQ beef sliders.

We had dinner there on Saturday night, served by Rocky, who was one of the bartenders when the place was called Chef Ji's Moon Jar, and it was a filling and satisfying meal.

In addition to menus, Rocky brought an iPad that allowed us to review photos of the food.

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What we ate

We ordered fish ball soup ($15), spicy soy chicken ($15), LA kalbi ($19) and seafood vermicelli ($12) -- all suitable for sharing, though I stuck to the meatless dishes, while my wife and son demolished the meat and poultry, plus a couple of bowls of white rice.

We were given a complimentary appetizer -- halves of baked sweet potato dusted with cinnamon. Other dishes on the menu include kimchi soup and a seafood pancake. 

I loved the soup, with its flavorful broth and skewers of fish balls and cakes, and its root vegetable. 

The tender kalbi -- bone-in beef short ribs -- were served on a bed of stones the waiter ignited with a lighter. My wife and son also loved the chicken dish -- chunks of leg and thigh meat in a sweet and spicy sauce perfect for spooning over the rice.

The noodle dish was long on vegetables and short on seafood, but it's made with yummy, translucent, sweet-potato or yam noodles known as japchae. A glass of the house red wine was $7.

Click on the link below for another diner's experience, with photos. Despite the heading of his post, I believe Chef Ji had already left as general manager of the restaurant by the time he ate there.

Wonderful Wednesday at Chef Ji's Moon Jar

I recall one of Chef Ji's minimalist appetizers from my previous visit in October: salad covered by an upended martini glass -- with chopped ahi tuna and caviar mounded on the base.