A fresh take on hand-made noodles

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Dozens of Korean restaurant line Broad Avenue in Palisades Park, above, and some are on the second floor of buildings or enclosed malls, like the one on the right.

Two Korean restaurants, Son Ja Jang and Bunsik Nara, share the same address on Broad Avenue in Palisades Park. 


I walked into the latter in error on Sunday evening, but didn't have to go back out into the rain. A waitress pointed me to a door in the back that leads to Son Ja Jang, a Korean-style Chinese restaurant known for its hand-made noodles.


The simply decorated, L-shaped dining room has only one window -- into the kitchen, and through it you can see a cook stretching and pounding the noodle dough on a counter, loud enough to be heard through a closed door.


I ordered a big bowl of spicy soup with hand-made noodles and seafood ($9.99), and started eating my side dishes, cubed radish kimchi and half-moons of Korean pickles.


Then I saw a waitress deliver two large, divided bowls to men at a table across the way. My waiter said the bowls hold hand-made noodles on one side and seafood or meat on the other, so I know what I'm going to have next time.


My soup had a beautiful, deep-red broth perfectly seasoned with red pepper, and hand-made noodles with shredded vegetables and seafood -- one large mussel, one large clam, a shrimp and several pieces of chewy squid.


This was a deeply satisfying dish and I lifted the bowl to my lips to drain every last drop of the spicy broth. Another seafood noodle soup, labeled "very hot" on the menu, is $10.99, and may be a larger portion.


The noodles were thicker than the hand-made ones at Chinese Mandarin Restaurant, but not as elastic or as chewy. (See post, My order causes a commotion.)


I dipped some of the noodles into a small portion of salty black bean paste that came with my kimchi.


A specialty at Son Ja Jang is jajangmyun -- hand-made noodles bathed in spicy black bean paste with onions and ground meat.


Son Ja Jang Restaurant, 232 Broad Ave., Palisades Park;
 201-944-7777. Look for a sign over a glass door leading
 to doctors' offices. 

A cool dish for a hot day

Sagging a bit under today's heat and humidity, I stopped by Homung Nangmyun, a Korean cold-noodle house, to chill with one of their signature dishes. The place was packed and I had to wait 15 minutes for a shared table.

I ordered a regular-size bibim nangmyun ($10.95), traditional buckwheat noodles in a hot and spicy house sauce. First I received three side dishes -- radish kimchi, salad and stewed potatoes -- and a small thermos with hot, milky beef-bone broth. The Korean merchant sharing my table explained the broth would warm my stomach against the shock of the cold noodles.

The waitress used a scissor to cut the long, bundled noodle strands before she set down my bowl. The noodles, which resemble angel hair pasta, are garnished with half of a boiled egg, some boiled beef and thin-sliced cucumber and radish kimchi. Slurping is encouraged. After my cool meal, I felt pleasantly full and my lips tingled.

The cold-noodle house is in Closter Commons, a shopping center on Piermont Road in Closter, near other Korean businesses: bakery, nail and hair salons, spa, rice-cake house and barber, which is where I got my hair cut and vacuumed before lunch. Yes, every haircut includes a vacuuming of your head -- a combination massage and cleaning of stray hairs. (This post has been revised.)