Chasing Whole Foods' 99 cents turkey drumsticks

The homely monkfish on a well-iced display at Whole Foods Market in Paramus. The huge mouth is perfect for hunting in deep waters. The store pledges that all the seafood it sells is free of antibiotics and preservatives, and that fresh fish is delivered six days a week.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss a Black Friday food sale I always shop, whole wheat pastas and a spicier stew at my favorite Korean tofu house.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

I had to make two trips to Whole Foods Market in Paramus before I found a parking space in a lot that was packed with Black Friday shoppers besieging other mall stores.

On the second trip, after 7 on Friday evening, I found several empty spaces not far from the entrance, and only a handful of shoppers inside the organic supermarket.

I picked up two packages of naturally raised turkey drumsticks for 99 cents a pound, and another two packages of turkey backs and necks for $1.99 a pound.

I couldn't find any 16-ounce boxes of organic whole wheat pasta shells sold under the store's 365 Everyday Value label for $1.39.

So, I bought two 16-ounce packages or 365 Everyday Value Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti.

Whole Foods sells organic whole wheat pasta made in Italy -- linguine, spaghetti, shells and other shapes -- for $1.39 a pound, but Italian brands of organic whole wheat pasta on the same shelf go for more than $5 or $6 a pound.

A new ingredient in So Gong Dong's "more spicy" soft-tofu stew are chopped, hot green peppers, above. The broth is hot enough to soft boil a fresh egg that comes with the meal. Excellent cabbage kimchi is one of four free side dishes, below. We also ordered a seafood pancake.

Turning up the heat

I found a new ingredient in the Oyster Soft Tofu I ordered on Saturday evening at So Gong Dong in Palisades Park, our favorite Korean tofu house in North Jersey.

I asked for my soft-tofu stew "more spicy," as usual, and when it came to the table, I noticed chopped green chilies sprinkled on top.

They added a new level of heat to the stew I hadn't encountered before at the second-floor soft tofu parlor, which also serves an array of other traditional Korean dishes, including barbecue and bibimbap.

Soft tofu is comforting and a bargain, and it's not uncommon to see three generations happily enjoying the meal, including infants that have to be fed by their parents.

For $9.99, a complete soft-tofu meal includes the stew, a second stone bowl of steamed white rice and four side dishes, including bean sprouts, two kimchis and a fiery preparation of raw squid.

We asked for and received a second set of side dishes, and a third portion of the wonderful cucumber kimchi.

As a comfort food, soft tofu is especially good in the chilly months of winter. It's also available "no spicy," "little spicy" and "medium spicy." 

I love poaching the fresh egg that is provided, breaking the soft yoke over the rice and eating them together.

We also ordered pajun, a seafood-and-scallion pancake that serves four ($11.99).

On the bill, prices are rounded up a penny and include tax ($10 and $12).


So Gong Dong, 118 Broad Ave., Second Floor, Palisades Park; 201-313-5550. Open 7 days. BYO. Free parking on side streets.

Two organic brown eggs sprinkled with shredded Parmigiano Reggiano cheese from Costco Wholesale and served with Thanksgiving leftovers.

Food that tastes better than it looks

At So Gong Dong, red pepper in a stone bowl of soft-tofu stew, above, and kimchi, below, may turn off people who want to try Korean food, but the stew is available without spice, as are a seafood pancake, barbecue, bean sprouts and other dishes. 

 

It was 28 degrees outside on Saturday when we set out for So Gong Dong in Palisades Park, knowing that it was bubbling hot inside the Korean soft-tofu house.

We find ourselves returning to So Gong Dong regularly, because there are no surprises at a restaurant that can feed us well for $9.99 each, including tax.

That's the price of a soft-tofu stew, which comes with seafood, beef, pork or kimchi, and can be made with hot water in place of beef broth.

For $9.99, you also get a stone bowl of steamed white rice, a fresh egg to break into the bubbling hot stew and four side dishes -- two kimchis, bean sprouts and raw squid in red pepper.

What's not to like?

A week earlier, we tried an Indian restaurant in Edgewater called Kinara, and was surprised by a $10 charge for a basket of bread the owner offered when he took our order.  

Thankfully, there's no bread at So Gong Dong, and nobody pushes food on you.

But if you want to get the attention of a server, there is a button on each table to ring a chime. 
 

Korean masks at So Gong Dong, 118 Broad Ave., Second Floor, Palisades Park.

   


After we left So Gong Dong, we stopped at the ShopRite in Palisades Park in search of spicy instant ramyun soup and bulgogi marinade, but were disappointed the store doesn't stock any Korean food.

The young employee who I asked for help led me to the aisle with "Asian food," but he had never eaten Korean food and had no idea what I was talking about.

The Palisades Park ShopRite does have the biggest tropical fish tank I've ever seen in a supermarket. 


Hot cereal blues

  

This Silver Palate Oatmeal took on a blue tinge from the frozen wild blueberries I added, along with pine nuts, goji berries, dried cherries and organic agave syrup.

A 16-ounce box of this outmeal is on sale for $1.99 -- not 99 cents, as I said earlier -- at ShopRite supermarkets with a store card and a coupon from the Sunday newspaper.

A taste of grease?

We received coupons from a restaurant in River Edge with the ambiguous name of A Taste of Greece.

I recall eating at the small BYO a few years ago and enjoying the Greek food (935C Kinderkamack Road, open 7 days).

The name becomes a problem when it is spoken to someone who is not familiar with it.

So, you can assume this place hasn't succeeded by word of mouth.    

Fishing for an honest retailer

At a Korean soft-tofu restaurant, you get a fresh egg to crack into the bubbling beef broth, and a half-dozen or more complimentary side dishes or panchan, above and below.

Editor's note: A Consumer Reports investigation questions the honesty of seafood retailers. Today's bill of fare also includes a new tofu restaurant in Palisades Park, and more on Costco produce.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

A Consumer Reports investigation on the mislabeling or employee misidentification of fish is based on samples purchased at retail, but Costco Wholesale is conspicuously absent.

Seafood was purchased in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut at Whole Foods Markets, including the Edgewater store; Wegman's, A&P, and Red Lobster Restaurants in Paramus and Scardale, N.Y.

Magazine staffers who served as mystery shoppers bought a wide variety of fish from 55 stores and restaurants in the fall of 2010, including five "big-box stores," but Costco is not named in the article.

Costco is a major seafood retailer of fish fillets, both fresh and frozen, farmed and wild-caught; large farmed shrimp, sea scallops, crab, lobster tails and other items. 

The story is in the December 2011 issue of Consumer Reports magazine. It ran under these headlines:

"Mystery Fish"

"The label said red snapper, the lab said baloney"

In New Jersey

We ordered red snapper at Amici Family Restaurant in Bergenfield, and got a tough, sinewy fillet. We asked the waitress to check with the cook, and she quoted him as saying it was red snapper. 

We never returned.

The magazine said none of the 22 "red snappers" it bought at 18 markets "could be positively identified as such."

When dining out, I always order seafood and we get whole fish, if it's available. We're always pleased with the choices at Wondee's, a Thai restaurant in Hackensack with relatively low prices on fish and other seafood.

When dining in, we split our seafood purchases between H Mart, a chain of Korean supermarkets in North Jersey, and Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

At H Mart, we usually buy whole fish, which are labeled with country of origin and whether they are farmed or wild. 

Costco's labeling of fish is better than most other retailers, judging from Consumer Reports, which says cod labels don't have to specify whether the fish is from the Atlantic Ocean, where the cod population is low, or the more abundant and sustainable schools in the Pacific Ocean.

The cod fillets I've purchased at Costco have all been labeled "True Pacific Cod." 

New tofu restaurant

If you put the word "tofu" in the name of your Korean restaurant, make sure you do a good job on your signature dish.

We were a little disappointed with the soft-tofu stews we were served on Sunday evening at K.J. Tofu House in Palisades Park, but liked the other food we tried and the unusual number of free side dishes.

The restaurant has been open about two months in the space formerly occupied by the Soft Tofu Restaurant. We were told K.J. Tofu House has separate owners.

The modern interior has black-stone table tops, some with electric grills, and there is jazz playing on the sound system. A banner in the window advertises a $6.95 breakfast.

K.J. Tofu House has a traditional, full Korean menu, plus a dozen different soft-tofu stews, including curry, ham and cheese, and "intestines." Most are $8.95 at lunch and $10.95 at dinner.

But along with the soft tofu stew, you get rice, an egg and 10 free side dishes at dinner, including two small, whole fish. So Gong Dong, our favorite tofu house, serves only four side dishes for $9.99.

At K.J. Tofu House, my wife ordered a pork soft-tofu stew ($10.95) and I ordered a combination meal pairing two large, broiled mackerel fillets and a small seafood tofu stew ($21.95).

After we placed our order, a server brought over the 10 side dishes, including spicy and white cabbage kimchis, tiny shrimp, potato salad, greens, and pickled jalapeno slices. Then, the entrees arrived, accompanied by two hot stone bowls of white rice.

Clearly, we had ordered too much food.

The kitchen mixed up our orders, making my wife's tofu stew spicier than mine, and my smaller stone bowl of stew didn't contain any seafood. But the mackerel was some of the best I've had, and the side dishes were terrific, ensuring a return visit.

The staff is eager to please, and we were asked how we liked the food twice. When a server didn't seem to be around to take our order, the woman behind the register ran out to write it down.

Cups of a sweet drink came with the check.

K.J. Tofu House, 268 Broad Ave., Palisades Park; 201-363-0700. Open 7 days from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. BYO.

Korean pears

My wife picked up a package of three large Korean pears for $6.79 today at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, compared to the $6.99 I paid at H Mart in Little Ferry.

A 10-pound bag of Earthbound Farm Organic Carrots was $6.99; a 1-pound package of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix was $4.79; a 3-pound bag of "thoroughly washed" Eat Smart Broccoli Florets was $4.99; six heads of Andy Boy Romaine lettuce were $3.99, and a 5-pound bag of limes was $5.99.

A 1-pound package of Kirkland Signature Wild Alaskan Smoked Sockeye Salmon was $15.39. 

Though it has more sodium in a 2-ounce serving than Kirkland Signature's Imported Smoked Salmon, it also tastes better and its thicker slices have more body than its farmed cousin.  

Costco Wholesale's accent is becoming much more pronounced

A quiet day at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack. (February 2013)

Editor's note: A lot has changed since I wrote this post in 2011. Pine Hill, the Korean restaurant in Paramus I mentioned, has closed. And I no longer buy the farmed shrimp from Costco; I pay more for wild-caught, usually from the Gulf of Mexico (January 2016).

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On my first visit to Costco Wholesale since Sept. 9, I was surprised at two of the items I saw on the shelves.

Imported items from Korea are nothing new. After all, there are eight Costco warehouse stores in Korea, and thousands of Korean-Americans living in North Jersey.

But the 3-kilo tub of spicy red-pepper paste stopped me in my tracks. Koreans call it gochujang, and use it in many dishes or like ketchup. The other day, I used leftover Chinese takeout brown rice, kimchi and gochujang to make kimchi fried rice.

Unfortunately, this imported brand lists corn syrup as the first ingredient, and it's rated only medium spicy. I buy smaller containers of the vinegared red-pepper paste made with sugar at H Mart in Little Ferry.

Costco gets an "A" for effort, but this brand isn't the best available. I recall when refrigerated jars of cabbage kimchi showed up at the Hackensack Costco, and MSG was listed as an ingredient.

I continued to buy my artisanal, all-natural Arirang-brand kimchi in Englewood. 

I did pick up a box of Korean roasted, seasoned seaweed at Costco. Twenty-seven packages -- each .18 ounces -- were $9.99 or 37 cents each. They make great snacks.

The other item that stopped me in the aisle today was a jar of tahina or tahini from Lebanon, and this popular sesame paste is possibly the first imported Middle Eastern item I've seen at the Hackensack warehouse store. 

Tahini is an essential component of hummus, and can be used as a salad dressing with the addition of lemon juice and garlic.

Around the world

The gochujang and tahini extend Costco's already impressive global reach.

In my basket at checkout today were:

A wedge of Grana Padano cheese from Italy, $9.99 a pound; two 2-pound jars of Kalamata olives from Greece, $2.24 a pound. 

Wealthy Greeks have said "no" to taxes for so long, the country is on the verge of collapse, but the olives keep on coming.

The refrigerated soups are back in the cold case, and I picked up Alaskan King Crab and Sweet Corn Chowder from Legal Sea Foods, $9.79 for two 20-ounce containers; and CedarLane brand Chopped Vegetable and Barley Soup, $8.99 for two 2-pound containers.

I also picked up a new item from Kirkland Signature, the Costco store brand: three, generous 32-ounce jars of Marinara sauce at $2.09 each. The ingredient list is short, and no sugar or corn syrup is used.

I usually add a can of anchovies with their oil to bottled pasta sauce, along with dried herbs. The anchovies cook away, but leave behind a robustness.

My last two items were U-15 farmed shrimp from Vietnam for dinner tonight, $10.99 a pound; and Oliveri brand 7-Cheese Tortellini, $9.39 for 3 pounds, not 4 pounds, as I wrote originally.

The shrimp, tortellini and Marinara made a great dinner, with a salad of organic spring mix and a glass of wine.

Exploring our options

If you avoid beef, Korean restaurants offer a wide variety of healthy food, including tofu, vegetables, seafood and bracing stews that can be prepared from mild to spicy.

One of our favorite dinners is a stew of soft tofu, accompanied by a fresh egg that you cook in the bubbling broth, side dishes and steamed rice. 

Breaking the  softly boiled yolk over rice and eating them together is a highlight of the meal, which is available for under $10.

For many years, our go-to place has been So Gong Dong, a second-floor soft-tofu house on Broad Avenue in Palisades Park, where about 10 varieties of soft tofu (pork, beef, oyster and so forth) are available, in addition to dumplings, seafood pancakes and barbecue. 

But as I've done periodically in recent years, I am trying soft tofu at other restaurants just to make sure So Gong Dong is still the best for Korea's beloved comfort food.

Soft-tofu stew at So Gong Dong in Palisades Park.

Two Korean restaurants

On Tuesday night, I stopped at Pine Hill, a Korean restaurant in Paramus to try its soft-tofu stew or soondooboo jigae.

It's listed on the full Korean menu for $10.95, compared to So Gong Dong's $9.99, which includes four side dishes, rice and tax.

After I ordered, a waitress brought me seven side dishes, but I sent back cabbage with slices of boiled ham, because I am not eating meat, though I acknowledge the broth used in most soft-tofu stew is beef based.

There were a couple of problems at Pine Hill. 

The side dishes were terrific, including cabbage kimchi, bean sprouts, seaweed, chunks of yam in a maple syrup-like sauce and stewed tofu, but the waitress didn't bring me a fresh egg with the soft-tofu stew.

When I asked for one, she went away and didn't return until long after my stew had stopped bubbling, and then she brought me an egg souffle, not a fresh egg. 

The broth of the tofu stew was nothing special, certainly no match for So Gong Dong's spicy version, which I enjoyed last weekend.

The search continues.

Pine Hill Restaurant, 123 Paramus Road, Paramus; 201-843-0170. Parking lot, liquor license.

So Gong Dong, 118 Broad Ave., Second Floor, Palisades Park; 201-313-5550. Valet or street parking, BYO.

The other rebate shoe drops at Costco

Image by KOREA.NET - Official page of the Republic of Korea via Flickr

A piping-hot Korean soft-tofu stew with egg.

On Thursday, I received a rebate check of $151.35 -- 2% cash back on purchases at Costco Wholesale, where I pay an annual fee of $100 for an Executive Membership.

In February, I received a $322 rebate check from American Express for purchases I made in 2010, including 3% back at restaurants and on gasoline purchases, 1% back for Costco purchases; 2% back for travel purchases and 1% everywhere else.

The American Express credit card is called the Costco True Earnings Card. 

Tofu hits the spot

We couldn't wait for the weekend, when we usually dine out, so we returned to our favorite Korean restaurant on Thursday night for a filling meal of spicy tofu stew, vegetable side dishes, eggs and rice.

We don't seem to be able to stay away from Restaurant So Gong Dong in Palisades Park for more than a few weeks. 

We've tried other tofu houses and other Korean restaurants that serve soft tofu, but So Gong Dong remains our favorite. The price of $9.99 for a complete meal -- including tax -- doesn't hurt, either.

Even if you don't choose oysters, clams or shrimp in your tofu stew, this is a healthy meal. The stew is available from not spicy to "more spicy."

The soft tofu is brought to the table is a stone bowl, and it's bubbling furiously. This is when you crack one of the small eggs on the rim and empty it into the hot stew to cook it.

There's nothing like breaking the barely cooked yolk over the rice, and eating them together.

After you place your order, you are brought the eggs and side dishes of cabbage and cucumber kimchi, bean sprouts and a peppery concoction of raw squid.

The stew and a second stone bowl with steamed rice come later.

We also ordered a seafood pancake to share ($10.99), but the tofu stew meal is so generous, it will more than satisfy most people.

The $9.99 and $10.99 include tax, as I said, but they are rounded up to $10 and $11 on the bill.

So Gong Dong, 118 Broad Ave., Second Floor, Palisades Park;

201-313-5550. Open seven days. BYO. Valet parking available.

Restaurant deals 

Many North Jersey restaurants are offering discounts to lure customers, and in some cases, you can sign up for e-mail coupons.

Others arrive in the mail. Today, the Money Mailer contained the following discounts:

• Luka's Italian Cuisine, 238 Main St., Ridgefield Park, is offering $8.95 lunch specials with soup or salad and pasta; 25% off dinner on Mondays and Tuesdays, and 15% off dinner on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
• Restaurant Galapagos, 222 Main St., Hackensack, allows kids to eat free on Thursdays and gives $2 off any Ecuadorian dinner of $10 or more. Breakfasts of $6 or more are cut by $1.
• Uncle Paulie's Puro Sabor, a Peruvian restaurant at 109A W. Pleasant Ave., Maywood, is giving 20% off meal checks of $10, $25 or $50.
• Presto's New York, a brick-oven pizza and pasta restaurant at 772 Main St., Hackensack, is offering a number of discounts, including 15% off the entire check and a free small pie with the purchase of two large pies.

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.

Healthy meal ushers in the new year

Image via Wikipedi

Cabbage kimchi is one of the side dishes at So Gong Dong in Palisades Park.

We welcomed the new year with a healthy, non-meat meal of tofu, vegetables, rice and seafood on Friday night in Palisades Park. My 13-year-old son, who suggested at the end of February 2010 we all stop eating meat, long ago fell off the wagon, and he ordered beef, too.

We've been climbing the stairs to So Gong Dong, a second-floor soft-tofu house, about 10 times a year for belly busting portions of Korean comfort food, and my son has crowned it his favorite restaurant. After we stopped eating meat, our visits increased.

Strictly speaking, soft-tofu stew is not a vegetarian meal, because the broth is made from boiling beef bones. But you can order it with seafood, mushrooms or kimchi, and ask for it "not spicy" to "more spicy." My son ordered his with pork.

You also get side dishes of cabbage kimchi, cucumber kimchi, bean sprouts and spicy, raw squid. You can add a raw egg and then eat the soft-boiled yolk with the rice -- a terrific combination. All of this costs $10, including tax.

We also ordered a rice-flour seafood pancake for me ($9.99) and for my son, thin-sliced prime beef cooked with onions and cabbage ($14.99). I drank hot tea and small glasses of a sweet-potato liquor called soju that I brought from home.

A soft-tofu restaurant on Main Street in Fort Lee apparently is now operated by the same owner, because I noticed the receipt I got Friday night lists the one in Pal Park as "So Gong Dong II." The restaurant stays open until the wee hours. 

So Gong Dong II, 118 Broad Ave., Second Floor, 

Palisades Park. BYO, open seven days for lunch and dinner.

Breakfast salads

For years, I'd eat a sandwich for breakfast -- open-face, traditional or with Syrian pocket bread. The main ingredient was fish: smoked wild lox or sardines or canned tuna-salmon-sardine salad. I spread the bread with homemade soft yogurt cheese, pesto or hummus, and add sliced tomato, za'atar thyme mixture, sliced cheese and organic salad greens.

Now that I've lost 15 pounds by cutting down on bread and pizza, and visiting a gym five days a week, I've deconstructed the sandwich, eliminating the bread and assembling a salad for breakfast that has many of the same ingredients, including Earthbound Farm organic spring mix ($4.49 a pound at Costco). 

I've also added sun-dried tomatoes in oil, yogurt-cheese balls or a simple egg-white omelet. 

Good stuff for sale

I was looking for antibiotic-free Readington Farms chicken for my son on Friday in the ShopRite in Rochelle Park. ShopRite always seems to have a big sale on crappy Perdue chicken, but discounts for Readington Farms poultry are rare.

However, I saw a sign for Readington Farms leg quarters at 99 cents a pound, but couldn't find any on the shelf. Readington Farms drumsticks were $1.89 a pound and wings were $2.89 a pound. (Does anyone know why chicken wings, whether from Readington Farms or Murray's, cost more than other parts?)

I pushed open the door to the meat room and asked an employee if there were any more leg quarters. He seem displeased that I opened the door and interrupted his work day, and barked that whatever was on the shelf is what the store had. Happy New Year to you, too.

I also saw Readington Farms turkeys, and like the chickens, they are raised on a vegetarian diet without animal by-products or antibiotics.

Jenny-brand Kalamata figs from Greece have reappeared at ShopRite, but they are $3.99 for 14 ounces. I believe they were only $2.99 last year.

New bread at Costco

We love Costco's Kirkland-brand, 100% whole-grain bread, made with seeds and flax. And two loaves are only $3.99. But this week, I found a two-loaf package of Kirkland-brand organic whole wheat bread, which I've never seen before. It's more expensive, though, at $5.39 for two loaves.

When soy meets girl

The headline on this post is taken from the title of an article I found on line at the Organic Valley site. You can read the entire piece -- and others like it -- by clicking on the link below. Here is an excerpt from "When Soy Meets Girl":

 Soybeans have been a staple in the diet of Southeast Asians for several centuries. It is estimated that the protein from soy foods comprises 20%-60% of their daily protein. Several studies suggest that Asian populations have lower incidences of cancer, heart disease and osteoporosis than do those of us living in the West. The high concentration of soy foods present in the diet is one factor thought to explain these findings.

http://www.organicvalley.coop/resources/research-library/


Palisades Park and Fort Lee have soft-tofu restaurants where you can get your soybean fix, along with vegetables and rice. H Mart, the Korean supermarket in Ridgefield, Little Ferry, Fort Lee and Englewood, often carries stewed tofu in red-pepper sauce, another good source of soy. Lotus Cafe in Hackensack and Zen Kitchen in Teaneck, a Chinese take-out place, serve several tofu and soy dishes that can substitute for chicken or beef. Friends also recommend Veggie Heaven on Cedar Lane in Teaneck. Search this blog for addresses.

Korean restaurants in the news

Image by churl via Flickr

Korean food is vibrant and a great source of vegetables and soy, but at least two restaurants have been fined for sanitary code violations recently by health inspectors.

The Record today reports a $960 fine for Gam Mee Ok Restaurant in Fort Lee, one of my favorites for its unique kimchi service and its stone-bowl bibimbap. Two issues the inspector noted were "storing beef in stagnant water" and the "staff's failure to wear gloves when handling hazardous foods."

Madangsui Restaurant, also in Fort Lee, was fined $285 on Nov. 10 for defrosting meat on the floor and not covering it.  This was a real surprise, because it  has always boasted of serving fresh beef and is the only Korean barbecue restaurant I've been to that offers prime beef, the highest USDA grade.

I've long been concerned about the "mystery meat" served at many Korean restaurants, so much so that we started buying free-range, grass-fed Australian beef and preparing barbecue at home, with rice, kimchi and other side dishes.

Maybe the lesson of these fines is to avoid eating meat altogether. With soft-tofu stews, spring-chicken soups and other non-beef  selections, that's easy to do at Korean restaurants.

At $9.99, this meal remains a bargain

Image via Wikipedia

Soft -tofu stew.

I'm not sure how it happened, but Korean soft tofu has become my son's favorite meal to eat out. When he was asked where he wanted to go for his birthday last weekend, he immediately directed me to our favorite tofu house in Palisades Park, the second-floor restaurant called So Gong Dong.

I have been eating soft tofu for more than 10 years and like it spicy. The tofu stew, steamed rice and free side dishes are enough for me, but my son likes to order dumplings or beef barbecue, too. Three years ago, So Gong Dong charged $7.99 for the tofu stew and six side dishes. Today, the meal is $9.99 (including tax), but only four side dishes are served. Still, this meal gives us a feeling of well being and we consider it a bargain. Ten varieties are available, including plain, oyster, beef and pork.

It's a great introduction to Korean food, because you can order it four ways, from "no spice" to "more spicy." Koreans call it sundubu tchigae and it's healthy and filling. First, you get the side dishes: crunchy cabbage kimchi, cucumber kimchi, bean sprouts and raw squid in a spicy red sauce. They are replenished without prompting. The tofu stew arrives at the table in a stone bowl, bubbling furiously, hot enough to cook the raw egg you're given to break into it. A second hot stone bowl is filled with steamed white rice.

Some people spoon the rice into a smaller bowl and then cover it with tofu stew. Others dip a spoonful of rice into the reddish broth or alternate the bland rice with the spicy stew. You can empty the stone bowl with rice and loosen the stuff that sticks to the bottom with tea or you can empty the bowl and peel off the toasted remainder. There is no right or wrong way to eat the meal.

Look around. The other customers seem happy. You often see families or couples enjoying themselves.  You'll know the married couples when you see the man reading the newspaper during the meal. When you get the bill, the $9.99 is rounded up to $10, but no tax is added. The other prices, such as $7.99 for dumpings, also are rounded up a penny.

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