NYC Restaurant Week lunch is a far better deal than dinner

Skate Wing with Chickpea Puree, Roasted Vegetables and Arugula at Fulton, a Manhattan restaurant owned by Citarella.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Fulton -- named after the famous fish market of the same name -- is a restaurant from Citarella, known for upscale markets selling pristine seafood, meat and produce.

The Upper East Side restaurant also is one of hundreds offering three-course lunches for $25 and three-course dinners for $38 during the city's semi-annual Restaurant Week, which ends Aug. 15.

Lunch is a far better value, as I discovered at dinner on Wednesday at Fulton, where the two fixed-price menus are virtually identical.

I enjoyed my meal: An appetizer of the tenderest octopus I have ever had, a generous portion of skate wing with roasted vegetables and two kinds of sorbet to finish.

The restaurant is just around the corner from a Citarella market on Third Avenue.

An appetizer of Grilled Octopus with Potato, Chermoula and Cured Lemon. The waiter said the octopus is tenderized for three hours in boiling water, and it showed. 

Moroccan marinade, stacked skate 

The octopus was marinated in chermoula, a Moroccan seafood sauce made with cilantro, parsley, garlic and other ingredients. 

Two pieces of local skate wing were stacked with chickpea puree and roasted vegetables.

Skate is normally tender, which this one was, but some of it was annoyingly chewy and stringy.

I left a 15% tip, and took advantage of an American Express promotion during Restaurant Week by registering my card and using it to pay for the meal, giving me a statement credit of $5.

That brought the cost of dinner down to $33, plus tip and tax. As I was leaving, the hostess handed me two cookies.

Still, I plan to stick with lunch during the rest of Summer Restaurant Week.

Mango and raspberry sorbet with fresh mint leaves. Fulton's Restaurant Week dinner menu offers tiramisu, but I asked the waiter for something lighter and to tell the kitchen not to cook my food with butter. 

Bread service: Crusty rolls and extra-virgin olive oil.

You can't tell from the dining room, but Fulton was busy on Wednesday evening, with most customers sitting at outside tables, enjoying $1 oysters and $6 glasses of prosecco during Happy Hour, below.

Happy Hour menu.

Fulton Restaurant, 205 E. 75th St., New York, N.Y.; 1-212-288-6600. 

Web site: Citarella's seafood restaurant

Holy mackerel, non-GMO tofu and instant noodle soup

I've heard of Spanish mackerel and Atlantic mackerel, but H&Y Marketplace in Ridgefield has a special on wild-caught Norway mackerel.

Jun's Tofu is made from non-GMO soybeans at H&Y Marketplace.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Shopping at H&Y Marketplace, a Korean supermarket in Ridgefield, is growing on me, even though it is farther away than H Marts in Little Ferry and Englewood, and smaller than a Super H Mart in the same town.

This H&Y is newer and cleaner than the Bergenfield branch, which has a badly worn floor that is a big turnoff.

And the shopping experience is relaxed, with no crowds to fight and plenty of empty parking spaces in the lot.

On Saturday, my second visit to the Ridgefield H&Y, I enjoyed more free samples, including cooked brown rice wrapped in seaweed and cabbage kimchi; bought natural tofu made in the store, and checked out the grocery aisles.

A big tub of Jun's Wild Sesame Tofu (1 pound, 15 ounces) -- made with non-genetically modified soybeans, black sesame seeds and sea salt -- was $5, and another customer advised me to try it with a little soy sauce. 

Samples were delicious. At home, adding a little gyoza dipping sauce and sesame oil, the tofu had a nutty flavor, and I liked the crunch of the sesame seeds.

A 16-portion box of Shin Ramyun spicy instant noodle soup was on sale for $11.99, as was a half-gallon of Lactaid 1% lactose-free milk for $3.49 or what ShopRite charges for its house brand.

I noticed H&Y carries at least three brands of a Korean staple called gochujang made with sugar, not high-fructose corn syrup, and at better prices than H Mart.

Gochujang is a vinegared, hot red-pepper sauce that can be added to soups and sandwiches, and eaten with barbecued meat and broiled fish.

In the fish department, fresh Norway mackerel was only $1.89 a pound.

At the H Mart in Englewood, a sign advises seafood buyers the store is supplied by the Fulton Fish Market in New York City. Tanks, left, hold live abalone and Dungeness crabs. The crabs were $10.99 a pound.

Wild-caught shrimp from Mexico at the Englewood H Mart.

More seafood

Today, I bought four wild-caught sea bass at the H Mart in Englewood for dinner tonight ($5.49 a pound).

I was tempted by large, wild-caught shrimp from Mexico -- as an alternative to Costco Wholesale's farmed Black Tiger shrimp from Vietnam -- but didn't feel like deveining them.

The live Dungeness crabs in a tank of water also looked good.

For an appetizer, I picked up a Jinga-brand seaweed, rice and vegetable roll called kimbap ($6.49).

A tray of kimbap comes with jalapeño peppers and Korean pickles.

H&Y Marketplace, 1 Remsen Place, Ridgefield; 201-943-7400.

H Mart, 25 Lafayette Place, Englewood; 201-871-8822.