Gamasot Restaurant in Fort Lee

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One of our favorite meals is spicy Korean soft-tofu stew with steamed rice and side dishes. At $10 or less -- including tax -- soft tofu is not only delicious, it's good for you, too. And it's a welcome alternative during our meatless pledge.

On Saturday night, we tried the new kid on the block -- Gamasot (Korean for iron pot). The full price for a soft-tofu meal here is $9 -- $1 less than So Gong Dong, our favorite, in Palisades Park. When we've tried soft tofu elsewhere in the past, we couldn't get it as spicy as we wanted.

Gamasot offers a range of spiciness, as do most places, but didn't take us seriously and delivered three stews with seafood that fell a bit short on the heat scale. Yet, these stews were bubbling so furiously when brought to the table, the two fresh eggs I cracked into mine became hard boiled, rather than soft, which tastes great broken over the rice.

The stone bowl with the steamed rice seemed a little smaller than at So Gong Dong, but we liked the side dishes -- cabbage kimchi brought to the table in a special bowl and cut with scissors, and cucumber and radish kimchis, plus bean sprouts and sliced hot peppers in a sweetish sauce. The entire meal was terrific and we plan to return. (Photo: Typical Korean side dishes.)

Another specialty at Gamasot is milky ox-bone soup, which the greeter said is cooked for 24 hours and served a number of ways. Korean barbecue also is available. The restaurant is housed in an enclosed, two-level  shopping mall with parking underneath, but some stores are vacant, and Korean restaurants have come and gone over the years.

Gamasot Restaurant, 1550 Lemoine Ave., 
First Level, Fort Lee; 201-242-1155


So Gong Dong, 118 Broad Ave., Second Floor,
Palisades Park; 201-313-5550.

Homung Nangmyun Restaurant in Closter

Image by stu_spivack via Flickr

Koreans eat traditional buckwheat noodles in cold broth year-round, but I wanted something a bit warmer when I stopped for lunch today at Homung Nangmyun in Closter. 

Despite the chill outside, the small restaurant in Closter Commons shopping center filled up quickly. This past summer, when I had the noodles in a hot and spicy cold house sauce,  I had to wait 15 minutes for a shared table. (Photo: Generic nangmyun with beef.)

Each table holds a thermos of hot, milky beef-bone broth and a cup. You are supposed to down a couple of cups to warm up your stomach against the shock of the cold noodles. I drank some anyway and really enjoyed it, even though I planned to order steamed mandoo, or Korean dumplings ($7.95).

In addition to the small salad the waitress gave me when I arrived, my side dishes were broad ribbons of  radish kimchi and stewed potatoes. I also got hot tea and, when I asked, a small dish of cabbage kimchi. Since the dish I ordered was considered an appetizer, I didn't get the full number of side dishes served to other customers.

The 10 shrimp and vegetable dumplings, which came in a steamer basket, were beautifully made, plump and delicious. The restaurant serves several other hot dishes, including short ribs and soft-tofu stew with seafood.

Homung Nangmyun,570 Piermont Road, Closter,
in Closter Commons Shopping Center; 
201-750-1010. Closed Wednesdays.

Gee, what's that in my kimchi?

Image by Taekwonweirdo via Flickr

With the wind howling and temperature falling, is there a better meal than a stone bowl filled with bubbling Korean soft-tofu stew, another bowl of steamed rice and several side dishes? So, last night, right after we placed our order at So Gong Dong in Palisades Park, a waitress brought us four side dishes to quiet our hunger.

We immediately attacked the cabbbage and cucumber kimchis, but my wife and son ignored the other side dishes -- bean sprouts and raw squid in a spicy sauce. Then, my wife's fork uncovered something odd in the cabbage kimchi -- it looked raw, almost rotten. I hit the button on the the table and a chime sounded, summoning a waitress, who said it was just a raw oyster. A raw oyster? My wife was horrified. She hates raw seafood, especially oysters and clams, and refuses even to eat cooked squid or octopus. We gave the waitress our cabbage kimchi and she quickly replaced it and added another dish of  cucumber kimchi.

My first taste of kimchi was in the late 1960s, when my Korean roommate at the University of Missouri-Columbia offered me some. Since the late 1990s, I have eaten it regularly at Korean restaurants in North Jersey, including So Gong Dong, and New York City, and now, I always have a bottle of cabbage kimchi in my refrigerator. I have never in all that time seen an oyster in my kimchi. In fact, the only seafood ingredients listed on the label of the Arirang-brand kimchi I often buy in Englewood are salted shrimp and anchovy sauce.

So Gong Dong offers soft-tofu with oysters and may make its own kimchi, so is it possible one of the oysters fell into the kimchi? Or are oysters an ingredient some kimchi-makers add?

Restaurant So Gong Dong, 118 Broad Ave., 2nd Floor, 
Palisades Park; 201-313-5550, open seven days.