Eating out here and there

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Three meals out in two days is unusual for me, but with my wife and son away, preparing food for one can get monotonous.


Breakfast at home: Sandwich of four canned fish salad -- light Italian tuna, red salmon, Moroccan sardines and anchovies, with chopped onion and garlic, cumin and Dijon mustard -- topped with cheese and fresh arugula. 

Dinner at home: A foccacia from Jerry's in Englewood, with a little grated cheese and a lot of fresh arugula or organic spinach on top with extra-virgin olive oil and salt. 

Snack at home: Forkfuls of canned fish salad or leftover foccacia.

Uncle Paulie's in Maywood

On Friday, I met two friends for lunch at Uncle Paulie's Puro Sabor, a Peruvian restaurant where we had the $7.50 lunch special, which includes soup or appetizer, entree and a soft drink. 

I chose boiled potatoes in a cream sauce for my appetizer and squash stew with fried fish and a big mound of white rice, a tasty, filling meal. Uncle Paulie's is popular for lunch and the waitress had a hard time keeping up with drink requests. My food, especially the rice, could have been hotter. 


Uncle Paulie's Puro Sabor, 109A W. Pleasant Ave., 
Maywood. 201-368-2400.


Man'na in Teaneck


Friday evening, I had dinner at a small Korean restaurant with traditional and fusion dishes, and counter service.


This is the home of the Korean value meal (small and large), which includes a main dish, salad, pasta salad, miso soup, kimchi or pickled radish, and water or soda. 

I chose the bibimbap large value meal ($7.99) -- a big steel bowl with rice and chopped vegetables topped with a fried egg. (I told the counter worker I didn't want  the usual ground beef with the dish.) You mix everything up and pour on hot red pepper sauce from a squeeze bottle. Lip-smacking good.


I also ordered a spicy kimchi taco ($1.50), but was surprised to find a little ground meat in it, because there is no indication of that on the menu. The Tex-Mex preparation included shredded lettuce and cheese.


Man'na Modern Asian Cuisine & Frozen Yogurt,
1168 Teaneck Road. 201-357-8782.


Iano's Rosticceria in Princeton

I drove down to Princeton on Saturday to sell old jazz LPs, and hoped to eat at Eno Terra, a restaurant in the neighboring hamlet of Kingston known for fresh, local food. I got there at noon, having skipped breakfast, and was told the enoteca that serves light fare wouldn't open until 2.


Back in Princeton, I briefly flirted with the idea of having an expensive lunch at Lahiere's, the well-known Contemporary American-French restaurant that has been there since 1919. Maybe a seafood risotto and a salad, I thought as I looked over the menu posted near the entrance. 

Instead, I found a pizzeria with a beautiful grilled eggplant and fresh mozzarella salad that came with tomato and olives and a couple of small rolls ($7.50). I drank freshly made, unsweetened ice tea. I sat in a booth and looked at a proverb in Italian and English that is hanging in a gold frame on the wall: "You never age at the dinner table." 

Next door at Twist, a self-service yogurt shop, I had some non-fat fruit yogurt topped with fresh berries (49 cents an ounce).


Iano's Rosticceria, 86 Nassau St., 
Princeton. 609-924-5515.

News flash: Peruvian opens restaurant

The Record of Hackensack ran a news article on Wednesday about the tens of thousands of Peruvians in North Jersey who began migrating here in the 1950s, drawn by textile mill jobs in Paterson.

The newspaper said the Peruvian-American community in the state is the largest in the U.S. and that Peruvians own 45 restaurants in Paterson alone.

Then, on Friday, The Record's restaurant reviewer, Elisa Ung, declared that a Peruvian-Cuban couple who opened a Peruvian restaurant in Clifton "aim to introduce Peruvian culture to the North Jersey dining scene."

Peruvian food may be new to Ung, but not to me and thousands of other non-Peruvians who have enjoyed dining at Peruvian restaurants in the city of Passaic and Clifton for many years. Jaimito's in Clifton and the El Chevere restaurant group in Passaic are my personal favorites.

For example, Pollos El Chevere on Washington Place in Passaic, just steps from Main Avenue, is a busy, clean, well-run restaurant with a liquor license and a full menu of Peruvian specialties, including the signature marinated rotisserie chicken. The restaurant's Japanese-Peruvian business partners have another place nearby that offers anticuchos, the beef heart loved by Peruvians.

One of the great dishes at Jaimito's is tallerin verde, linguine in pesto sauce topped with a large, fried fillet of fish. The chef-owner is Chinese-Peruvian.

Uncle Paulie's Puro Sabor is a new Peruvian restaurant in Maywood that serves large portions of tasty food at reasonable prices.