Update for Korean barbecue lovers

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It's happened again. Madangsui Restaurant in Fort Lee, once my favorite Korean barbecue restaurant, was fined $1,033 last week by the borough environmental health specialist "for allowing a rat infestation, with droppings too numerous to count," The Record reported on Friday.

Madangsui was fined $285 on Nov. 10 for defrosting meat on the floor and not covering it.  This was a real surprise, because it  had always boasted of serving fresh beef and was the first Korean barbecue restaurant to offer prime beef, the highest USDA grade, after it opened more than five years ago.

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We love all the vegetables and soy served by Korean restaurants, but I've long been concerned about their "mystery meat" -- sliced extremely thin and marinated to improve flavor and tenderness. So we started buying free-range, grass-fed Australian beef and preparing barbecue at home, with rice, kimchi and other side dishes.

Thankfully, the newspaper Friday also contained a ShopRite circular offering Nature's Reserve free-range, grass-fed whole beef tenderloin for filet mignon from Australia at $3.99 a pound with a store card, $5.99 a pound without (4- to 6-pound average). Make sure you get the Australian beef, because the supermarket chain also has put on sale the same cut of conventionally raised U.S. beef. The sale starts today and ends Feb. 6.

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What I did the last time I bought this Australian beef was to trim it carefully, slice it thin and store it in the freezer in bags with bulgogi marinade, available at H Mart, the Korean supermarket in Little Ferry, Englewood, Fort Lee and Ridgefield. (Illustration shows the tenderloin just below the sirloin.)
 
There are few meals that can match the fun quotient of Korean barbecue, where you use red-lettuce leaves to wrap up meat, hot pepper paste, rice, garlic, kimchi and whatever else you can manage, then stuff the whole package into your mouth.

Two more meatless meals

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Tonight, I plan to serve my wife and son spaghetti with sardines in tomato sauce as a follow-up to last night's meal -- one of Jerry's Neapolitan pizzas with a big salad and Italian red wine.

We're trying to cut down on our consumption of beef, but we're not giving it up altogether. In fact, in the interest of full disclosure, I'm heading to the ShopRite in Rochelle Park today to buy an Australian whole beef tenderloin for filet mignon -- on sale for $4.99 a pound with a store card. The cattle are free range and grass fed, and raised without antibiotics and growth hormones.

I'll trim the fat, slice this beef  thin and store it in freezer bags with Korean bulgogi marinade from H Mart. Then, we'll be able to enjoy Korean barbecue at home without having to fret over the mystery meat most restaurants serve for cooking on the table.

And Sunday night at home, we did enjoy Australian shoulder lamb chops I bought at Pathmark for under $3 a pound. I served them with mashed potatoes and sauteed broccoli.