Grazing on free food samples at two large Korean supermakets

At $24.99, boxes of sweet potatoes on sale at H&Y Marketplace in Ridgfield still are more expensive than smaller quantities at ShopRite, Costco Wholesale and Trader Joe's.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Fresh fruit, dumplings, tofu and noodles are among the free samples available on weekends at Korean supermarkets in Ridgefield and Little Ferry.

H&Y Marketplace in Ridgefield is smaller than the Super H Mart down the road, but a lot less crowded and easier to navigate on a Sunday.

True, there are fewer samples at H&Y.

But the shopping center at 1 Remsen Place also boasts a storefront where Arirang Kimchi set up shop after many years of turning out preservative-free cabbage, cucumber and other kimchis in Englewood.

H&Y also sells Jun's Tofu, a GMO-free product made in the store, and a refrigerated gochujang, a spicy red-pepper paste made with sugar, not high fructose corn syrup.

I purchased cooked conch, one of the samples I tried ($7.99 a pound).

In a bid to drum up business, H&Y is now offering buy one and get one free on hundreds of items on the first day of every month.

Free samples of fresh fruit, above and below, are among the choices on weekends at H&Y Marketplace, a Korean supermarket at 1 Remsen Place in Ridgefield.

After enjoying fresh fruit, cooked conch and other samples at H&Y, I went next door to buy two jars of cabbage kimchi at Arirang Kimchi. 

At H Mart in Little Ferry, a refrigerated case holding panchan or side dishes that are served at every Korean meal. The price of this prepared food from Jinga and other outside Korean caterers has spiked in the past year.

Free samples at H Mart

The shabby H Mart in Little Ferry probably offers more free samples on weekends than any other store in the chain outside of Super H Mart, but you don't have to fight crowds, just navigate around potholes and floods in the parking lot.

Usually, H Mart also has bigger discounts than H&Y.

Near H Mart's fresh-fish counter on Sunday, I tried cooked whelk and octopus, and raw farmed-salmon sashimi.

Elsewhere, there were samples of cold noodles topped with a bit of ice and thick udon noodles in hot broth; two kinds of meat-free dumplings, small squares of fried tofu, curry with vegetables over white rice and more fresh fruit.

At H Mart in Little Ferry, 15-pound bags of Kokuho Yellow Label Rice, grown in California, are deeply discounted until Dec. 31, below.

Also on sale at H Mart were 16-portion boxes of dry Shin Ramyun Gourmet Spicy Noodles for $9.99.

Free samples of cooked whelk and octopus with a small plate of gochujang, a spicy red-pepper paste.

Three of the side dishes I brought home from H Mart in Little Ferry are Stewed Tofu, bottom right, (a dozen pieces for $4.99); Bu-Chu Dumplings filled with noodles and crumbled tofu, left (eight for $5.99), and Japchae, stir-fried translucent noodles made from yam flour ($5.49). I had them for breakfast with a simple egg-white omelet stuffed with reduced-fat Swiss cheese.

Arirang's Mahk or Cabbage Kimchi. Made by hand without MSG or preservatives, a 64-ounce jar is about $11.

Hansang in Pal Park stands out with a generous array of side dishes

After we placed our lunch order at Hansang Korean Restaurant in Palisades Park, the server brought over complimentary side dishes of kimchi, tofu, vegetables and seaweed, arranging them in a circle around a thin seafood pancake, above and below.

The side dish of tofu, upper right, was served warm.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

With up to three dozen restaurants, caterers, coffee shops and other food businesses, Broad Avenue in Palisades Park is the natural starting point for any serious exploration of Korean food.

But you'll find more Korean restaurants on another borough street, Bergen Boulevard, and that's where I met two friends for lunch on Monday.

None of the Bergen Boulevard restaurants I tried several years ago are still there. 

I went inside three of the new or newish Korean places on Monday, and all looked promising.

Hansang, where we had lunch, laid out a total of nine complimentary side dishes, a larger number than most of the Korean restaurants I frequent regularly. 

Our entrees were Bibimbap with Octopus, Kimchi Stew, and Soft-Tofu Stew with Seafood, the last two made spicy ($11.99 to $13.99).

There was so much tasty food we couldn't finish our side dishes or panchan.

I had a few minor complaints:

We were seated next to what turned out to be a noisy service counter.

The complimentary seafood pancake wasn't cut into wedges, making it hard to share.

And the stone-plate bimbimbap -- rice and shredded vegetables topped with octopus -- came without an egg or gochujang, a spicy red-pepper paste that is supposed to be served on the side.

Hansang served a white or water kimchi, lower left, instead of the traditional cabbage kimchi with red pepper.

Bibimbap with Octopus was served on a hot stone plate.

A Soft-Tofu Stew with Seafood included an unusually large clam and head-on shrimp.

Kimchi Stew.

Details

Hansang Korean Restaurant, 520 Bergen Blvd., No. 8, Palisades Park; 1-201-592-1770. Open 7 days for lunch and dinner. 

For fresh fish, good food and more, shop and eat where Koreans do

For dinner on Sunday night, I enjoyed a whole fresh black sea bass from H Mart -- baked in an aluminum-foil pouch for 30 minutes at 450 degrees with fresh tomato, onion, garlic and lime juice. You'll also need a spoon to enjoy the resulting soup.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The biggest H Mart in Bergen County also is the busiest, and parking in the big lot can be tough.

But on Sunday afternoon, to my surprise, there were plenty of empty spaces at the Super H Mart in Ridgefield.

The shopping challenge was inside -- narrow aisles and customers with carts stopping for free food samples -- every four or five feet it seemed -- more than at the other H Marts in Fort Lee, Englewood, Leonia and Little Ferry (weekends only).

If you've never tried Korean food, here is an ideal place to sample cooked and dried fish and other seafood; tofu, soup, cold or hot noodles, dumplings, meat, sausage and the traditional side dishes that accompany every meal.

Adding to the shopping experience, Korean-American college students and other food samplers call out what they are offering in Korean.

But when I had questions -- such as, "Is there any meat in that?" -- all of the ones I spoke to on Sunday were bilingual.

The night before, we drove to Palisades Park for dinner at So Gong Dong, a popular restaurant for Korean comfort food -- soft-tofu stew with all the trimmings for only $10.

The fresh seafood selection is so big fish is displayed on plenty of ice on both sides of the counter, and customers can chose what they want with tongs, put their purchase in a plastic bag and hand it over for free cleaning. Fish can be left whole, cut into steaks, filleted or prepared in other ways.

A confusing sign on fresh wild salmon lists two species, Sockeye and Coho.

Among the many free food samples on Sunday was cooked top shell, also called whelk or sea snail, dipped in a spicy sauce.

Wild-caught red snapper.

Whole Monkfish Tail was $5.99 a pound. So was the Black Sea Bass, and the four I purchased for our Sunday dinner averaged a little over 1 pound each. 

Organic lettuce

My other purchases included Organic Red Leaf Lettuce for $1.99, a better buy than the same lettuce grown conventionally for $1.49.

A 15-pound bag of Kokuho Yellow Label Rice, grown in California, was $9.99, a savings of $7.

A large, heavy watermelon was $6.49, and three bunches of scallions were 99 cents.

We love kimbap, a sliced seaweed-and-rice roll stuffed with vegetables and fish cake, but a small package prepared in the store was pricey at $5.49.

H Mart Smart Card

If you forget your ShopRite Price Plus Club Card, you can enter your phone number into a terminal and get the deals associated with it on the spot.

But if you forget your H Mart Smart Card, you have to return to the store with your receipt to be credited for the 1% rebate associated with it ($10 after your purchases total $1,000, and special coupons).

A few days after I wrote this, I took back two receipts, but was given credit for only one. I was told no credit is given for receipts more than a month old.

Also, the large Super H Mart lot has only three parking-lot corrals for shopping carts, and your car could be damaged by another customer who doesn't bother returning a cart to one of them.

The biggest H Mart in Bergen County is in Ridgefield.

Details

Super H Mart, 321 Broad Ave., Ridgefield; 1-201-943-9600. Open 7 days, free parking in large lot.

This H Mart is in a shopping center with other Korean businesses, including a bakery, restaurants and an appliance store.

So Gong Dong in Palisades Park specializes in complete soft-tofu dinners, but you also can find B.B.Q. Squid with Spicy Sauce, an unusually hot gochujang, for $12.99, including two kinds of kimchi and three other side dishes. The squid was very tender, but I needed a pair of scissors to separate the rings.

Pajun, a grilled seafood-and-scallion pancake made from rice flour, is $11.99, and can be shared by four to six. 

Clockwise from top, pickled radish, bean sprouts, cucumber kimchi, cabbage kimchi, a dipping sauce for the grilled pancake and seaweed in gochujang, a red-pepper paste.

My wife's stone bowl of soft tofu was bubbling furiously when brought to the table, ideal for poaching the fresh egg that comes with it. This bowl of Pork Soft Tofu is Medium Spicy, one of the spice levels you can specify.

So Gong Dong offers 11 soft-tofu stews with a fresh egg, steamed rice and five side dishes, a complete meal for $9.99 (rounded up to $10 on the check, including tax).

Big tables are designed to accommodate multi-generational families or groups of men.

Details

So Gong Dong, 118 Broad Ave., Second Floor, Palisades Park; 1-201-313-5550. Free parking on side streets. 

Costco's Greek smoothie, Korean blood sausage, Arirang Kimchi

Langers Mango Nectar and Kirkland Signature Greek Yogurt are two of the ingredients in smoothies we make with fresh bananas and frozen strawberries and blueberries, all from Costco Wholesale.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Kirkland Signature Greek Yogurt has it all -- it's non-fat, packed with protein and calcium, and versatile.

We use the tangy yogurt to thicken fruit smoothies, garnish hot cereal, mix it with diced cucumbers and dried mint to eat over organic brown rice or quinoa, and as a stand-in for sour cream on baked sweet potatoes.

Two 32-ounce containers were $7.39 at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

Costco's Greek Yogurt and dried mint on a baked sweet potato served with an egg-white omelet.

A sweet potato with Greek Yogurt and pomegranate seeds, also from Costco, served with sauteed spinach and Jamaican ackee and salt fish.

Korean blood sausage, kimchi

I returned to Arirang Kimchi's new store in Ridgefield today to replenish my supply of its incomparable handmade cabbage or mahk kimchi.

The ingredients list is short: Nappa Cabbage, radish, salt, salted shrimp, red pepper, garlic, anchovy sauce, ginger, water, sugar, scallion.

A 5-pound bag is $7.99.

The crunchy kimchi will leave your lips tingling.

Next door at H&Y, a Korean supermarket, I grazed on free food samples, including several kinds of fruit, maple tree water and two types of fish cake in hot soup.

When I got home, I snacked on cabbage kimchi and a slice of Jun's Wild Sesame Tofu with gochujang, a spicy vinegared red-pepper paste.

One of the popular free weekend food samples at H&Y, a Korean supermarket in Ridgefield, is blood sausage, foreground. A woman who was eating a sample said the sausage is made with translucent noodles mixed with cow's blood. A package was $6.

Live abalone are available.

Jun's Tofu is made at H&Y, including soft tofu for soup ($3.50), left, and Wild Sesame Tofu, sold in 30-ounce blocks ($5), right. Jun's Tofu is non-GMO.

A delivery truck for Arirang Kimchi reflected in the glass of the store at 1 Remsen Place, Ridgefield, next to H&Y Supermarket.

Above and below, Arirang Kimchi ready to be delivered to Kang Ho Dong Baekjeong on East 32nd Street in Manhattan, a Korean barbecue restaurant owned by a famous comedian.

Arirang Kimchi, 1 Remsen Place, in the H&Y Marketplace shopping center, Ridgefield; 201-313-7975. Open 7 days.

Food shopping, leftovers for breakfast, a diabetic's nightmare

Sahara-brand Clementines are on sale for $4.99 at ShopRite in Paramus, but as the name suggests, the 5-pound boxes are from Morocco, not Spain.

The Paramus ShopRite also has 1-pound packages of Sunset's incomparable Campari Tomatoes for $3.99, compared to 2-pound packages of the same tomato for $4.99 or less at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

Editor's note: Food shopping is hard work and stores take a lot of short cuts on signs and other aids. Today, I also discuss assembling a quick, nutritious breakfast from leftovers, and a Trader Joe's holiday sales flier that contains so much sugar my teeth ache just reading it. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The food we buy in our local supermarkets and warehouse stores comes from all over the world, meaning there is no substitute for reading labels.

That may look like a good price for clementines, but are they from Spain or Morocco? I prefer the Spanish ones.

Australia is known for low prices on grass-fed beef, but one of the producers, Clayton's, follows organic practices and another, Nature's Reserve, doesn't.

I've been buying Campari Tomatoes for years, but for some reason, the ones that come in Costco Wholesale's 2-pound packages taste better than those in the 1-pound packages sold by competitors.

ShopRite confused two Australian producers on the sign at left that I saw on Thursday. Three 1-pound packages of Nature's Reserve Grass-fed Ground Beef were $14.97. Clayton's Organic Ground Beef was $5.99, right.

Six enormous California Pomegranates are $14.99 at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack. Each one yields 2 cups of pomegranate seeds. The seeds from ShopRite's smaller and cheaper pomegranates weren't as good.

Going clockwise, a breakfast of leftovers includes sauteed Chinese broccoli with lots of chopped garlic, sweet potatoes mashed with extra-virgin olive oil; and two items purchased from H Mart in Englewood, stewed-tofu and japchae, translucent noodles with vegetables. I often use gochujang, a vinegared red-pepper paste, on tofu.

On leftover patrol

My personal record at breakfast is clearing five containers of leftovers from our crowded refrigerator.

You won't ever catch me skipping breakfast or stopping for one of those artery clogging breakfast sandwiches at a fast-food place.

But you will find me leaving enough time in the morning to reheat a plate of healthy, simply prepared food, often supplemented by an egg-white omelet with reduced fat cheese or organic whole eggs fried sunny side up.

Most of my breakfasts include leftovers that used ingredients from Costco Wholesale, Whole Foods Market and H Mart.

H Mart, a small Korean supermarket chain, is known for its prepared tofu and other side dishes, and fresh produce and fish, such as the whole king whiting my wife bought on Friday for $4.99 a pound, dusted with cornmeal and fried for dinner.

Chinese broccoli, mashed sweet potatoes and tofu make way for a Jamaican specialty, ackee and salt fish, accented with Valentina Mexican Hot Sauce (Black Label).

An egg-white omelet with a slice of reduced-fat Swiss cheese, Aleppo pepper and za'atar thyme mixture joins more tofu and organic brown rice with organic lentils. 

Organic 100% whole-wheat pasta shells, prepared with bottled sauce, anchovies and sardines, joins japchae and two organic eggs fried sunny side up with grated Pecorino Romano Cheese.

Trader Joe's sugar fixation

The latest edition of Trader Joe's Fearless Flyer is labeled, "Holiday Guide 2014."

The 24-page sales flier, which I receive in the mail, is filled with promotions on so many sugary treats and full-fat cheeses I had to resist the urge to schedule a physical after reading it.

Caramels, fondue, chevre with truffles, scallops wrapped in bacon, egg nog ice cream, chocolate, cupcakes, shortcake, marzipan and cookies pose a real minefield for diabetics and even people who are just watching their weight and cholesterol.

I'm someone who doesn't add sugar to coffee, doesn't eat dessert and hates the taste of bottled pasta sauces with added sugar.

There is not much that interests me in this flier.

An out-of-state upstart satisfies my hunger for kimchi at home

The long-delayed relocation of Arirang Kimchi to Ridgefield from Englewood remains incomplete.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The jar of kimchi in my refrigerator came all the way from Pennsylvania.

I had hoped to pick up Arirang's handmade cabbage kimchi in Ridgefield on Saturday, but the family owned company hasn't completed its relocation from Englewood.

The storefront in the H&Y Marketplace shopping center looks much the same as it did a couple of months ago.

I  looked under the "COMING SOON" banner covering the plate-glass window, and could see only three or four large refrigerated cases against one wall.

I have been a loyal Arirang customer for more than a decade, and have loved the crunch of its spicy cabbage, cucumber and radish kimchis.

So many kimchis...

But on Saturday, I had to go into H&Y, a Korean supermarket; look over a dozen brands and purchase a 64-ounce bottle of Mukungwha Mac Kimchi from Joo Young Food Inc. in Willow Grove, Pa. ($8.99).

The ingredients list is short: Cabbage, red pepper, ginger, onion, garlic, salt, fish sauce. 

Costco Wholesale in Hackensack is selling a smaller bottle of cabbage kimchi for $7.99, but I haven't bought any because it contains beef-bone extract and added sugar.

One of my favorite items at H&Y Marketplace is a  2-pound package of Jun's Wild Sesame Seed Tofu ($5), made in the store with non-GMO soybeans. A great snack is a thick slice of this tofu with a little sweet-and-spicy gochujang, below.

A 2.2-pound bottle of refrigerated Sinsong Vinegared Red-Pepper Paste or Gochujang was on sale for $4.99, a discount of $1. I bought two. This brand is made with sugar, not high-fructose corn syrup. The bottles were placed on the shelf above an old, incorrect sign for wasabi.

Mukungwha Mac Kimchi from Pennsylvania.

The cabbage kimchi sold at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack is $7.99, but the bottle is smaller, only 58 ounces.

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