A delicious meal at Romulus in Englewood that didn't need red sauce

Carciofo alla Guida, a starter at Romulus in Englewood, draws its inspiration from Rome's old Jewish Quarter.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

An artichoke completely transformed by frying, al dente pasta in a lemony sauce and a perfectly grilled whole fish were the highlights of our dinner at Romulus, a new Italian restaurant in Englewood.

The Palisade Avenue BYO serves Roman cuisine, which is rare in a state where red sauce flows freely at thousands of Southern Italian restaurants and pizzerias.

On the short drive there late Thursday afternoon, I wondered if I would be satisfied with a meal devoid of marinara and other forms of tomato, one of my favorite foods.

Once we were seated, I noted the menu does list a couple of comfort dishes with red sauce; still, I decided to try the Roman-inspired dishes, and I was glad I did. 

My wife started with a Caesar Salad ($8), and I asked for Carciofo alla Guida ($10), a Roman Jewish specialty of fried artichoke that melts in the mouth.

Our main dishes were Spaghetti Limone ($15) and a grilled whole Branzino accented by a tomato vinaigrette ($25), a fish that was big enough to share.

I stole a couple of forkfuls of the al dente spaghetti, and loved the dressing of lemon juice, zest, olive oil and Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese.

My branzino or Mediterranean sea bass was beautifully grilled, with thin slices of lemon in the cavity, and served over shaved fennel, radish and fresh herbs. Delicious.

Service notes

Romulus serves bread from Balthazar Bakery, which is less than a half-mile away, and I threw out my no-bread diet and ate the chewy crusts dipped in extra-virgin olive oil, as well as the crunchy croutons from my wife's salad.

Don't dress for Romulus, where the host's flannel shirt was worn untucked, and servers were in jeans and T-shirts.

I liked the idea of a waiter bringing us a carafe of iced water, but not having to pour the first glass myself.

We arrived for the start of dinner service at 5, and shared the restaurant with another couple, and a party of 9 women and one man who said they were an Italian supper club.

Branzino with Lemon and Rosemary.

An order of Spaghetti Limone made up in flavor what it lacked in size.

A cappuccino was $6.

We enjoyed a bottle of Kirkland Signature Prosecco, a sparkling wine from Italy ($6.99 at Costco Wholesale in Wayne).

Before Romulus, occupants of the storefront on East Palisade Avenue included The Kitchen and Blue Moon Cafe, a mediocre Mexican-American restaurant that eventually expanded to a bigger space next door.

A pressed-copper ceiling, above; exposed brick walls and servers dressed in jeans and dark T-shirts are among the style notes.

Details

Romulus Restaurant, 21 E. Palisade Ave., Englewood; 201-408-2639. BYO, metered parking until 6 p.m.

Web site: Roman Cuisine

Jerry's 320-pound provolone, Olivia's Organics, Whole Foods wine sale

A 320-pound Sharp Provolone Cheese is on display at Jerry's Gourmet & More, 410 S. Dean St., Englewood, where complete, restaurant-quality dinners are only $7.99 (reduced to $5.99 after 4 p.m.), if they don't run out before you get there.

Editor's note: Today, I explore the wonderful world of food shopping in North Jersey.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Jerry's Gourmet & More is an Italian specialty food and wine store in Englewood that spares you the agita of driving to Arthur Avenue in the Bronx.

Not to mention having to fork over the exorbitant toll at the George Washington Bridge.

Today, I wasn't as lucky as I have been in getting one of Jerry's complete, restaurant-quality dinners to go, but I picked up a small Caesar Salad and sampled several cheeses, including a Mild Provolone that was on sale for only $2.99 a pound.

I bought some of the mild cheese to eat with fruit and sodium-free almonds I roast at home and dust with cinnamon.

The 320-pound Sharp Provolone Cheese from Italy hanging from the ceiling is larger than the one I saw in 2013 by about 2o pounds.

Jerry's had Mild Provolone on sale for only $2.99 a pound.

Unfortunately, restaurant-quality Meals To Go ran out before I got to Jerry's in late afternoon, and I bought a small Caesar Salad, below, for my wife.

A Rochelle Roll -- cooked eel, caviar, kanpyo (a type of gourd), avocado, tempura flakes and cucumber -- from Maguro Sushi House in Rochelle Park.

Hedging my bets

Before I drove over to Jerry's, I scored the last tray from Maguro Sushi in Rochelle Park at the Englewood Hospital and Medical Center cafe.

The Rochelle Roll, with cooked eel, caviar, avocado and other ingredients, was $8.62.

Finding no Meals To Go at Jerry's, I made the Rochelle Roll my dinner at home, ending with a big salad of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix ($4.49 for a 1-pound package at Costco Wholesale).

On Sunday, Mackerel from Norway was only one of the whole wild-caught fish on ice at H Mart, the Korean supermarket at 260 Bergen Turnpike, Little Ferry.

Olivia's Organics

At H Mart in Little Ferry on Sunday, I picked up four whole whiting, a fish with relatively few bones, for $3.99 a pound, and two 5-ounce containers of Olivia's Organics Spring Mix (buy one for $3.99, get one free).

That's not as good a buy as Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix at Costco, but packages of Olivia's Organics carry a stamp from the NON-GMO Project Verified.

That assures you the Tango, Lolla Rosa, Mizuna and other lettuces and greens aren't genetically modified.

At home on Monday, my wife seasoned the whiting, cut each fish in two and pan-fried the pieces in olive oil. There were enough for two nights.

With big, flaky pieces of mild flesh and few bones to contend with, this is a great eating fish, accented with a splash of fresh lime juice, and I only needed a large organic salad to complete the meal.

Spicy Stewed Tofu, above, and Stewed Mackerel, below, are among the many prepared Korean side dishes available at H Mart in Little Ferry.

A 1-pound package of Stewed Pollack, a wild-caught fish from Alaska, was $7.99. A 1-pound tray of tofu with hot peppers, onion and carrot was $4.99. 

I plated the tofu and pollack with leftover organic whole-wheat capellini, reheated them and added freshly sauteed spinach for a rib-sticking, egg-less breakfast.

Whole Foods wine sale

On Saturday, Whole Foods Market in Paramus is having a one-day sale on bottles of wine (20% discount).

There are some exclusions.

I plan to combine my wine purchases that day with an American Express credit-card promotion good for a $10 statement credit when I spend $60 or more at Whole Foods.

When favorite Italian closes, Hackensack's Green Olive comes through

Shrimp and Clams over Risotto ($18), above, and Whole Wheat Penne with Broccoli Rabe ($16) were among the dishes we enjoyed on Saturday night at Green Olive, our consolation prize after we discovered Bocconi Restaurant in Hackensack had closed.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Little did we know after we enjoyed another terrific meal at Bocconi Restaurant in mid-September the Italian-American BYO in Hackensack would close suddenly a couple of weeks later.

This message appeared on the restaurant's Facebook page on Oct. 2:

"We are sad to inform everyone that Bocconi is permanently closed! We appreciate all of our customers. You will be greatly missed by Frank [an owner], Mario [the chef] and staff."

Empty dining room

But we hadn't seen the Facebook entry, and late Saturday afternoon, we parked in the lot of the medical building across Essex Street, and then crossed on foot, carrying a bottle of Italian red wine and a pound of organic whole wheat spaghetti Frank had said he would cook and serve to us.

Then, we saw the restaurant was empty of all of its furnishing, and one of the letters in the "bocconi" neon sign was burned out.

Frank's message on Facebook didn't even hint at why Bocconi had closed.

Was it the impossibly small parking lot, the rent or another issue?

I immediately thought of an alternative, The Green Olive, an Italian-American restaurant on Passaic Street in Hackensack we've never tried. 

We drove over and had a nice dinner of salad, whole wheat pasta and seafood, sharing all of the dishes, and our son ordered a dessert with ice cream.

Green Olive prices are moderate, as they were at Bocconi, but the latter served bigger portions and also had the edge on preparation of the food.

Details

The  Green Olive, 455 Passaic St., Hackensack; 201-487-0759.

Web site: 

The Green Olive, A Restaurant

Our last meal at Bocconi:

A leisurely dinner with our wine

At The Green Olive, three of us shared two salads, above and below ($10 and $11).

Sole Florentine stuffed with spinach ($22).

The Green Olive served us complimentary crostini and olives, but not bread.

No Italian wines were available by the glass. I ordered a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon for $8, and then another, but the second glass wasn't served before I finished eating.

The Green Olive is a restaurant with a dining room and bar, which are separated by a glass-topped partition, below.

The shocker. All of the furnishings have been removed from Bocconi on Essex Street in Hackensack. In better days, below. 

A half-portion of Bocconi's Fettuccine Putanesca.

Takeout from Homung Nangmyun in Closter and Jerry's in Englewood

The Shrimp and Vegetable Dumplings from Homung Nangmyun Restaurant in Closter were still warm when I got them home.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Closter Commons is the other shopping center in the wealthy Bergen County community, the one that isn't a big, noisy redevelopment zone, and it has a pronounced Korean accent.

That's good for me and anyone else who enjoys Korean food and services, such as the haircut I get once a month at Closter Dongyang Barber Shop, complete with a head vacuuming that usually puts me to sleep ($20).

A few steps away is Perfect 20 Nails & Spa, where you can follow the haircut with a manicure and pedicure, including a no-charge back massage.

Then there is a small restaurant, Homung Nangmyun, which specializes in nangmyun, chewy cold noodles in an icy beef broth.

For non-meat eaters, the restaurant serves tasty Shrimp and Vegetable Dumplings to eat in or take out (10 for $9.45).

The other dish on the place-mat menu that caught my eye is a Soft-Tofu Stew with clams and other seafood, served with several complimentary side dishes ($12.95).

You'll also find Gateaux, a Korean bakery and cafe, in one of the bigger spaces, usually filled with Korean housewives catching up on the latest community gossip.

Other businesses include a Korean-Chinese restaurant that I've never tried. 

Closter Commons

All businesses are at 570 Piermont Road, Closter.

Homung Nangmyun Restaurant, 201-750-1010,

closed Tuesdays.

Dongyang Barber Shop, 201-767-4541, closed Wednesdays.

Perfect 20 Nails and Spa, 201-750-7370, closed Sundays.

At Homung Nangmyun Restaurant, I was told a takeout order of dumplings would take 15 minutes, and given a cup of hot tea while I waited. 

I'm guessing Homung Nangmyun has about 30 seats, and if you are by yourself and want to eat in, you might be seated with another lone diner.

The House Salad from Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood includes a small cup of Italian dressing made with mustard, anchovies, garlic, vinegar and olive oil.

Salad, salmon and more

On my weekly visit to Jerry's Gourmet & More (410 S. Dean St. in Englewood), I picked up a wonderful dinner salad for me and a complete, restaurant-quality meal with salmon, beet salad and crabmeat-stuffed zucchini for my wife ($5.99 each).

The next night, the Eggplant Parmigiana side dish from her dinner made a light meal for me with some leftover whole-wheat pasta.

This Baked Salmon Dinner and other Meals To Go are marked down to $5.99 from $7.99 after 4 p.m., but make sure you remind your cashier about the discount, if the container doesn't carry a $5.99 price tag.

Jerry's has an incredible selection of Italian wines.

I saw one bottle of Italian wine for $6.99, but this Montepulciano d'Abruzzo elicited sticker shock.

Seeing too much red? Meatless meals come in a variety of nice colors

SOME LIKE IT HOT: Wedges of a frittata with fresh tomatoes and organic salsa, left, share a plate with spicy stewed tofu and cabbage kimchi.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The bad news about beef and other red meat keeps on coming.

If you overdo it, you can get colon cancer.

If you undercook it, especially when it is ground for hamburgers, there's a good chance you won't kill all of the harmful bacteria in it, according to Consumer Reports magazine.

Cook ground meat to at least medium (an internal temperature of 160 degrees Farenheit).

My policy is to avoid the stuff altogether, relying on wild-caught seafood, cage-free eggs, tofu, organic whole-wheat pasta, salads and other heart- and brain-healthy food.

See a related post:

Brace yourself: What most cows eat

STEWED AND SALTED FISH: A breakfast plate of sauteed spinach, stewed tofu, stewed Alaskan pollack, and Ackee and Saltfish, a Jamaican specialty. You can find prepared tofu and wild-caught pollack at H Mart and other Korean supermarkets.

HOW SWEET IT IS: My wife's sweet-banana dumplings are wonderful with savory Ackee and Saltfish. 

GET SMASHED: Organic sweet potatoes from Trader Joe's and peeled California garlic from Costco Wholesale are boiled together until soft, then mashed with extra-virgin olive oil and seasonings.

SIDE DISHES: Oven-roasted Brussels Sprouts with mashed organic sweet potatoes.

FROM THE DEEP SEA: Argentine Red Shrimp grilled on top of the stove. We've also cooked the shrimp, right out of the freezer and without the heads, in a Pulmuone-brand organic soft-tofu stew kit I found on sale at H Mart, the Korean supermarket in Little Ferry.

KEEN ON QUINOA: Two organic eggs with a dusting of grated Pecorino Romano Cheese, accompanied by Brussels Sprouts, on a bed of organic brown rice and quinoa prepared in an electric cooker.

CRAB AND SLAW: Coleslaw, top, and Wild Red King Crab salad with sweet peppers in a Dijon mustard dressing.

COOKING AHEAD: This frittata started with a mixture of whole eggs and whites, plus grated cheese and some low-fat milk. As the bottom set over medium heat on top of the stove, I added sliced plum tomatoes and organic salsa. Then, it went under the broiler for about 20 minutes to brown and finished cooking.

SUNNY SIDE UP: Two organic eggs with sauteed spinach over organic brown rice and quinoa.

No worries: Tofu at So Gong Dong in Palisades Park is as good as ever

The rice-flour seafood pancake at So Gong Dong in Palisades Park is one of the soft-tofu restaurant's non-spicy dishes.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

We've been relying on So Gong Dong in Palisades Park for years to deliver a filling meal of healthy soft tofu, rice and vegetable side dishes for only $10. 

But in September, when we stopped there for dinner, my wife complained the beef broth of her soft-tofu stew was too salty, and I thought the grilled whole squid I ordered was a lot smaller than before.

Those proved to be momentary setbacks, as we found out on Friday, when we returned to the second-floor restaurant with our son, who was home from college and just had to have soft tofu.

Belly busting meal

I ordered an oyster tofu stew with rice and complimentary side dishes, and it was as good as ever ($9.99).

I also ordered a seafood pancake to share ($11.99), and my wife and son chose pork soft-tofu stews ($9.99 each). 

I'm not sure why, but after a couple of slices of pancake, I couldn't finish my tofu stew, and took the leftovers home.

Our son also ordered Bulgogi or Korean barbecue made with prime beef, and couldn't finish that either ($14.99).

Soft-tofu stews can be ordered from "no spicy" to "more spicy."

And when you finish the kimchi and other side dishes, just ask for more.

If you're afraid the beef broth will be too salty, you can order your soft-tofu stew made with hot water.

Organic tofu

For 100% organic tofu, try BCD Tofu House, 1640 Schlosser St., Fort Lee, where a complete dinner of tofu stew, rice and side dishes is $12.99.

The Fort Lee restaurant is usually packed, but doesn't take reservations, and you might have to wait on line.

When the soft-tofu stew is brought to your table in a stone bowl, it is bubbling furiously, hot enough to poach the fresh egg that is provided. We always ask for the stew "more spicy."

One of the great pleasures of a soft-tofu dinner is breaking a soft-boiled egg yolk over white rice and eating them together. The crunchy rice lining the bottom of the stone bowl is worth trying to scrape up.

Seaweed with gochujang, a spicy red-pepper sauce, was one of the complimentary side dishes on Friday.

Pickled radish with sliced jalapeno pepper.

Cucumber kimchi, above, and cabbage kimchi, below.

A side dish of bean sprouts.

The dining room filled up quickly as we ate.

Details

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

Open 7 days, 10:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.

Valet parking and free parking on side streets. Meters in effect 7 days until 9 p.m.

Although So Gong Dong doesn't have a liquor license, you are discouraged from bringing beer or soju to enjoy with your meal.