Working up an appetite on stroll down Broad Avenue in Palisades Park

Freshly made blood sausage, called soondae, is available at Moo Bong Ri, 108 Broad Ave. in Palisades Park, but you don't have to be a meat eater or love spicy food to enjoy a wide variety of Korean specialties in neighborhood restaurants, caterers, coffee houses and karaoke bars.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I've loved Korean food for nearly 20 years, but that doesn't make it any easier to pick a restaurant on Broad Avenue in Palisades Park.

The street has the biggest concentration of Korean food businesses in North Jersey.

On Saturday evening, with my wife and son out of town, I was free to choose a place to eat instead of returning to So Gong Dong, our favorite soft-tofu house, at 118 Broad Ave.

I walked up and down on both sides of Broad Avenue -- reading menus and looking over the shrink-wrapped packages of noodles, grilled fish and side dishes in catering shops -- and couldn't decide on whether to dine out or do take out.

I was reminded of how competitive and perishable the Korean restaurant business can be, noticing that many past favorites are closed or under new ownership.

I especially miss one place that offered a simple grilled fish accompanied by traditional side dishes of kimchi, tofu, seaweed and other delectable tidbits.

In the end, I went home empty handed, prepared a large pot of organic whole-wheat pasta with sardines in red sauce, and washed it down with a couple of glasses of red wine.

This Caffebene at Broad and West Homestead avenues, and a second Caffebene in Fort Lee, won't accept credit cards for purchases of coffee and food under $10.

Crome Signature Bakery and Cafe, 306-310 Broad Ave., is by far the biggest Korean coffee house I've seen in Palisades Park.

Cap Udon, a small restaurant at 198 Broad Ave., offers inexpensive meals, including $6.99 lunch specials. Specialties include noodles and kimbap, the addictive Korean seaweed-and-rice rolls.

So Moon Nan Jip, 238 Broad Ave., is widely considered one of the best restaurants for enjoying family meals of shrimp or thinly sliced meat cooked on the table over charcoal. You also get rice, about 10 side dishes and red-leaf lettuce for wrapping. There is a two-order minimum for cooking on the table.

Palisades Park enforces metered parking on Broad Avenue from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., except on Sundays. The touch-screen meters are tri-lingual. You can find free parking on side streets.

This no-frills spot in Fort Lee is my pick for healthy, delicious food

The Hot and Dirty Bowl with added grilled shrimp, one of the quinoa-based dishes at the moderately priced Mood'whiches in Fort Lee, tastes even better than it looks.

Editor's note: A wonderful dish of quinoa and wild shrimp was among the highlights of a week of eating in and eating out; food shopping at Trader Joe's, and the anticipated reopening of Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I had my heart set on fish-head rice-noodle soup, but found the Malaysian restaurant on my must-try list had closed.

That's when I remembered another Fort Lee spot high on my list, Mood'whiches, where "eating healthy is the foundation to a good mood."

"We offer clean food, free of processed meats, refined products, artificial flavors and colors, additives, preservatives, fillers and anything that is not good for your body," according to the takeout menu.

"We serve local ingredients when in season and free range, humanely raised meats," all of which are antibiotic and hormone free.

Late Friday afternoon, I placed my order at the counter, and it was delivered to my table a few minutes later.

But customers of Mood'whices and sister restaurant Tast Eatery, on Anderson Avenue in Fort Lee, also can place their orders online. 

Bowled over

The Mood'whiches menu offers lots of salad, sandwich and bowl options for carnivores, herbivores and omnivores, and those in between like me (no bread, no pizza, no meat or poultry, but an unabashed lover of wild-caught seafood).

I was eager to try one of the quinoa-based bowls, and chose Hot and Dirty ($6.50), adding grilled wild shrimp ($4).

Other extra-cost add-ons are grilled chicken or tofu, flank steak and salmon.

The small bowl and fork were plastic, and the table was bare, but who cares?

The food couldn't have been more delicious:

Quinoa, jalapenos, carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, cheddar, black beans and pico de gallo with chimi churri, plus crunchy grilled shrimp.

I washed that down with a thick fruit smoothie, called Mango Ango, with orange juice, pineapple, mango and strawberry ($6 for 16 ounces).

The focus at Mood'whiches is on great ingredients and great food. Customers order at the counter, and the food is delivered to the table. Online ordering also is available.

Mood'whiches is decorated with food quotes, above and below.

Mood'whiches serves breakfast, lunch and dinner (2448 Lemoine Ave., at Washington Avenue, Fort Lee; 201-944-1404). Web site: Eat With Us & Heal The Planet

In January, I was intrigued with House of Malaysia on Main Street in Fort Lee, where I ate at a Japanese soba restaurant on the same block, and asked for a takeout menu. But when I returned on Friday for dinner, I found the restaurant portion of the business had closed. A bubble tea parlor remains open, and the sign on the door promises T-Swirl, described as a premier creperie, will be ready in April.

Silver Pond Seafood Restaurant at 230-34 Main St., Fort Lee, has been renovated and renamed Aquarius by the new owners, who operate Joyce Chinese Cuisine in River Edge. 

Aquarius Restaurant is expected to serve dim sum, as did Silver Pond.

Costco Wholesale parked delivery trucks near the entrance to its Hackensack warehouse, which is scheduled to reopen on Tuesday as a Costco Wholesale Business Center, the first in New Jersey. The warehouse will cater to restaurants and other small businesses and offer delivery, but also will be open to any Costco member (80 S. River St., Hackensack).

Takeout from Lavash City, a fast-casual Armenian grill and bakery at 331 Main St., Hackensack (201-464-5445). I ordered Mediterranean Salad, including stuffed grape leaves, cheese and olives, left; and 10-Vegetable Salad with roasted carrots, cabbage and cauliflower; and Hummus. They came with fresh-baked lavash, the thin, chewy and addictive Armenian bread. Small salads are $4 each and a small Hummus is $3. 

A serving of Trader Joe's O's ($1.99) has only 1 gram of sugar, but other cereals have more. Trader Joe's High Fiber Fruit & Nut Multigrain Medley ($2.99), made with seven whole grains, contains 8 grams of sugar per serving, and Trader Joe's Raisin Bran has twice that.

At the Paramus store, 404 Route 17 north, not all of the Trader Joe's Chicken Sausage is from antibiotic-free birds, though the price is the same, so you have to read the labels carefully.

A Rochelle Roll from Maguro Sushi in Rochelle Park is available for about $8.60 at the cafe in Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, 350 Engle St., Englewood. See ingredients below.

From Costco Wholesale, a homemade breakfast of two organic eggs, smoked wild salmon and Mexican-style salsa served over organic quinoa with organic diced tomatoes, organic black beans and whole garlic cloves.

My wife prepared canned mackerel with sweet peppers and onion for another hearty breakfast. I ate them with an omelet and mashed sweet potatoes.

Another heart-healthy breakfast substitutes pasta and eggs for bacon and eggs. Here, I enjoyed a simple egg-white omelet over organic whole-wheat fusilli with sardines and anchovies in Victoria Vodka Sauce, which contains no heavy cream.

ShopRite Spring Water, bibimbap with squid, a free Costco shopping trip

ShopRite now sells its own Spring Water in the same 24 half-liter bottles as Poland Spring. The label list the source as natural springs in Pennsylvania.

Last week at the Paramus store, a 24-pack of ShopRite Spring Water was on sale for $2.99 each, compared to $3.33 for a 24-pack of Poland Spring Spring Water when you bought three.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss a week of food shopping, eating out and takeout -- from bottled spring water to a meatless Korean bibimbap to a restaurant-quality Italian-style fish dinner.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

ShopRite almost always seems to have a sale on three 24-bottle packs of Poland Spring Spring Water.

But now, you can beat even that deal when ShopRite puts its own brand of Spring Water on sale, as it did last week at the Paramus store (224 Route 4 east). 

An 18-ounce package of blueberries from Chile were $7.99 at the Paramus ShopRite last week, compared to $5.49 at Costco Wholesale in Teterboro. An 11-ounce package of blueberries was $6.99 at ShopRite.

Bibimbap -- a Korean dish of sizzling rice, vegetables and ground beef served in a hot stone bowl -- is available in two meatless versions at So Gong Dong, a soft-tofu and barbecue restaurant. I ordered the Bibimbap with Squid ($12.99) and added gochujang, a spicy red-pepper paste, from a squeeze bottle on the table. It was served without the traditional raw or cooked egg on top.

A pork soft tofu stew, served in a stone bowl, is boiling when it is brought to the table -- hot enough to poach a fresh egg that is provided along with another stone bowl of steamed rice and five complimentary side dishes ($9.99). The stew can be ordered from little spicy to more spicy.

The entrance to So Gong Dong, 118 Broad Ave., Second Floor, Palisades Park. Valet parking is available.

 Free Costco shopping

My wife went to Costco Wholesale in Teterboro on Wednesday -- her first trip in more than two weeks -- armed with rebate coupons from American Express, which issues the True Earnings-Costco credit card.

She bought $261.93 worth of fresh produce, fish, cheese, juices and packaged items, and came home with $10.25 in change.

Fresh wild-caught Atlantic Cod from Iceland was only $7.99 a pound, a wedge of imported Parmigiano Reggiano was $8.49 a pound and a 10.7-ounce bottle of Ground Saigon Cinnamon was $2.49.

Organic bananas were $1.99 for 3 pounds, and a 10-pound bag of non-organic carrots was $5.99.

A 3-pound bag of raw, sodium-free California Almonds was $17.99. They are ideal for roasting at home and dusting with the Vietnamese cinnamon sold at Costco.

She also bought toilet paper, bleach, flowers, body wash and chewing gum, among other items.

Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood calls its restaurant-quality takeout dinners Meals To Go, but they could just as well be called A Little of This, A Little of That: The dinner I bought included Sea Trout Fillets, Grilled Zucchini, Eggplant Parmigiana, Vegetable Frittata, Roasted Potatoes, Shrimp and Broccoli Dumplings, and Mushroom Stuffed with Crab Meat -- all ready to be plated and reheated in the microwave.

The dinners are marked down to $5.99 after 4 p.m., if there are any left. On Friday afternoon, I got the last three Sea Trout Marechiaro dinners. Jerry's is at 410 S. Dean St., Englewood.

On Friday, one of the many delicious cheeses you could sample for free was Scamorza, a dried mozzarella.

Among the premium pastas available at Jerry's was Organic Fusilli (1.1 pounds for $6.79), above, as well as 8.8-ounce boxes of Spinosi Pasta for $5.99 each, below. At ShopRite and Whole Foods Market, you can find 1-pound packages of Organic Whole Wheat Pasta from Italy for $1.25 to $1.49 each.

Read the label, buy good ingredients and prepare simple meals at home

REDEFINING PLAIN: Before I grabbed a big canister of half-price "plain" bread crumbs at ShopRite in Paramus, I read the label. Then, I changed my mind. They contain high fructose corn syrup, sugar, honey, corn flour, milk, buttermilk, preservatives and other ingredients. 

Hunt's Tomatoes also were on sale at the Paramus ShopRite, 224 Route 4 east, but they contained added sugar, something you also find in nearly every bottled pasta sauce these days.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If you want to avoid lots of sodium, added sugar or other undesirable ingredients in the food you buy, you'll have to pay attention to the small print.

Reading the ingredients label is a must.

Eggs, rice and other food labeled organic means they are free of pesticides and genetically modified ingredients (GMOs).

But you also find produce like the incomparable, hothouse grown Campari Tomatoes, sold in 2-pound packages at Costco Wholesale, labeled with the stamp of the Non-GMO Project.

You also have to worry about sugar, which is added to bread, pasta sauces, salsas and so many other products.

GOING ORGANIC: Two organic, free-range eggs served over organic brown rice --prepared in a rice cooker with organic chicken broth, diced tomatoes and black beans -- make a filling and delicious breakfast (hold the bread).

Baked or mashed sweet potatoes are another bread substitute, here with a plain egg-white omelet filled with a little grated cheese and Mexican-style salsa.

This egg-white omelet is stuffed with smoked wild sockeye salmon and salsa, both from Costco Wholesale in the Teterboro Landing Shopping Center off of Route 46.

Whole King Whiting were $3.99 a pound at the H Mart in Little Ferry. With a central bone, whiting are among the easiest whole fish to eat. My wife seasoned serving pieces of the whole fish and pan-fried them in olive oil.

We boil sweet potatoes and whole garlic cloves, then drain and mash them with extra-virgin olive and seasonings, including red-pepper flakes, black pepper, cinnamon and garam masala.

Serving portions of fresh, wild-caught Icelandic Cod fillets ($7.99 a pound at Costco Wholesale) poach in under 10 minutes once you bring Roasted Poblano Salsa from Whole Foods Market to a boil and cover the pan, below. The salsa is free of added sugar. The garnish is fresh parsley and basil, and Aleppo red pepper.

I add a little sea salt to the fillets, and dilute the thick salsa with the juice of two fresh limes. A 16-ounce jar of salsa is enough for 2 pounds to 2.5 pounds of skinless and boneless cod (four generous servings with brown rice, whole wheat pasta or sweet potatoes).

This morning, a breakfast of leftover cod, organic brown rice and an egg-white omelet stuffed with reduced-fat cheese and salsa was a great start to the day.

We hope twin-lobster deal comes around again before the year 2020

As part of a Leap Year promotion, two steamed lobsters with two house side dishes were only $29 on Monday at Legal Sea Foods in Paramus, one of the most expensive restaurants in North Jersey. 

Normally, a single lobster with two side dishes is listed on the menu for $34.95.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On Monday night, the dining room at Legal Sea Foods in Paramus was filled with the sound of contented customer cracking open steamed lobsters and enjoying the sweet, tender meat.

The Leap Year promotion on the last day of February -- two lobsters with two house sides for $29 -- isn't scheduled to be repeated until 2020.

But our server said the restaurant, one of the most expensive in North Jersey, plans to offer it again before then. 

We hope so, recalling the shocking $81 lunch tab, including tax and tip, on our last visit to Legal Sea Foods in September.

On Monday, our total for four lobsters, four side dishes, wine and ginger ale was $91.04, including tax and an 18% tip.

Despite high menu prices, the service and the complimentary bread leave a lot to be desired.

Our waiter misunderstood our order, and another server brought us only one twin lobster special. 

Although that was easily remedied, the house-made rolls are awful, with doughy interiors that go to waste. They are served with butter, so you have to ask for extra-virgin olive oil.

A flight of red wine -- three 2-ounce glasses of pinot noir, chianti and malbec -- was $10.75.

With her lobsters, my wife chose the excellent coleslaw and delicious sauteed spinach, above. I had brown rice and sauteed spinach with mine.

Not long after we arrived for our 4:30 reservation, and was shown to a booth, the dining room filled up with customers who had read about the Leap Year lobster promotion in a local newspaper -- "an extra day, an extra lobster."

Legal Sea Foods, Paramus (201-843-8483), is part of Garden State Plaza, New Jersey's largest mall. Web site: Fresh fish in landlocked Paramus