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DrNuke

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  1. Ah falafel! Back in central New Jersey, there used to be a Jerusalem Pizza in Highland Park (across the Raritan River from New Brunswick) on Raritan Ave. They’re closed Saturdays, of course. But, if it’s Israeli-style falafel you crave, it was almost as good as some of the places (most of which had the same moniker) I remember in Brooklyn. They had all kinds of side salads such as eggplant (Spanish and Greek), hummus (which is classified as a salad), olive salads, etc. And, naturally, they were kosher (dairy) complete with pizza though you won’t find any pepperoni! I say that in the past tense since we haven't been down there in a couple of years. I wonder if they’re still in business. The supermarket stuff doesn't quite match what you can get in a restaurant (in most cases). However, if you're forced into supermarket-fare, we’ve found that the Sabra brand is the best for hummus, tehina, and other salads. Cedars brand which seems to be ubiquitous in the markets taste more like rancid mayonnaise by comparison.
  2. Arirang is the famous name on the awning. It threw me off since my Korean is not all that good, but it's improving - the terminal 'iang' was not in the subscript as it should be in the one on the right: Here is how it appears on the awning: Incidentally, I do not recommend their homemade Kim-Chi. It's far too salty and not enough of a pepper bite - even the commercial Tobagi brand is better than this one. For homemade Kim-Chi, I have to agree with Jason on the little out-of-the-way deli in Englewood next door to the DMV and the local Han Ah Reum market.
  3. Non-existant? Our town is still abuzz about the recent Dunkin' Donuts shop. And we're definitely a destination spot if you want bad pizza... Anyway, we tend to go out to Tenafly as much as we go to Closter or Cresskill or other towns in the area. It's all pretty much the same place to me. Unfortunately we're not such an easy area to get to via 80/95 or the GSP so a restaurant would have to be pretty darn special to pull people in from elsewhere. In theory Tenafly should have more of an advantage in getting customers from bordering Englewood than the towns to the north, so I was surprised to see America go under. (Does anybody know the story behind that? I was there not long before they closed and the place was full.) I can only speculate that Sapphire couldn't compete with the more 'established' Samdan just down the road. ← Actually, we frequented both Samdan and Sapphire and found Sapphire to have the superior menu. The Missus felt that their appetizers had a more Israeli-Lebonese slant where as Samdan was more towards Turkish. And, Sapphire seemed to be packed every time we went. So, it was a shock to me that they had closed. As far as all the talk of Tenafly being a "restaurant graveyard", there is a common thread that runs through these towns - or, literally lack thereof. Jason touched on part of it in that there are no accessible major highways (or trains) to the central business districts. Towns such as Englewood and Ridgewood are easily accessible by car. They're well established and have very large commercial zones. In the case of Ridgewood, very few industrial portions and there was some planning done. That brings the second point that so many other towns have suffered from explosive growth with houses and commercial zones developed haphazardly (thanks to planning boards with questionable agendae) that it creates bad asthetics. People just don't feel comfortable dining there. Towns like Ridgewood seem almost chic by comparison. There's something to feng-sui. People are shallow. So, if you add this factor to the already high business mortality rate of restaurants, you can understand why there's a high turnover in places like Tenafly. Jason also mentioned back on 2/24/06 about Koreans not eating in any place local unless it's Korean. From my experience, we've found many large Korean families from "the old country" dining in places as odd as Indian and Middle-Eastern restaurants. We'll see at least one table in Sapphire with such an extended family - and they weren't eating anything resembling man-du, bul-go-gi, or kim-chi. I can see Rachel telling you not to be the "ugly white guy".
  4. Trader Joe's has Sumatran and Kenyan coffees (Arabica beans, naturally) which have less of an aftertaste than Columbian. You can experiment with using some of them along with decaf. Don't forget the burr grinder.
  5. Getting the last word in - I just wanted to add to this experience that this is a stereotypical neighborhood-style Italian restaurant one sees in the outer boroughs of NYC with a mix of northern and Sicilian-style dishes. Outside of the apparent over-saltiness of the food, I don't appreciate having to chew down on pieces of bay leaf. There's a reason why most chefs leave them in whole so they can be extracted prior to service. The wait staff were efficient and polite. And, we all got a chuckle out of seeing the older ciafones arriving in their Lincolns and Caddies, dressed in mid-70s polyester plaid. It reminded me of home. That said, it's a bit pricey for what they serve.
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