Mongolian at the Palisades Center Mall

[Jason Perlow]

For those of you that like to shop at the mammorth Palisades Center on the weekends, which is conveniently close to both NYC and Northern NJ, you may want to consider one of these two mongolian BBQ restaurants as lunch and dinner choices:

Stir Crazy http://www.stircrazy.com (in the Palisades Center Mall itself. Read epinions.com review of this chain)

Khan's, on route 303 in Blauvelt (about 2 minutes down the road from the mall)

***

Being that we were in the mall, we decided to try Stir Crazy for lunch. The place bills itself as "fresh asian cuisine" and is a chain restaurant that has been around for quite a few years now, although it is new to the Tri-State area. Conceptually, its similar to mongolian barbeque, which is essentially that you have a raw bar of various ingredients (veggies and meats and sauces and seasonings) that you throw in a bowl and the cook throws onto a large circular shaped griddle and stirs up for you -- except in this case, the meat portion is controlled by the restaurant and instead of a griddle they throw it in a high heated wok for you to watch behind a plexiglass splatter screen.

Being an expensive mall-type gimmick restaurant, the decoration has all the bells and whistles of similar type asian joints for the masses like Ruby Foo's, with giant chopsticks being suspended from the ceiling, orange and black decor, knicknacks hanging from the walls, you know the deal. The menu consists of the aforementioned stir frys, which range from $12-$16 depending upon which meat you pick to go with your other ingredients. You also at order time chose whether or not you want noodles to be thrown in (there are 3 to chose from, lo mein, chow fun and shanghai) or rice to be served on the side. In addition to various appetizers, there are also stand alone dishes you can order, most of which come from the same pool of ingredients in the "market" that you could otherwise throw together yourself in the stir frys, although they go for a few dollars less.

If you get a stir fry, you're issued a small metal wok about the size of a soup bowl which you are told to throw all the vegetables you want into. Indeed, the raw "market", which is laid out like a salad bar, contains an array of very fresh sliced and julienned vegetables. After you've shoved as many veggies you want into the wok, you go to the sauce bar, and are instructed to put two ladles of one of the dozen pre-mixed sauce combos into the small sauce cup attached to the wok. You're advised not to mix the sauces. For our trial, we used strictly "szechuan" sauce which was a soy and chili base. We further spiced this up by adding a ton of fresh minced garlic and minced ginger, as well as some whole dried sichuan chile peppers that we crushed up into the mix.

Other sauces:

Classic Chinese

Thai Barbecue

Thai Curry

Garlic Ginger

Kung Pao

Black Bean

Szechwan

Spicy Basil

Teriyaki

Szechwan Black Bean

Sweet & Sour

Peanut

The stir fry came out pretty damn good, although a bit watery, as they add water when doing the stir fry as well as a slurry of cornstarch as they see fit, and we used a decent amount of spinach which probably contributed to the wateryness -- upon seeing our choice of veggies, the cook should have compensated with less water accordingly, but he did not. This particlular stir fry we chose flank steak, which the chef added from a little baggie from his mise-en-place as the whole thing was thrown into the wok. The steak was of good quality albeit of miniscule quantity. We also tried two of the off-the-shelf dishes, kung pao chicken, and a basil chicken with noodles. Suffice to say, the kung pao, which was billed as a "double flame" dish indicating its level of spicyness, was pretty wimpy. The portion of meat itself was a bit lame for a $9 dish, although the chicken and veggies were of good quality. The same could be said of the basil chicken noodles, which needed some additional chile oomph. I suggest that if you are going to bother to eat at this place, you go the do it yourself route.

Overall, I'd say if you are in the mall, are tired and hungry, the place is worth a visit, and a good alternative to the food court, but keep in mind we think its a bit of a rip off considering its mongolian restaurant roots, which are much more affordable.

***

As a comparison, for dinner we tried Khan's, a traditional mongolian restaurant, a few minutes down route 303. The beat-up looking chinese restaurant has been there since the late 80's, so no gimmicks here. You are charged $15 per person and its all you can eat -- you shove as much meat and veggies as you want into a bowl and you go up as many times as you want. This place is totally no nonsense and the food is great. The service is attentive and they start feeding you the second you sit down. For appetizers, we were given a healthy complimentary dish of peel and eat shrimp with cocktail sauce, a lettuce vinagrette with chopped peanuts, a order of steamed pork siu mai dim sum (tasty), and your choice of soup -- wonton, seafood or hot and sour. Jon and I had the hot and sour, which I thought was a pretty good specimen but I opted not to fill up on it. Rachel had the seafood, I didn't try it.

The meat bar consists of troughs of frozen thinly sliced ribeye steak, chicken, lamb, pork and small peeled shrimp. Everything tasted pretty fresh, including the shrimp, so I presume it all goes pretty quickly because the restaurant was really busy. The veggie bar was pretty standard fare, consisting of carrots, scallions, mushrooms, mini corn cobs, carrots, onions, broccoli, cabbage, sliced bell peppers, bokchoy, lomein noodle, chowfun noodle, medium firm tofu cubes, green chile pepper slices, and a few other things that escape me, I'd say about 16 items in all. Then theres the liquid bar, which allows you to tweak the seasonings -- rice wine, sugar water, soy sauce, oyster sauce, fresh ginger, fresh garlic, sesame oil. Once you toss all of this into a bowl, you tell the chef which choice of sauces you want -- teriyaki, sweet and sour, bbq, black bean, chef special (the last two being the spicer options) and he throws it all on the circular griddle.

Not to be missed are the taiwan-style sesame "buns" which are brought to table to be used to stuff your stirfry into. These are chewy, with a toasty sesame flavor albeit a bit doughy, so you might want to pull out some of the interior before stuffing them.

For dessert, theres sliced fresh fruit (watermelon and honeydew and an assortment of other stuff) and also ice cream. They serve a killer coconut ice cream, with real coconut peices in it, and a very good orange sherbet, which tastes like orange creamsicle. They also had the green pistachio and chocolate flavors, which we didnt try.

All in all I would say this place is a definite go, we'll be coming back to this one for sure. If you walk out of this joint still hungry, there's something wrong with you.

[anil]

There is a Mongolian BBQ place by Bowery (30 Bowery maybe...) called Daily Chow - Not having a reference point I could not judge how good it was -- Time to go to London

[Fat Guy]

On principle, I will only eat all-you-can-eat Mongolian barbecue. Anybody who has the slightest familiarity with Mongolian history and culture knows that in Mongolia the Mongolian barbecue (which they just call barbecue) is always all-you-can-eat.

[Jason Perlow]

On principle, I will only eat all-you-can-eat Mongolian barbecue. Anybody who has the slightest familiarity with Mongolian history and culture knows that in Mongolia the Mongolian barbecue (which they just call barbecue) is always all-you-can-eat.

Thats interesting. I was told by some fairly knowledgeable Chinese people that Mongolian barbeque, at least as how we see it in the US, is a fairly recent invention in Taiwan. Recently being the last 20 years or so

What you eat in Ulan Bataar is NOT the make your own stir fry stuff you get at "Mongolian Barbeques".

For what its worth, traditional or not, I really like it.

For "real" Mongolian food have a look at http://ulaanbaatar.net/food/

see also http://dmoz.org/Home/Cooking/World_Cuisine...sian/Mongolian/

[Fat Guy]

Well of course the Chinese are going to tell you that.

[Jaymes]

On principle, I will only eat all-you-can-eat Mongolian barbecue. Anybody who has the slightest familiarity with Mongolian history and culture knows that in Mongolia the Mongolian barbecue (which they just call barbecue) is always all-you-can-eat.

Thats interesting. I was told by some fairly knowledgeable Chinese people that Mongolian barbeque, at least as how we see it in the US, is a fairly recent invention in Taiwan. Recently being the last 20 years or so

I was eating what we call "Mongolian barbeque" in Asia 34 years ago, and everyone seemed well-versed on what to do and no one referred to it as being anything new.

There were roaring wood fires in the bottoms of large upright oil barrels, with slotted grills on top. You went through a line and got your raw stuff, then outside to the patio to hand the stuff to the chefs who cooked it on those slotted grills. The idea was that some of the juices dripped through the fine slots, causing smoke, flareups, etc., which in turn flavored the cooking dish - a real "BBQ."

I had this at several different locations in the Far East, Taiwan being one of them.

EDIT: Should add that I fully understand that in the Chinese view, 34 years is but a blink of an eye and that even something invented 100 years ago would still be referred to as being "fairly recent."

[Jason Perlow]

EDIT: Should add that I fully understand that in the Chinese view, 34 years is but a blink of an eye and that even something invented 100 years ago would still be referred to as being "fairly recent."

My understanding that is far as the formulization or commercializing of "themed" mongolian style restaurants of the type we are describing have only been around 20-25 years. But yes, as far as the history of the various trends in cuisines go in Asia, this is a single grain of sand in the 2000 year old hourglass.

[Jaymes]

My understanding that is far as the formulization or commercializing of "themed" mongolian style restaurants of the type we are describing have only been around 20-25 years.

Again - not that it matters - but I know for a FACT that they have been "around" in the Far East for at least 35 years.

[Jason Perlow]

It would be good if we could find some facts on this to get this totally straight. I'm wondering how long in Taiwan they have been producing those large, specialized gas fired griddles though, and how it evolved from the primitive wood fired oil barrels with the grates you are talking about.

[Jaymes]

It would be good if we could find some facts on this to get this totally straight. I'm wondering how long in Taiwan they have been producing those large, specialized  gas fired griddles though, and how it evolved from the primitive wood fired oil barrels with the grates you are talking about.

Now that, I have no idea.

Edit: I can tell you that I became so enamored with the Mongolian BBQs while living in the Far East that I bought three of the slotted grills and brought them back to the States. I gave quite a few M-BBQ parties in my own back yard until they became popular here, thereby losing their uniqueness factor, so I stopped.

[Fat Guy]

MONGOLIAN BARBECUE. Centuries ago in the province of Mongolia, the Mighty Khan's hunting parties would camp on the banks of the great river Khan-Balik. After days devoted entirely to hunting, they would gather in droves to celebrate their successes. Communing in banquet style pavilions, the Mongols would prepare slivers of meat and vegetables by slicing them with their razor sharp swords. These slivers would then be freeze dried and placed on a buffet. The fearless warriors would select meats and vegetables from the buffet and combine them with a variety of sauces. They would then bring their bowls to the chef who would sear it on an overturned shield suspended over hardwood coals. The hordes would eat until exhaustion, repeating the buffet procedure late into the night. While they ate, they were presented with soup, pancakes, rice, and beverages. The Kublai Khan and his fiercest warriors would sit high above the hordes, and enjoy the same food prepared for them on a large, roaring hot griddle.

http://www.bdsmongolianbarbeque.com/history.html

[Jason Perlow]

Fascinating. Who knew Ghengis Khan, the most fearsome barbarian warrior in history was an eGulleteer. and a master caterer. Think of the conversations he would have with Plotnicki.

Plotnicki: "real conisseurs of Mongolian food only eat the meat. The vegetables are for tourists."

Khan: "You are a fool, and I shall spear your head on a pike for your insolence and rape your pets in front of your children for my amusement when I am done! Even a Han weakling can see that the veggies are necessary for a full balanced meal!"

[Jinmyo]

[Rachel Perlow]

Jaymes - what you described above (the meat being cooked on a slotted grill) sounds different from what we've experienced as Mongolian BBQ. Actually, it sounds similar to Korean BBQ. The Mongolian BBQ is cooked on a large flat round griddle about 4' in diameter. The cook puts your raw ingredients on the griddle and maniputlates it around the griddle with extra long chopsticks while walking around the circle once or twice, adding sauce as he goes. When going to either type of restaurant, I always watch to make sure the cooked food is served in a clean bowl (not the one in which you gave him the raw food) to avoid cross contamination.

Another note about Khan's. We appreciated the cilantro on the veggie bar which other places we've been to have not provided. Also, the ginger was not the finely minced jarred type, but was julienned and seemed to be fresh. We occasionally go to the Oriental Grill at the Bergen Mall on Rt 4, but this place is way better and about the same drive for us. I look forward to returning even if we aren't planning on going to the mall.

[snowangel]

There is also a Kahn's here in Minneapolis (I have a feeling that it's probably a pretty common name for Mongolian BBQ places. Ours sounds similar to the one you went to, Rachael, especially your description of the cilantro and julienned ginger.

Mongolian BBQ is a great place to take kids. My kids love the show aspect of it, and you can satisfy just about any taste.

And, I had the kind that Jaymes mentioned in Taiwan in 1969.

[Jason Perlow]

And, I had the kind that Jaymes mentioned in Taiwan in 1969.

Right, but when did they move from grates on top of oil drums to the special restaurant-style mongolian stoves, and creating restaurants based on it?

[tissue]

In Taiwan, the Mongolian BBQ places serve venison. It's really good when you add some pineapple, cilantro, and chili oil to it. I use more oil on venison because it tends to dry out more. The meat has better flavor if you first ladle all your wet seasonings on it. Sort of like a very very brief marination before packing it down with whatever else (onions, scallions, carrots etc).

I don't add noodles to my BBQ, it is eaten separately in a hot pot.

[Jaymes]

Jaymes - what you described above (the meat being cooked on a slotted grill) sounds different from what we've experienced as Mongolian BBQ. Actually, it sounds similar to Korean BBQ. The Mongolian BBQ is cooked on a large flat round griddle about 4' in diameter. The cook puts your raw ingredients on the griddle and maniputlates it around the griddle with extra long chopsticks while walking around the circle once or twice, adding sauce as he goes. When going to either type of restaurant, I always watch to make sure the cooked food is served in a clean bowl (not the one in which you gave him the raw food) to avoid cross contamination.

Rachel - that is EXACTLY what happened in the M-BBQ restaurants I frequented. Some of the places had the griddles just smooth, with no holes or slots, but several of them did have very small holes or slots in order to allow some of the juices to drip through and the smoke flavor to permeate the dish. It is the exact same thing as you describe. Just that the places that had griddles with the small holes - the food seemed to taste a little better, so we preferred those.

All of the ingredients were raw - just as you say. You piled up your plate with the raw stuff, went outside where several chefs were holding forth over their barrels, cooking two or three orders at a time. The smoke wafted up through the night. It was wonderful. After handing them your plate, you went back inside to the rice line and loaded up as much rice as you wanted on a clean plate and then went back and stood there watching as the chef finished up your order. You could chat and visit with him and tell him how much or little you wanted it cooked. Then he scooped it up with a spatula and you held your plate with the rice out and he dumped your BBQ on top of it. If you didn't want rice, or wanted it served separately, then you took an empty clean plate out and stood by the barrel watching the chef finish up.

There was considerable competition among the restaurants for who could offer the most innovative buffet line of ingredients. Several places had pineapple, which I loved. Another had pickle relish. That's right - sweet pickle relish just out of a jar from the U.S. It was surprisingly good.

The buffet was arranged so that you always got the veggies first, of course, then the meats last, with the sauces and oils and flavorings after that.

It was always "eat all you can."

[Rachel Perlow]

The meat has better flavor if you first ladle all your wet seasonings on it.  Sort of like a very very brief marination before packing it down with whatever else (onions, scallions, carrots etc).

That is a great idea. I'll have to be sure to do that next time.

Most of the places around here have the meat first in line. The semi-frozen meat is usually in curls, you gotta smoosh it down to have room for anything else. Usually I add some beansprouts on top then smoosh, so as to avoid getting raw meat on my hands. Next comes the veggies, then sauces, garlic & ginger. So on future visits the order will have to be meat, sauces, ginger, garlic, then veggies.

I wonder if Kahn's is open on Monday nights? This thread is getting me in the mood again.

BTW, here's the address/phone:

Khan's Mongolian Garden

588 Route 303, Blauvelt, NY 10913

Phone: (845) 359-8004

[Rachel Perlow]

I called. Khan's is open on Mondays. Here are the prices:

Lunch - $6.95, one trip to the buffet. Appetizers are just salad and soup, and no ice cream for dessert.

Dinner - $14.95, All you can eat, appetizers include soup, salad, peel & eat shrimp, dim sum, dessert includes ice cream.

Rice & Bread (sesame buns) included at both meals.

[Jaymes]

It certainly does sound better to add the seasonings, oils, etc., directly to the meat first. Unfortunately, in my experience, they always have the meat last on the "serve it yourself" buffets in the hopes, obviously, that by the time you get to the more-expensive meats, you will have filled your bowl with bean sprouts and cabbage.

[Rachel Perlow]

Doesn't mean you can't bounce around to suit your own order.

[Jaymes]

Doesn't mean you can't bounce around to suit your own order.

Well, I guess that's absolutely right, Rachel. I, too, am now in the mood for "Mongolian."

[jhlurie]

I bumping this to mention that I re-visited Khan's for the first time in about seven or eight months, and its just as good as ever. Heck, its been there... like 30 years... so they've definitely got it right by now.

The stuff they feed you even BEFORE the "all you can eat" stir fry is spectacular.

The dumplings are the Shiu mai type, and as good as any I've ever had. The salad is basic lettuce, but prettily julienned and in an absolutely delicious vinegarette with crunch peanut fragments to give a textural contrast, and probably some horseradish in there, since there is a different kind of bite as well underneath the vinegar. The shrimp they give you at the head of the meal are very lovely, and the Hot & Sour soup is one of the best ones I've had. Oh... also unlimited amounts of ANY of this stuff (also: pretty good ice cream or sherbet for dessert). Really.

When you get to the actual "stir fry" bar, things only get better. Aside from the phenomenal freshness of everything (volume is everything!), there are also items I've only seen at this particular "Mongolian" place. Rice noodles in addition to the wheat noodles you always see at these things. Cilantro--buckets full of really really fresh cilantro. Ginger. REAL fresh ginger and not just the ginger water. Good tofu--not half-assed stuff. Fresh hot peppers. Lemon water--which is actually as much lemon as water. As well as the "usual" stuff for a place like this--the various meats (chicken, beef, lamb, pork, shrimp), scallions, water chestnuts, baby corn, onions, tomatoes, pineapple, cabbage, and at least seven or eight others I'm not remembering.

The sesame buns they bring during the meal--a bit tight for stuffing but certainly useable for this--are so good you will want to ask for more from the beginning of the meal, since they initially only bring you about 1 each.

If you walk out of Khan's even only having eaten half the appetizers and a single bowl of the "BBQ", you are ahead of the game. If you double that, you are getting one of the best food deals in the area.

I wish this topic was in the NJ forum, because I know many of our members are in Bergen county. Well, if you live in Bergen, drive your ass across the state line and go here already!

Edited June 15, 2003 by jhlurie (log)

[Fat Guy]

I really want to go to Khan's Mongolian Garden. Right now. Ellen is going to Mongolia next month and all I can think about, every time she mentions the trip (other than that I don't want her to go!), is Mongolian barbecue. Must . . . have . . . Mongolian . . . barbecue . . . .

But what's the deal with one-trip at lunch? Is there an all-you-can-eat lunch option as well? As I've said before, I won't set foot in one of those inauthentic places where they weigh the food. The one true Mongolian way is, was, and always will be all-you-can-eat. Can you imagine telling the hordes they have to pay by the gram?