Eating Chinese in New Jersey

[Rachel Perlow]

I can't believe there's no mention of China 46 in this thread which predates its opening. Thanks for bringing this topic back up to the top, dumpling. Oh, I also loved the "fried roll stuffed with shrimp and cilantro" at Silver Pond (dim sum), I'm pretty sure it's fried bean curd skin.

Edited July 1, 2003 by Jason Perlow (log)

[Rosie]

Recently ate at Hunan Cottage. Pork dumplings, vegetable dumplings, spare ribs, chow fun, pork shoulder with vegetables, salt and pepper shrimp and Chinese broccoli. Love this place.

[dumpling]

It is fried bean curd skin Rachel. I ate at China 46 some time ago;my recollection was the people and the food were great- I remember the salt and pepper shrimp. But haven't been there in some time.

[dumpling]

Don't know if you ever got to Baumgart's, Rosie. A little lowdown on it-

Have been there with friends several times-their favorite. Kind of an interesting mix-Jewish diner/Chinese restaurant. Never really had anything bad but maybe not the place to go for real Chinese food. The allure is in the mix-to get a duckling spring roll and an egg cream is unique.

[tommy]

Dumpling, is the Peking Duck House of which you speak up by Alpine?

[dumpling]

Yes, Tommy, it's in Closter on Piermont Road.

[Jason Perlow]

I've been to that one, it was pretty good, but given that we got China 46 in the area, I haven't been back.

[tommy]

I've been to that one, it was pretty good, but given that we got China 46 in the area, I haven't been back.

oh i agree. but it's apples and oranges. i thought the Peking Duck House was a slightly above-average "chinese place." what stood out in my mind was the horrible nasty service. even if they offered dishes like pepper and salt shrimp and soup dumplings and ruby pork pork, i wouldn't return because of that service.

but, they seem to do well, especially with the drive-up window, which is really a brilliant idea.

Edited July 2, 2003 by tommy (log)

[dumpling]

I'm suprised that you had bad service at Peking Duck House Tommy. Always thought that was one of their strengths.

Of course sometimes comparing is a little apples and oranges. It has a different style than China 46.

I mentioned the Beggar's Chicken dish- baked in clay and broken open at your table. Kind of neat .

[tommy]

I'm suprised that you had bad service at Peking Duck House Tommy.  Always thought that was one of their strengths.

Of course sometimes comparing is a little apples and oranges.  It has a different style than China 46.

I mentioned the Beggar's Chicken dish- baked in clay and broken open at your table.  Kind of neat .

dumpling, i've only been there once. it's unfair of me to characterize their service as unfriendly, and i hope i haven't done that. however, it's not near my house (but near friends') and i probably won't return because of that. and i do have sort of a love affair with China 46, so i can't see straight anyways.

[dumpling]

I haven't been to China 46 in a long time sounds like it might be worth taking a trip back based upon all the love here.

Other places worthy of mention-

Lotus Cafe- (in the Pathmark shopping center in North Hackensack-where the Brazilian churrascaria is)

Truly fine restaurant, subtle sauces, Taiwan style cooking.

Of note: Ta Loo Mein soup(pork, shrimp, noodles, tofu-gigantic bowl)

Lotus Delight (pork beancurd, bean thread noodles egg) wonderful

l Paradise Chicken(white chiken with leeks in an abalone sauce)

Seafood fried dumplings

Shrimp in white wine sauce

"To kill for"- steak and scallop special(the steak is breaded cooked on a sizzling platter in a great sauce and just is a great piece of meat).

Kuma House-

Despite the name run by Chinese people. Serves pretty nice sushi too

Worthwile dishes-

Kuma House fried rice-a Chinese person's fried rice-none of this soy sauced crap.

Salmon or chicken fried dumplings

Grand Marnier Shrimp

[dumpling]

Kuma is in the little stip of store at the corner of Forest Ave and Midland in Paramus

[tommy]

dumpling, those dishes sound interesting, much better than the usual "chinese fare", and worth a shot.

anyone else been to Lotus Cafe?

kuma is a japanese place, yes?

[dumpling]

Kuma is actually a Chinese restaurant. It's run by chinese people and the people in their kitchen are all chinese. I think they have the sushi element simply to try to build more customers (they also have a couple of things like seaweed salad). But their basic orientation if Chinese; why their name is Kuma beats heck out of me.

[tommy]

Kuma is actually a Chinese restaurant.  It's run by chinese people and the people in their kitchen are all chinese.  I think they have the sushi element simply to try to build more customers (they also have a couple of things like seaweed salad).  But their basic orientation if Chinese; why their name is Kuma beats heck out of me.

is that the place next to KFC?

[dumpling]

Yup, have you tried it?

[tommy]

Yup, have you tried it?

KFC? hell yeah! Kuma looked like a sushi bar when i walked by though. i'll definitely consider it. BYOB?

[dumpling]

Yup.

[Rosie]

Don't know if you ever got to Baumgart's, Rosie.  A little lowdown on it-

Have been there with friends several times-their favorite.  Kind of an interesting mix-Jewish diner/Chinese restaurant.  Never really had anything bad but maybe not the place to go for real Chinese food.  The allure is in the mix-to get a duckling spring roll and an egg cream is unique.

Haven't been to Baumgart's. Thanks for all of your informative posts.

[Rachel Perlow]

I've been to both of Kuma's locations (They have a place in Englewood too). The chinese food is good in an upscale americanized kind of way. Reminded me of Bill & Harry's in East Hanover, before Harry left.

Also been to Lotus Cafe (someone on eGullet recommended it last year), it reminded me of the Taipai (?) Noodle House restaurants in Parsippany and Teaneck. Really good noodle soups with housemade noodles.

I'd suggest that that place is worth a longer drive than Kuma (which is more of a don't bother if you're not local).

[dumpling]

Would agree with Rachel. I mentioned the things I thought were of note at Kuma. Other stuff is good but perhaps not noteworthy. Lotus Cafe has more stuff and greater subtlety in their sauces.

[menton1]

Don't know if you ever got to Baumgart's, Rosie.  A little lowdown on it-

Have been there with friends several times-their favorite.  Kind of an interesting mix-Jewish diner/Chinese restaurant.  Never really had anything bad but maybe not the place to go for real Chinese food.  The allure is in the mix-to get a duckling spring roll and an egg cream is unique.

What's a "Jewish Diner"? 99% of diners are Greek. and Baumgart's has nothing on the menu anywhere that's ethnic "Jewish" food.

[Helena Robinson]

Kuma is in the little stip of store at the corner of Forest Ave and Midland in Paramus

Going into "Iron Chef" mode here... Can't resist!

If my memory serves me correctly, I believe this place used to be called Panda Forrest. When I first ate there about four or five years ago (with a friend who lived in the area), it was all Chinese and very good. Took Ken there some time after that and he enjoyed it as well.

Then, about years ago, we met this same friend for dinner there, and it was in the process of transitioning to Kuma. At that time they seemed to be focusing more on Japanese/Sushi and had fewer options on the Chinese side of the menu than we recalled. Since we weren't into any type of sushi at the time, we were pretty disappointed, and haven't been back since.

[andrewhwest]

Hello, Earlier someone referred to the Cathay 22 restaurant and it's best items being on the Chinese menu. This is essentially correct. My wife and her family are from Chengdu, the center of Sichuan province cuisine, and she is a very picky eater. For their few best dishes, Cathay 22 is as good or better than any restaurant in the area, including Grand Sichuan Intl. or Wu Liang Ye. You must be willing to eat the food authentically spicy. Here are the key dishes to order: they are all spicy, and this is the english approximation of the dishes:

appetizers:

essential orders are:

fu chi fei pien = "husband wife heart lung" this is sliced tripe and beef with a hot and numbing chili oil based sauce.

"dragon's beard beef" = some sort of cooked beef such that it becomes like thick chewy hairs, soaking in a chili oil sauce.

main dishes:

essential

"water cooked beef" they call "crazy beef" I think. Tender sliced beef cooked with celery, covered with chili oil, pepper flakes, and sichuan peppercorn. Should be very hot and numbing.

"Three pepper chicken" is chunks of chicken fried with dried red peppers, green peppers, and sichuan peppercorns. Should also be quite hot and numbing.

Other than these dishes, we've found nothing at Cathay 22 that are mandatory. One should probably order the dry-cooked string beans as a side-vegetable, as it's consistently decent.

We've never been excited by the seafood dishes there. The mapo tofu is ok, but redundant when ordering the essential dishes above.

By the way, the idea that Grand Sichuan Intl. has a monopoly on good sichuan peppercorns is not true at present. May have been true 2-3 yrs ago, but we recently visited both locations, and while ok, neither was particularly impressive. My wife thinks Wu Liang Ye has improved this year over the past, in terms of authenticity and potency.

If you want a good reasonably authentic sichuan dinner or lunch in NJ, Cathay 22 will provide it, if you order th items I mentioned above. Let me know if any of you try my prescription, and how you liked it.

[Rosie]

andrewhwest--Thank you for your recommendations and informative post. Where else in NJ do you like to dine?