This week, Elisa Ung and Eunny Park at the Bergen Record did a culinary overview of the Korean food offerings of Palisades Park.
I congratulate the Record for doing this, as it’s time that Korean food has gotten some attention from the mainstream NJ newspapers. Until recently its been most regarded as some sort of little understood alien cuisine, with weird flavors that many Americans wouldn’t appreciate. This could be nothing further from the truth.
I have had a wealth of nice Palisades Park Korean food photos sitting in the larder for over a year, so I thought that given the Bergen Record’s recent coverage it might be a good idea to let them out of storage. While not all these foods reflect my current lifestyle, I still think that korean food overall is a healthier dining choice due to the high vegetable and protein content of the cuisine. All of the stores and restaurants below are on the long stretch of Broad Avenue in Palisades Park.
Dumpling House
This place, simply called “Dumpling House” specializes in “Wang Mandu” or giant steamed dumplings and buns.
They use these big rack steamers to cook them. Buns are typically filled with meat and vegetable mixtures.
Wang Mandu ready to go into the steamer.
Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.
Potatoes with a spicy sauce on it. They looked good.
Racks of Wang Mandu and Buns, as far as the eye can see.
Kimbab is similar to sushi, but is usually stuffed with meat and cooked fish and various vegetables instead of raw fish.
Various takeout items. Kimbab can be seen towards the right.
Self explanatory.
Our booty, eaten on the hood of the car outside.
Dumpling closeup
Dumpling Closeup
Dumpling #1 interior
Bun interior. These had pork and kimchi with glass noodles in them.
This place is a Kyedong Chicken franchise combined with a premium butcher shop.
Friendly owners.
Check out the nice marbling on this boneless Kalbi meat. Good stuff.
The ribeye is used for Bulgogi.
I’m not sure what this is exactly. Some sort of animal appendage that has been smoked or something.
Here’s the butcher chopping it up for take out orders.
A view of the butcher case.
As you can see from the case on the right they pride themselves on using Black Angus beef. I haven’t bought anything from these guys yet but I’m seriously considering getting some of those Kalbis.
Tuna extract. I’m not sure what this is used for, maybe stews?
I love this sign.
Here’s where you place your KFC (Korean Fried Chicken) orders.
Woo Jung Restaurant
Woo Jung is one of my favoirte restaurants in Palisades Park. Its open until 3am.
Its a somewhat spartan looking restaurant but this is not the reason why you are here.
Lettuce wraps, for Korean BBQ.
An array of Banchan.
But wait, there’s more!
Closeup of one of the pancakes we got as a banchan dish.
This is an egg custard.
This is a garlic heavy salad. I love the dressing on this.
Kimchi. Can’t go without.
This was either Chadol-Bagi or Bulgogi, I forgot.
Light up them coals!
Time for BBQ.
Grillin.
We ordered too much food so they decided to come over and give us some help.
This is Naengmyun, cold buckwheat noodles in beef broth with meat.
Naengmyun after tossing up with spicy sauce.
A single plating of Naengmyun.
Caramelized Garlic from the grill.
Bulgogi, wrapped up in lettuce and accountriments.
This is Yuke Bibimbap, or raw beef with vegetables and rice.
Toss it up with raw egg and spicy sauce.
Single Serving of Yuke Bibmbimbap.
Dessert.
Mandarin Restaurant
Mandarin is a “Korean Chinese” restaurant. It serves Chinese food that is altered to the taste of Korean palates. Its the second most popular cuisine in Korea behind their own native cuisine.
Mandarin’s dining room.
What, no crunchy noodles and duck sauce?
Requires some deciphering and acts of faith, but still..
Fried Dumplings. Oh so good.
Fried Dumpling Interior.
Heres a beef stir fry dish. Note the heavy use of potato starch as a thickening agent for the sauce.
A seafood noodle dish.
Black Bean Sauce noodles with meat, one of the signature dishes of Korean Chinese cuisine.
Shilla Bakery
Shilla Bakery is one of several Korean bakeries in Palisades Park.
These are sponge-cakey things filled with a pastry cream.
Korean Bakeries are known for their highly ornamental cakes.
I like this one.
Various different types of rolled cake desserts. These remind me of “Brazo Gitano” in latino bakeries.
Rolled Cake closeup.
Two different kinds of sweet korean tea drinks. The left side is a Citron Tea and the right is a Green Tea.
Various rice treats and such we bought.
Off The Broiler 
What’s amazing is that the picture of the coals at Woo Jung isn’t re tinted. That’s the color they actually were!
if your monitor is calibrated correctly, it doesnt make any sense
the coals pictured have a purplish glow, which is the result of his camera not being able to filter out infrared effectively.
thats why they appear purple, not red.
The Woo Jung photos were taken with a low end Olympus camera my wife uses, not my G7 or my XSi. I have to guess that the Olympus can’t handle extreme infrared colors with its really tiny CMOS. At some point I’ll do the photo again with one of my better cameras.
great photos! i really want to try that wang mandu place!! a few corrections tho (take it from me, i’m korean. :) the photo of the spicy potatos at the wang mandu place is actually candied sweet potatoes (very deelish!), and the smoked appendage u mention is actually pork feet, with the skin on, braised in a sweet soy sauce. :D it’s usually accompanied with a few bottles of soju to help wash down the gelatinous goodness, but not everyone is a fan.
Hello,
I love korean food! I like looking at your pictures!
ohhh, I wish i could eat all of them!!
As a former Pal Park resident, looking at your pictures makes me super hungry! I love your site, and from what I read on your other posts, I love Boom Boom Chicken just as much as you do!
korean food junkie is right the pork feet are called jjok bal, which is very similar to bbo ssam (i think there was a question earlier about where to find this).
i havent tried the wang mando place yet or kae dong chicken but the chicken places reminds me of Ssi jang chicken (local street markets in seoul). I believe they use cinnamon powder in the batter. Its such an inviting smell each time I walk by.
the meat that was grilled is bulgogi. chadol baegi is not marinated and more thinly sliced and usually round pieces.
great places all within walking distance of eachother no broad ave. a few new desert places are gelataria, the recently opened red mango, and flurt. these frozen yogurt businesses are popping up everywhere.