Restaurant critic thinks she will live forever

Image via Wikipedia
Mussels in a Guinness-and-lemon broth are served at Biddy O'Malley's, an Irish pub.

Readers who have heart conditions and diabetes or are just watching their weight come running every Friday to vicariously lap up all the desserts, pork and beef sampled by Staff Writer Elisa Ung in her weekly restaurant review.


Today, her 3-star appraisal of a Northvale pub called Biddy O'Malley's reminds me of a Irishman I met at the gym who blames his five heart operations on a diet of meat -- morning, noon and night (Better Living centerfold).


Ung tried no salads or vegetables and only three dishes mentioned in her review could be considered good for you -- a pan-seared salmon special (she  doesn't say whether it was wild-caught); mussels in a Guinness-and-lemon broth; and a huge fillet of cod, though deep frying it and serving it with french fries insults this noble fish, once America's favorite.


Meat galore


The Irish pub's macaroni and cheese has sausage in it, the hamburger is made with pancetta (bacon) and butter, and the naturally raised pork chop was overcooked and dry.


Cardiac surgeons love Ung, because her proselytizing about dessert is one of things that keep them in business.


The reviewer always finds room for artery clogging little nothings, and her standards for the end of the meal appear to be even higher than for appetizers and entrees: 


She loved the "pistachio bread pudding smothered in white chocolate ganache and plump, delicate cranberries" and a "Bailey's/espresso ice cream pie in a crumbly chocolate crust."


But another dessert, a chocolate hazelnut confection from an outside source, bordered on stale. Ung may think she'll live forever, but if she keeps eating dessert, she might not be able to get in the door of her next restaurant.


Today, in a mini-review on Page 19, she also recommends another "laid-back" spot, the 2-star Bahama Breeze, a faux-Caribbean chain restaurant on the highway in Wayne.


In 2009, she sampled the restaurant's mushy "jerk-chicken pasta" and ordered seared scallops, which were served raw, not once but twice. Still, she gave the restaurant 2 stars (Good).


Road kill


Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes really came up with big local news today and plastered it all over the front of Local: a new water tank in Waldwick. 


Is this the fifth or sixth Road Warrior column in a row where burned-out Staff Writer John Cichowski relies on reader e-mails for his ideas (L-1)?


Chichowski is so out of touch with the concerns of anyone who doesn't drive that in discussing replacement of the Route 495 helix, he completely ignores delays for the thousands of city-bound commuters who ride buses through the Lincoln Tunnel.


On L-6, a story on mourners viewing Assembly leader Alex DeCroce, 75, omits the cause of death, as did a coverage on Tuesday of Governor Christie's eulogy to his mentor.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Christie aide scolds second-graders

Image via Wikipedia

The Record is helping Tenafly officials portray light-rail service as negatively as possible.

The lead Page 1 story today reports how Governor Christie's acting education czar "warned" minority second-graders at a "troubled" school in Trenton: "When I come back, I want everyone to be able to spell 'amphibian,' tell me what it means and think of an example other than a frog."

Staff Writer Leslie Brody commands the front page for the second day in a row to tell readers how acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf plans to bridge the learning gap. 

The generally upbeat article notes students at the school he visited Thursday are mostly poor black and Hispanic children, "who can't read or do math on grade level."

Read this to the end, as I did, and you'll find no mention by Cerf or this education reporter of whether minority students do far better in an integrated setting, as numerous studies have shown.

That's no surprise, because The Record of Woodland Park has never examined the impact of segregated classrooms -- such as those in Englewood elementary and middle schools -- on learning.

"Cerf calls the achievement gap 'morally reprehensible' and says his proposals will help close it," the reporter notes on A-10, then goes on to say the education czar believes teachers are "the single most important influence on student success."

Reporter as mouthpiece

Where is it written that reporters must quote anything an officials says, even if it contradicts reality? Where is it written that reporters should avoid challenging a news source at all costs? Where is it written that reporters must endeavor to push readers' buttons?

If you work for Editor Francis Scandale, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and their minions, that seems to be your mission. 

Take Staff Writer Karen Sudol, who has done a number of stories on opposition to the extension of light-rail service to Tenafly -- a proposal that is the fruit of decades of effort to improve mass transit and ease traffic congestion in densely populated North Jersey.

Sudol has merely parroted statements from Tenafly Councilman Barry Honig and others, apparently wealthy people who are defending their right to drive into Manhattan, adding to already unbearable pollution. 

Today, she quotes Honig as saying light-rail service would "serve practically no one in our town," even though she reports three paragraphs earlier that 1,183 people supported the proposal in a November referendum (L-2).

She quotes Honig as saying light rail "will significantly harm the quality of life in our community," even though light-rail cars are propelled by electric motors that don't pollute and are far quieter than diesel locomotives that were proposed initially.

Maybe Honig and others in Tenafly were influenced by two long, slanted, anti-light rail stories reported and written by Tom Davis, a so-called transportation reporter who thankfully has left the paper.

Image via Wikipedia

Queasy stomachs

I've been driving past The Green Olive in a drab strip mall on Passaic Street in Hackensack for more than three years and have never had the least bit of interest in eating there, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw its "local neighborhood cooking" reviewed in Better Living today. 

The place looks like a tavern that serves food, and I don't want to try one of its mystery meat hamburgers or its pizzas. Even the usually deceptive food photos with the review can't hide the mediocrity of this pizza crust.

Restaurant Revewer Elisa Ung begins this review as she does all others, telling "The Story" of how it got started. Today, she devotes five long paragraphs to this introduction. Who cares? 

Tell me about the origin of the food, how the meat in the burger was raised, the service -- anything but the chef's work history, words of praise from his stepson and all the other rigmarole.

I know times are tight at the paper, but why does Ung have to review every restaurant she eats in? Last week, she reviewed Rumba Cubana in North Bergen, where she found "two pieces of gristle in the complimentary dip and a hair in two different dishes, both on the same weeknight visit."

Just the thought of finding that in my food makes me queasy, and I would never visit that place.

She gives two stars to The Green Olive (Good), as she did to Rumba Cubana, but that's the same rating she gave to a faux-Caribbean chain restaurant, Bahama Breeze in Wayne, where she was served raw or undercooked scallops three times.

Ung also seems to be straying from reviewing more expensive, fine-dining restaurants. The motive must be to save the troubled newspaper money, but it's a disservice to readers.

Missing the big picture -- again

Image via Wikipedia

A police officer burned to death in his 1995 Jeep Cherokee after he was rear-ended by a drunk.

The Record of Woodland Park seems to have a knack for missing the big picture, hobbled as it is by office-loving editors who have worked for the paper for a decade or more without learning much about North Jersey.

Editor Frank Scandale's focus has been on what he accomplished in Denver before he came to the former Hackensack daily in early 2001. Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' few forays out of the office, besides making the trip home every weekday, are for Jamaican rum cake or to fall on her face trying to cross a snow bank in the parking lot.

So, it's no surprise The Record's editorial might was squandered today on Page 1 coverage of a bunch of turkeys who deep-fried turkeys in a Meadowlands parking lot before a football game -- while the editors scattered the fallout from Thanksgiving Eve -- one of the biggest bar nights of the year (Wednesday night into early Thursday).

With college students and others home for the holiday, the local watering hole is a favorite place to catch up on what old friends have been doing. One customer of Lazy Lanigan's recalled Friday that "you couldn't move" in the popular Hackensack pub.

Of course, Scandale and Sykes have been ordering so much coverage of Black Friday shopping hours and sales -- in a naked grab for more ad revenue -- the paper is no longer an authoritative voice.

In fact, you have to read the whole paper today to realize the culture of inebriation remains deeply ingrained in North Jersey, but no story tells you that.

Instead, you have the A-1 piece on the death of a police officer who was on the way home from DWI duty in some far-off Jersey Shore community at 3 in the morning, only to be rear-ended on the Garden State Parkway by a drunk driver. 

He burned to death in his uniform. (He might have survived if he could afford a newer, safer vehicle than a 15-year-old, top-heavy Jeep Cherokee SUV.)

Now, jump to L-6 for a poorly written story about what happened in Ridgewood when hundreds of revelers left the bars, most of which closed at 2 a.m. Thursday. Twenty-five police officers from the village and nearby towns were needed to clear the streets. Why was this buried?


Check out the lead paragraph by Staff Writer Deena Yellin:  "An unruly crowd ... was so rowdy...." It's Yellin's writing that's unruly. No amount of editing, if there is any, can hide it. The story also fails to answer an obvious question: How did all of these walking drunks get home?


Neither the A-1 story nor this Ridgewood story discuss how bars traditionally are packed on Thanksgiving Eve, or how many DWI arrests were made early Thursday.

A little rewriting could have woven the two stories into a meaningful package on A-1, but the assignment minion who drew holiday duty was clueless.

Also, Cliffview Pilot.com reports on a bizarre accident in Westwood I didn't see in the paper or on northjersey.com today. Impaired driver climbs on limo hood

On Page A-21 today, a wire service story explores how Korean-Americans in Los Angeles -- not Palisades Park, Fort Lee or Leonia -- are debating the North's motive in shelling South Korea.

Inaccurate story

The Record continues to call the new Chevrolet Volt an electric car, while the manufacturer's ads and Web site make it clear it is a plug-in hybrid with a gasoline engine and an electric motor. An electric car uses no gasoline (Business, L-9).

In Better Living, Bella Campania Restaurant in Hillsdale sounds like a wonderful place. "And these days, getting a reasonably priced, made-from-scratch meal from an owner who cares is no small thing," Staff Writer Elisa Ung concludes.


But the restaurant reviewer doesn't explain why she gives it only a half-star more than Bahama Breeze, a faux-Caribbean chain restaurant in Wayne where I'm certain the food isn't made from scratch and the owner is some profit-hungry corporation.

There is no room in the section today for local restaurant health ratings. Instead, you'll find a wire service story about wine and a buffet of mini-reviews.

Is that all there is?

Image via Wikipedia

The Record of Woodland Park produces a meaty front page today, but disappoints on so many other scores, you have to wonder if that's the best Editor Frank "Castrato" Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes can do. 


Did anyone get past the first few paragraphs of the central element on A-1, a mother's plea that her wannabe terrorist son is really a good kid and that he was forced to do wrong by the FBI? This story is a waste of staff effort and readers' time. 

On the proposed breakup of Teterboro, do we really care what political columnist Charles Stile thinks? And why is the paper so eager to give voice to defense attorneys' claims that the convictions of Joseph Ferriero, Dennis Oury and Joseph Congilio may be overturned?

Now, look at the Page 1 promotion, "Two days that captured a nation." Is sports columnist Tara Sullivan delusional? Does she actually think millions were riveted to their TVs for an 11-hour tennis match between nobodys or that most readers actually believe the U.S. team has any chance of winning the Word Cup? Her columns today and Thursday are so full of hype as to be simply unreadable.


On A-20 and A-21 today are an editorial and an opinion column condemning the proposed breakup of Teterboro that were likely edited and written by the same man, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin. The editorial would have been enough. How does he expect to have any credibility?

There is a lot of court and crime news in Local today, but no news of Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood or a lot of other towns in North Jersey.

What's the point of continuing Better Living's Eating Out on $50 restaurant review by free-lancer Jeff Page when only two can eat for that money, in contrast to the original concept, four people eating out for $50? The paper was too cheap to make it Eating Out on $60 or Eating Out on $70, because it didn't want to reimburse the reviewer more than $50, so it cheats readers.


In today's review of a dreadful kosher burger restaurant in Teaneck, Page spends only $35.71 (and likely got reimbursed for only $35.71) and complains mightily of the service or lack of it. A good paper would have shit-canned the piece and asked for another, but frugal Features Director Barbara Jaeger probably balked at spending more money on a new review. She started the $50 review as a cost-saving measure in the first place.

And why is Food Editor Bill Pitcher reviewing A Mano, a pricey, Neapolitan pizza place in Ridgewood that has gotten a lot more ink in the three years it has been open than most other North Jersey restaurants? The only reason might be that it has a great public relations firm that nagged Pitcher for even more publicity. 

He doesn't mention the pizzas are a mere 12 inches and because of the nature of the dough, they can't be baked to a crispy well-done. And his rating of two and a half stars tells readers not to bother -- being just a half-star more than the rating given to a mediocre, faux-Caribbean restaurant called Bahama Breeze last year. Maybe Pitcher felt guilty giving in to the P.R. firm. In the end, it's readers who get screwed.

Is naturally raised food so ho-hum?

Image via Wikipedia

 

Food Editor Bill Pitcher has been doing restaurant reviews in the absence of Elisa Ung. But in today's appraisal of Ho-Ho-Kus Inn & Tavern, he doesn't seem to give the place any points for serving naturally raised chicken, pork and beef, and wild fish.

The $1.5 million renovation, food and service draw only two and a half stars from Pitcher -- only a half star more than Ung gave Bahama Breeze, one of those awful, faux-Caribbean chain restaurants, on Route 23 in Wayne. That rating by Ung in The Record of Woodland Park has been haunting her and Pitcher, and diluting the ratings of other restaurants.

Restaurants that serve naturally raised food aren't so common in North Jersey that they should be treated like every other place.

Are we in trouble yet?

Image via Wikipedia

The state's huge financial problems are back on the front page as The Record of Woodland Park continues its now-you-see-it, now-you-don't coverage of  the  "mountain of debt"  in New Jersey -- third highest in the nation.

The onetime Hackensack daily's lazy, incompetent editors finally acknowledge former Gov. Chirstie Whitman's "borrowing spree" after running a column by her a while back that blamed everyone but herself for the mess the state is in. And, on Page A-12, the focus is taken off politicians and put on taxpayers, who  are criticized  for approving bonds to preserve open space. This reflects the Borg family's long-held goal of  covering  North Jersey with shopping centers and keeping the ones in Paramus open on Sundays to boost the paper's advertising revenue.

You won't find any development, education or municipal news about Hackensack, where the paper was founded in 1895, but the front of the Local section today has the juicy details about a municipal court appearance by a bimbo complainant from Wayne.

Inside, you'll find the second story in less than a month about establishment of a "green team" in Englewood that will apparently duplicate the work of the city's Environmental Commission, but no mention about whether this will lead to recycling of  TV sets, computers and other electronic devices, something Hackensack has been doing with little fanfare for more than a year.

In Better Living, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung gives two out of four stars to Cafe Amici in Ho-Ho-Kus, but such a rating is meaningless after she gave the same number of stars to Bahama Breeze, a chain restaurant that serves fake Caribbean dishes in Wayne. And while she continues to obsess over the quality of desserts, missing for another week are any health inspections of Wyckoff restaurants.

She describes a "giant" cupcake as "impeccable," "dense and moist with a thick cream cheese," then adds, innocently, "We're guessing it wasn't low-fat." Indeed. Readers likely are guessing that she isn't "low-fat," either.

Where the jocks are in control

Image via Wikipedia

If you believe The Record of Woodland Park should reflect the values of its sports-loving editor and wealthy owners -- the mansion-loving Borgs -- then you see nothing wrong with devoting most of the front page today to parking problems at the new Giants Stadium in East Rutherford.

You certainly won't find the former Hackensack daily questioning why our society can afford newer, bigger  and more expensive sports venues, while consistently serving up a royal F-U to the poor, the homeless and the hungry -- whose numbers continue to increase.

That big Page 1 story is written by Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski, who long ago lost sight of his core mission to report on commuters and mass transit. He is such a champion of people who'll fight to their death for the privilege of driving alone in their gas guzzlers, he's even got an attitude about the few red-light cameras slated for North Jersey.

Don't look in the Local section today for any education or municipal news about the highly diverse towns of Teaneck, Englewood and Hackensack, where the paper was founded in 1895 and prospered for more than 110 years before moving to Woodland Park. You also won't see anything about why the new homeless shelter in Hackensack was apparently finished weeks ago, but hasn't opened. I guess the paper is waiting for a news release to arrive.

On Page A-22 today, a letter to the editor from Andrew J. Stanish of Elmwood Park asked the same question "Eye on The Record" did Wednesday: Why was Al Frech of Wayne given such a big piece of the editorial page to misinform readers about health-car reform, and just who is Al Frech? He has been just about the only opinion writer who hasn't been identified by the paper.  

Peter Grad, the editor of the Opinion Page, hasn't responded to an e-mail from "Eye on The Record" on why Frech wasn't identified beyond the town he lives in. You can reach him at grad@northjersey.com.

In Better Living today, more precious space and ink is lavished on Blend in Ridgewood. Haven't we read enough about the ups and downs of this apparently flawed restaurant and lounge, judging from the two-star rating from Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung? That's the same rating she gave a faux-Caribbean, chain restaurant on the highway in Wayne called Bahama Breeze. If she had so many problems with the food and service, why run three highly promotional, mouth-watering, color photographs of the fare on the front of the section and inside? No wonder she is referred to in some quarters as Elisa Ugh.

Meanwhile, the lazy editors provide us with only a partial list of restaurant sanitary inspections in North Jersey. For example, when was the last time you saw ratings for restaurants in wealthy Wyckoff?