Chinese-Islamic-Korean Skewers at DFCD – NJ

Dong Fang Chuan Dian (or DFCD for short) is a small Chinese-Islamic kebab/skewer restaurant in Palisades Park run by Korean-Chinese owners. Located en route to the 46, the location isn’t charming by any means, but the restaurant is a gem, and one not to be missed.

There’s 28 skewers to choose from on the menu, but on my visit, my mom and I kept it simple and ordered lamb ($12/10pcs), cow intestines ($10/5pcs), and 1 sliced steamed bun ($2/1pc). The steamed bun was a request by my dad who at one point was in the picture, but after finding out one of the ACs was broken, decided to bail. Ah…grumpy, old Korean men, you gotta love ’em.

There was also a whole head of garlic on the table. The waitress said we could either eat the cloves raw or grill them over the charcoal grill. We opted to peel and grill…for humanity’s sake.

The fire got super hot, super fast, so we had to be mindful to turn the skewers pretty often.

Luckily, the grill had a second level to save the finished meats from imminent death.

The hot morsels were then eaten with an extra dusting of DFCD’s spice mix (ground sesame, cumin, chili, and other magical ingredients). The lamb was especially good, juicy and not gamey at all. My mom doesn’t normally like lamb, but she loved it as well. The intestines were also delicious, not too chewy and almost nutty in taste. As for the buns, we grilled and dipped the slices in a bowl of honey that came on the side for dessert.

But of course that wasn’t the end, which was unfortunate, since we could have left on a high note. We both wanted dan dan myun, but they were out, so we ordered jajangmyun ($11) instead. The waitress warned us it wouldn’t be like Korean jajangmyun, but both of us being fans of the Chinese version, we assured her that was okay. Unfortunately, we should have listed to her. Their version was cold, and the noodles weren’t drained well, so there was a pool of water at the bottom. As for the sauce, it tasted like watery, salty bean paste. I’d skip the jajangmyun and order more skewers next time. End on a high note, people.

After all, 28 varieties of skewers await.

Dong Fang Chuan Dian (DFCD)
6 E Columbia Ave (b/n Broad & Propect Ave; map)
Palisades Park, NJ 07650
201-313-1300