Saturday, September 26, 2009

Bountiful meal recalls my roots


When we walked into Aleppo Restaurant in Paterson just past noon today, a long table had been set with the classic Syrian meal of small plates called maza -- 11 appetizers, bread and pickles that would have made a great meal in themselves.

Me and my wife, Marjorie, were joined by seven others: Jason Perlow; his wife, Rachel; and readers of this blog and Jason's Off The Broiler ode to great restaurant food.

The restaurant first opened on the other side of Main Street -- in the Middle Eastern bazaar known as South Paterson -- and now occupies the clean, simply decorated rooms of a failed Turkish restaurant, Kafe Teria. It's named after the city in northern Syria where my Jewish parents were born and my grandfather was a pastry maker.

The food we ate was beautifully seasoned with cumin, allspice, tamarind, mint, lemon and Aleppo pepper. We had hummus, muhammara, labaneh, meat arayes, raw kibbe, sambusak with meat or cheese, fried kibbe, tabbouleh, a soupy dish of fava beans and another of yogurt with diced cucumbers. Wonderful.

But there was more: entrees of eggplant and squash stuffed with meat and rice; an extraordinary kabob and bread soaked with cherry sauce; small dumplings packed with meat in a yogurt sauce; and a mixed grill with shish kebab, kufta kebab and chicken, with hot peppers, tomato and onion.

We walked off the meal by visiting Fattal's and Nouri's, the rival Syrian bakeries and markets. Then we returned to the restaurant for dessert, a honey-soaked cake with walnuts and strong Arabic coffee.

The only sour note were the no-shows, four or five people who failed to keep their word that they would attend. Of course, that meant we took home containers of leftovers, enough food for at least a couple of delicious meals.

On Sunday morning, the fava beans and the dips, with the addition of a couple of ounces of smoked wild salmon (Costco) and olives and warmed pita (Fattal's), made a great breakfast. For dinner, I'll polish off the fried kibbe, kufta kabob and stuffed squash with more pita and a salad.

For vivid pictures of our lunch, please click on the following link to Jason's blog:


Here's a link with more information about Aleppo, Syria, which I visited in the late 1970s.


(This post was revised on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009.)

17 comments:

  1. Sounds like a good meal, its hard to find stuffed squash (makshee) at restaurants because it is very time consuming to prepare. I will have to check out the new Aleppo soon.

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  2. I had to order the makshee in advance, along with the other entrees (but not the mixed grill). We could have used you there, because of the no-shows. There was so much food left over. But it really was a great meal and only a little iced arak to sip would have made it better.

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  3. I definitely would of been able to help put a dent in that feast. Incidentally, I wonder what kind of bread were they serving? It doesn't look like Fattals or Nouris.

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  4. The bread was thin, like the stuff that comes from Canada, but I never actually saw the bag. It tasted fresh, though. Fattal's must charge too much for its bread; what other explanation is there for why you never see it at any local eating place.

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  5. You are more than likely right, I have heard that Fattal's charges high prices to stores and restaurants. There is another brand called "Family Pita" I believe and I have a hunch it is made by Nouris.

    The food really looks amazing, that cherry kefta intrigues me, I have never seen it made that way. And the dumplings, I havent had those in over 10 years, I might have to ask my mother to cook up a batch.

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  6. My mother used to make kibbe with cherries, so that's what I was going for. But they made wonderful kabobs in a cherry sauce. The owner urged us to make sure to eat the bread soaking in the juice with the kabobs. It was terrific. What about apricots? I recall my mother cooking with them.

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  7. Yes I have seen meals with apricots as well, I seem to recall a chicken dish with apricots but my family never made too many meals with fruit. Have you ever eaten the small Syrian omelettes known as "ajeh", made with parley, onions and other spices and browned on each side?

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  8. Wow, you read my mind. I was going to ask you about "edgeh" and actually brought it up at the lunch Saturday. My mother made it with ground meat, eggs and parsley, but I have spoken to Syrians in Paterson who told me it was never made with meat. So my mother's recipe must be a Jewish variation on the original recipe. It is one of my favorite foods, stuffed into a pita with a big slice of ripe tomato. My mother's were about two to three inches across, but she also made it pan-sized and sliced it like pizza.

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  9. Yes ours are about 3 inches across too, I never had it with meat, but have had a variation with little pieces of asparagus. I like them in a sandwich with both tomato and cucumber and yogurt salad. There are always different variations on some of these items, sometimes depending on where a family originally came from, Aleppo is full of people from "Greater Syria". There was a lot of immigration to Aleppo of people from areas that were annexed by Turkey. Did your mother make it with ground lamb or beef?

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  10. My mother self-published a cookbook, and I just looked at it. She made "egge" (I really don't know how it is spelled) with either beef, veal, parsley, cheese or vegetables as well as calf brains, and I hated it when she didn't tell me and I bit into it -- I just never liked the texture of brains. Her recipe for "midget meat omelets" also called for a tablespoon of fine bread crumbs. I also see she made kebabs with cherry sauce, like the ones we had at Aleppo Restaurant, not kibbe with cherries, the dish I asked for. She has a recipe for kibbe with dried apriocots, though.

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  11. Wow, sounds like some good recipes, I would love to take a look at that book. Is it available anywhere?

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  12. She first published "Syrian Cooking" in 1958, then did two revised editions, the last in 1988 and called "Kosher Syrian Cooking." My brother took almost all of them after my mother's death. He may be selling them on ebay or amazon.com, though I am not sure. My mother's book assumes you know how to cook. Her recipes are short and to the point. Years ago, I made meat egge and stuffed grape leaves and they came out well. Now, I just go to Paterson to eat Syrian food.

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  13. I am going to try and track down a copy. Eggeh is pretty easy to make, grape leaves is definitely difficult, I tried to help my mother and wife wrap cabbage leaves last year and it didn't work out all that well.

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  14. FATTAL'S PITA BREAD IS SOLD TO MANY RESTUARANTS IN PATERSON AND CHEAPER. IN ADDITION, IT HAS THE HIGHEST QUALITY INGREDIENTS THAN ANY OTHER PITA BREAD. 100% GAURANTEED ON BETTER TASTING, LONG-LASTING, SOFTER AND YOU GET MORE DOUGH FOR YOUR MONEY. YOU CAN LEAVE ONLY FATTAL'S PITA IN THE FREEZER UP TO 2 YEARS AND STILL HAS ITS TASTE AND FRESHNESS LIKE IT WAS BAKED THAT SAME DAY. GAURANTEED!!!!

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  15. You seems to be well connected with your roots although your family has left the country long time ago.

    If the last time you visited Syria was in the seventies, you should come and see it now. The place has changed a lot.

    By the way, the food in this Aleppo restaurant looks amazing,

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  16. The food at Aleppo Restaurant also tastes great. Yes. My youth was spent watching my mother cook, eating her wonderful food and hearing her stories about Aleppo, Syria. I would love to go back sometime soon. My father, too, regaled me with stories about Aleppo and his early years in the U.S.

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