Shopping for comfort food in Paterson, I can't help but cry for Aleppo

In June 1978, I made a brief visit to Aleppo, the city in the north of Syria where my parents were born. I saw many things and places familiar from the conversations I overheard when my parents invited their many friends to our house in Brooklyn, and I took lots of black-and-white photos. Here, Syrian bread puffed up like a pillow as the loaves baked in an oven before being offered for sale.

In the summer of 1978, you could stop on the streets of Aleppo for a cup of hot tea or a yogurt drink.

Editor's note: In 2013, I described my emotions after I heard the news about a government assault on Aleppo, Syria, the city where my parents were born. Now, the situation has gotten even more hopeless.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Since the start of the Syrian civil war, my occasional trips to buy bread, spices and other food in Paterson's Middle Eastern bazaar have been anything but routine.

I'm a first-generation American born to Jewish parents who emigrated from Aleppo, Syria, in the 1920s.

This week, government forces, backed by the Russians, began an offensive to take back Aleppo from the rebels -- a development that once again turned my thoughts to the city of their birth and its rich food tradition.

Today, The New York Times, quoting a new report, said 470,000 Syrians have died in five years of war -- almost twice the 250,000 counted a year and a half ago.

If that doesn't bring tears to your eyes, I'm not sure what would.

In 1978, I visited a Jewish yeshiva in Aleppo, and met teachers and an excited group of students.

Jewish life

My father's father was a pastry maker in Aleppo, and my mother's father was a rabbi and shochet, who was certified as competent to kill cattle and poultry in the manner prescribed by Jewish law.

My parents met on Manhattan's Lower East Side, married, sailed to Cuba for their honeymoon on the Morro Castle, and eventually settled in Brooklyn, where my mother self-published the first edition of her Syrian Jewish cookbook in the 1950s.

When I moved to northern New Jersey in the late 1970s, I began visiting Paterson to shop or eat in bakeries, markets and restaurants opened by Syrian Christian immigrants in the South Paterson neighborhood bordering Clifton.

They began arriving in the late 1800s and early 1900s to work in the city's silk mills.

In 1968, Michael Fattal, a baker from Aleppo, opened Fattal's in Paterson. Today, you can find hundreds of items, including store-baked spinach pies, pastry, cheese, yogurt drinks, imported extra-virgin olive oil, spices, tea and chewy pocket bread, or order a Syrian specialty and enjoy it in a small dining area at the back of the greatly expanded bakery, butcher and grocery store.

A mildly spicy Aleppo pepper is the perfect accent for fish and egg dishes or you can use a pinch or two when making hummus.

Fattal's on Main Street

My first stop on Thursday was Fattal's, one of the few South Paterson businesses with is own parking lot.

I made the trip because I had nearly run out of crushed red Aleppo pepper, which I sprinkle liberally on fish and egg dishes.

I bought a little more than a half-pound of crushed pepper ($6.99 a pound), a quarter-pound of ground cumin ($4.99 a pound), and a pound of Fattal's own grape leaves stuffed with vegetables ($7.99 a pound).

A 3-liter bottle of La Ziza Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Lebanon was $20.99 or just under $7 a liter. A half-gallon of Merve Ayran Yogurt Drink was $10.29.

A half-dozen freshly baked Spinach and Cheese Pies were $8.99, and 13-ounce cans of Libano Verde Hommos Tahina from Lebanon were 99 cents each.

Easy hummus

All you need to do make creamy hummus is empty the contents of a can into a bowl, and add fresh lime juice, extra virgin olive oil and plenty of minced or ground garlic to taste.

I garnish hummus with Aleppo pepper, crushed mint leaves or both.

In Paterson, after dashing over to Salah Edin, a restaurant on the next block, for two bags of freshly fried falafel, I went back into Fattal's for a package of medium Syrian breads (12 for $1.50), the only ones I could find without preservatives.

South Paterson

Even as Aleppo is being slowly destroyed, South Paterson is prospering, with the opening of new cafes, pastry shops and restaurants.

Over the years, Syrian businesses have been joined by numerous Turkish, Lebanese and Palestinian cafes, bakeries and restaurants. 

A new strip mall has opened on Main Street, and a new building is going up near Salah Edin Restaurant.

The big farmers' market off of Crooks Avenue is open year-round. And a large McDonald's has opened on the Paterson side of Crooks Avenue.

At Salah Edin, $1 buys a bag of five freshly fried falafel.

On the drive home, the smell of fresh Fattal's bread teased me. At my kitchen counter, I immediately made and ate two small sandwiches with hummus, one with a cold stuffed grape leave and the other with a warm falafel, above and below.

Fattal's bread keeps beautifully in the refrigerator or freezer.

The dining room of Aleppo Restaurant at Main and Thomas streets in Paterson.

What's still standing

On Thursday, I put my groceries in the car, left it parked in Fattal's lot, and walked two blocks to visit Mohamed K. Jello, a devout Muslim who owns Aleppo Restaurant.

The terrific Syrian food there reminds me so much of my mother's cooking.

I embraced Mohamed, and he served me a glass of hot ginger tea.

He said relatives still are living in the northern part of the city, and so far are safe.

We talked about the destruction of the minaret in the Great Mosque, but he said the old clock tower is still standing.

Click on the following link to my 2013 post on Aleppo, written almost 35 years to the day after my 1978 visit.

See: My heart goes out to Aleppo, Syria

Details

Fattal's, 975-77 Main St., Paterson; 1-973-742-7125.

Aleppo Restaurant, 939 Main St., Paterson; 1-973-977-2244. No alcohol allowed.

Salah Edin Restaurant, 995 Main St., Paterson; 1-973-225-0575.

In 1978, a clock tower known as Bab al-Faraj was a major landmark in Aleppo, and I often heard it referred to when my parents and their friends reminisced about their lives in the city, said to be the oldest in the world. 

The minaret of the Great Mosque of Aleppo, shown in June 1978, was destroyed during fighting in April 2013. The building dated to the 11th through 14th centuries.

In 1978, I explored the cobblestone streets and alleys of Aleppo's old city, where I was surprised to see Star of David motifs in a metal door, upper left.

Even in 1978, parts of the old city were being cleared for the construction of apartment buildings, above.

Residential buildings in Aleppo near the clock tower.

Stalls selling brooms.

A March 2015 report on The Guardian.com said troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad were using the ancient citadel of Aleppo to rain down destruction on enemies below, and that the 13th century fortress had suffered "untold damage."

In Paterson, $1 bag of falafel is not as big of a bargain as it once was

The window of a Syrian wedding shop on Main Street and Gould Avenue in Paterson's South Paterson neighborhood, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The parking lot of Fattal's was far from full today, so I'm sure no one noticed me in my car when I ripped open a plastic bag, tore off a piece of whole-wheat pocket bread, wrapped it around a hot falafel ball and ate it.

At home, I ate two more still-warm falafel in the same thin, Lebanese-style bread with garlicky hummus I made the day before from a can I bought at Fattal's on a visit in April.

But when I emptied what was supposed to be two paper bags, each with seven falafel, into a storage container, I came up short.

It turns out Salah Edin, a Middle Eastern restaurant near Fattal's in Paterson, has reduced the $1 bag of falafel to five from seven.

That's still a good deal, and the ground-chickpea falafel are beautifully fried and greaseless.

At Fattal's, I bought two dozen cans of Al Shark-brand Moroccan Sardines in Tomato Sauce (99 cents each), and a package of Fattal's large homemade Spinach Pies (six for $8.99).

At Nouri's, 999 Main St., I bought a package of medium, Lebanese-style whole-wheat pocket bread for $1.25.

Salah Edin is at 995 Main St., and Fattal's is at 975-77 Main St.

At home, we keep cans of Moroccan Sardines handy to add to bottled pasta sauce when we prepare organic whole-wheat fusilli, shells, spaghetti and other shapes. The whole-wheat pastas are available at ShopRite, Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's for $1.25 to $1.49 a pound.

Nostalgic for the past

Visits to the bustling Middle Eastern bazaar known as South Paterson once were filled with memories of the family meals of Syrian food my mother prepared every night in Brooklyn.

Now, all I can think about are the horrors of the civil war in Syria, where the brutal Assad regime indiscriminately bombs civilians.

I stopped into Aleppo Restaurant on Main and Thomas streets, to say hello to the chef and owner, Mohamed K. Jello.

The restaurant is named for the northern Syrian city where my parents were born.

While I was waiting for Mohamed to return from shopping for the restaurant, I spoke to an employee who was enjoying a bowl of ful mudammas or fava beans in sauce for breakfast.

He said the media have drastically under-reported the number of people killed during the Syrian civil war.

Libano Verde Hommos Tahina from Lebanon allows you to make your own at home by adding lemon juice, garlic and extra-virgin olive oil. The can for 99 cents, right, once 15 ounces is now only 13 ounces.

To make hummus from a can, I used fresh lime juice, finely chopped fresh garlic and extra-virgin olive oil, all to taste; chopped fresh mint and Aleppo pepper.

In April, five of the seven falafel for $1 at Salah Edin Middle Eastern Restaurant were still warm when I got them home, above. Now, you get five falafel for $1.

Salah Edin in April. Today, I walked past before I realized the restaurant had removed its sign in anticipation of getting a new one on Tuesday.

Kings Whole Wheat Pita is baked in Paterson without preservatives, but I couldn't find the thin, Lebanese-style loaves today at Fattal's or Nouri's, two Syrian bakeries on Main Street that have competed for decades.

Fattal's is a combination Syrian bakery, butcher, grocer and small cafe, with its own parking lot, at 975-77 Main St. in Paterson. The store also sells gold bracelets and necklaces, and other jewelry.