Turn your back on refrigerated hummus

Image via Wikipedia

If you love hummus, read this New York Times story (link below), then go out and buy canned hummus from Lebanon and make your own with tahini, olive oil, lemon juice and garlic powder. With all the money you'll save, you can buy some fresh Syrian bread to scoop up your tasty, homemade dip.


I buy my canned hummus at Fattal's Syrian Bakery in Paterson (975-77 Main St.), a one-stop shopping experience for fresh bread and everything you'd want to eat with it. Lebano Verde is the brand I favor, and a 15-ounce can was 99 cents the last time I was there 10 days ago. 

I garnish my hummus with more olive oil and cumin or Aleppo red pepper, and use it as a sandwich spread when I'm not scooping it up with bread. Here is the link to the story:

 Hummus with peanut butter?

(Photo: Hummus served in Haifa, Israel)

For great maza, you don't have to go far

Image via Wikipedia

The New York Times has a nicely photographed, mouth-watering story about restaurants in Beirut, Lebanon (photo), but you have to go no further than Paterson to sample equally delicious maza and other food.

Aleppo Restaurant at Main and Thomas streets, Paterson, is a reliable choice for Syrian entrees and the small plates called maza or mezze, as The Times spells it. And there are Turkish restaurants, such as Hummus, across Main Street, with attractive menus of salads, meat-and-cheese pizzas, and other tidbits. After you try these two restaurants, I think you'll agree the author of The Times piece is wrong in saying the best Middle Eastern food is found in Lebanese restaurants.

Lebanese restaurants seem to come and go in the South Paterson neighborhood, but a sign on the old Al Assayad Restaurant on Crooks Avenue recently announced the opening soon of a Lebanese place.

Two great meals I had at Aleppo Restaurant are described in the following links:


The zing of Aleppo red pepper

Bountiful meal recalls my roots

 Below is a link to the story on Beirut.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/travel/27choice.html?ref=dining