Wendy's breaks fast-food architectural mold

The Wendy's in Bergenfield is open 7 days from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

I'm no fan of fast food and don't eat meat, but I was startled and pleased from a design point of view when I saw the new Wendy's in Bergenfield.

What Wendy's calls a "bold restaurant design" is being rolled out at locations across the country, sporting an impressive amount of glass facing the street.

Some of the new buildings carry the company's motto, "Quality is Our Recipe," but that hasn't been added to the store at 150 N. Washington Ave.

Coffee and salad

Still, sleek design won't persuade me to go into Wendy's for anything more than to find out whether seniors get a break on coffee, as they do at McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts.

I might also check out the salads, which were rated highly by Zagat, according to the Wendy's Web site.

I certainly have no interest in the company's "Mediterranean-inspired Premium Cheeseburger" or its "Bacon Portabella Melt." 

No spaces in lot

On Sunday afternoon, I couldn't find a parking space in the lot and had to take photos of the Bergenfield Wendy's from across the street. 

And driving into the lot legally is possible from only one direction.

I still remember my first -- and last -- fast-food hamburger or should I say what happened the next day.

A new Wendy's opened in Paterson in the 1980s, when I was a newspaper reporter assigned to cover state Superior Court in the Silk City.

I went in one afternoon, ordered and ate a hamburger, and threw up the next morning.

Failing a crash course in Italian food

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If you're looking for a quiet meal, Eataly isn't for you.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss a marketplace for Italian food called Eataly, our early dinner at Lupa in Manhattan, and the apparent extinction of the 99-cents can of sardines.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I'm a dropout from Eataly -- a crash course in Italian food at Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street in Manhattan.

Chef Mario Batali and his partners stage a daily feeding frenzy in this sprawling, all-Italian marketplace, where customers are willing to eat standing up as scores of people rush past just inches away.

We spent less than 30 minutes there on Monday afternoon, but couldn't take the sensory overload or the noise. Think "mob scene" or "zoo" -- one hardly conducive to enjoying a meal.

Eataly has one proper restaurant that takes reservations, Manzo, Italian for "beef," and it has a full menu, including pasta and seafood. But it doesn't open until 5 p.m., we were told.

Fish, vegetables, a rotisserie, cold cuts and more are available elsewhere, at what looks like feeding stations, with seated and stand-up eating.

Searching for the rest rooms, I came upon one aisle lined with bags of flour, where two employees were slicing bread, and saw a flight of stairs, which led to an upstairs dining area for pizza and pasta.

In the market, a six-pack of Italian beer, Birra Moretti, was $9.80. Handmade butternut-squash ravioli were about $14 a pound. An autumn tasting menu in Manzo was more than $90. Wines by the glass are $7 to $19 each.

The Web site says Eataly has a fish market, but we didn't see it. Whole fish are served for $22 and $23, though the ones I saw in front of diners looked small. 

The original Eataly opened in Turin, Italy, in 2007. Eataly New York opened in August 2010.

Eataly, 200 Fifth Ave., New York; 212-229-2560. Open every day.

Low prices, small portions

We still wanted to "Eat Italy," so we jumped into the car and drove downtown to another Batali venture, Lupa Osteria Romana.

Lupa has been a hit since it opened in 1999, and for peak dinner times, a reservation has to be made at least a month ahead, according to a re-review in The New York Times that awarded 1 star to the Roman-style trattoria last week.

Three of us arrived at Lupa around 4:15 Monday afternoon, and were told a table was available immediately, as long as we gave it up by precisely 5:35. We agreed, and were shown to a table in the intimate -- and drafty -- rear dining room.

Lupa employs a big staff, as we learned watching a procession of people going out a rear door and into a room where servers' uniforms hang in dry cleaner bags, and returning ready for work, but every time the ill-fitting door was opened, we got a gust of cold air.

Lupa is inexpensive by Manhattan standards, but portions are small. A nice touch is a glossary of Italian food terms on the back of the menu. 

Service was good and the food was well-prepared, but the kitchen didn't seem able to keep up with orders, and our appetizers were agonizingly slow coming to the table.

Sardines, fluke, striped bass

We decided to share two antipasti -- a special of grilled sardine fillets ($14) and a Fall Vegetable Insalata ($12).

There were four wonderful sardine fillets served with blood orange and wilted greens, and the salad included fruit, greens and roasted fall vegetables, all served at room temperature.

We skipped a pasta course, because I'm watching my weight, but I did have small pieces of bread crust dipped in peppery olive oil.

For entrees, we chose wild-caught fluke with lentils and bitter greens ($19); the Market Fish, striped bass ($22); and a naturally raised half chicken that was roasted alla Diavola or Devil's Style ($19).

My two, thin fluke fillets were disappointingly small, and they were served over a bed of tiny lentils and wilted greens, with little else on the plate. I made quick work of them, then speared morsels from my wife's dinner.

Her delicious striped bass fillet was cut thickly and the skin had been crisped, but I think the waitress was mistaken describing it as wild, not farmed. I tried both a piece of the fish and fatty skin, as well as shaved fennel.

The best value was the moist half chicken, which was served with a crostini spread with chicken liver.

We drank tap water and didn't have wine or dessert, though a cheese plate served to a couple at the next table looked terrific. We spent $108.63, including a $15 tip.

Lupa Osteria Romana, 170 Thompson St., Manhattan; 212-982-5089.

Web site: Antipasti, primi, secondi

Canned sardine news

Those 99-cents little wonders -- Al Shark-brand sardines from Morocco -- disappeared from the shelves in Paterson markets for a while, but I found them again on Monday morning at Brothers Produce, 327 E. Railway Ave.

The price went up 1 cent, to $1.00. Skinless-and-boneless sardines are higher.

I bought 20 cans, half of sardines in tomato sauce and half with hot peppers.

I also was looking for yogurt drink, but Brothers only had half-gallons from Merve Ayran at $4.79 each.

At Fattal's Bakery, 975-977 Main St., the half-gallons were $4.49 and the gallon container I bought was $7.79.

I also picked by the wonderful store-made spinach-and-cheese pies at six for $8.99.

Times review of Aleppo Restaurant in Paterson

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Here is David Corcoran's review of Aleppo Restaurant, my favorite place in Paterson, that appears online and on Sunday in The New York Times. It will make your mouth water. (Photo: The Citadel of Aleppo, Syria.) Click on the following link:

A gentle introduction to Syrian cuisine

This will make you hungry

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Image by seier+seier+seier via Flickr

With the opening of Aleppo Restaurant at Main and Thomas streets in Paterson, I have  more opportunity than ever to get in touch with my culinary roots. My parents were Sephardic Jews born in the northern Syrian city --  he the son of a pastry maker and she a rabbi's daughter who would go on to self-publish the first cookbook in Brooklyn's Syrian Jewish community.

Now, I have come across a food blog called "Syrian Foodie in London," lovingly written by a doctor, and this video of a falafel stand in Aleppo. If this doesn't make you hungry, I don't know what will. The metal bowls you'll see are filled with sprigs of mint, a nice accent for the yogurt sauce you can have on your falafel. I visited my parents' birthplace briefly in the late 1970s and ate lots of terrific food, but didn't get a chance to try the falafel.

http://syrianfoodie.blogspot.com/2009/09/worlds-fastest-falafel-maker.html

Fresh pita bread in Hackensack

When I run out of soft, chewy Syrian bread from Fattal's Bakery in Paterson, getting more involves a 16-mile, round-trip drive. The other day, I was running an errand in another part of Hackensack and found fresh bread at Sahara Stores on South Summit Avenue.

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This is a small, Middle Eastern deli and grocery store, with prepared food and shelves of imported goods, and now, fresh pita bread delivered seven days a week, the friendly owner said. (Despite the name, it's only one store.)

I found Nouri's Syrian bread there and another brand I had not seen before, Kings Pita, a thinner Lebanese-style bread, both from Paterson and both $1.50 a package at Sahara. You get more with Nouri's -- 12 loaves weighing 22 ounces versus 6 larger loaves that weigh only 14 ounces. But what I like about Kings Pita is that after a minute or two out of the fridge, it is soft and chewy -- not card-boardy like some Lebanese bread -- perfect for scooping up hummus or wrapping around spicy lamb sausage.



Sahara Stores, 242 S. Summit Ave., Hackensack, 201-487-7222.

Tasting and shopping notes

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The block of smoked-mackerel sushi from Mitsuwa Marketplace in Edgewater didn't disappoint. (See previous post.)  In fact, my wife, who squirms at the the thought of eating raw fish, loved the slices she tried. I ate mine without wasabi or soy sauce and they nicely set up our dinner of frozen wild sockeye salmon in a light Asian sauce.

I placed the frozen salmon (from Costco) in a glass plate set atop my steamer (it didn't fit inside), in a shallow pool of olive and sesame oils, fish sauce and cheap sake. I sprinkled salt on the fillets, rubbed them with coarse red Aleppo pepper and steamed them about 20 minutes for medium, serving the fish with leftover rice and peas, salad and pita bread.

The latest batch of Aleppo pepper I purchased from Fattal's on Main Street in Paterson is noticeably darker than what I had and noticeably spicier, a good thing. I keep it in a plastic container in the freezer and sprinkle it over eggs, fish and chicken, but wonder if the intensity fades over time.

I forgot to mention I bought aged Manchego sheep-milk's cheese from Spain at Costco the other day. The price, $8.29 a pound, is 70 cents less than the sale price at Fairway Market in Paramus and several dollars less than the regular price. Storage tip: Trim off the inedible rind, slice the wedge into three pieces and wrap each in plastic wrap before placing them in a freezer bag in the fridge. This also works with a large wedge of Reggiano Parmigiano.

North Jersey markets are running some good sales, starting today.  

Fairway Market has three pounds of herbicide-free Campari tomatoes for $5, three heads of organic romaine for $2.99 and Columbia supremo coffee for $4.99 a pound. Stop & Shop is reprising its sale on drug-free Australian shoulder lamb chops, $3.69 a pound for three pounds or more. And two markets on Railway Avenue in Paterson, El Campesino and El Rancho, are selling limes or lemons at 10 for 99 cents, 20 pounds of Canilla rice for $3.99, three cups of La Yogurt (6 ounces) for 99 cents, Lactaid milk for $4.99 (96 ounces) and Hass avocados, 2 for 99 cents.

If you think Paterson is going too far for food, stop first at Aleppo Restaurant, at Main and Thomas streets, or Hummus Restaurant across the street for a nice lunch, pick up Syrian bread and spices at Fattal's down the strteet, then go food shopping. Hungry food shoppers spend more, research has shown.

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:

http://offthebroiler.wordpress.com/2009/09/26/otb-economic-stimulus-dinner-ii-no-mezze-left-behind/#more-2971

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

http://www.atlastours.net/syria/aleppo.html

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

What I missed on our 3,750-mile road trip

Great bread.

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In 15 days on the road and in hotels, I missed the great bread I enjoy in North Jersey. Just two examples are the $2 baguette with a crackling crust from Balthazar Bakery in Englewood (this is a living crust that softens in humid weather) and the fresh pita from Fattal's in Paterson that allows you to turn every meal into a pocket-bread sandwich.

Even in New Orleans, what they call French bread is this large, doughy loaf with no crust to speak of, suitable for soaking up the juices from the overstuffed po' boy sandwiches. It reminded me of the water bread used in Cuban sandwiches, but that crust is compressed and heated in a press before serving.

About the closest thing to a great-bread experience is the yeasty southern biscuit, sometimes served soaked in gravy. I loved the biscuits served at Lil' Dizzy's Cafe in New Orleans and in a Cracker Barrel Store in Alabama. Driving back to New Jersey, we found a Panera Bread in Hagerstown, Md., where I had a Mediterranean vegetable sandwich -- a salad between two slices of good wheat bread. And the baguette served with the terrific chicken soup, though doughy, was excellent.

Getting your goat at Fairway Market

Fairway Market's Harlem store has been a reliable source for the meat my wife uses in her curry goat. The pieces have more meat than bone and they are reasonably priced at $2.29 a pound. I went to Fairway's Paramus store yesterday in search of some and was told goat meat was dropped for lack of demand (the store opened at the end of March).

I don't know anything about this meat, where it comes from or how the goats are raised. Goat meat sold by the halal places in Paterson costs a lot more. Food Fair, a new ethnic supermarket that opened in the Silk City, is selling goat meat for $1.79 a pound. I can't imagine where that stuff comes from. Food Fair also sells boneless salted cod for $4.49 a pound, compared to $8.99 at Fairway and $9.99 at ShopRite.

I'll have to visit Food Fair and perhaps add it to the list of stores we rely on for food: ShopRite, H-Mart, Fairway Market, Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's.

Podcast on the North Jersey food scene

After sampling the Middle Eastern fare at Whole Foods' Paramus store on Friday, I discussed additive-free food, food shopping, favorite Korean and Middle Eastern restaurants and other topics with Jason Perlow, the food lover behind the Off The Broiler blog. Click on the following link, or if that doesn't work paste and cut it into your browser:

http://www.theuw.net/~perlow/podcast/Off_The_Broiler-%2351%20Victor%20Sasson.mp3