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."

Foods that cry out for each other

Image via Wikipedia

Break those yolks over rice or pasta -- and go to town.

If you listen carefully enough, you'll hear some of the foods in your refrigerator and cupboard pleading with you to eat them together and elevate every day into the sublime.


Here are some terrific flavor combinations:

• An Italian-Korean salad of small, soft balls of marinated mozzarella cheese from Costco Wholesale and spicy, crunchy Arirang-brand cabbage kimchi from Gaboh Inc. in Englewood.
• Peanut butter, preserves and sliced, skin-on cucumber for crunch -- laid on thick on 100% whole grain toast from Costco.
• A yolk -- from an egg fried sunny side up or softly boiled in a Korean tofu stew -- eaten over steamed rice.
• A variation: Two eggs fried sunny side up and eaten over any kind of pasta or kimchi friend rice.
• The bland Jamaican fruit called ackee with salted cod or pollock, and sweet and hot peppers -- considered the Caribbean island's national dish.
• Boiled potatoes, mixed vegetables and hard-boiled eggs, bound together by mayonnaise -- Jamaican potato salad.
• White pizza, made with ricotta cheese, then layered with arugula and prosciutto. If you don't eat meat, any pizza topped with large quantities of fresh, wilted spinach.
• Bibimbap, a one-dish wonder, is a Korean entree in a hot stone bowl with steamed rice, several marinated raw vegetables and greens, a little ground beef, a raw or cooked egg on top, and spicy red-pepper paste. It's just as good without  meat. You stir everything up and eat it with a spoon.
• Wild salmon baked or grilled with fresh herbs and ripe mango or peach slices.
• Fried eggs, fish or hummus sprinkled with mildly spicy Aleppo red pepper.
• Anything eaten in fresh Syrian pocket bread, such as the soupy fava-bean stew and salad I enjoyed today at Aleppo Restaurant in Paterson.
•  Please fill in your favorite food pairings.

Chasing sardines


The 99-cent cans of sardines from Morocco have been hard to find recently.


Last week, I dropped into Sahara Fine Foods on South Summit Avenue in Hackensack, only to find Al Shark-brand skinless-and-boneless sardines, at $1.49 a can. The merchant said he couldn't get the cheaper ones in spicy or regular oil.


At Fattal's Syrian Bakery on Main Street in Paterson today, there was a large empty space on the canned-fish shelf, and the cashier said the distributor promised the 99-cents sardines would return in a couple of weeks.


At Brothers Produce on East Railway Avenue in the Paterson Farmers' Market, I finally found another brand of Moroccan sardines, Sultan, in vegetable oil with chili pepper for 99 cents a can or with spicy olive oil for $1.29.


I bought 10 cans of the former, and I'm looking forward to pasta with sardines in red sauce or eating these mighty little fish over a salad.

Spicing up a trip to the Great Falls

Image via Wikipedia

There was even more water at the Great Falls today than in this March 2010 photo.

There's usually only one place I want to be after a major storm soaks and floods North Jersey -- and that's the Great Falls on the Passaic River in Paterson.


But the Silk City has other attractions, including Middle Eastern markets, bakeries and restaurants, and a large Farmer's Market in its south end.


On Monday, I drove to Paterson and stopped first at Fattal's Syrian Bakery at 975-77 Main St. The street has been repaved through South Paterson, to the delight of drivers.


I picked up a pound of crushed Aleppo red pepper, which I use to spice up fried eggs, omelets, fish and hummus. At $6.99 a pound, it is almost twice the price of a few years ago.


Two pounds of pitted dates from Algeria were $4.99. Fragrant ground cumin was $4.99 a pound. Cans of Libano Verde-brand hummus from Lebanon were 99 cents each, and need only extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice and garlic powder to turn into a dip.


A gallon of Merve Ayran yogurt drink was $7.79.


In early afternoon, police blocked access to the parking lots at the falls, which were swollen by Tropical Storm Irene's 8-plus inches of rain over the weekend.


But I managed to leave my car in a restaurant lot nearby and visit both the overlook and the main viewing area below.


The river was already spilling over Spruce Street. 


The dark-brown, silt-filled water threw up a spray and created a rainbow over the falls. Beautiful.


More food shopping


This morning, the street to my gym in Hackensack was covered by flood water, so I turned around and drove to Costco Wholesale a couple of miles away. It's always a pleasure shopping there after the doors first open just before 10 a.m.


I picked up fresh wild-caught sockeye salmon fillet from the U.S.A. at $8.99 a pound; 6 pounds of white-flesh peaches for $7.99; 1 pound of Earthbound Farm organic spring mix at $4.99; 2 pounds of hothouse-grown Roma tomatoes for $3.29; and 1 pound of organic spinach for $3.99. 

An unusual breakfast in South Paterson

Image via Wikipedia

I dashed out this morning for bread, sardines, canned hummus, spinach pie and Lebanese extra-virgin olive oil from Fattal's Syrian Bakery in Paterson, then went looking for breakfast.


I drove a few blocks to Luna Bakery & Sweets (1071 Main St.), and asked for a Turkish breakfast (thick bread, hard-boiled egg, cheese, tomato and cucumber, and strong tea). 

Not wanting to turn a customer away, the Syrian baker served me tea; strained yogurt with nuts, which I ate with a spoon; a round, thin, flat bread spread with the thyme-based za'atar mixture; dough and cheese baked into a boat shape, and a pizza made with Syrian and mozzarella cheeses that was dusted with mint and a little red pepper. 


There was enough food for two and I took a few items home. After I told the baker my parents were from Aleppo, he said he was a native and described the many changes he's witnessed. Change also was evident around his business in South Paterson, he said, but he believes the quality of his dough has kept him afloat.


Across the street, the shuttered Syrian bakery Mondial is getting a makeover and a stylish, brick restaurant called Grill House is expected to open soon. On Getty Avenue, near Main Street, a storefront that once claimed to have the best falafel sandwich in the world has closed.



At Fattal's (975-77 Main St.), the sardines from Morocco and canned Lebanese hummus can't be beat (99 cents a can). Three liters of La Ziza-brand Lebanese extra-virgin olive oil rang up at $17.49. Six of Fattal's long, sesame-seeded spinach pies are $8.99, and freeze beautifully.


I turned off Getty at East Railway Avenue to check out produce in the Farmers' Market. But I ended up buying a small dogwood tree at Brothers Produce for $10, and driving home. 

(Photo: Aleppo, Syria)

Why Fattal's bread doesn't travel well

Image by graciepoo via Flickr

I have been eating bread from Fattal's Syrian Bakery in Paterson for decades, but have always wondered why I don't see it in served in restaurants or sold in grocery stores.


Down to my last two loaves and not wanting to drive the 20-mile round trip to South Paterson, I stopped for bread Tuesday at Sahara Stores on South Summit Avenue in Hackensack and discovered canned goods for the same prices as at Fattal's.

After I paid, I asked Mohsen Mekawi, the friendly proprietor, why he doesn't carry bread from Fattal's, which I consider the best in North Jersey. It's simple, he said. Fattal's is the only Middle Eastern bakery that doesn't credit him for unsold bread.

The others take back the day-old bread and deduct it from the bill for the loaves that are delivered fresh daily, he said. With Fattal's, he is stuck with old bread.

I bought two packages of Kings Pita (no hyphen), a thinner, larger, Lebanese-style pocket bread, for $1.50 each. The bread is baked in Paterson, unlike Fattal's bread, which is now baked in Fair Lawn.

But Kings Pita is only a stopgap, because it isn't as tasty or as good a value as Fattal's loaves. I'll have to try some of the other brands sold at Sahara Stores (despite the name, it's only one store) when I'm out of Fattal's and don't want to drive to South Paterson.

Restaurant notes

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Our meal at Wondee's last night was as good as ever, but I wondered about all the empty tables. Two tables were occupied when we entered the BYO Thai restaurant in Hackensack and a family arrived as we were preparing to leave. The falling snow and forecasts of more, much more, must have discouraged people from venturing out.

Five of us feasted on steamed pork-and-shrimp dumplings, won ton soup, crunchy duck-and-fruit salad, fried chicken wings with a sweet-sour sauce, Cantonese-style pork with vegetables and a whole, steamed red snapper with hot chilies and garlic. Delicious.

I had had my heart set on dinner at Hummus, a Turkish place in South Paterson, because we had to go to a store there for a long, white robe my son needed for his Christmas pageant today. But as the snow fell, I dashed out alone and drove to Nouri's, a Syrian bakery and grocery store with electronics, musical instruments, clothing, cookbooks and more. I found just what I was looking for -- a simple, white, pullover robe made in Aleppo, Syria (photo), for $15. When I left, I briefly thought about ordering takeout from Hummus, then drove home.

On Thursday, I had a big lunch at Aleppo Restaurant,  across the street from Hummus. I ordered pureed lentil soup flavored with cumin and accompanied by half a lemon, fried kibbe, and a spicy dip called muhammara. I like to squeeze lemon onto the ground meat in my kibbe -- also called torpedos -- after biting off the end. I brought home pocket bread and two kibbe, making sandwiches with my homemade hummus and sharing them with my wife.

Aleppo Restaurant, 939 Main St., Paterson; 973-977-2244;
open seven days.

Hummus Restaurant,  942 Main St., Paterson, 
973-247-0066;
hummusturkishrestaurant.com

Wondee's Fine Thai Food & Noodles, 296 Main St., 201-883-1700; 
parking in rear
http://www.wondeenj.com/

The zing of Aleppo red pepper

Four of us met for a tasty and filling lunch yesterday at Aleppo Restaurant, one of my favorites in the exotic Middle Eastern food bazaar of South Paterson.

We ordered maza -- small plates of dip, fried and raw kibbe, salad and other appetizers -- and used the fresh, chewy pocket bread as our scoop or to fashion sandwiches.

At least a couple of dishes were made with the coarsely ground Aleppo red pepper that has taken the name of Syria's northern capital. I have a couple of cups of it in the freezer and sprinkle it over fried eggs, hummus or rub it into chicken.

At Aleppo Restaurant, the red pepper gives a nice zing to the muhammara, a spicy, Aleppan dip made with bread crumbs, walnuts, olive oil and other ingredients. And I loved it in the small, raw kibbe we were served.

I buy my Aleppo pepper at Fattal's Bakery, where it is sold for about $4 a pound, but don't bother with the bakery's muhammara, which is not as good as the restaurant's (975 Main St., Paterson; 973-742-7125).

When we visited Aleppo Restaurant yesterday, the staff was preparing two whole lambs stuffed with rice for a party of 50. I wish I could have been there.

My family's ties with Paterson's Syrian community were established long before I moved to North Jersey and started shopping there nearly 30 years ago

My Sephardic Jewish mother used to regale me with stories about excursions from Brooklyn to Garret Mountain so her extended family could enjoy a celebration of music and food called hefle (phonetic spelling, pronounced HEF-leh ). One time, my elegantly dressed Uncle Halfon, who always seemed to have a glass of scotch or arak in his hand, was stopped by police for drunken driving and jailed overnight.


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

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.

Image via Wikipedia

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.

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.)

A fresh look at South Paterson

My insatiable fellow food blogger, Jason Perlow, has been exploring the Middle Eastern bakeries, restaurants and food shops in the South Paterson section of Paterson, and I've been remiss in not supplying the link to his reports.

Here it is, finally:

http://offthebroiler.wordpress.com/2009/08/23/nj-dining-al-safa-bab-alhara/

If his photos don't make you salivate, there is just no hope for you. Main Street in South Paterson is one of North Jersey's great food streets, so get out there and explore it.

Focus on Middle Eastern food

It's not too often I can recommend a food article in The Record of Hackensack, where the 30-year-olds demonstrate their limited knowledge of northern New Jersey every day.

But today, restaurant reviewer Elisa Ung does a decent job on what she now calls the "Middle Eastern market" on and off Main Street in Paterson's South Paterson section -- the bakeries, restaurants and other shops I have been patronizing for decades. She stops at Syrian, Lebanese, Palestinian and Turkish businesses, including a couple of newish ones I'd like to explore. This article comes only a couple of months after she incorrectly described the same area as a "Turkish enclave" and "Little Istanbul."

Unfortunately, she ignores Corrado's Family Affair, the ethnic supermarket with an incredible bread aisle, just over the Paterson border on Main Avenue in Clifton.

Here is the link to the article:

http://www.northjersey.com/food_dining/A_feast_for_the_senses.html

It's one in a series called "Progressive Dining," a phrase that has never been defined by the reporter. As usual, she manages to eat a lot of food in just a couple of hours.

Dashing out for a Turkish breakfast

I had a late-morning meeting in Totowa on Thursday, so I decided to set out early and stop in Paterson for breakfast at a Turkish restaurant and shopping at a Syrian bakery-grocery.

But when I arrived in the city's South Paterson section, the corner that had been occupied for years by Kafe Teria had a different awning and a different restaurant, Aleppo, a Syrian place, which hadn't opened for the day. Fortunately, the Turkish bakery next door was open and I ordered breakfast. The woman set down before me a plate with two kinds of cheeses (one like cream cheese, the other like feta), sliced cucumber and tomato, a hard-boiled egg, cured black olives and honey, which I added to strong tea. A large, round, challah-like bread came with the meal. After I had eaten, she asked for $8, but accepted my last $7 in cash.

A couple of blocks away, at Fattal's, I bought fresh-baked pita, 20 cans of Moroccan sardines (99 cents each), a quarter-pound of ground cumin and a little ground cardamom for the espresso I drink at home. I then went to an ATM, returned to my breakfast place, bought some bread with cheese, tomato and green pepper, and another with ground meat, and paid my $1 debt. At my meeting, I presented a package of pita bread to the woman and she was delighted.

Flavors I can't live without

For breakfast today, I stuffed some warm pita halves with organic spring mix, hummus, a small sardine or canned red salmon, tomato, sliced yogurt cheese and ajvar, a roasted red pepper and eggplant spread from Macedonia, one of the flavors I can't live without.

Ajvar makes a great sandwich spread or you can just put a couple of tablespoons of the stuff on your plate to eat with a sandwich or entree. I buy the spicy version made by Vava, because it has no added sugar. I've found it at Zeytinia in Englewood, $4.99 for a 19-ounce jar.

Another great flavor is za'atar, a Middle Eastern spice mixture you can sprinkle on sliced tomatoes, roasted chicken, fish and so forth. If you put a pinch in your mouth, it has a wonderful sourness. Some za'atar and extra virgin olive oil on a plate makes a great dip for fresh bread or you can sprinkle the mixture over pita and spreadable yogurt cheese. The mix includes thyme, wild sumac, marjoram, oregano, salt and sesame seeds. I add black sesame seeds to mine.

You can find two kinds of za'atar, green and brown, at Fattal's in Paterson's South Paterson section. The store also carries another great flavor, Aleppo pepper, a coarsely ground and mildly spicy red pepper that is great with hummus, eggs fried in olive oil and roasted chicken, among other dishes.

Along with my pita sandwiches, I had a small bowl of mahk kimchi from Arirang, a kimchi factory in Englewood. I like my kimchi "fresh," meaning it hasn't been fermented too long and the nappa cabbage retains a nice crunch. How much do I like kimchi? It's a morning staple.

Keeping peace in the kitchen

A couple of spectacular supermarkets opened recently in North Jersey, but they can't replace Fattal's, the pita bakery and so much more on Main Street in Paterson's South Paterson district.

The pita bread, spinach and meat pies, pastries and prepared food are all terrific at this Syrian emporium, but I also rely on it for the red, coarsely ground Aleppo pepper, canned hummus that is far cheaper than the refrigerated kind and other Middle Eastern food.

Last week, while stocking up on fat Moroccan sardines (99 cents a can), I looked for cans of ful medames (fava beans) from Libano Verde in Lebanon. (Ful is pronounced "fool.") I serve the beans as a salad, with the addition of olive oil, lemon juice, allspice, garlic and scallions or parsley, but you can also heat them up and serve them with a hard-boiled egg. Egyptians use fava beans to make their version of falafel, and it's a lot more interesting than the chickpea falafel you see everywhere.

But as I picked up a can or two of the ready-to-eat fava beans, I noticed subtle differences in the labels. One said "Palestinian Recipe," another read "Lebanese Recipe." There was more, a "Kurdistan Recipe" and an "Egyptian Recipe." I didn't know the humble but flavorful fava bean could be so controversial. So I took home all four.

I tried the Kurdistan Recipe first, finding that the beans were in a tahini sauce. Nice. One morning, I warmed pita halves and stuffed them with hummus, fava beans, organic spring mix, tomato with za'atar (a spice mixture), wild smoked salmon and a portion of a simple omelet. It was a great way to start the day.