Warming up with hot mint tea in South Paterson

A photo of the 13th century Citadel of Aleppo in the dining room of Aleppo Restaurant in Paterson, above and below.

The restaurant is at 939 Main St. in Paterson.

Editor's note: We've had some depressingly chilly and sunless days in North Jersey this January, and I'll take comfort wherever I can find it -- with a glass of hot mint tea or home-cooked favorites.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

It's an especially quiet January for the owners of Middle Eastern stores, restaurants and bakeries in the South Paterson section of Silk City.

On Tuesday, when I had an errand in Paterson -- known for its Great Falls and its glorious silk-industry past -- I immediately thought of stopping at Aleppo Restaurant and Fattal's Bakery on Main Street.

At the Syrian restaurant, the owner emerged from the kitchen and offered me a glass of hot mint tea, made with fresh mint leaves, or his justifiably famous lentil soup to warm up from the chilly, rainy weather.

I love the pureed soup, which reminds me so much of the one my mother prepared, but I chose the tea, adding a half teaspoon of sugar as we caught up, seated in the empty dining room.

When I got home, I rummaged in the cupboard and found a pouch of Basak-brand Lentil Soup from Turkey, reconstituted it with water and heated it up on the stove until it boiled and thickened.

It didn't approach the versions prepared by my mother or Aleppo Restaurant, but I enjoyed it nevertheless, squeezing fresh lime juice over it and adding a generous pinch of ground cumin. 

Fattal's at 975-77 Main St. in Paterson is expanding its parking lot.

99-cents sardines

I purchased the lentil-soup mix on a previous visit to Fattal's, the Syrian bakery, grocery, butcher shop and cafe less than two blocks away from Aleppo Restaurant.

On Tuesday, I picked up 21 cans of Al-Shark Sardines in Tomato Sauce, which has less sodium than the same Moroccan sardines in oil, for 99 cents a can.

These sardines are wonderful in canned fish salad, heated up and eaten with rice, added to pasta sauce and eaten right out of the can with salad.

I also purchased a 28-ounce jar of Salloum Bros. Marmalade from Figs for $5.99, even though I saw a less expensive brand.

Sugar was listed second on the ingredients label of the cheaper brand; Salloum lists it fourth after figs, sesame and anise. Both are from Lebanon.

A favorite snack is a spoonful of fig marmalade followed by a spoonful of Kirkland Signature Natural Peanut Butter from Costco Wholesale, but I also eat the thick fig spread with cheese, almonds and fruit.

I also picked up Fattal's own 6-inch Meat Pies ($8.99), a comfort food that is terrific heated up in the oven, if you eat meat. They can be frozen, too.

My mother sometimes added pine nuts to her chopped meat after spreading it on the oiled dough.

For a sweet-and-savory breakfast, I added Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto from Costco Wholesale to an egg-white omelet and a leftover baked sweet potato.

Besto pesto

I love having a jar of Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto from Costco Wholesale in my refrigerator to use at any meal -- whether to spread on a sandwich, add to egg and fish dishes or mix with hot pasta, including whole-wheat shells or imported egg-noodle tagliatelle. 

Ingredients include 100% Italian basil from the province of Genoa, extra-virgin olive oil, sheep's milk and cow's milk cheeses, sea salt, pine nuts, garlic and black pepper.

The pesto doesn't have to be heated up before you mix it with hot pasta, and it's best to add it to fish and egg dishes after you take them out of the oven or off of the stove.

A 22-ounce plastic jar of Basil Pesto is $7.99.

'Whole paycheck' is an exaggeration

Last week, fresh, wild-caught whole fish at Whole Foods Market in Paramus included porgy and Spanish mackerel for only $4.99 a pound and $5.99 a pound, respectively.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss Whole Foods Market's reputation for being expensive, enough Chinese takeout for a few meals and The Main Dish in Hackensack.

 

The fresh fish, organic produce, and naturally raised chicken and beef sold at Whole Foods Market are supposed to be so expensive, you'll spend your "whole paycheck" there, if you're not careful.

Nothing could be farther from the truth, as long as you don't rely on Whole Foods for all of your groceries, and shop for sale items and specials.

Last week, two wild-caught whole fish were only $4.99 a pound and $5.99 a pound, excellent buys given the quality of seafood at the Paramus Whole Foods.

Whole Foods also usually stocks frozen organic chicken feet, backs and necks for as little as $2.99 a pound. 

If you eat poultry, they are antibiotic-free, excellent for soup and far better than those mystery parts sold in most supermarkets.

We didn't feel like going out to dinner on Saturday night -- and couldn't agree on where to go, if we wanted to -- so we had food delivered from Zen Kitchen in Teaneck, including jumbo shrimp and vegetables with fresh garlic, and dried sauteed string beans, above (201-837-7322).

The next night, leftover string beans and brown rice were perfect side dishes for leftover wild-caught Canadian flounder in Mexican green salsa.

This morning, I had more Zen Kitchen vegetables with an organic egg and leftover whole-wheat spirals from a container I found in the back of the refrigerator. We order all of our dishes with fresh garlic to avoid the ubiquitous, sodium-laden brown sauce.

 

The zen of takeout

The Chinese meal we had delivered on Saturday night from Zen Kitchen in Teaneck kept on giving at dinner the next night and breakfast this morning.

There may still be some shrimp and vegetables with fresh garlic left.

A large bowl of lentil soup at The Main Dish in Hackensack was $3.95.

Soup to nuts

Today, I stopped at The Main Dish, the restaurant that replaced Naturally Good on Hackensack's quiet Main Street.

The restaurant is open for breakfast and lunch, but closes at 3:30 and isn't open for dinner.

I had a nice, filling bowl of meatless lentil soup for $3.95.

Going out for a meatless meal

Image via Wikipedia

Kebab or kebob -- it's lamburger with exotic spices.

Turkish restaurants have a long way to go before they challenge the number of Italian-American restaurants in North Jersey, but few towns are going without some variant of kebabs and their side dishes.


I recalled how my mother served a kosher, home-cooked Syrian meal just about every night of the year, with an occasional takeout coal-oven pizza making an appearance on our dining room table for our weekly dairy meal (no meat).


So, I took out my folder of restaurant menus on Saturday night and suggested we try a new Turkish restaurant in Hackensack, and order a meal without meat.  


I was all kebabed-out long before I stopped eating meat in February 2010. And no Turkish restaurant could ever match my mother's kebabs with cherries.


My meat-loving, 14-year-old son put up a fight, even though we went out to a Korean soft-tofu restaurant the night before and ordered beef barbecue for everybody but me.


But when I mentioned the restaurant had chicken soup and that we'd have fish or shrimp, if available, he relented.


We had a filling meal at Kebab House on Main Street, but won't be returning for long list of reasons -- from the plastic plates and drink cups to the unimaginative name.


The owners, it turns out, are Russian, though the cook is Turkish. It seems the couple's son operates a Turkish restaurant on Kings Highway in Brooklyn, where I grew up.


Although this is Hackensack's first Turkish restaurant, a Middle Eastern restaurant and nightclub named Aladdin has been operating successfully at the other end of Main Street for many years.


Kebab House seems to have seating for only 12, so three tables for two were pushed together for the four of us.


An exposed brick wall running along one side of the narrow space provides a little warmth, but the plates and those small paper napkins from a dispenser cheapen the experience.


I brought a half-empty bottle of Bordeaux, but no one offered me a wine glass, and I didn't want to drink it out of a small plastic drink cup.


I ordered lentil soup for me and chicken soup for the rest of the family ($3.95 each); a small shepherd salad of chopped tomato, cucumber and onion ($4.95); a small hummus ($4.95); a small grilled eggplant salad ($5.50); babaghanoush ($5.50) ; cigara boregi or cigar-like philo dough stuffed with salty cheese ($5); a small grilled vegetables ($5); four soft drinks, hot Turkish tea and one off-menu entree, shrimp sauteed with vegetables and served with rice and salad (I don't recall the price).


I couldn't get the Russian woman to understand we wanted to try a spicy ezme salad, which I've had in just about every other Turkish restaurant. Apparently, she had never heard of it.


Prices are reasonable, but portions are small. The woman said I didn't have to order a shepherd salad, because one came with the entree. But the shrimp platter had a plain, iceberg-lettuce salad with tomato and onion.


The fragrant lentil soup, the grilled eggplant salad and the deep-fried cigara boregi were the best items I tried, but the others liked the shrimp dish, though the crustaceans were small. The hummus was bland.


We never got the grilled vegetables -- just as well, because we were full. But the $5 charge appeared on the bill. When I pointed it out, the woman lopped off $5 from the total of $52.92, but didn't adjust the sales tax. My tip was only $5.


As we were leaving, we noticed a new Caribbean-soul food restaurant, Boomerang's, is preparing to open in the space once occupied by Mangos, across the street from Kebab House.


That block of Main Street is looking particularly forlorn, with the failed Limon market remaining empty and an office building next to a Cuban restaurant missing its facade. 


It didn't help the street was closed for cleanup from a street festival.


Kebab House, 137 Main St., Hackensack, 201-880-6167.
BYO, street parking with meters, credit cards accepted.


Web site: Kebab House in Hackensack

We hit rough spots at a new Greek restaurant

Image by birdphone via Flickr

Greek Taverna opened Dec. 5 on Rock Road in Glen Rock, not far from the rock itself.

How interested are you in the operation of the restaurant where you're having dinner? If you're like me, you want good food, a quiet place to eat and quick removal of empty plates and glasses.

At the new Greek Taverna in Glen Rock late Saturday afternoon, we were seated at one of the tables near the open kitchen, where about 10 minutes into our meal an empty pot falling to the floor made me jump.

A waitress reporting for work stood nearby while she put on and tied her tie. Other members of the wait staff stood in twos and threes, chatting as they waited for the cooks to hand them completed dishes. Managers walked to and fro, stopping to talk to the cooks and each other.

"It's like we're in a training facility," my 13-year-old son observed. 

Turning the tables

We were among the first arrivals for dinner. The woman who greeted us tried to seat us at a small table in a corner, to the side of the open kitchen, but I objected, because there was no room for our winter coats. 

I wanted to sit in a separate, rear dining room, but she said the room wasn't being used at the moment. So, we compromised and sat at a table for four under a huge wall mirror, in which I could see a serving station and wait staff chit-chatting behind me. 

I'm always amused how restaurant staffs are so quick to snatch up extra place settings, as if, God forbid, the customer uses two cloth napkins during the meal. Here, the staff did that, but was a lot slower in bringing extra plates and in clearing used glasses and dishes.

Clearly, the Greek Taverna staff was still getting its sea legs , but at least the food was good and portions were generous for the price, with the exception of a whole fish we ordered.

My son and I ordered a horiatiki salad -- cucumber, tomato, romaine lettuce, shredded hot pepper, oilives and feta cheese ($10). 

Image via Wikipedia

In Greece, feta cheese is made with sheep's milk and, sometimes, goat's milk.

Unfortunately, the chunks of tomato were refrigerator cold and tasteless, and the waitress didn't bring extra plates, so we had to use our small bread plates for the salad -- until the woman who greeted us brought me a larger plate on her own. The portion was enough for three or four, and we couldn't finish it.

My son also couldn't finish his thick lentil soup ($5), which came in a large, shallow bowl. We both loved the soft, warm Greek pita bread. Our lemonade and seltzer were $2.25 each, with no free refills.

Dirty glasses, plates

Meanwhile, used glasses and our bread plates, mine holding several olive pits, still weren't cleared.

We ordered a whole fish that weighed less than a pound and a half, but was priced at a high $32. Others the waitress listed for us weighed about the same, for $28 to $38 (they were nestled in  ice nearby).

Our fish came with sauteed greens (escarole) called horta. We also ordered Taverna Fries ($6). I had to ask for extra plates so we could share the food.

The skin of the grilled lavraki or sea bass was scorched, but the flesh was moist and delicious. We finished the fish, but took home most of the fries, which were showered with grated cheese.

There are a lot of great Greek restaurants in Bergen County, so I see no need to return to Greek Taverna.

An article in The Record said great care was taken on its interior decoration, including a fireplace and chairs from The Plaza Hotel. They are probably in the dining room we weren't allowed to use.

-- VICTOR E. SASSON

Greek Taverna, 175 Rock Road, Glen Rock; 201-857-4528. Open seven days, full bar. Other locations
in Edgewater and Montclair. Web site:


Three Greek Tavernas