As thousands were fasting, I enjoyed a filling Syrian lunch in Paterson

At Aleppo Restaurant in Paterson, an appetizer spread called Muhammara is made from a red pepper that has been described as having "a vivid taste, sweet and smoky and faintly pungent" ($6).

Meat Arayes, another appetizer, invites you to add Muhammara and Hummus spreads to the seasoned beef inside the toasted pocket bread ($6).

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

You can have Paterson's bustling Middle Eastern bazaar pretty much to yourself during the holy month of Ramadan.

On a sunny and hot Tuesday afternoon, there was barely any foot traffic on Main Street in South Paterson, but Muslim and Christian merchants kept their restaurants, bakeries and produce markets open.

Outside some restaurants, banners advertise Ramadan Buffets.

Customers paying for their purchases at Brothers Produce on East Railway Avenue see a sign wishing them "Happy Ramadan."

At Aleppo Restaurant on Main Street, owner Mohamed K. Jello (pronounced JILL-lo) said he has been fasting from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day, then filling his tables with customers who clamor for his Syrian specialties, including a special dish made with quince.

"I'm feeling a little woozy," he said after handing menus to me and my son, and noting he is forbidden to eat or drink water and coffee during the fast.

It doesn't seem fair that Orthodox Jews only have to fast on one day each year while Muslims fast for 30 days during Ramadan, which ends this year after sundown on July 5.

Aleppo's peppers

In a February 2010 review, David Corcoran of The New York Times noted the restaurant is named after the city of Aleppo, a major stop on an ancient trade route.

"The city gives its name to a red pepper with a vivid taste, sweet and smoky and faintly pungent," Corcoran wrote.

Then -- before the civil war destroyed large parts of the city -- one of Mohamed Jello's daughters dried Aleppo peppers "on the sun-washed roof of her house, preserves them and sends them to Paterson."

"The chef takes it from there, mincing them to a fine dice and whipping them with chopped walnuts, olive oil and spices into a vibrant, stop-sign red version of the appetizer spread called muhammara."

The red-pepper spread is the spiciest dish to emerge from the Syrian kitchen, where much of the food is prepared with tamarind, anise-like licorice root, lemon, fresh parsley, cumin, garlic, allspice and other aromatic seasonings. 

A freshly made Arabic Salad is lightly dressed in olive oil, lemon juice and chopped parsley ($5).

Hummus gets a drizzle of olive oil, a dusting of ground Aleppo pepper and cumin, and chopped parsley ($5).

A small plate of pickles and a basket of pocket bread for scooping up spreads are complimentary.

Turkish coffee ended our filling lunch.

The 60-seat dining room is filled at 8:30 p.m., when Jello serves Muslims who are ending their daily fast during the holiest period on their calendar. Two flat-screen TVs broadcast live from Mecca, the holy city in Saudi Arabia. Ramadan is said to be the month in which the Quran was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad.

Aleppo's menu includes more substantial fare, including whole red snappers, kebabs and other entrees. The restaurant is at 939 Main St. in Paterson at Thomas Street; 1-973-977-2244. Open daily.

In the Paterson Farmers Market, Brothers Produce at 327 E. Railway Ave. appears to have doubled in size, and now has nine checkout lanes to handle the crush of customers -- three times as many registers as before.

The popular store also has a second, much larger parking lot across Knickerbocker Avenue.

Brothers Produce is open daily; 1-973-684-4461.

My heart goes out to the city of Aleppo, Syria

Grilled whiting fillets at Aleppo Restaurant, whose owner is from the northern Syrian city that is reportedly bracing for an assault by government troops. After an early dinner at the Paterson restaurant on Saturday, we drove over to the Great Falls, which was swollen by recent heavy rains, below.

Paterson's Great Falls.

A photo I took in 1978 shows a Star of David motif on Bab Al Faraj, a clock tower in Aleppo, Syria.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

News of a planned Syrian-government assault on rebel-held Aleppo flooded me with memories of my 1978 visit to the city where my Sephardic Jewish parents were born.

Growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., I was constantly reminded of Aleppo -- from the Arabic records my mother played to the wonderful meals of Syrian specialties she prepared every day.

My parents, who spoke Syrian at home, often discussed Aleppo and such landmarks as Bab Al Faraj, a clock tower at one of the entrances to the old city.

Since the battle for Syria began more than 2 years ago, I've often wondered whether the clock tower and the other buildings I saw on my visit 35 years ago are still standing.

Now, my heart breaks at the thought of more death and destruction in Aleppo.

The city -- 186 miles north of Damascus -- was big in my parents' day. In 2005, it had a population of 2.3 million and was the largest city in Syria.

On Saturday, I planned a day of food shopping and sightseeing in and around Paterson, a city whose silk mills drew thousands of Syrian immigrants in the early 1900s.

Along with my wife and mother-in-law, I stopped for an early dinner at Aleppo Restaurant on Main Street, trying to recapture the flavors of my mother's dishes, as I have for the many years I've lived in northern New Jersey.

The food always brings me back to Brooklyn and to my brief visit to Aleppo, where the kebab restaurant cooks chopped meat with long, sharp knives, and the bakeries were filled with baklava and other familiar pastries. 

My mother's passport photo. She was about 12 when she arrived in the United States.

Aleppo and Brooklyn

My father, Abood Sasson, was the son of a pastry maker in Aleppo who worked in his father's bakery and, after he married, taught his wife how to make Syrian sweets. 

My mother, who took the name Grace after she came to the United States, said her mother came from Alexandria, Egypt.

Her father, Selim Ashkenazi, was a shochet, a person officially certified as competent to kill cattle, sheep and poultry in the manner prescribed by Jewish kosher laws.

I remember returning home from school one day and finding a live turkey in a cage in our finished basement in Brooklyn.

My grandfather killed that bird and my mother served it for Thanksgiving.

Abood Sasson and Grace Ashkenazi met on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, married in the early 1930s and moved to Brooklyn. 

My father said the wedding, reception and a honeymoon voyage to Cuba on the Morro Castle cost about $400.

My father spent most of his working life running a dry goods store, A. Sasson, on Grand Street in Manhattan, competing against dozens of others who also sold sheets, pillowcases, curtains and lace tablecloths.

An appetizer of Muhammara, the spiciest dish on the menu at Aleppo Restaurant, is made with sweet red peppers and ground dried Aleppo peppers ($4).

Aleppo Mixed Grill, served with rice, salad or french fries ($15).

Another appetizer, Labaneh Extra, is a thick yogurt with ground walnuts and garlic ($5).

Three of the four fillets in the Grilled Whiting entree, which I ordered with salad ($10).The fish was dusted with the same delicious spices used for kebabs.

Arabic Salad is dressed with oil, lemon, parsley and dried mint ($4).

Service problems

On Saturday, as we were finishing up our meal at Aleppo Restaurant, I asked the waitress if Mohamed K. Jello, the genial chef and owner, could leave the kitchen for a few minutes so I could say hello and ask about family members in Syria.

Everyone in Aleppo was safe, Jello said before hurrying back to work.

The food we had eaten was as good as always, but I didn't have the heart to complain about the waitress, who seemed uninterested in serving us, even though only two other tables were occupied.

The restaurant has switched from a thin, chewy bread to a thicker pocket bread from Nouri's, a nearby bakery, and the waitress brought several loaves in the plastic bag, as is the custom in Middle Eastern places in Paterson.

But this bread didn't seem that fresh and hadn't been heated in the bag, as it is elsewhere, and on top of that, Nouri's isn't my favorite Syrian bakery.

I asked her to heat up the bread, and she refused, so I just handed her the tray and asked her to take the bread away.

There were other problems, and my smaller-than-usual tip reflected my dissatisfaction with the service.

A perfect way to end a Syrian meal is Turkish Coffee, but our waitress at Aleppo Restaurant didn't make it "mazboot" (medium sweet), as I requested.

Al Jeezera reported that Egypt had broken off diplomatic relations with Syria.

The restaurant has an old photo of the citadel in Aleppo,Syria. Aleppo is at 939 Main Street in Paterson; 1-973-977-2244. No alcohol allowed.

Aleppo then

My 1978 visit to Aleppo, Syria, lasted only 36 hours, but I remember sleeping in a hotel room shared by other travelers, and eating in a kebab restaurant where the chefs used long, sharp knives to chop meat.

In a pastry shop, I was able to order baklava and other sweets by name, because I grew up eating them.

I visited a yeshiva and a Jewish family in the Jameliah neighborhood, but found that both the citadel of Aleppo and the national museum were closed on the day I stopped by.

I flew to Syria from Egypt, where I had toured for about 3 weeks, and took a group taxi to Aleppo from Damascus.

Here are some of the photos I took on June 19, 20 and 21, 1978:

A man selling tea on the street.

The old city of Aleppo reminded me of old Jerusalem.

The Star of David motif on a door.

Parts of old Aleppo were being cleared to make way for new apartment buildings.

Fresh Syrian bread from an oven visible in the rear.

A World War II-era Citroen parked in the old city.

A man balances a tray on his head.

An entrance to the covered souk or market that Aleppo is known for.

A man and his sons offered old suits for sale.

The exterior, left, and interior of an ancient synagogue that had been restored with money from the Sephardic community in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Spicy Syrian food -- and all that jazz

Image via Wikipedia

The Christian Quarter in Aleppo, Syria.

I haven't been to Aleppo Restaurant in Paterson's bustling Middle Eastern bazaar for several months, but our meal late Saturday afternoon couldn't have been better.

We started with pureed lentil soup scented with cumin, served with a lemon wedge and crunchy bits of toasted pocket bread; and muhammara, a dip of sweet red peppers and walnuts, made spicy with dried and ground Aleppo red peppers the owner gets from Syria.

Another appetizer is my son's favorite, meat arayes or seasoned beef inside toasted pocket bread, served in wedges.

Our whole, grilled red snapper was rubbed with more Aleppo red pepper and hot sauce. My son chose the Aleppo kebab, four skewers of ground meat. Both entrees were served with rice.

We cooled down the fire of the muhammara and fish with a refreshing dish of yogurt and cucumbers, and I finished the meal with a cup of thick Arabic coffee. My son couldn't finish his food.

This meal was both delicious and reasonably priced: $2 for a bowl of soup, $4 for the muhammara or yogurt, $6 for the arayes, $10 for the kebabs and $14 for the whole fish.

Image via Wikipedia

Baron Hotel in Aleppo.

During our meal, a group of nine men and women sat at a table, discussing and debating the meaning of the Koran, as Arabic music played in the background. 

I noticed that a Turkish place called Hummus, just across Main Street, had gone out of business. 

We could have gone food shopping at Fattal's Syrian Bakery, on the next block, or at Brothers Produce in the Paterson Farmers' Market near the Clifton border.

But we had tickets to a concert in The Jazz Room of William Paterson University in neighboring Wayne.

Drummer Roy Haynes, who is 86 years young, led a quartet in a half-dozen standards, bouncing around the stage, attacking his drums and playing just about everything in sight, including the mike stand and the edge of his cymbals. 

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

Shopping, dining and cooking notes

Image by myovencanbeabitch via Flickr

I expected the Korean supermarket in Little Ferry to be busier than it was when I visited Sunday afternoon in search of tofu, soy protein and other meat substitutes. There were a half-dozen stations set up to provide free samples of fat udon noodles in broth (photo), Chilean sea bass, cold green tea with ginseng, dumplings, rice-and-pork sausage and mochi ice cream.

I found three kinds of soft or firm fried tofu ideal for stir fries ($1.29 to $1.49), two heads of fresh spinach (79 cents each), 20 pounds of California-grown rice ($17.99), and prepared Alaskan pollack with hot and sweet peppers ($4.99).


For dinner last night, I blanched a head of the spinach from H Mart and cooked it briefly in extra-virgin olive oil with garlic powder, black pepper, and salt. Our main dish was pasta -- big shells from Italy I get at ShopRite with spaghetti sauce from Fairway and added soy meatballs and Tofurky-brand Italian sausage, both from Whole Foods Market. I liked the meatballs better than the sausage, but guests were fooled altogether -- two thought they were eating meat.


On Saturday night, I took my wife and son to La Ziza, the new Lebanese restaurant on Crooks Avenue in Clifton (Crooks divides that city from South Paterson). I had eaten there alone a few weeks ago, and liked the food, despite the presence of hookah smokers in the dining room.

We ordered appetizers and one entree, fried whole whiting with rice. On March 28, my first visit, I received four whole fish for $12.95. The price has stayed the same, but this time, there were only three fish on the platter

We enjoyed the warm grape leaves stuffed with rice, fatoush salad, warm whole and mashed fava beans (ful), arayes (melted cheese in pocket bread)  and curlicue La Ziza french fries. But the muhammara was coarse and bland, missing the essential, zingy Aleppo red pepper. The fruity smoke from water pipes was noticeable but not a problem. The restaurant allows the use of hookahs in an upstairs dining room as well.


I just got off the phone with Tony, an inspector at the Clifton Health Department. He explained La Ziza has a license that allows hookah smoking, because the same owner operated the restaurant  before 2004 (as Al Assayad) -- when a smoking ban went into effect. Tony also noted smoking is allowed if it brings in 15% or more of a restaurant's revenue, as the water pipes evidently do.


This morning, I warned the leftover fava beans, prepared an egg-white omelet with Aleppo pepper and ate them with warm Lebanese pocket bread and hummus. Delicious.

My cup runneth over

I was really fortunate to be invited last night to one of my favorite Middle Eastern restaurants by an acquaintance, who also was nice enough to pick up the bill.

My 12-year-old son tagged along for a great meal at Aleppo Restaurant in Paterson, including one of his favorite appetizers, arayes, seasoned meat sandwiched between two halves of toasted pocket bread. But he also loved the lamb-and-beef kabobs with bread, both soaked in an imported sweet-sour cherry sauce.

The five of us started with a bunch of appetizers besides arayes: pureed lentil soup with cumin and lemon, stuffed grape leaves, raw kibbe, meat pies, spicy muhammara dip, small, donut-shaped falafel with tehina sauce, and salad.

Our entrees were the kabobs with cherry sauce and charcoal-grilled quail, whole red snapper and chicken served over red rice and peas with yogurt. For dessert, we shared a dense honey cake.

I made sure to stop first at Fattal's Bakery to pick up Syrian bread, sardines (99 cents to $1.29), olives ($2.99 a pound) and two kinds of sour-salty thyme mixture, called za'atar. The one from Lebanon  (Salloum Bros., $3.49 a pound) contains thyme, sumac, sesame seeds and salt; the one from Syria (Al-Amin, $3.39 a pound) adds cumin, fennel and anise.

I sprinkle za'atar over sliced tomatoes and eggs or press it onto chicken pieces before roasting. You can also dip bread into olive oil and the thyme mixture (store-bought za'atar bread is in photo above).


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

Fattal's Bakery, 975 Main St., Paterson; 
(973) 742-7125
 

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.

A new restaurant in South Paterson

Restaurants come and go in South Paterson, the Middle Eastern section of Paterson, and I had a terrific meal at one of them, Aleppo, named for the city in the north of Syria dominated by an old fortress. Two friends joined me for a filling lunch Tuesday before we shopped for pita bread, sardines and za'atar, the spice mixture of thyme and wild sumac. (This restaurant replaces Kafe Teria, one of my favorite Turkish places.)

We started with three appetizers: hummus, muhammara and fried kibbe (filled with ground meat and pine nuts), plus a small salad of diced cucumbers and tomatoes. We also shared an entree, the Aleppo mixed grill: chicken and lamb kabobs and ground-lamb skewers, plus rice, tomato, onion and a hot pepper. The appetizers were great, especially the kibbe, also known as torpedoes, and the poultry and meat in the entree were moist. Muhammara is a hot pepper-and-nut dip that originated in Aleppo, and this version was excellent.

After lunch, we stopped at Fattal's Bakery for pita bread, canned hummus and Moroccan sardines, and at Corrado's Family Affair supermarket for fettuccine with squid ink, ground cheeses and wine. Does any other supermarket have a bread aisle like the one at Corrado's, which carries Italian, Syrian, Turkish and other ethnic breads from two dozen or more bakeries? Our last stop was Taskin, the Turkish bakery, where I picked up two kinds of borek filled with cheese or spinach and cheese.

We couldn't find any place that served small cups of strong Turkish coffee, but noticed a new pastry shop called Sham (Damascus) that looked promising for our next visit.