Passing along a guide to some healthy foods

After reading my previous post on sardines, a  friend sent me a link to a New York Times blog on those mighty little fish and 10 other "best foods you aren't eating." Here is the link:

11 best foods you aren't eating

Image via CrunchBase

 

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

Frying chicken to an ethnic beat

My mouth is still watering after reading a New York Times piece on Asian- and Dominican-style fried chicken. The good news is you can try excellent Korean fried chicken on this side of the GWB.

The chicken is extra crispy, because Koreans fry the pieces twice. The sweet and spicy sauces are two other bonuses. We drive past the Korean take-out storefronts and head for BBQ Chicken and Beer on Anderson Avenue in Cliffside Park.

The chicken is cooked in extra-virgin olive oil. The beer is some of the coldest I've found. The Korean pop music often is too loud and service can be sluggish. But the chicken is superb. My son loves the wings of fire and challenges the restaurant to make them as spicy as possible. I love the non-spicy broiled thighs. Side dishes include cole salw, mac and cheese and steamed rice. It's at 555 Anderson Ave., Cliffside Park;  201-840-8421.

Here's the link to the Times story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/07/dining/07chick.html?pagewanted=1

More '101 Simple Salads for the Season'

Tonight, I made salad No. 2 on the list of 101 salads published on July 22 in The New York Times and it went nicely with my lamb chops:

"Mix wedges of tomatoes and peaches, add slivers of red onion, a few red-pepper flakes and cilantro. Dress with olive oil and lime or lemon juice." I also added some fresh basil, salt and freshly ground black pepper. The Jersey tomato and two Jersey peaches I used were purchased at a farmer's market or farm store. I piled this salad on some organic spring mix from Costco. Delicious.

A colorful, delicious summer dinner

After my salad and seafood lunch today at Artisanal (see previous post), I felt like a light dinner, so I baked a fillet of fresh wild salmon that I bought at Costco on Saturday, seasoning it with salt, cumin, Aleppo red pepper and fresh chopped parsley from the garden. In a 350-degree oven, 11-12 minutes gave me five medium-rare pieces from a fillet of average thickness.

For a salad, I prepared No. 7 on the list of "101 Simple Salads for the Season" that was in The New York Times on July 22: "Grate carrots, toast some sunflower seeds, and toss with blueberries, olive oil, lemon juice and plenty of black pepper. Sweet, sour, crunchy, soft." I didn't have sunflower seeds so substituted pistachios and almonds, both salted. I grated four small carrots and added about a third a of a pint of Jersey blueberries.

I sliced and toasted a Balthazar dinner roll, poured what was left of some Portuguese vinho verde and Spanish sparking grape juice and really enjoyed my Sunday night meal.

Shopping notes: I picked up the blueberries at Fairway Market in Harlem, where I stopped for goat meat (the Paramus Fairway doesn't carry it). In Manhattan, the Jersey fruit was priced at two for $4, compared with two for $5 last week at ShopRite in Hackensack. The fresh wild sockeye salmon is $8.99 a pound at Costco and has been consistently delicious. And Fairway's price for goat meat on the bone, $2.99 a pound, is a great price in view of the quality (more meat than bone).