99 cents sardines in Hackensack

Image by Ahron de Leeuw via Flickr

I was delighted to find the Moroccan sardines I have been buying in Paterson for 99 cents a can at Sahara Stores -- the Middle Eastern deli and grocery in Hackensack where I stopped for bread on Tuesday.

Sardines are so versatile -- they make a great sandwich with hummus, cheese, greens and tomato; they're wonderful added to rice or spaghetti and tomato sauce; and they are a tasty component in canned fish salad (sardines, tuna, red salmon, chopped red onion, cumin and Dijon mustard).

I have been buying Al Shark-brand Moroccan sardines from Fattal's Syrian Bakery, which has the lowest prices around, even lower than the much bigger Corrado's supermarket about a mile away. They come in oil, spicy oil and tomato sauce -- usually 99 cents for a 4 and three-eighth ounce can.

On Tuesday, Sahara Stores had the Al Shark sardines in spicy oil for 99 cents, and I picked up 10 cans. I also bought California Gardens-brand fava beans with mild chili for $1.09 a can and grape leaves stuffed with rice (Turkey) for $2.79. This is a well-stocked grocery and I didn't check out all the items.

Chef-owner Mohsen Mekawi, who is Egyptian, also prepares a large number of Middle Eastern dishes. Falafel are four for $1 and a pound of stuffed grape leaves is $5.99. Sandwiches range from falafel for $2.99 to egg and basterma for $5.99. Dinners with rice, salad and bread are $9.99 to $11.99.

Sahara Stores, 242 S. Summit Ave., Hackensack; 

201-487-7222.

Fattal's Syrian Bakery, 975-977 Main St., Paterson; 

973-742-7125.

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.

Middle Eastern fare in Hackensack

Sahara is a small Middle Eastern market in Hackensack crammed with fresh and packaged foods, including hundreds of imported items. You'll also find homemade meat pies, fried kibbe and stuffed grape leaves, plus pita bread from bakeries as near as Paterson and as far away as Montreal.

The store also stocks pickled lemons from Egypt, like the ones I used in my tuna-sardine salad last week. See earlier post, "Cleopatra's tuna-sardine salad." Sahara is at 242 S. Summit Ave., Hackensack; 201-487-7222.

Meanwhile, based on two visits in August, a new Middle Eastern restaurant in Hackensack called Cafe Arabica is a disappointment. It opened in the large space on Main Street once occupied by The Stealth nightclub and before that Lowits clothing store.

I had lunch there soon after it opened, but me and a friend were the only customers and the falafel sandwich was pretty standard fare. I returned around 6 on the evening of Aug. 22, the first day of Ramadan, because the owner said there would be music, yet the place was empty. I walked in, calling hello, but there were no employees in sight. I left, never to return.