OTB Economic Stimulus Dinner II: No Mezze Left Behind

Aleppo Restaurant
939 Main Street, Paterson NJ

For our second in our series of Economic Stimulus events, we enlisted former Bergen Record restaurant writer and fellow food blogger Victor Sasson to arrange a lunch for us at one of South Paterson’s best Syrian restaurants, Aleppo, after which we went shopping at some of the local bakeries and markets.

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NJ Dining: Nouri Market and Fattal’s Bakery

Nouri Brothers Market & Syrian Bakery
999 Main Street, Paterson NJ

Fattal’s Bakery
975 Main Street, Paterson NJ

As I mentioned in my posts about Al-Basha and Al-Safa, the strip of Main Street in South Paterson known as “Little Arabia” or “Little Damascus” is filled with many restaurants and businesses that cater to Syrians, Lebanese, Palestinians and other ethnic groups from the Middle East that call Northern New Jersey home. Two of the best grocery stores on that street are Nouri Brothers and Fattal’s Bakery.

Nouri Brothers Storefront on Main Street in Paterson

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An Iced Coffee Primer

The summer, now entering  full swing, brings us into the seasonal consumption of cold caffeinated beverages. I have recently been asked about the proper method for making Iced Coffee, as with the current economy being what it is, people now have the desire to drink and make Megabucks-style iced coffee creations in their own homes and workplaces, rather than spend $2.60-$3 per 16 ounce glass in a store surrounded by trendy jackasses using Macbooks and sipping their green tea lattes.

There are a number of ways you can produce very good iced coffee in your very own home, some involving Scientological devices such as “Cold brewing” requiring 8-hour preparation methods, snobbish apparatus such as “Toddys” as well as diluting espresso shots with iced water in order to produce “Iced Americanos’ and the like. To this, I say, phooey.

To make really good iced coffee, you will need an inexpensive can of Latino-style “Espresso Coffee” such as Cafe Bustelo, El Pico or Pilon, or an inexpensive Italian-style brand such as Medaglio d’Oro (these are all made by the same company, Rowland Coffee Roasters out of Miami). These all go for about $2.50-$3.50 for a 10 ounce can or $2.50 for a 10oz brick. If these brands are unavailable in your area, try either Community Coffee Dark Roast (With or without Chicory, this depends on your taste) or Cafe du Monde.

Latino-Style Espresso Coffees. Cafe Bustelo, Pilon, and El Pico are all  made by Rowland Coffee Roasters in Miami, Florida.

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A 2009 Big Apple BBQ Block Party Montage

Website: http://www.bigapplebbq.com

The 2009 Big Apple Barbecue Block Party, held in New York City’s Madison Square Park, was a blast as ever. This year Rachel and I only went for a few hours on Saturday, but it was more than enough barbecue to last us for a while! You can still catch the second day on Sunday if these photos are making your mouth water (click for slideshow of full size hi-res photos).

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A Cooking League of Their Own

Photos and text by Rachel Nash Perlow

OTB’s friend, Christine Nunn of Picnic Caterers, isn’t just a fabulous chef — she’s also a member of the Junior League! Christine was recently in charge of a social event for the Junior League of Bergen County. The ladies thought they were going to have an evening of cocktails and a cooking demonstration. But Christine had a little trick up her sleeve. The ladies (and a few gentlemen) arrived at Maverick Cuisine, a kitchen design firm to the stars with a fabulous demonstration kitchen,  to find that they were actually going to be doing the cooking!

What a turn out!

Fans of Food Network’s “Chopped!” will recognize the concept. Present the competitors with a market basket of ingredients which they must use in their dish, and be ready to present it to the judges in an hour. However, along with some mundane ingredients, like chicken breast, cheese, eggs, and various fruits and vegetables, each team was also thrown a curve ball. One had a bottle of Bosco chocolate syrup, another had Kraft Dinner. One unfortunate team was given canned kippers. I think this was Christine’s private joke on me, as I had denigrated them to her just the week before. My apologies, Team Kippers, you didn’t stand a chance!

New York Dining: Fire + Ice

Fire + Ice
Level 4, Palisades Center Mall, West Nyack NY

Web Site: http://www.fire-ice.com

I usually go out of my way to avoid mall food — this goes without saying in that I go out of my way to avoid malls in general, because I hate the entire experience of having to fight for parking spaces and then schlepping around and being exposed to screaming kids and families that look and behave more like throwbacks to their Cro-Magnon ancestors rather than modern humans.

More often than not, the food in most shopping malls is more expensive than what you can get at a regular local restaurant or diner and of considerably less quality. I also hate the gimmicky-ness of most mall restaurants.

But sometimes it’s unavoidable that you have to eat in a mall, particularly if it’s a timing issue, such as when you want to go see a movie, which are increasingly becoming attached to large shopping complexes.

Recently I had a chance to eat at Fire + Ice, one of the newest additions to the Palisades Center Mall in West Nyack, which sports an AMC theater multiplex as well as a SONY IMAX.  While I wouldn’t call Fire & Ice a destination dining location, if you’re going to be heading out to a movie, it’s not only one of the most reasonably priced venues at the mall but it can also be a relatively healthy place to eat, as well as an entertaining experience.

Get your pan-cultural Teppanyaki here. Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.

Gary Wiviott, Please Let Me Back in the Program

Gary Wiviott’s new BBQ book published by Running Press (which he authored with food writer Colleen Rush) is based upon his popular web-based course on how to master the Weber Bullet smoker in 5 easy lessons. Unfortunately, because I decided to skip ahead to Step 3 after Step 1, he threw my ass out of the program.

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Go Foie Yourself

The “Foie You”, a croissant sandwich prepared especially for our friends at Farm Sanctuary. The “Foie You” can be purchased for $24.00 at Picnic Caterers in Emerson, NJ. This is a limited time offer and you must order the sandwich by noon Thursday the 23 st of April for pick-up on Friday  the 24th. All profits from the sales of the  sandwich will be donated to the Center for Food Action. The sandwich will be offered weekly via special order until demand subsides.

Like other industries, the restaurant and food business is no stranger to being targeted by extremist groups which have some bizarre notion that the animals which are being used for foodstuffs and other products  have the right to be treated like human beings. Typically, however, these organizations, such as PETA, are more likely to spend their energies on large food distribution and manufacturing entities, and not on individual restaurants and small businesses. However, this is not always the case.

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Dim Sum RAP!

YUM DUM CHA! SIC GO BAU!

Ok, admit it, it’s catchy.

NYC Dining: Myers of Keswick

Myers of Keswick
634 Hudson Street, Greenwich Village, New York

Web Site: http://www.myersofkeswick.com/Home.html

Greenwich Village, particularly the West Village, is one of my favorite parts of the city. Filled with odd curio shops and specialty stores, it’s a fun place to shop when you need to buy something as a gift for a friend with very discerning tastes. One of the places I encountered recently that I think epitomizes sort of the “Wow, I didn’t know they had a place like this in New York”  feeling of the West Village is Myers of Keswick, which is a British-stlye butcher shop and grocery store that looks like it got ripped out of the middle of central London.

Myers of Keswick Storefront, at 634 Hudson Street.

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