Affordable Eats: Experience the true taste of the Middle East at this Paterson restaurant

On my last trip to Paterson, where many Middle Eastern restaurants abound, I visited Abu Rass restaurant on Main Street. I knew it specialized in Palestinian cuisine, and I was ready to sample dishes from that part of the world.

The place is inviting, with Middle Eastern decorations on the walls and a couple of hookahs near some tables, and the servers greeted me with a wide smile.

I checked out the menu and grinned. Abu Rass had dishes from all over the Middle East. I ordered the Syrian fattoush salad ($9.35), the Lebanese Beirut humus ($7.25), the Palestinian bakdonsiah, Parsley with tahini sauce ($7.25) and kodsiah, fava beans with humus ($9.35).

I know it sounds like a lot, and it was! The portions were sizable; each starter was enough for two hungry people.

I took a bite of the fattoush salad, which my momma used to make often in Damascus, the city where I played on the streets with my friends, went to school, misbehaved, and had my first kiss in an alley behind our house. Yeah, just looking at the fattoush salad conjured up memories of my home, bitter and sweet at the same time.

This iconic salad is made with lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, mint, parsley, oil and vinegar. As basic as that sounds, the flavor was rich and lasting. Next, I tried the Bierut humus, and it was delicious and creamy with just the right amount of tahini, which leads to the next dish, the bakdonsiah, a new one for me.

The Palestinian dish comes with minced parsley with a tahini sauce and has a rich and herbaceous flavor. Tahini is a lot like peanut butter; a little goes a long way. Also, the kodsiah was decadent, with well-cooked fava beans doused with a lighter humus.

I was happy with my choices and chatted a bit with the servers in Arabic. Again, I had bitter and sweet memories of when one of them brought me a falafel sandwich.

“You have to try our falafel,” he said with a big smile.

Falafel to the Middle East is what hamburgers are to the United States—basic street food for the common man, the affluent and everyone in between.

During my 18 years in Damascus and before I immigrated to the United States, I ate enough falafel sandwiches to reach the moon if you lined them up end to end! Well, maybe not the moon, but somewhere in outer space.

The falafel sandwich at Abu Rass stood right up there with the best I ever had in Syria. The patties were crisp on the outside and tender and flavorful on the inside. The accouterments of pickled cabbage, tahini sauce, and other goodness were perfectly accompanied. The pita bread, which they make right there in the kitchen, was light and airy.

I highly recommend Abu Rass the next time you’re near Paterson for the rich and tasty flavors of the Middle East and some memories if you’re from that part of the world.

If you live in South Jersey, you can try Norma’s Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Restaurant in Cherry Hill. The menu features authentic dishes like fuul moudamas with fava beans, minced garlic, olive oil and lemon juice ($9.00)or hand-rolled and stuffed grape leaves with rice, parsley, onions and spices ($6.00). You can’t leave without trying the sfiha, grilled pita stuffed with seasoned ground beef and served with labni ($12.00).

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Karim Shamsi-Basha may be reached at kshamsi-basha@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter & Instagram.

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