Eating In Translation

General Electric monitor-top refrigerator

This ghostly advertisement depicts a kitchen appliance famously promoted by Rex Cole. It dates from sometime between 1927, when General Electric introduced the monitor-top model, and the early 1930s; the company introduced a flat-top fridge, which concealed the compressor within the cabinet, in 1933.

The final photo, in which the GE ad appears at far right, features Rack 'N Roll, offering billiards and ice cream both.

General Electric monitor-top refrigerator
Surviving signage on Broadway between Main and Hoover Aves., Passaic, New Jersey

Nouri Bros.

Designed for tearing and sharing: sweet bread filled with dates (three "loaves," 12 oz. total, $3.99). Baked by nearby Krichian, which also supplies this Syrian-owned market with the braided Armenian sweet bread called choreg.

Nouri Bros.
999 Main St. (Gould Ave.-Goshen St.), Paterson, New Jersey
800-356-6874

Al-Kumah

Al-Kumah's staff, said a fellow customer, hail from Palestine, perhaps Lebanon, and Egypt — where this grilled pita sandwich is called hawawshi — while the owner comes from Syria. Hence the Syrian name for a pita that's spread with seasoned ground beef, then grilled: araiss ($2.50).

Al-Kumah
970 Main St. (Montclair-Gould Aves.), Paterson, New Jersey
973-977-4888

Fattal's Bakery

This expansive Syrian market, bakery, cafe, and jewelry counter bakes a half-dozen personal pies to order, topped with meat, spinach, zaatar, or even the less common khishk ($2.49). Pronounced "kishk" or "kashk" and spelled with one "h" or two, the name can refer to a barley or wheat product, to yogurt and the like, or to a combination of cereal and dairy. Fattal's khishk, according to the counterman, has a yogurt base to which are added just olive oil, onion, and a little red pepper. The pepper is mainly for color, he added, not for spiciness; indeed, the overall flavor is sour.

Fattal's Bakery
977 Main St. (George St.-Gould Ave.), Paterson, New Jersey
973-742-7125

Glassman's Pharmacy

Before it was whited out, the panel on the side street also advertised Hershey's Ice Cream; at one time this drug store probably dispensed all sorts of symptomatic relief for your sweet tooth. I imagine a soda fountain, though one brief online reminiscence mentions only a phone booth in back. By now even this must be gone; reportedly, in recent years Glassman's has done business solely as a liquor store.

Glassman's Pharmacy
893 Main St. (at Elk St.), Paterson, New Jersey

Nablus Sweets & Pastries

Mshabbak (muh-Sha-bagh, $2), like jalebi, are made of dough that is piped into hot oil and deep-fried, then dunked in syrup. Often the two pastries have a similar appearance, perhaps a dainty rosette, perhaps a random squiggle. Jalebi, however, are generally sticky and cloying. This Middle Eastern pastry was not tooth-achingly sweet, and in heft and crunch it resembled its New World cousin, the churro.

Nablus Sweets & Pastries
1050 Main St. (Michigan-Delaware Aves.), Paterson, New Jersey
973-881-8003

Luna Bakery & Sweets

I confess to not knowing the price per pound of these Syrian date cookies; I was too busy securing a take-home sampler of the seven or eight varieties to keep proper track. The baklava were nearly as diverse, but a fellow can carry away just so many sweets.

Luna Bakery & Sweets
1071 Main St. (Delaware-Buffalo Aves.), Paterson, New Jersey
973-523-3000

Lezzet Restaurant

"Creamy beef soup" was the only description forthcoming of kelle paca (Kel-leh Pah-cha, $3), this tiny storefront's soup of the day. (Except for the soccer highlights, I could make little sense of the Turkish newscast, either.) Later I learned that the literal translation is "head trotter," though recipes for this restorative soup sometimes split the difference and employ tripe instead.

Whatever those meaty bits might have been, with a small ladleful of garlicky vinegar my soup was delicious. Even a small order such as this also secured a basket of warm bread, and, as a chaser, a cup of hot tea.

Lezzet Restaurant
(with the yellow awning, next to Chifa Jade)
925 Main St. (Robert-Thomas Sts.), Paterson, New Jersey
973-922-0808
www.Facebook.com/LezzetRestaurant
Closed Sunday

Yayla Pastries

This oblong, bunlike Turkish pogaca (Pwah-chah, $1) was pocketed with potato and chopped onion.

Yayla Pastries (also known as Saray Bakery)
941 Main St. (Thomas-George Sts.), Paterson, New Jersey
973-977-2022

Rod-to-table menu?

By all evidence, the restaurant around the corner has changed hands, and chefs, since this mural was painted on the side street. If this fellow still goes fishing, it's unlikely that his catch lands here.

Rod-to-table menu?
Passaic, New Jersey

Hungarian Meat Center

As at the former Yorkville Meat Emporium, you can always find a few sweets with the meat. This Passaic, New Jersey shop's excellent beigli, or strudel (in poppy or walnut, not shown, $8.50), is provided by a bakery in Perth Amboy; the krémes (Cree-mesh, about $1) is made in-house. It's almost all filling. Though a few recipes call for bolstering the custard cream with corn starch or gelatin, the essential ingredient seems to be egg whites.

Hungarian Meat Center
189 Parker Ave. (Highland Ave.-President St.), Passaic, New Jersey
973-473-1645
www.Kolbasz.com
Closed Sunday, as well as Monday in July and August

Polish Delicacy House

A sign in the window, also in English, trumpets "comida hecha en casa."

Polish Delicacy House
9 Village Sq. East, Clifton, New Jersey
973-340-0699

Krystyna Bakery

Up the hill on Palisade Ave., Holy Trinity Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Church graces the Garfield skyline. The congregation was organized in 1892, and the current gothic structure was dedicated in 1926, but unsurprisingly, the demographics of the community have changed in the decades since, and sometime during the 1990s the church discontinued its Slovak service. Newer members of the community are much more likely to speak Spanish as a first language or, in the case of the fellows chatting on the sunny corner down the hill, Polish. Among the wares inside Krystyna: a poppy seed roll much like this one.

Krystyna Bakery
63 Belmont Ave. (at Palisade Ave.), Garfield, New Jersey
973-546-8060

Hungarian Food and Pastry Fair

Leave room for a little lunch with your pastry.