Crumbs come in all sizes.
On a walk up White Plains Rd., I saw that Albanian-owned Sam's Pizza, and its adjoining Malesia Garden Cafe, had given way to this Yemeni restaurant. I wondered, could their fatta with olive oil and honey ($6) compare with the fatteh at the former Damascus Gate?
They were, I discovered, so different as to be incomparable. Fatteh, fattah, and fatta are transliterations of the Arabic word for "crumbs," with the associated meaning of leftover bread being put to good use. At the aforementioned Syrian restaurant in Bay Ridge, fatteh meant a porridge of garlickly yogurt bolstered by roughly torn chunks of pita; at Arth Aljanatain, the bread is ground fine, toasted, and shaped into a moist mound. It's not all that sweet, except perhaps with respect to the restaurant's other fatta, "with meat and sauce."
Arth Aljanatain (also known as Arth Algantin)
700 Rhinelander Ave. (at White Plains Rd.), Van Nest, Bronx
718-918-9191
