Paterson (Don't Miss This)
Mother's Day is one of those holidays. It doesn't mean much. it's Hallmarkish. It should be All Women's Day. Or All Everyone's Day. And the Mother Thing no matter what everyone tells you is Very Very Hard. Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum wrote a beautiful piece if I were more skilled (Aha) I'd put it right here dedicating it to those people whose mothering and mothers were painful and difficult. For Mother's Day I try to go to Paterson, New Jersey. It was Peter's idea years ago. Paterson, which is a complicated town of poverty, immigrants, Arabs, Latinos, and Lou Costello (really) a town of a famous poem and the old silk factory (and the famous silk strike) Paterson is a place that always makes me happy because there's a fantastic Syrian bakery there that sells my favorite Zatar bread, called NOURI BROTHERS. (Don't Miss This if you like Zatar bread). We buy olive oil from Lebanon or Jerusalem, and olives and a big big big bag of pistachio nuts and Zatar bread.
Nouri Brothers market and Syrian bakery 999 Main Street
Fattal's Syrian Bakery 975 Main Street
Krichian's Grill & Bistro 399 Crooks Ave
The kids met us at Nouri Brothers on Main Street and they bought olive oil too. Why is buying olive oil always such a Good Thing then we all four of us ate a pre meal snack in Fattal's Syrian Bakery down the street before going to Armenian restaurant about a mile away right next door to an Arab restaurant doubled as a car wash you could have your car washed while you ate but we chose instead to go to a place that looked like it was in a small village in Armenia and we all four of us ate and ate and we were all happy because there we were in Paterson