Odds are you won't find fresh banana flowers in your local supermarket. Nor, for that matter, flosshalvah,beef kibbeh, warmsimit, or house-made kimchi. For authentic international products, most markets in North Jersey, no matter how big nor how global, won't do. Sure, you mightfind ethnicproducts at conventional food emporiums, but when you need or want something more exotic than soy sauce or bok choy, do yourself — and your family — a favor and go to one of the many local ethnic markets that offer uncommon ingredients and novel foods. You may notonly discoverthe captivating spotsyour ex-pat neighborshops to make the aromatic dishes that hasyou salivating each time you pass their door but a wonderful world of new tastes and flavors.
Here are 8North Jersey's markets thatspecialize in the foods from back home.
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H Mart, Englewood, Little Ferry, Leonia, Fort Lee and Ridgefield
Put on good walking shoes to get around this Asian market,a national chain with fivelocations in North Jersey (another is planned for Paramus). It's huge —and its wide aisles are filled with just about anything you could want, and then some. Kimchi (sliced, whole, cubed, stuffed, withoysters, with extra garlic;some in 7-pound jars),ramen (including Nongshim,Korea's No.1 brand),rice (sweet, brown, mixed grain, somesold in backbreaking25-pound bags), seaweed (dried, seasoned, roasted), plus a vast selection of produce (chive flowers, bamboo shoots, sesame leaves, banana flowers, 1½ foot-longChinesebeans, lotus root...), fish (you name it, they have it),meat (ditto).
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The store stocks household products includingpressure rice cookers and bento lunch boxes. Let's not forget those essential Asian condiments, such as soybean paste, bulgogi marinades, gochuang (hot pepper paste), dried anchovy and pure sesame oil.But unless youhail from Korea, Vietnam, China, etc.,don't be surprised if you sometimes haven't a clue what you're looking at. Heck, the staffthemselves might not know.Teddy Bae, whose family immigrated from Korea and who has worked nine years at the Little Ferry location, readily admitted he didn'tknow whatthe small sausage-shaped creatureswimmingin water was. It wasn't a Korean item.So he asked the fishmonger. "Sea cucumbers," he was told."It's for sushi," Baewas told. Bet you never saw that in your supermarket. Come Saturday and Sunday and there are sample stations so you can try eatsyou've never had before.At the Ridgefield location, there's also a food court serving Chinese, Korean, and Japanese food.
Go:25 Lafayette Ave., Englewood, 201-871-8822;260 Bergen Tpke. Little Ferry, 201 814 0400;315 Broad Ave.,Leonia,201-720-7005;112 Linwood Plaza #130, Fort Lee, 201-947-7800; 321 Broad Ave., Ridgefield, 201-943-9600,nj.hmart.com.
Mitsuwa Marketplace, Edgewater
Is it any wonder that Japanese residentsand fans of Japanese food and culturefrom all over the metropolitan area come to shop — and eat — at Mitsuwa? Right bythe Hudson River, this superstore, one of 10 across the nation, features a huge food market, a busy food court and a bunch of boutiqueshawking Japanese toys, books and stationery. You can easily spend the day here.
Stock your pantry with such Japanese staples as miso, tofu, noodles, soy sauceand wasabi — and consider taking home as wellsome Japanese beer,fresh wagyu beef,pristine fish (uni or sea bream perhaps), and lots of different pre-packaged Japanese dishes.But don't leave without feasting in the food court, perhaps on shrimp tempuraat Hanosauke, taiyaki (red bean paste-filled cakes that look like fish, butdecidedly aren't) at Oishinbo,spicy miso ramen at Santouka Ramen, rice balls at Omusubi Gonbei andblack sesameice cream at MatchaLove. You can resume watching your weight another day.
Go: 595 River Road, Edgewater,201-941-9113;mitsuwa marketplace nj
Piast, Garfield and Maplewood
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For more than a quarter of a century,this proud Old-World market, founded by Polish emigres Henry and Maria Rybak, has been servingNorth Jersey's sizable Polish community; in Bergen county, the communityis centered in Wallington and Garfield where respectively 45 and 23 percent of the population are Polish; in Passaic county, 6.2 percent of the population isPolish.
Here you'll find homemade kielbasa, cold cuts, cheeses, breadsand pastries (the rolled poppy seed cake is highly recommended). But should you not be up tocooking tonight, Piastsells hot meals to-go —stuffed cabbage, pan-fried sauerkraut, pork goulash —and, yes! —pierogi. Poland's beloved national dishis made fresh every day, and without any preservatives. Grab a bunchbefore you leave, because like potato chips, it's nearly impossible to eat just one.
Go: 1 Passaic St., Garfield, 973-614-1315;800 River Dr., Garfield, 973-340-4722; 1899 Springfield Ave., Maplewood;piast.com
AK Market, Paterson
Walk into the spice department at this primarily Turkish market and just inhale. Love those aromas? It's difficult not to be wowed by the smells -- and colors -- of the manyground and whole spices AK carries:sumac, isot, cumin, oregano, nutmeg, mint... It's tough, too, not to be dazzled by the shop's halal meat selection. Not only does AK carry theusual cuts of beef, veal, chicken and lamb, but they also sellrabbit,beef head, lamb head andlamb brain.
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Recently, one young mother from Hasbrouck Heights, who declined to give her full name, was loading her cart with meat -- two-months' worth of meat. Why so much? There aren't halal butchers near her, she said, and"the meat here isvery fresh." Would rather take home already cooked grub? Consider gozleme, a traditional Turkish snack made with stuffed flatbread;pocaga, Turkish butter bread filled with cheese; kazandibi, a creamycaramelized milk pudding, and of course simit, Turkey's No. 1 snack, aka Turkish pretzel.. If you're really hungry, just walk across the street and stop in atAK Market Cafe fora pastry andsome good Turkish tea or a full meal. After all, you need to fuel upfor your trip back home.
Go:251 Crooks Ave, Paterson; 973-742-3700,akmarket.com.
Nouri Brothers Shopping Center,Paterson
Just about everything Mid-Eastern can be purchasedat this sprawling, bustling, engrossingfamily-run supermarketwhere the aisles are jam-packed with Greek,Turkish,Egyptian,Armenian, Lebanese and Syrian products.
There are boatloads of olives (27 varieties), stacks upon stacks of pitas (many made in-house), nuts (a bestseller: red-tinted and super-flavorful Turkish pistachios), cheese (Armenian string cheese, Egyptian Kasseri,Greekfeta), olive oils (evenfromBeirut), honeys (co-owner Albert Nouri's favorite: Attiki Greek honey: "the best of the best"), halvas (including so-called floss halvas 'cause it's made of thin strands), yogurts, tahinis,teas, spices and so much more, includingjewelry,household itemsand souvenirs from T-shirts to hookahs. And speaking of hookahs: Nouri's sells a huge assortment of flavored and unflavored hookah tobacco. And no matter what else you get, don't go home without some fresh-bakedza-atar pies. You'll find them right by the cash registers.
Go: 999 Main St, Paterson;973-279-2388.
Arenie Armenian Gourmet Foods & Bakery, Cliffside Park
Armenian pomegranate juice.Armenian fruit jams.Armenian rose petal preserves. Armenian goat cheese. Armenian spreads. Armenian breads. Even Armenian bottled water, which according to Arenie is the "finest water on earth." This small shop caters to the dispersedArmenian community in North Jersey, a good number of whom are clustered in towns south of the George Washington Bridge.
Check out the housemade goods: fried beef kibbeh, hot pepper dip mouhamara, from-scratch labneh with walnuts; unleavened flatbreadlavash, tahini bread, the cheese-lasagna-like sou boreg, flakybaklava and a sweet, sticky sujouk made of coarsely chopped walnuts encased in hardened grape molasses. "It's a step under taffy in stickiness," said Chris, a gregarious22-year-oldcashier who did not want his last name used. A favorite: spinach boureg, flaky phyllo dough stuffed with spinach, feta and pine nuts. It goes very well with with the finest water on earth.
Go:575 Anderson Ave Cliffside Park,201- 945-4300;arenie.com.
Hungarian Meat Center, Passaic
Shhh, don't tell your cardiologist about this shop; odds are he won't approve. But your meat-loving self will. This place is seriously meat-centric. This shop cures, smokes, grinds and cooks beef and pork, using nearly every part of theanimal."From nose to tail," says Andras Rosza.Andras' dad, a certified butcher in Hungary, founded the shop in 1988. Bacon, ham, sausages, pates, loins, cold cuts -- it's all here, and it's all processed using Hungarian methods and Hungarian seasonings."We wet cure meats for cooking and dry cook for ready to eat," Rosza says. In the shop's small freezer, find homemade stuffed cabbage, pork stew goulash, beef goulash and tripe stew. And on its shelves, Hungarian paprika of course-- from sweet to fiery hot.
Go:189 Parker Ave, Passaic; 973- 473-1645,kolbasz.com.
Fattal's, Paterson
In 1968, Michael Fattal, who emigrated from Allepo, Syria, to Paterson, opened a little bakery where he and his wife and children baked hand-made pita, the bread they ate in their country,in a brick oven. The pita sold well and soon the Fattal family was baking pastries they loved from back home,including baklavah, gharibeh butter cookies and date-filled maamoul cookies. In no time, the bakery grew into a huge market, and todaynearly 50 yearslater,just about anything a Mid-East food lover might want can be picked uphere.
Start with the pita — it is Fattal's signature item; traditional white, whole wheat, mini-sizeor Lebanese style, itis baked fresh every day. Made fresh every day too are a huge assortment of take-out items, includinghummus, tabouleh, spinach and cheese pies, beef, lamb and chicken lahmajun pies and stuffed grape leaves. "People call us in the morning and ask if we can make the grape leaves Jordanian style or Syrian style or Greek style," says Tiffany Fattal, Michael's granddaughter, who today runs the shop with her sister and cousins."We have chefs from every country in the Middle East so they can."Apparently they can even make sugar-free halvah. "We're trying to entice younger generations so we have gluten-free, sugar-free, low-salt products," Fattal says.
Go: 975 Main St. Paterson; 973-742-7125,fattals.com.
