At three-thirty on a Tuesday afternoon, in the middle of a rainstorm, in the middle of summer, nearly every table at Al-Basha, a sleek Palestinian restaurant in Paterson, New Jersey, is full. There’s no such thing as the lunch rush or the dinner rush—there’s just the rush, from the moment the doors unlock at noon to when the lights go out at the end of the night. Living in Brooklyn, I have access to a wealth of marvellous Palestinian restaurants: three of the best are al Badawi, on Atlantic Avenue, and Tanoreen and Ayat, in Bay Ridge. But anyone who’s serious about Middle Eastern food knows about Paterson, the city with one of the largest Arab American populations in the nation, with a culinary scene to match; and everyone who knows about Paterson knows about Al-Basha, the best restaurant...
No Comments 
