I would be very much appreciated if you could express the idea of 'separateness' in the form of examples as I couldn't understand the principle behind.Hi firee818, in my opinion "aside from" doesn't work here because it means "separately" or something similar, depending on the specific context - the notion is "separateness". In your context, the notion is "togetherness".
Along with, together with, in addition to would all be suitable in your context.
However you could say "besides", but one of the three options above would be my preference.
Thank you very much, I got it.He is always late for work, he spends a lot of time away from the desk smoking, he keeps taking my pens, and he never brings me a cup of coffee, but aside from that he's a good colleague.
Here we have a list of things (late for work, etc) that don't contribute to him being a good colleague. But if we leave those aside, if we separate them, then we might think he's a good colleague in other ways.
aside from
Money continues to be a problem but aside from that we're all well.
I hardly watch any television, aside from news and current affairs.
(source: Cambridge)
I don't agree with the WR dictionary's explanation that "aside from" is synonymous with "in addition to", though that may be the case in certain contexts. It depends on the precise sense. The example it gives (about the jacket) is not a good one, in my opinion. If we look at the OALD, we see:
BrE ; NAmE (especially North American English)
= apart from
Aside from a few scratches, I'm OK.
Here it means "if we disregard, (or consider as a separate issue) a few scratches ..." We couldn't say "in addition to" here.
In your example in your first post, the sense isn't "if we disregard (or consider as a separate issue) the sandwiches and fried chicken...", it means "in addition to", so "aside from" doesn't work. It's not the right sense there.