When a Middle Eastern grocery store opened in our hometown
of Boynton Beach a few years ago, Doug and I couldn’t have been
more pleased. We were able to purchase the must-have Armenian ingredients in order to
make our cherished family recipes. The store’s owner, ‘Ken’ had a meat counter,
some fresh produce, frozen items, housewares – you name it. He was even planning
to have a bakery oven installed for daily-baked pitas, and eventually, a
kitchen for freshly prepared food. Sadly,
things didn’t turn out as Ken expected and the business came and went after a
short two-year run.
cooking ingredients as we use, we’re puzzled by the severe shortage of Middle
Eastern specialty shops in this area.
Green House Bazaar in Greenacres, a suburb of West Palm Beach, and not far from
our home. At the time it was a partially open-air produce stand with a
sprinkling of Middle Eastern items on their meagerly stocked shelves, and a kebab
counter that didn’t seem to have anyone running it. The place was ok, but we
never bothered to return … until …
Persian-owned Green House Bazaar had been enclosed, still had fresh produce, housed
numerous shelves of ‘interesting food items’, a refrigerated and frozen food
section including phyllo dough, kadaif dough, etc. – and best of all – the kebab
café, which she claimed was very good!
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| This is the only made-in-Armenia product we found. |
Doug and I swung by one afternoon to check it out. We were
delighted to find lavash, basturma, paklava, and a myriad of ingredients that
would be useful in The Armenian Kitchen. They were, however, lacking in products
imported from Armenia (we found only one) and items such as prepared lahmajoun
and Armenian string cheese.
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| Our take-out combo plate |
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| Salmon kebab take-out dinner with green rice |
While there, we decided to buy two kebab meals-to-go for
dinner that night, and are we glad we did!
We chose the combo platter with chicken kebab and beef lule kebab, and
the second with salmon kebab. Both meals contained salad, rice – white, or
green rice, which was studded with fava beans and lots of dill (we got one of
each), grilled tomatoes and red peppers, a piece of freshly made lavash, and a side of a
garlic-dill sauce. The salads and veggies were particularly fresh –as the
produce stand is just steps away from the kitchen!
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| Lavash is made right on the premises |
the owner to see about stocking some more of our personal favorites!