Feta Life

These Middle Eastern markets ain't middling

By ERIKA BARRIE

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Trekking to Watertown when you run out of favorite Middle Eastern cooking staples may be a pain, though the schlep is far more daunting if you can't tell your hummus from your tabbouleh. Never fear—there are plenty of fabulous markets hidden within the city to satisfy cravings of home-cooked falafel and pilau.

Haymarket doesn't just host mind-boggling amounts of produce. Blackstone Street, behind the weekend-only stalls, is a garden of more permanent delights. Meat markets, spice stalls and groceries inhabit the unprepossessing brick storefronts, including the subterranean Garden Halal Meat [96 Blackstone St., Boston. 617.723.0888]. After descending through the lemon yellow and cobalt blue doorways, you'll find yourself in an Aladdin's Cave of edible delights. Who knew there were so many kinds of couscous? Garden Halal carries halal meats and dairy, a treasure chest of teas and biscuits, dried nuts, fruits (dates on the stem, anyone?), oils, preserves and syrups. There are dried herbs on the branch, spices you've never heard of, Arabic-labeled soaps and cosmetics and vials of precious saffron kept safe behind the register.

It could be easy to miss The Syrian Grocery Importing Co. [270 Shawmut Ave., South End, Boston. 617.426.1458], since it's next door to storied South End Formaggio and marked at first glance by only an aging Coca-Cola sign. But take another look through the gold-lettered window (yes, there's a hookah among the other ephemera) and enter. There's barely room to turn around. The walls are stocked to the ceiling with olive and nut oils, vinegars familiar and foreign, rose and orange flower waters and an endless variety of syrup—date, fig and pomegranate, to name a few. There's every conceivable flavor of Turkish Delight and enough fruit pastes, dried grains and nuts to make the food police swoon. Vats of olives and preserved lemons in brine, bulk dried spices including mahlab (dried sour cherry pits) and sumac powder, fresh feta and lebneh (a type of yogurt) and more Western gourmet delights complete the selection. The very friendly folks manning the register and olive vats will talk up recipes to your heart's desire.

The only outward sign of Union Market's [250 Brighton Ave., Allston. 617.782.2460] Arabic delights is the sandwich board advertising baba ghanoush and falafel wraps. Along with these fresh offerings (and the more usual deli sandwich suspects), Union Market offers a select but comprehensive array of Middle Eastern basics, including red and brown lentils, clarified butter, teas, oils and syrups, several kinds of honey, dried beans, rices and grains. There's no shortage of flower waters and other baking supplies. Union Market also stocks fresh cheeses, yogurts, eggs and herbs essential to your mezze platter. There are bulk olives in brine, boxes of sweets and irresistible-looking Arabic sodas and candy bars.

Roslindale is more on the outskirts of town, but Bob's Pita Bakery [748 South St., Roslindale. 617.325.1585] is worth the trip, if only to prove that tasty, fresh pita bread exists outside your favorite falafel place. In addition to the dried fruits, nuts, cereals and spices you'd expect, Bob's is awash in syrups, bulk beans, olives and fresh feta in buckets, all yours for the taking. Bob's also carries fresh herbs and vegetables to dress with that tahini you're lugging home. And be sure you don't leave without a bag of fresh pita, still warm and steamy from the oven.