I saw double at Tarragon Middle Eastern Market when the shop owners, identical twins from Lebanon, smiled in unison, making this an especially welcoming place to grab a falafel or stock up on fig jam, olive oil and fresh pita. Hussein and Hassan Mehaydli have created a little souk crammed with spices, flower waters, dried fruit, nuts, bulgur and dried beans at this unassuming shop in a strip mall off South Dixie Highway. Fresh hummus, baba ghanoush and stuffed grape leaves are laid out, along with triangular pocket pies, baklava and other delicacies. There are a few tables and take-out is available.
The day I stopped in, intrigued by the name, I was happy to spy green almonds shaped like mini-mangoes covered in a coat of fine silvery fuzz. I have rarely seen unripe green almonds outside of California. Depending on the season, you could find here small sour plums, baby eggplant or fava beans in the pod, grown by Armenian-Lebanese farmers in Fresno, Calif. The well-connected brothers also supply bottled, preserved and pickled imports from Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, North Africa, Turkey, and Greece.
The twins were born in Beirut but grew up in the south of the country, leaving in 1985 during the civil war. They landed in South Florida, where they had friends and student visas lined up. After stints in restaurants and a security company, they bought Tarragon, keeping the name although the pungent herb used in Persian and French cooking is not used in Middle Eastern dishes. The Lebanese are great entrepreneurs and bons viveurs, or lovers of good food, and many combined the skills and passions to open food-related businesses when the war forced them to seek fortunes abroad in the `70s and '80s.
The pair put this savvy to good use in stocking their market. Some of the specialties to seek out are cri cri, roasted peanuts encased in a brittle semolina shell, pomegranate molasses (good in tangy vinaigrette dressings or drizzled over fried eggs, and used to glaze roast chicken), dried and salted black jarjear olives, zaatar (wild thyme) sold dried and pickled, and malban sweets. These are a chewy candy made from dried fruit, nuts, sesame seeds, coconut shreds and cornstarch, sold wrapped individually in cellophane and packed in boxes. The dairy case holds labaneh (thick yogurt spread), various feta-like cheeses and yogurt drinks.
As I wandered the aisles, the taste of the green almond I nibbled when I arrived remained -- bracingly sour with the inner embryo a blip of translucent jelly (in two weeks that jelly will harden into a baby almond and have to be cracked out of the no-longer edible green shell). As with many seasonal foods, blink and you miss the chance to taste it but there is always another to try here.
Linda Bladholm's latest book is Latin and Caribbean Grocery Stores Demystified.
Place: Tarragon Middle Eastern Market
Address: 6623 S. Dixie Hwy., near Ludlum
Contact: 305-663-1121.
Hours: 9 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.- 6 p.m. Sunday.
Prices: Shawarma $5.99; pocket pies $1.75; meat-stuffed grape leaves $8.99; dips $6.99.
