Bumped in a new ethnic grocery store in the area!

I had accidently taken a wrong turn last week and was heading on 119 Elmsford towards 9A trying to get back, I suddenly see this sign saying Shiraz Market. This was a very new sign, not that I go to that area often. I ran into the store to see what was going on. Sure enough, this was a new middle-eastern store, it was spacious, filled with all kinds of exotic ingredients, nuts, lentils, spices, hallal meat, cheese and yogurt.
I picked up a tub of yogurt, lowfat with a brand name Abali and some nuts, the packaging was so pretty, they would make a good gift just as is.

I wanted to explore more, but did not have the time. This weekend I dragged my husband along, one of the occupational hazzards of being a foodie's husband is just that, you get dragged to food places all over the world.
By the way, the yogurt was lovely, it was almost like greek yogurt, but better in that the 2% greek yogurt tastes rather chalky, while this yogurt tasted very natural. I got some tea, the cardamom tea smelt and brewed so fragrant.

We also, checked out the restaurant.


Host of appetizers - a mild chicken and egg salad with carrots and peas, an eggplant puree that was sweet and tangy garnished generously with fried onions and yogurt. Their grape leaves were most and minty served in a rather oriental patterned dish possibly left over from the korian restaurant that used to occupy the place. This was served with warm lavash bread.


The carrots for garnish were a little dry, could have been blanched before placing on the plate. We had also ordered this steamed spinach that was served with yogurt- this I guess was the original version of the yogurt that I liked so much. The richness made me want to get the whole fat version.



Lastly we ordered these cornish hen kababs, enticingly flavored with saffron and sumac, served on a bed of rice also laced with saffron.

The food and atmosphere was very good, the meal was priced well. The couple serving us was very attentive but did seem to have some trouble understanding us on occasion, this resulted in them sending us an extra dish, which did however catch my husbands interest - a pomegrante walnut based stew, so we came home with the rest of this.

Overall, I certainly think this is worth trying. They also had interesting teas and some desserts. I had actually not checked to see if they had a wine list which actually is a testimony to how facinated I was by the rest of the stuff. I certainly will be back to the market again.