Harkola Food World Wide warehouse, Auburn

Salloum Brothers zaatar $3.50 for 500g

I'm such a sucker for a bargain. Warehouse and discount outlet shopping has long been a weekend pastime of mine, and new discoveries are always relished with hand-clapping glee.

We recently discovered Harkola Food World Wide courtesy of D, a foodie friend-of-a-friend. It's completely off-the-beaten track of the main Auburn shopping strip, a short drive away into semi-industrial territory.

An open gate leads the way into the backdock carpark and we walk through garage doors into an unembellished warehouse stacked floor to ceiling with groceries and dried goods.

We're in Sydney's Turkish heartland and the food on offer reflects this. I immediately grab a giant 500g bag of za'atar for only $3.50--why pay a fortune to have it packaged into pretty little jars of glass or plastic?

shelves

Shelves of olive oil and olives

nuts and pulses

Legumes and pulses

On one occasion we headed here for burghul to make tabbouleh. Our utter confusion at being presented with six different shades and grades of cracked wheat (who knew?) was quickly eased by the helpful assistant behind the nut counter.

nuts, dried fruits and chocolates

Nuts, dried fruit and chocolate coated treats

The service area for loose nuts, dried fruit and chocolate treats is perfect for any home baker. Last year we made Christmas fruit cakes and buying ingredients from here was much cheaper than heading to your local supermarket. They also have loose herbs and spices behind the counter and the family staff here are always friendly and happy to answer questions.

Nuts and seeds

Plenty of goodies keep us skipping from aisle for aisle. There are towers of pizza boxes for commercial use, sacks of rice, tubs of halva and intriguing biscuits and teas.

Cortas pomegranate molasses $3.28

I picked up a bottle of pomegranate molasses last time --it's meant to be great on roasted meats, salads or used in cakes. And being the excitable foodie kids at heart that we are, any giant always caught our attention.

tarama

Delphic tarama paste (from Greece) $20.00 for 3kg

tahina

Alkahater tahina (tahini) paste 5kg

Harkola Food World Wide
3-7 Highgate Street, Auburn, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9737 8883

Related GrabYour Fork posts:
Auburn dining: Al Sofra Pizza, Pide and Kebabs
Auburn dining: Mado Cafe
Auburn photographic food tour, August 2006
Auburn photographic food tour, July 2006

9 Comments:

At 8/06/2006 8:44 am, Food Hog said…

I went to Auburn as well but had to visit the Authentic Turkish Delight shop after seeing your blog about it previously.

Came out with a big bag of their chcolates and turkish delight.
Next time try their rose and almond TD or the pistachio, they are both so good!!
At 8/06/2006 10:20 am, Reb said…

Wow! What a great bargain place! I better go stock up!
At 8/06/2006 12:03 pm, Anonymous said…

I think I really need to get in the car and drive down to Sydney to see all these wonderful things in person. Then fill said car up with goodies and drive home to Brisbane.
At 8/06/2006 6:39 pm, Anonymous said…

That place looks like quite a find! I think that our ethnic food stores are fantastic for getting value for money products - just comparing the cost of fish sauce in Safeway vs. the local Chinese grocery store stops me buying many things from our bigger supermarkets!
At 8/07/2006 12:32 am, Helen (AugustusGloop) said…

Hi food hog - I've been meaning to get back to Auburn sometime. Glad you had fun at Real Turkish Delight!

Hi Reb - It has some great value stock, and you can always go for some dondurma at Mado afterwards as well =)

Hi Helen - Hehe. Bring some sunshine with you whilst you're at it would you? I know we need the rain but *sigh* it's not even falling in the catchment area!

Hi Ellie - Oh I never buy Asian products from supermarkets. But it also goes the other way too. Don't bother buying pasta or tomato sauce from Asian grocers. I always stick by the When in Rome adage... lol.
At 8/07/2006 12:40 pm, Veruca Salt said…

Yiles, that reminds me that I must start calculating how many kilos of dried fruit I wil need this year. Xmas is only around the corner.

Must visit again and say hello to the lovely lady behind the counter.
At 8/07/2006 10:09 pm, Helen (AugustusGloop) said…

Hi Veruca - Yep we should head back sometime soon. Mmm... Christmas cake...
At 9/05/2009 10:56 am, Anonymous said…

My mother was a great cook and always bought most of her ingredients from harkola for many many years. Of course this shop's fab quality products helped maintain her reputation! i just hope they have online shopping available as i live too far away to just drop in.
At 9/05/2009 11:27 pm, Helen (Grab Your Fork) said…

Hi Anon - Oh such a wonderful story of your mother shopping at Harkola. Given they're a family run warehouse, I doubt they have online capacity but you could certainly give them a ring to find out what they can do.