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 of olive oil and olives
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 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.
Delphic tarama paste (from Greece) $20.00 for 3kg
Alkahater tahina (tahini) paste 5kg
Harkola Food World Wide
3-7 Highgate Street, Auburn, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9737 8883
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Auburn dining: Al Sofra Pizza, Pide and Kebabs
Auburn dining: Mado Cafe
Auburn photographic food tour, August 2006
Auburn photographic food tour, July 2006
Wow! What a great bargain place! I better go stock up!
ReplyDeleteI 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.
ReplyDeleteThat 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!
ReplyDeleteYiles, 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.
ReplyDeleteMust visit again and say hello to the lovely lady behind the counter.
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.
ReplyDeleteHi 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.
ReplyDelete