Oriental Grocery: halva, baklava, Turkish delight, Tunisian harissa, za'atar, tahini and mint green tea. The flavours of the Maghreb, Turkey and Lebanon.
Gunpowder green tea and mint for Moroccan-style tea.
Ras el hanout, cumin, za'atar: spices from the Maghreb and the Levant.
Baklavas, Turkish delight and honey pastries.
Our oriental grocery brings together the flavours of the Maghreb, Turkey and Lebanon. It is divided into three aisles: sweets, spices and tea. Each product keeps for several months in a cupboard, so you always have something to cook with or to entertain. You can put together a full meal: a hummus starter, a spiced tagine, then tea and its sweet treats.
Oriental sweets include halva, a sweet sesame paste, baklava, a layered pastry with syrup and pistachio, and Turkish delight, a soft starch-based confection. These treats go with tea and with festivals such as Eid. Halva is cut into slices, baklava is eaten in one or two bites. Turkish delight is enjoyed with a Turkish coffee.
Oriental spices include Tunisian harissa, a chilli and garlic paste, Lebanese za’atar, tahini and ras el hanout. Mint tea starts with a Chinese green tea, gunpowder, rolled into small pellets. Za’atar is a blend of thyme, sesame and sumac; tahini is a sesame cream. Ras el hanout, a Moroccan blend of more than ten spices, flavours tagines.
Several brands come from their countries of origin, such as Le Phare du Cap Bon in Tunisia or Çelebioğulları in Gaziantep, Turkey. For tea, we have chosen Twinings and Clipper, which offer mint green tea in teabags.
Read the list of ingredients: the shorter it is, the closer the product is to the original recipe. A good tahini contains 100% sesame, with no added oil. A traditional harissa is limited to chilli, garlic, salt, oil and a few spices such as caraway or coriander.
For sweets, look at the pistachio content shown on the packaging. A quality Turkish baklava is made with clarified butter and Gaziantep pistachios. A quality halva is based on sesame and sugar, with no added vegetable fat. A quality Turkish delight is soft and does not stick to the teeth.
For tea, choose a loose-leaf gunpowder green tea if you want to prepare it the Moroccan way, in a teapot. Mint green tea bags remain handy at the office or when travelling. Allow one tablespoon of tea for a half-litre teapot.
Think about storage too. Ground spices keep their aroma for about a year in an airtight tin; an opened harissa goes in the fridge, covered with a thin layer of oil. Sweets keep at room temperature, in their closed box. Tahini stays in the cupboard: its oil rises to the top, so you just need to stir it.
A baklava gift box or an assortment of pastries makes a welcome gift for Eid, Ramadan or a family meal. The decorated metal boxes can then be kept for storing tea or biscuits. During Ramadan, sweets often go with tea after breaking the fast. Choose a box of a size to suit the number of guests.
For a keen cook, put together a spice basket with a harissa, a za’atar, a tahini and a ras el hanout. Add a recipe book chosen from our oriental books to give them ideas for dishes. Za’atar on warm bread with olive oil is the first recipe to try.
A gunpowder green tea and a box of Turkish delight make a simple tea kit to give. You only need to add a bunch of fresh mint on the day. For a more complete gift, include a small card with the recipe for Moroccan tea.
To complete it, an orange blossom water or a fragrance from our oriental care range makes a lovely duo with a sweet treat. For a neighbour or a colleague, a single box of pistachio halva is enough to please.
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