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Sahadi's Is NYC's Favorite Middle Eastern Market | Legendary Eats - YouTube
Channel: Food Insider
[1]
Taryn Varricchio: Rows of pistachios,
[2]
perfectly roasted, salted,
[4]
and packaged in Brooklyn, New York,
[6]
are a staple at one of the borough's
[7]
most storied locations.
[10]
These, along with freshly blended hummus
[12]
and handmade kibbe,
[13]
make up some of the store's
[14]
iconic Middle Eastern specialties.
[19]
This is Sahadi's,
[20]
and it's been selling New York's
[22]
best Middle Eastern groceries since 1898.
[25]
Customer: It's a stomping ground
[26]
that everyone's familiar with.
[27]
It's a place that you'll
see your neighbors,
[29]
your friends, family, not knowing.
[32]
And it's become that style of
a place for the neighborhood.
[42]
Taryn: We're in Brooklyn today,
[42]
and we're just down the block
[44]
from Sahadi's Middle
Eastern grocery store.
[47]
This place is, like, truly a
staple in this neighborhood.
[49]
People come for their fresh-roasted nuts,
[51]
they come for this wide
assortment of spices,
[54]
and they especially come
for some really good hummus.
[57]
But there's a Trader
Joe's across the street,
[59]
so why is everyone coming to Sahadi's?
[62]
That's why we're going inside to find out.
[64]
Sahadi's has been a trusted
staple for Middle Eastern food
[67]
since opening in Lower Manhattan in 1898.
[70]
Second-generation owner
Wade Sahadi moved the shop
[73]
to Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn in 1948,
[75]
where it's been thriving ever since.
[77]
Christine Sahadi Whelan:
There were a lot of
[78]
Middle Eastern people living there,
[80]
so he was coming into
a ready-made community.
[82]
He didn't have to try to find
the customer, so to speak;
[84]
the customer already was in that area.
[86]
Taryn: Christine and her brother Ron
[88]
are fourth-generation owners,
[89]
and they grew up eating
many of the recipes
[91]
that the store is famous for today.
[93]
For example...
[94]
Ron Sahadi: The hummus
is definitely one of
[95]
the most popular things
that we've been known for.
[97]
You always hear reviews online
[98]
and how Sahadi's has the best hummus.
[100]
I mean, we agree, but, you know,
[101]
of course we're gonna agree.
[103]
Taryn: Chefs make hummus fresh each day,
[105]
and they start by cooking
chickpeas in 40-pound kettles.
[108]
The chickpeas are dumped into a grinder
[109]
before chefs mix in
garlic, tahini, and water.
[113]
Almost opted for the regular hummus,
[115]
the one that we saw being
made fresh in the kitchen,
[118]
but then I went spicy
because I felt like, why not?
[124]
That is, like, so smooth and silky.
[126]
Has a really good kick.
[129]
The handmade kibbe is
another family recipe
[131]
the Sahadis sell at their store.
[133]
Christine: Part of being Lebanese
[134]
is the whole hospitality end of it.
[136]
Is always having food for people,
[138]
always offering something.
[139]
To this day, my mom and I
have parties for 100 people
[141]
at least once a year.
[142]
Taryn: Known as a staple
dish of Syria and Lebanon,
[145]
these handfuls of ground
beef are molded into small
[148]
football-like shapes
and baked until brown.
[151]
But it's not just these homemade dishes
[153]
that connect this family business
[154]
to their Middle Eastern roots.
[156]
For over 50 years, the
store has sourced spices
[158]
and other ingredients
directly from relatives
[160]
living in the region.
[162]
Christine: We've always done it.
[162]
From the time my grandfather started,
[164]
it's always been somebody over there
[165]
basically loading the container
[167]
and us taking it off on this side.
[168]
This way, we can always
be sure of the quality
[170]
we're getting and the product mix.
[172]
I mean, you don't want people
[173]
randomly just filling your containers.
[174]
It makes it easier knowing that
[176]
you have somebody there that you trust,
[177]
that you've been working with a long time.
[178]
Taryn: Right.
Christine: Absolutely.
[179]
Taryn: But sourcing these ingredients
[181]
hasn't always been easy,
[182]
especially with growing political turmoil
[184]
in the Middle East.
[185]
Christine: Aleppo is just not a place
[186]
that's shipping anything right now.
[188]
So, a lot of the farmers, though, I mean,
[190]
a lot of them have moved,
and they took their seeds.
[192]
They are very proud of what they've grown,
[194]
and they now grow them
over the border in Turkey.
[196]
Taryn: Sahadi's worked with
those farmers over time,
[198]
and despite the different
growing conditions in Turkey,
[200]
they were able to come up with something
[202]
that mimics the Aleppo pepper.
[204]
And though the team is committed
to sourcing ingredients
[206]
from overseas, they also
product items right in Brooklyn,
[209]
just a few miles away at its
Sunset Park roasting facility.
[213]
They roast about 40,000
pounds of nuts each week,
[216]
which can later be found in the
store's famous bulk section.
[219]
Customer: It just reminded
me of a Middle Eastern souk.
[222]
The variety, even when
it was much smaller,
[225]
was just amazing.
[228]
Taryn: And as the neighborhood
changed from a primarily
[230]
Middle Eastern community
to a mix of ethnicities,
[233]
Sahadi's changed with it.
[235]
The store's product line
includes coffees and dried foods
[237]
from all over the world,
[239]
like these red-orange apricots
shipped from California.
[242]
That's so unlike any
fruit I've ever tasted.
[249]
It's like candy.
[251]
In 2017, a writer for digital
food publication Epicurious
[255]
argued that Sahadi's is the
"best grocery store in America,"
[258]
and many longtime customers agree.
[260]
Customer: It's been an anchor,
I think, for the community
[263]
and really for Atlantic
Avenue for the longest time.
[266]
Other places have come and gone,
[268]
and it's one of the reasons I come here
[270]
is to help keep Sahadi
in the neighborhood.
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