Yoga Jen brought me to Sahadi's for my first trip a year or so ago (maybe longer??). We were there to snag some of the pickled garlic her friend had served for Jen's birthday bash. I must have eaten 10 cloves that night (and no, I did not wake up reeking of garlic the next day--that's the beauty of pickled garlic!) and I wanted more. Jen took me to the source--just a short walk from the R train stop at Court Street.
Sahadi's is not that big a place, but it's jam-packed with an almost-overwhelming amount of options: spices from A-Z (well, almost), more than a dozen types of coffee, every sort of olive oil imaginable, endless varieties of jams, jellies, custards, cheeses, you name it!
It's a foodie's dream, and the prices are mostly reasonable. You can also find the most interesting of items: from specialty tomatoes imported from Italy to Sirop de Jallab, which the translation in English describes as... Jallab syrup. Thank goodness for Google. As I'm not much of a rosewater fan, I passed on this. Babaghanoush in a can? Yeah, they have that.
Like olives and nuts? Sahadi's is your place. They'll call out your number and a helpful worker will fill up the containers to your liking. This is where a gal can get her fix for pickled garlic, spicy chickpeas, sugar-coated chickpeas, macadamia nuts, brazil nuts, candy, picholine olives, kalamata olives, stuffed olives, herbed olives...well...you can see there's quite a vast assortment of goodies. I went late on Friday, just before closing, and was delighted to see NO line. The man took my order immediately, and I even had some time to wander the aisles without wading through a sea of people (ahh, August in NYC). If you're in the neighborhood, I highly recommend you stroll through this spot!
