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| - Today's lunchtime quest was to check out Baiz Market. The place is like a mirage. It sits on a barren residential stretch of 20th St. near the intersection of the I-10 and the 51. Don't worry about the car; there's abundant parking and little potential for destruction and mayhem.
This is actually a business-within-a-business. The restaurant inside Baiz Market is called Al-Hana, and it's a clean, well-oiled machine. Al-Hana takes up about an eighth of the market's floor space. A young woman was taking orders at the counter and two white-uniformed cooks were models of efficiency. You can see everything being prepared as the aromas of garlic, sumac, and roasting meat fill the air.
I had a small order of hummus and a chicken shawarma sandwich. The hummus was enough for four small people or two large people, and it came with a mountain of freshly house-baked pita triangles. It was delicious, but next time I think I'll ask for a slice of lemon on the side. The chicken shawarma sandwich was a miracle of industrial design. It was a perfectly shaped torpedo: juicy chicken, pickles, onion, and garlic sauce wrapped in a perfectly heated piece of flatbread. Make no mistake -- this thing is easy to eat but it's also impervious to collapse. It's the perfect thing to eat in the car (not that I eat in the car), and at $3.99 it's a bargain. For non-carnivores, the menu has grape leaves, taboulleh, falafel, baba, the famous thyme pie, etc. Did I mention the garlic sauce?
After lunch, I strolled the aisles of the market. Picture the market side of places like Haji Baba or Middle Eastern Bakery and Deli, but about 10 times the floor space. Spices, bagged pitas and chapatis, green and roasted coffee beans, a full produce section... it's like being in a supermarket from a more interesting place .
Definitely check out the glass cases in the back, where the meat guys reign. There are halal meats available and the staff is friendly. Personally, I locked in on the case to the left of the meat counter. Olives. An armada of olives, floating in fragrant oil. Next to the olives, red pepper paste (the ultimate condiment) beckoned. I wanted it all.
Head to Baiz Market / Al-Hana for some fertile crescent-y goodness. One tip: as other Yelpers have mentioned, there's a $10.00 minimum for debit and credit cards.
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