Dried fruits & nuts

The packages of dried fruits and nuts in general supermarkets are perfectly serviceable. But if you want to offer them as sweetmeats or elevate your fruit cakes to a higher level, buy them loose at a Middle East grocery.

Yekta, a good fresh produce and dried goods grocery at1488-A Rockville Pike, Rockville, 301 984 1190, and Yasaman Bakery, in the Ritchie Center, 785J Rockville Pike, Rockville, 301 762 5416, both sell excellent shelled pistachios in various flavors and other nuts and some dried fruits.

Catty corner to Yasaman is Sam’s Café & Market, a Persian grocery that also stocks dried fruit and nuts, particular large sheets of dried fruit puree, the origin of Fruit Roll-Ups.

Some of the cheapest cashews and pistachios around can be found at the Afghan Mini Market, 6566 Blacklick Rd, Springfield, 703 644 0186. Raw cashews are $4.99 a pound, pistachios at the same price, loose seeds and candied peel by the pound (good to know about for Christmas cake bakers). For the rest of it, this friendly store sells goods similar to those in Indian markets.

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