A small grocery store that opened recently in Mountlake Terrace offers foods from exotic locales, expertise on how to cook them and — coming soon — a taste of the cuisine from its delicatessen.
Paradise Market co-owners, Akbar Quadri, 46, and Mohammed Yusef, 57, said they hope to have a deli/restaurant up and running in a corner of their store within the next few months.
The store is located at 23204 57th Ave. W., across the parking lot from Double D Meats, Diamond Knot Brewery and the Snohomish Pie Company.
Natives of India and Fiji, respectively, Quadri and Yusuf grew up eating many of the foods they’re selling, which originate from India, Pakistan, Fiji, Mexico and the Mediterranean. African and American foods will soon join the mix, Quadri said.
The store caters to the more global palate that’s developed as people travel the world and experience different cuisines, then return home and want to re-create those dishes, he said. He’s given customers tips on how to prepare certain foods and is considering offering cooking lessons in the future.
“They love to cook themselves,” he said. “They love to learn, they want to learn and we love to help them.”
Yusuf knows a lot about Fijian foods and those of Fiji neighbor New Zealand, but Quadri has professional cooking experience, having learned at the side of an older cousin who died of a heart attack a couple of years ago, he said, with a catch in his voice.
Besides being a great cook, Quadri said, “he was my best friend and my best cousin.”
Quadri said his first job after arriving from India at the age of 20 was at a print shop in Seattle’s University District.
When he tired of the business, he turned to restaurant work, eventually putting his cousin’s cooking lessons to use when he opened his own Indian restaurant in Shoreline, where he now lives.
It did well for a year or two but couldn’t weather the recession, he said. It might have been different if he’d had Yusuf at his side back then, he said, calling his friend “a one-man show” for the extensive knowledge he has of construction and other trades, including auto mechanics.
He and Yusuf have known each other for years, he said, but grew closer in recent years and started looking to open a business.
Yusuf, who lives in Brier, said he moved to the area from Fiji about 19 years ago, the last of his family to do so at the urging of his brother, who is a retired military doctor living here.
The population of Fiji is multinational and he grew up with Hindu and Christian friends as well as Muslim, he said.
He and Quadri are aware of recent anti-Muslim sentiment in the news, but said politics have no place in their business. People in the community, including local police, have been welcoming, they said.
“We want to socialize with people here,” Yusuf said. “No matter what kind of religion you are, we want to be friends.”
“Our door is open for the community,” Quadri said. “We respect everybody.”
Like Quadri, Yusuf said he also experienced financial hardship during the recent recession. He had to sell off some of the trucks in the small trucking company he owns, shipping freight from Seattle to Los Angeles and back. But he’s been slowly rebuilding the company.
The two friends were driving around talking about starting a business together when they spotted the Mountlake Terrace location, they said.
The proximity of a mosque just down the street on 56th Avenue helped them decide that a store selling halal meat was needed in the community.
Halal means “permissible” under Islamic law and rejects pork, as well as meat taken from the hindquarters of animals, according to www.thekitchn.com.
The slaughter of a halal animal is called “zabihah” and must follow certain guidelines, including the pronouncement of Allah’s, or God’s, name during slaughter, either by a Muslim or the “People of the Book (Christian or Jew)”.
The animal must be conscious during slaughter, which is accomplished with a very sharp knife to slit the throat quickly and ensure humane slaughter. Prior to slaughter, the animal must have been fed a natural diet that did not include animal by-products.
Quadri said all the meat at Paradise Market is halal and is also considered kosher.
Paradise Market offers fresh organic lamb, goat and beef raised locally, as well as frozen lamb and goat imported from New Zealand, Quadri said.
It also sells halal chicken from a Canadian company and from another based in Chicago. Fish and seafood is also sold.
Yusuf and Quadri said they worked for months extensively remodeling the Paradise Market site, previously an archery range.
It needed a lot of clean-up and updating, including electrical and plumbing work, they said.
Dry products on the shelves include bags of both white and brown rice, lentils, black-eye peas and chickpeas — also known as garbanzo beans — wheat, rice and soy flours in various sizes.
There are jars of pickles, garlic and ginger pastes, chutneys and marinades, cans of enchilada sauce and refried beans, packets of ready-to-heat-and-eat Indian meals and a large selection of teas.
The store also sells fresh produce and some more unusual frozen foods like guava and mango pulp, taro leaves, Fijian cassava and lotus root, as well as tandoori naan bread and samosas.
Non-food items include hair oils, shampoos and lotions, as well as paper products like paper towels and napkins.
Atypically for a grocery store, Paradise Market also sells some clothing imported from India, jewelry and prayer rugs and caps from Turkey. Prayer beads will also be available soon.
“We’re thinking this needs to be a one-stop shop,” Quadri said.
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