Caravan Foods's facade, rather distinctive for a strip-mall.

If you're ever in the mood for baklava, Caravan Foods, a small grocer specializing in Middle Eastern imports, is the best place to buy it and other pre-made Arabic or Mediterranean desserts in Tucson.  Italian-style nougat candies, individually wrapped, are also sold by the pound.

Unlike (e.g.) Roma Imports, there is no dining area.  Everything is takeaway only.  But the prices--a little over a dollar per piece of pastry--are much lower than in a restaurant setting and can hardly be beat if you make it yourself.

Browse the store while you're there for plenty of other bargains and hard-to-find items.  High-quality, fresh and strong spices and spice blends can be had here for a fraction of supermarket prices.  Rose water, orange flower water, and pomegranate molasses are priced not as gourmet items but as commonplace albeit foreign staples.  Seasonal produce, including fresh fava beans in the spring and early summer, loquats and huge whole quinces in fall and winter, and unwaxed citrus fruits are sold at Food City prices.  Sour cherries appear once per year in plastic clamshell containers for over seven dollars per pound: steep, but Caravan is the only source of fresh sour cherries in Tucson.  

Year-round there are bins of dates, various varieties of cured olive, and in the refrigerator case several different cow's and sheep's-milk feta cheeses, (somewhat expensive) halal beef, lamb, and goat, and chilled beverages including yogurt drinks and Ramadan favorite berry drink Vimto.  In dry bulk bins are shelled nuts and dried fruits, both plain and in snack mixes; bagged and on a shelf opposite this are dried grains and beans including bulgur, couscous, semolina, favas with and without skins, and almost any variety of lentil you can think of.

Caravan Foods sells several brands of canned appetizers at modest prices.  One can have stuffed grape leaves, baba ganoush, and hummus, all almost as good as homemade; together with a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkling of sumac, and the baklava and other pastries, these can make a casual dinner party host's task much easier.  Also available are a few hard-to-find items one wouldn't expect to find in a grocer specializing in Near Eastern staples and imports, including truffle oil, dried sour cherries, and Italian-American specialties such as oil-packed Chicago-style eggplant salad and hot giardiniera.

Caravan Foods is located at 2817 N. Country Club, in the opposite end of the strip-mall anchored by the now-shuttered Aqua Vita health food store, and is open daily until 6 PM.  Call (520) 323-6808 with questions, for bulk ordering, or to verify hours.