...is just around the bend in Watertown

A straight shot from Harvard Square on Bus Route 71, or a quick jaunt in the four- or two-wheeler from same, and you've left the occidental familiar in the dust. Within a 2 block radius on Mt Auburn street in the nexus of Little Armenia, you'll find a handful of grocers worthy of your special attention. But these are so much more than grocery stores: These are experiences straight from the exotic. Sure, Armenia might not be classified as Middle Eastern...buy then again, these shops, despite the overt respects to the homeland (Sevan, Massis, and Arax, an Armenian lake, city, and river, respectively), boast a bevy of products coincidentally common to cuisines from North Africa to the Caspian sea. Tea from Morocco, honey from Greece, olives from Turkey, cheese from Syria, dates from Israel: nationalities proclaimed by mass media as sworn enemies happily share shelf space in a veritable U.N. of victuals.

I swing the door open at Sevan and am immediately enveloped in the enticing aroma of spices. Open bins of fragrant turmeric, chile. fenugreek, zatar, dried lemon --- what is dried lemon?-- delight visually and olfactorily. There is almost too much to take in: rose jelly, fig preserves, olives in fragrant brines, dried nectarines, feta from Bulgaria, feta from Turkey, feta from France. I couldn't attempt to describe everything if I wanted to... but why would I want to? That would deprive you the joy of peeling off one delicious layer after another in a store where every nook and cranny waits with a tempting surprise. Pomegranate molasses. Date spread. Pistachio cotton candy. I ask the proprietor how he winnows down the overwhelming possibilities of product into the "mere" thousands of selections on offer. "Israel, Lebanon, Greece, Turkey, it's all the same," he says with a smile, bagging my salted cream cheese spread, a product of Denmark but labelled in Russian and Arabic, a spread which incidentally pairs beautifully with Greek butter biscuits.

Is world diplomacy that simple? Beyond the label and the semantics, are these shared culinary traditions a promising --- albeit metaphoric --- answer to "can't we all just get along?" Food for thought as I meander a mere three storefronts away to Arax, another stronghold of this insular Armenian Christian Orthodox community. Boisterous Arabic comedy blares from behind bins overflowing with produce of every color and origin; determined octogenarians clutching long lists in wavering script nudge wide-mouthed tourists aside with the gentle, but firm, "excuse me, Sweetheart." As flashy as Sevan is subtle, Arax' claim to fame --- besides the hookah pipes --- is the extensive line of homemade, succulent, ooey-gooey sweet Middle Eastern pastries. I wish I knew what exactly I ate --- but just as in that foreign market where you don't speak the language or perhaps can't even read it, here the signs are jumbled, or outright missing. This increases the tourist's fun, and provides handy impetus to sample one of everything: A semolina cake, perfumy sweet with rose water syrup, pleasantly damp in crunch. The baklava is so buttery, so moistly honeyed; flaky, crispy, perfectly sweet, but not a sweetness for sugar's sake. A rolled baklava is a denser, chewier version than its traditional cousin, with lingering spice in the aftertaste. The sugar threads of a pistachio confection intertwine with a thick paste of nuts and pools of fragrant honey.

Massis has a bakery, too: each Saturday morning in fact they feature hot, soft buns dusted with sesame seeds and layered with stringy cheese and sweet syrup. But I can't wait to dive into my collection of Massis jumbo golden raisins, each the size of a gilded pearl. I also nab a jar of orange blossom honey; sure you might find this elsewhere, but how often do you find it neighboring honeys from India and Greece and adjacent to not one, but two diverse brands of pistachio paste?

After you've patronized Sevan, Arax and Massis, Green Grocer feels positively gentrified (in a good way --- you can find some of your favorite products from the familiar Stop & Shop at half price), but poke around, there's a substantial Middle Eastern influence here, too. Witness the tahini bread, which is more like a pastry, spirals of sweet dough laced with cinnamony sesame filling.

Little Armenia is your destination when you seek fresh pita for a night of falafel or rose water to make any homemade baklava taste authentic. It is also your destination when shopping transcends chore into exploration. And as you take your wares westward into the setting sun of Cambridge. you'll find you've returned from far east after all.

Sevan Bakery
599 Mt. Auburn St.

Arax
585 Mt. Auburn St.

Massis Bakery
569 Mt. Auburn St.

Green Grocer
594 Mt. Auburn St.

That salad - curiously referred to as The Famous Fling, though famous it certainly ought to be --- is a case of orchard's goodness embodied between knife and fork. Said spinach leaves are balanced in flavor and texture with thick wedges of green apples, diminutive slices of red onion, a sprinkling of piquant blue cheese, and sliced, toasted almonds. Mum's the word on the house dressing --- though bright notes of citrus and a resolute sweetness do escape the secret's shroud.

The virtual geographic journey continues with the ever so generously portioned appetizer - grilled toast points with fresh, creamy goat cheese marinated in olive oil and fresh herbs. The heaping mound of creamy cheese, proudly hoisted on a bed of choice olives and dressed greens, is as indulgently textured as a finale of cheesecake. The kalamata olives combine with the chevre to enliven an otherwise colorless winter day in Boston with the visual and edible palate of the Mediterranean.

While the selection of appetizers and salads is modest, the possibilities of pizzas are endless. You can choose from among the menu's 25 pre-ordained pizza combinations, or your can assemble your own from the impressive roster of ingreidents: Sauces include classic tomato-oregano, tomato-rosemary, or garlic-infused olive oil; cheeses include ricotta, gorgonzola, fresh mozzarella, smoked mozzarella, goat and feta. And the toppings? The toppings are a valentine to pizza ingenuity. Highlights range from thyme roasted mushrooms to crispy smoked bacon to garlicky green olives to yukon gold potatoes to hot cherry peppers. Those for whom large eyes are their stomach's undoing may wish to temper gluttony with a "half and half pizza": One large pizza, two entirely different sets of toppings. Half of our pie featured Emma's pizza #3: roasted sweet potato, goat cheese, mozzarella, caramelized onions, and fresh spinach; the other half was inspired by the recommended artichoke heart-roasted tomato-garlic-mozzarella-ricotta version, to which we added broccoli and bacon. On previous visits I've had the #3 with the added springtime freshness of cilantro and a burst of vibrant cranberries --- two items rarely found, if ever ordered, at a pizza parlor --- and have left feeling inspired as to boundless limits of pizza.

In the absence of a dessert menu you'll call it an early night; by this point in the meal anyhow, the line of famished and drooling would-be dinner companions leaking into the Cambridge cold will shame you out of your seat. That is, if you aren't patiently waiting for the kitchen to make that secondary pizza you've ordered to-go with giddy expectation of Emma's leftovers the next night (the pies reheat marvelously). I recommend arriving super early in the dinner hour on weekends --- no reservations! --- or allot extra time to contend with hungry patrons flocking to or fleeing from the nearby Kendall movie cinema.

Viva Emma's, my pick for Cambridge's best pizza.

What makes a ho-hum muffin a truly transcending experience? Just ask the scores of local college students, businessmen and families who flock to Petsi Pies for some of the best morning pastry around. The better-than-homemade quality of owner Renee McLeod’s products has turned the spacious wood-paneled café on Putnam Avenue into a veritable communal kitchen for the residents of Cambridge. Pull up a chair, spread out your newspaper, and linger in an atmosphere that is blissfully unhurried and pays homage to the best of baking: wholesome ingredients, novel combinations, and baked-just-this-morning freshness.

Not surprisingly, it is the extensive selection of choice pies that put Petsi’s on the map: the pies are as delicious as they are varied, ranging from sweet (classic apple; key lime pie) to savory (spinach ricotta, roasted vegetable and goat cheese) to the down-home southern-influences of McLeod’s roots (brown sugar-spiced sweet potato).

But it is the outstanding array of scones, muffins, cupcakes and cookies that might be the most habit-forming edibles at Petsi Pies. It would be all too tempting to stop by each and every morning to delight in a different variety of the tendered-crumb scones: for a mere $1.85, take your pick of chocolate orange, blueberry ginger, pear ginger, pumpkin cranberry walnut, or cheddar dill. The flavor I find most irresistible is the ethereal lemon: light, beautifully buttery, glazed in a sweet drizzle that underscores the citrusy tang. A bountiful platter of corn muffins dazzle with jewel-like dollops of berry preserves glistening at the helm of the muffin’s crown. The kid in you is sure to gravitate towards the banana-chocolate chunk muffins (likewise the adult, they go just as well with a latte or cappuccino as with that proverbial glass of cold milk).

Don’t leave Petsi’s without trying the signature coconut cupcake, positively regal with snowy swirls of cream cheese-coconut icing. The cookies are beyond sublime – whether you opt for the giant molasses & ginger (perfect texture – crisp and chewy exterior, soft interior) or are seduced by the sheer artisan quality of the tender chocolate shortbread with sinfully decadent mocha java ganache filling.

My hands-down, jaw-dropping favorite, though, is the gingerbread, with the hauntingly deep, dark essence of ginger and lemon. This is quite honestly, the best gingerbread I have ever tasted. The quality is so outstanding precisely because this and all of Petsi’s treats are prepared just as you would in your own kitchen – lovingly, and in small batches to ensure refinement in flavor and texture.. Top of the line, homemade quality baked goods commercially available? Don’t miss them!

Petsi Pies
31 Putnam Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
617-499-0801