A Store for Central Americans : Market: El Turco stocks an amazing variety of food, most of it unfamiliar to U.S. natives.

Mauricio A. Zedan was among the first to import and sell Central-American products in Los Angeles. He comes from a traveling family: his father left Palestine to settle in El Salvador. Zedan himself was born in Sonsonate--known in El Salvador as the city of coconuts--but he came to California in 1960. In 1973 he opened El Turco, a grocery store close to the site of the store’s current Vermont Avenue location.

Although small, El Turco stocks an amazing variety of food, most of it unfamiliar to anyone not from Central America. Consider such frozen products as loroco (the green flower used in pupusas ), pitos (an herb cooked with beans), chipilin (a green leaf used in soup), and fruits such as maranon (the fruit of the cashew tree), nance and jocote . You can also pick up some zapote oil to make your hair grow (called Zapuyulo), or a wooden paddle to mix tamale dough.

Labels indicate Guatemala is the source of much of the frozen produce. Actually, the crops may be grown in El Salvador, but they are transported to Guatemala where they are packed and shipped to take advantage of lower air freight charges, says Zedan’s son Jose. The fresh produce includes several types of bananas, peeled coconuts, yuca (cassava) and banana leaves for wrapping tamales.

The most eye-catching product in the store is pickled pacaya , a Central-American vegetable that looks roughly like the head of a mop or cord-thin ears of corn. The long strands are precision-arranged in jars. Salvadoran restaurants serve pacaya coated with egg batter and fried. The pickled version goes well with beer or in a salad.

At El Turco’s meat, seafood and dairy counter, genuine Salvadoran cheeses are sold. Petacones is lightly colored with annatto; capa roja (red coat) is named for its bright pink coating. Capulin is also a cow’s milk cheese. Manufactured in California are requeson , similar to cottage cheese, and cuajada , shaped like a small white football.

Specialty meat and seafood items include tasajo , which is dry-cured beef from Brazil, salt cod from Canada, dry robalo (a fish processed in Guatemala), and chacalin , which are small, dry, salty shrimp used in fritters or mixed with rice. The shrimp come from Guatemala and El Salvador.

Zedan also makes sure his store has plenty of sweets. There is, for instance, semita , a flat Salvadoran coffeecake made with whole-wheat flour, molasses and cinnamon, all layered with pineapple jam. El Turco’s semita comes from both Salvadoran and local makers.

Other baked goods, supplied by an assortment of Salvadoran bakeries, include quesadilla, which is a cheesecake; torta de yema , a sweet egg bread to eat with coffee; and marquesote, a cake that Salvadorans like with horchata. Horchata is a cinnamon-flavored rice drink that is popular in Mexico, too. But Salvadorans add an ingredient not used in Mexico. This is morro , a brown seed the size of a jumbo peppercorn. El Turco sells dry mixes for horchata and also the components for customers who grind their own formulas. The loosely woven cloth called manta , which is used to strain homemade horchata , is also sold at the store.

Zedan also carries Pilsener beer from San Salvador and Cafe Listo, a Salvadoran brand of instant coffee. Atol chuco is a beverage made from ground black corn and ground pumpkin seeds, which are sold together in packets at the market. You can also buy tiny dark chia seeds, used in a cold drink called chan .

Zedan’s wife, Eva, is usually behind the counter, and sons Jose and George, all native Salvadorans, also work in this family venture.

The other day, Zedan took a quick lunch break to eat one of Eva’s home-cooked dishes. It wasn’t Salvadoran food, though. It was Arabian.

El Turco Market, 1111 S. Vermont Ave., No. 109, Los Angeles; (213) 382-4994. Open Monday through Saturday 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.