To Get to Mediterranean, Head Down Alicia Parkway

Tucked into a nondescript strip mall in Laguna Hills, where its neighbors include a ho-hum escrow office and run-of-the-mill fast-food place, sits a surprisingly exotic Arabian Nights of culinary delights.

Walk through the front door of the Mediterranean Grocery & Deli just off Alicia Parkway near Paseo de Valencia (ignore the neon sign advertising beer and Julio Iglesias singing over the tape system) and you’ll see shelves stocked with exotic Persian, Arabic, Armenian, Indian, Greek and Middle Eastern goodies. Packages of figs grown in Arabian deserts share space with Armenian yogurt and tart, creamy feta cheeses from Bulgaria.

Labels on the tea shelf alone read like a Middle Eastern travelogue: Muntaz black tea from Jiddah, Darjeerling from Calcutta, Sonbal Tib from Persia.

You would have to plow through many miles of desert sands to find such things as spicy red melon seeds, saffron and dried limes and real Jordan almonds that are commonplace here.

The Mediterranean is run by owner-manager Sophie Sliheet, who is part Arabian and part Greek and has been an Orange County resident for 26 years. She opened the combination store and deli seven years ago to simply fill a need: Her mother used to cook Mideast foods when Sliheet was growing up but had to travel to Los Angeles to get the proper ingredients.

Sliheet has developed a more efficient way to get her essentials: She draws on an extensive resource of importers, who ship the goodies to her. And if she doesn’t have what you want, she assures you she will find it.

Although there are a few stores in mid- and north Orange County that supply similar items, Sliheet is the only one in South County with this depth and variety of items used in Middle Eastern, Greek and Arabic cooking.

And she is kept busy by a steady flow of customers who come for such Mideast-community staples as basmati rice--two shelves worth of selections--and sesame tahini, sort of a Persian mayonnaise. During the holidays, she “sells a ton” of fresh phyllo dough, used extensively in desserts.

Sliheet is especially proud of her varied supply of unleavened breads, including pita bread made fresh and delivered to her daily, and a thin, pliable variety called lavash.

If you don’t know how to cook with these ingredients foreign to many Western palates, or are put off by the strange-sounding names, ready-made dishes can be sampled at the deli counter. Specialties include falafel and gyro sandwiches, made fresh daily.

Sliheet will gladly provide you with a cook’s tour of the foods you’re eating--where they come from, how they’re made and their nutritional qualities.

Top them off with some of the pistachio candies or a selection from the table of Greek and Middle Eastern pastries--delivered daily from assorted bakeries throughout the Southland--or wash it all down with a bottle of the store’s classic Greek wine, retsina.

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Getting the Goods

* Mediterranean Grocery & Deli, Alicia Valencia Plaza, 25381-A Alicia Parkway, Laguna Hills. (714) 770-2007. Open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

* Saba’s Mediterranean Market & Deli, 14161 Newport Ave., Tustin. (714) 730-7262. Open Tuesday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

* Athens West Greek Deli, 2663 W. Lincoln Ave., Anaheim. (714) 826-2560. Open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.