Living in a tri-state area definitely has its perks. You are never too far away from the water, the mountains, great nightlife and also great shopping…and I include ‘great food shopping’ in that category too. In addition to the wonderful international markets that dot the Washington D.C landscape, there are also a few good ones in Maryland. Once of the best places that I discovered a few years ago, is a company called Prima Foods, located at 51 Kane Street in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a family owned and operated full service specialty food distributor currently being run by Costas Bouyoukas and his family. The company opened in 1979 as a small 1500 square foot facility, and now boasts over 50,000 square feet of both dry and refrigerated warehouse space and even includes an in house bakery that cranks out fresh bread throughout the day.
Prima Foods imports many of their products directly from Greece, Turkey and the Middle East, and distributes these items to local businesses. Costas cleverly introduced a small market in the same building which is opened to the public and offers many of these same, hard to find items that are sold through the distributorship, and the best part is that these items are also sold at a discounted price. In addition to a full array of imported cheeses and olives, there are many frozen items such as hard to find sardines, octopus, large squid and other seafood and meat, imported sausages, appetizers and vegetables. You can also find many imported confections, cookies, cakes, jams, jellies, beans, seeds, dried fruit, assorted olive oils and mixes.
Throughout the day, fresh assorted breads that are baked on premises are also available for purchase. Beautifully crispy, warm and delicious baguettes, crispy Italian Vienna breads and traditional koulouria (round rope breads) topped with sesame seeds.
If you happen to visit during the Holidays, many of the traditional Greek breads are also available for purchase. Go and check them out today, and tell Costas that I sent you!
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