[StephanieL]

While walking around the Lower East Side yesterday, N and I found this place on Orchard Street (#145). It's the "official shop of the Chios Mastiha Growers Association" and features food and bath & skin care products made with mastic, the resin of an evergreen tree that grows in Greece. Supposedly, mastic is good for digestion and clears the skin. They have everything from toffee to chocolate to Turkish delight to preserved fruits to shampoo and soap.

I found the candy I tried interesting--they definitely have a piney sort of taste, but it's not overwhelming. One thing I bought was rather interesting: a "mastic sweet" with sour cherries. (It also comes with pistachios.) The sweet is mostly sugar & glucose syrup, with a little mastic, and it's very sticky. You're supposed to put some of it on a spoon, dunk the spoon in cold water, and lick the whole thing like a lollipop. The sour cherries cut the sweetness a little. It's quite different.

The saleswoman said there are Mastiha Shops all over Greece, plus Rome, Tokyo, and Paris. This is their first store in the U.S.

[nuxvomica]

oh, i love that stuff! mastiha liqueur is delicious but i guess they can't sell it at that store

[StephanieL]

I didn't see liqueur, but I think I saw syrup.

[nuxvomica]

nah, i don't think they could - requires liquor license, doubt it worth it or even possible. i got enough at the mastiha store in athens. the syrup sounds interesting though

[Orik]

We got a delicious eggplant+pine nut+leeks+raisins+mastica chutney there, and were gifted a pound of halvah. Generous on the face of it, but inedible (I'm not sure if because of too much mastica or because the sell by date is in a couple of weeks). Anyway, an odd but beautiful shop.

[Eddie L]

That's very cool, Stephanie. I've been intrigued by Mastic ever since I read about it on the eG Alinea thread. It appears to be a new "in" ingredient these days. Alex and Aki found a source for it in Astoria. Since I'll be working nearby in a few weeks I plan to stop by and pick some up.

[Carolyn Tillie]

I'm drawing a blank at the moment, but I know there is a recipe in Paula Wolfert's Slow Mediterranean Cooking that calls for gum mastic. (I was going to test the recipe for her and she gave me the mastic -- I got switched to a different recipe and still have a little container lying around.)

[Orik]

That's very cool, Stephanie. I've been intrigued by Mastic ever since I read about it on the eG Alinea thread. It appears to be a new "in" ingredient these days. Alex and Aki found a source for it in Astoria. Since I'll be working nearby in a few weeks I plan to stop by and pick some up.

That's funny. I always thought of it as something useful for Ma'amul and other semolina cakes and not much else.

[Behemoth]

In middle eastern countries (and some ME groceries in the US) you can get mastic-flavored chicklets. Give it a try if you ever see it, it's pretty tasty. Mastic is also a standard flavor for ice cream, kind of like vanilla is in the west.

[nuxvomica]

love that flavor in ice cream and cream

[The Scream]

In middle eastern countries (and some ME groceries in the US) you can get mastic-flavored chicklets. Give it a try if you ever see it, it's pretty tasty. Mastic is also a standard flavor for ice cream, kind of like vanilla is in the west.

Have you tried shawerma with mastic in it? Is it a pretty standard Arab Levant addition?

[Behemoth]

In middle eastern countries (and some ME groceries in the US) you can get mastic-flavored chicklets. Give it a try if you ever see it, it's pretty tasty. Mastic is also a standard flavor for ice cream, kind of like vanilla is in the west.

Have you tried shawerma with mastic in it? Is it a pretty standard Arab Levant addition?

I prefer mine with kimchi.