La Bouffe International Gourmet — Local services in Portland

This is a lovely little Middle Eastern grocery that has many things critical to Middle Eastern recipes.

If you're from or have at some point lived in the Middle East, and are missing your comfort foods, you can get them here. It's also great if you want unusual groceries such as sheep's milk cheese.

I love all dairy products, but they don't love me. If I eat too many cow's milk based dairy products, I start getting earaches and sinus problems.

If I eat sheep's milk dairy products that doesn't happen, so I get a cheese from SE Europe and the Middle East here, called Kashkaval. It's a hard cheese that slices like and begins by tasting a lot like Cheddar, and then somewhere in the middle twists and starts tasting like Swiss. Unusual and tasty!

The owner is a nice, older lady who often runs the cash register during the day. Olive oil, low cost spices including zaatar and sumac as well as others are also available...

La Bouffe has the best bulk spices around. Great prices, fantastic selection, and amazing spices you won't find anywhere else. also the best price around on quality olive oil. If you don't know which one to buy, just ask - someone will have an opinion. lol They expanded their selection to include many local locally made foods and provisions. You simply can't go wrong whether you're putting together your most amazing charcuterie board or getting all the right ingredients for your favorite Middle Eastern dishes. I adore this place so much. And when the get Fennegreek back in yhe bulk spices treat yourself! It's my secret weapon flavoring. Everyone loves it! It seems they've been having trouble getting it and hope it...

Even though this store is not huge they have an excellent selection of all types of cheeses pita breads mixed olives and just about anything else you can think of for a variety of Arabic cuisines. The bread is always fresh and reasonably priced. I really appreciate being able to pick up Lebanese beer that I can't seem to find anywhere else in Portland. Street parking can sometimes be scarce but if you go during a slower time of the day you can get lucky and snag a spot right in front of the store. I love the selection of olives. there's a little something for everybody in this store and it's well...