Places: Damas Gate

Fiona Mountford
Sunday 30 November 1997 00:02 GMT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

Pop into Damas Gate for a routine grocery round-up and you may well find that you leave with some freshly made aubergine salad and a few tins of baba ghannouge, as well as the cornflakes you originally went in for. This is because Damas Gate is an Aladdin's cave of Middle Eastern goodies, either imported directly from Syria (hence its name) and surrounding countries, or cooked each day on the premises.

Uncle and nephew team Ekrayem and Shaban started this delight 10 years ago, and are proud to report that although the first couple of years were "too hard", they are now flourishing, with an ever-expanding supermarket, a warehouse currently wholesaling to more than 300 other shops and a clientele who make pilgrimages here from as far afield as Brighton.

And should you ever tire of the 27 different platters of olives, the jumbled top shelves offer a host of non-comestibles to enchant, including 2ft-long Egyptian hubbly-bubblies, decorated with silver, painted glass and beading for a truly novel smoking experience.

Damas Gate, 81-85 Uxbridge Road, London W12, 0181 723 8428.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in