Food Stuff

Many bakeries hide the actual baking from the customer as if it were a mystery. Not at Naroe’s Armenian Bakery and Deli (6020 Fair Oaks Blvd., Carmichael, 485-1886). Watch Armenian immigrant Kevin Petrosyas and his partner pull steaming loaves of challah, rye, sourdough and raisin breads from hot ovens while a huge electric mixer kneads a fresh batch of dough. Naroe’s most distinctive loaf is the Armenian natural bread. You’ll be yanking a big soft piece off this edible throw pillow long before you get it home. The six-year-old enterprise serves a predominantly Armenian, Russian and Greek clientele. Stacks of unusual canned goods from Europe and Asia crowd the shelves, and the deli case offers Middle Eastern dishes characteristic of the Armenian diet. The deli also stocks an array of exotic chocolates, including delicious, dark-chocolate-dipped prunes and apricots from that faraway exotic land known as Brooklyn.