Unique produce market hopes to add a food truck serving Middle Eastern favorites.

Let’s digest the bad news first. It’s likely that you’ve missed out on the Saturday buffet at Forest Produce Market in Pacific Grove. Owner Sal Rona explains that the weekly offering was temporary—a way to test local interest in classic Iranian dishes, and he planned to end the experiment, oh, a week or so ago.

But there is a ray of very good news. The reason that the market for fruits, vegetables and other items not commonly found elsewhere hosted a buffet was to work out the menu for a planned food truck. If all the permitting and preparations go smoothly, that truck soon could be serving kebabs, slow cooked stews, rice perfumed with saffron, kufteh and other favorites—perhaps even the breakfast wake up call, kaleh pacheh.

“It’s like a Persian version of menudo,” Rona says, meaning that it might be an acquired taste.

But the rest of it? Well, on the first Saturday in January, the menu included a chicken kebab with rice, a lentil stew with chicken, a cauliflower stew—all homey and satisfying—prepared by a family friend originally from Iran.

The pop up was an in-the-know event. Forest Produce Market did not broadcast the weekly menu, in part because there was not enough to go around if more people found their way to the place.

“The main focus is to get a food truck,” Rona points out. “This gives us a good idea of what people want.”

More of that lentil and chicken dish? Yes, absolutely. Kaleh pacheh? Well…not so much. But that’s personal preference. It’s quite the big deal in parts of Iran.

When the food truck is in place, the menu will be available daily. And that menu will tend toward Middle Eastern fare.

Rona hopes to have the truck ready by the end of January. But a more certain date will be coming soon.

Forest Produce Market is at 1169 Forest Ave., Pacific Grove (across from Trader Joe's).