Found Treasure: Forest Produce Market and Kebab Xpress

February 28, 2025 – Imagine you could relive a range of your primary experiences all over again. 

Your first roller coaster. Your first kiss. Your first Fanta. Your first wave, first puppy, first pizza.

It would be impossible to put a price tag on that. And it would be similarly impossible to recreate.

But related endeavors await within reach: A whole new realm of original experiences, like, say, encountering your first squirt bottle of hazelnut cream, first dried dragonfruit stateside and first Jack Hua Co. ground chili with fried garlic all await at a modest and easy-to-overlook family-run market in Pacific Grove.

The inventory at Forest Produce Market, in fact, inspired the tip that led me to the former 68 Skate, across from the Forest Hill shopping complex and relatively new Love Thai.

Put differently, I was a fan before they introduced their own Mediterranean food truck Kebab Xpress three weeks ago. 

The welcome advice came courtesy of local photographer/surfer/flavor hound David Royal, and went like this:

My wife loves the small market across from Trader Joe’s in Pacific Grove…She can get supplies for Indian cooking without having her mother drive it down from the Bay Area…It’s got a sweet mix of ingredients/ supplies from the Middle East and South Asia and fresh produce of course.

Visits here translate to Found Treasure hunts amid the refrigerated coolers, dry good shelves and ice cream freezers.

Cook-at-home falafel? There’s a first for me. Persian pickled garlic? Let’s dance—whether popping cloves or integrating them in more ambitious dishes. Creamy Rose ice cream sandwiches hugged by a waffle wafer? Uncharted—and tasty—territory.

The flavor frontier comes accompanied by complimentary hot tea and rotating cookies like halva or gata or zaban plopped right there in the aisle. 

Now the food truck adds more incentive to make a pilgrimage. 

The Xpress parks in the back parking area, which should be noted makes in-and-out shopping roughly 4,444% easier than the Trader Joe’s lot across the street.

A white board menu lays out the simple options while the well-seasoned smells from the grill seduce: plates, sides, wraps, loaded French fries and a family meal, starring chicken, beef and lamb kebabs plus falafel.

I tried a lamb kebab plate that overloaded my to-go clamshell with Greek salad, pita, homemade green chutney, tzatziki and tahini, and the rich spice profile proved intense and flavorful enough that I can taste it just thinking about it.

Co-owner/operator Ned Rona mans the kitchen and the hot charcoal grill that slow-roasts the skewered meats.

His process proves this is no fast food operation, which is just fine because the flavor is worth the wait, and there’s so many first experiences to explore next door.

More at Forest Produce Market’s Facebook page.