The tastes of Araby

IT was Sunday, late morning, and two North American back-packers were

in Nazar Alhassani's immaculately laid-out Middle Eastern delicatessen

in Bank Street in the West End of Glasgow, buying themselves the fixings

for a picnic lunch.

''What do you recommend we see in Glasgow?'' the girls asked as they

gathered their belongings together.

''Well, are you into arts things?'' Mr Alhassani replied. Then he gave

them one of the special maps of the city that he's had printed up and

keeps on hand for just such customers, and spent the next 10 minutes

praising the treasures of Kelvingrove Art Gallery, the Museum of

Transport, Glasgow University and the Botanical Gardens.

Meanwhile, I chatted to the friendly man I took to be a shop assistant

but turned out to be a friend of Nazar's who just happened to be passing

that morning and agreed to help out for an hour or two.

Scherezade (named after the princess -- also spelt Scheherazade -- in

Arabian mythology who outwitted the sultan and went on to become queen)

is that kind of place.

Opened about six months ago by Mr Alhassani and fellow Iraqi Saad

Alshybani, the shop specialises in the kind of foods that are widely

available in Nazar's native Baghdad but were pretty thin on the ground

in Glasgow -- especially in 1977 when he first came to the city to study

environmental engineering (''that's how to control industry so as not to

damage the environment'' he explains patiently, having been asked many

times before) at Strathclyde University.

''Yes, I can remember the food at the refectory,'' he says, shutting

his eyes briefly, the better to conjure up an image. ''It was always a

blob of mashed potato, a blob of, I think, baked beans, and a blob of

something like fish.

''It wasn't so much the taste of the food in Glasgow that was at fault

in those days -- I was very pleased when I discovered haggis, for

instance -- and its presentation which has definitely got better. There

is much more to tempt the eye.''

A keen cook, Nazar found that making a meal was an excellent way to

relax after taking exams -- especially if they hadn't gone well. ''I

used to telephone my mother from Glasgow and ask her how to make such

and such a casserole,'' he recalled.

Work in Abu Dhabi followed and it was there that he met his wife Jane

who, as fate would have it, came from Glasgow. ''And I thought I had

escaped Scottish girls!'' Nazar laughs.

The Alhassanis returned to the city five years ago and have settled in

Giffnock with their three children.

Despite great improvements on the food scene in Glasgow, Nazar found

that many of the ingredients for his favourite dishes were still hard to

come by. So, fed up with having to travel to Manchester and even London

for supplies (Jane Alhassani had, by this time, mastered the art of

Middle Eastern cooking to such an extent that even their Iraqi friends

were impressed) he and Saad Alshybani decided to open their own shop.

Nazar, for one, has since discovered that owning a delicatessen is not

only a method of ensuring that you never run out of your favourite foods

but is also an antidote to the stresses and strains of a high-pressure

office job.

''Full-time shopkeepers will probably hate me for saying this,'' Nazar

admits, ''but coming in here at the weekends when we take over from our

regular staff is a very relaxing thing to do.''

Eschewing his Monday to Friday uniform of suit and tie, Nazar is still

immaculately turned out in well-cut denim shirt and jeans and, as we

speak, he fingers a beautiful set of Lebanese worry beads; a going-away

present from former colleagues in Abu Dhabi.

We stand near the large, refrigerated display cabinet, which, Nazar

explains, is the focal point of the shop, where two dozen salads and

dips -- made from wholesome ingredients such as chick peas, ground

sesame seed, cracked wheat, aubergines and lashings of garlic and olive

oil -- are attractively arranged according to colour and texture.

(Among other foods, they also stock their own-make halal pepper steaks

and beefburgers as well as baklawe pastries which are couriered up each

week from the same Lebanese bakery in London that supplies Harrods.)

''People will not be attracted to try new foods if the presentation

isn't right,'' says Nazar, ''which is why presentation is so important

in our shop.

''Similarly,'' indicating a pile of little paper plates and plastic

spoons beside the cabinet, ''we invite people to try things they aren't

familiar with. It's not fair to ask people to buy if they don't know

what it tastes like.

''We also print and give away recipes for the salads and dips we

sell,'' he continued. ''Customers tell us 'you are giving away your

secrets!' but these aren't secret and we keep the basic ingredients here

so they can make many of these things themselves.

''It's all part of the interaction between customer and shopkeeper,''

Nazar maintains, clearly relishing the situation.

* Scherezade, at 47 Bank Street, telephone 041 334 2121, is open seven

days, 10am-7pm.