Monday, April 20, 2009

Snapshot: hot food counter at Geant



GEANT SUPERMARKET
No. 297, Zhong Xiao E Road, Sec 5, B1
(steps from the Yongchun MRT stop)
(02) 2528-9388

hours: 8:30am - 11pm

website: fe-geant.com.tw English and Chinese

I love supermarkets. Give me an hour or two at Ralphs or Bristol Farms and I'll wander aisle by aisle, usually filling the cart with stuff on sale, stuff that totally off my list. That's why I miss so many of the things I can usually find in the states- cheese (brie and pepper jack), cookie and brownie mixes, Haas avocados, Sunkist oranges, Simply Orange Juice, ice cream, candied pecans from Trader Joes.. the list goes on and on. When I'm craving things I miss back home, I'll head over to Costco but have to buy in bulk or pay premium at Jason's at 101 or Citysuper at Breeze.

The trade off of shopping in a Taipei supermarket is giving up affordable American eats for affordable Chinese eats. Instead of a deli counter filled with salad bars, paninis and random pasta salads, you get chinese sausages, various fried meats and cutlets, tea eggs and braised innards. Freezers filled with frozen dumplings, buns, noodles, taro ice cream and chinese frozen dinners. A fair trade? Depends on what you're craving.

A few weeks ago when I just back from LA, I did some grocery shopping and was so hungry I ended up picking up some BIG sausages and pork cutlet to eat on the way home. I wouldn't get the sausage again, but the tonkatsu seasoned with the salty and sweet sauce hit the spot for my ravenous jet lagged stomach.

Most of my visiting friends get a kick out of the snacks here- seaweed flavored Doritos or buffalo wing chips; various flavored chocolates and fancy Pocky sticks; drinks and jellies from Japan.

What's the weirdest thing you've spotted at a Taiwan supermarket?

Other locations found on their website here. Click on the phone number to get Chinese address for four other stores in Taipei and others in Taiwan.

7 comments:

abstractpoet said...

I think the weirdest thing about Taiwan supermarkets (and Geant in particular) is the swarm of middle-aged salesladies getting all up in your face to get you to sample different varieties of milk. Never figured out what the deal with that is. Are they competing for commission from the individual milk companies?

Anonymous said...

about a year back, i was at the costco, picking up some quaker oatmeal for my grandmother. weirdest thing i've seen is... literally about 40 people making a MAD dash for a pallet of quaker oatmeal. I mean, people were shouting, fighting, pushing, etc. not wanting to disappoint my grandma i ran over and tried to grab some, but this older woman pushed me aside, and snatched my quaker oatmeal away. i still have no idea what that was about. ended up having to go across the street to Carrefour where there was plenty of oatmeal and no fighting.

Anonymous said...

asparagus juice. just...why???

dlin said...

asparagus juice isn't as bad as it sounds! I mean I don't crave it but its one of those things that is actually quite surprising. I've seen tetra paks of Durian Milk in taipei. I have no idea would why you would put durian and milk together in a Tetra-Pak....but I geuss thats probably how you feel about Asparagus juice?? haha

joanh said...

abstractpoet: hahah. i haven't gotten the milk sample ladies. just cheese or oj and soba or udon. and honey. ok those are pretty random!

hellobeebs: that is SO weird. maybe there was a coupon or news frenzy about oatmeal prices being raised?

carly: ugh. i concur!

dlin: what is a tetrapak? but durian definitely isn't my thing!

dlin said...

tetra-pak is another word for Juice Box the ones we used to get in our lunches as kids :) haha

Nanciful said...

Grocery store shopping is on my list of hobbies.

:)