american/market: i strongly recommend WELLMAN'S MARKET

WELLMAN'S MARKET
No. 472 Zhongshan N. Road,  Sec. 6, Tianmu

台北市士林區中山北路6段472號

(02) 2871-4454

Sadly, Wellman's closed in 2019

MRT: Shipai

Hours:

Visit reviewed: 9/24/2015

Have you ever looked for Pop Tarts, Rice Krispies cereal, hot dog buns, Spam, enchilada sauce, food coloring or corn meal in Taipei? I know you have since I've gotten your emails over the years about "where to find..." and I've been looking too. 

Now you'll have at least one place in Tianmu to go to- Wellman's Market. I'd heard of it for years, but never made the trek out to investigate, but I'm telling you if you're a long time resident of Asia and willing to pay a little extra instead of loading your luggage with groceries from the states, then it's worth the trip. Instead of doing a scavengers hunt around Jason's/City Super, Carrefour, Wellcome and your local market's "import aisles", the entirety of Wellman's will look familiar to those of us from the states. It's probably how our parents felt discovering the local Ranch 99/Nijiya/Korean market rather than shopping the sad instant noodle aisle at Ralphs. Lol! There is even a  small selection of personal care goods like Irish Spring soap and various shampoos and deodorants.

Let's just walk through the aisles- there's only three since the market isn't huge, but it's packed from top to bottom.

Duncan Hines cake mixes- chocolate Devil's food, fudge marble and Betty Crocker fudge brownies sit in rows below Old El Paso, Snyders and sour cream, garlic dips.

Lots of salsas, nacho cheese, canned beans, taco shells and sauces for Mexican food DIY. Even corn meal to make your own tortillas! It's actually really hard to find corn meal in Taipei.

Tomato pasta sauces and jams and jellies like apricot, green fig, lemon curd and raspberry. I also spotted cherry, blueberry and apple pie canned fillings- I remember my mom used to use the cherry filling to top homemade mini cheesecakes.

The cereals! Rice Krispies, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Honey Smacks, Frosted Flakes and more. Note a box of Rice Krispies is almost NT$300 so you will have to really love it to buy it. Imagine the rice krispy treats you can make!!!

Small packs of hotdog and hamburger buns so you don't have to buy the megabucks from Costco.

Candies like twizzlers and Oreo Hersheys.

Poptarts and lots of them. I remember going through a pop tart phase in college but haven't really touched them in the past 10 years. Who's been looking for pop tarts in Taipei? There's also spice mixes and seasonings, and funnily enough, brown paper lunch bags and Reynold's aluminum foil, supplies we take for granted in the states.

Here we have the dressings, mayonnaise, mustard, honey, Hershey's chocolate syrup. Sriracha.

Spam and turkey spam to make your spam musubis.

Baking supplies like food coloring, active yeast, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla extract, strawberry extract. I know you can find these things here at the DIY shops too, but some of the comfort is being able to recognize brands you like and read the English instructions that aren't covered up in a Taiwanese sticker for translation.

Different types of Swiss Miss hot chocolates, even with mini marshmallows since that's the best part of hot chocolate right?

Wellman's has a small refrigerated goods section, with small tubs of sour cream, heavy cream, whip cream, and some deli cheeses, chorizo, salami. The chorizo iberico is actually quite addicting.  Next to the front are also some root beer and other beverages.

So good luck finding what you've been looking for at Wellman's. Doesn't hurt to ask them if you don't see what you are looking for. I asked them about Jello, but they said that Taiwan doesn't import Jello anymore. For those of us who've been living in Taiwan a long time, you might find yourself oohing and aahing at something you forgot that you wanted/needed on the aisles at Wellman's. 

What have you been looking for in Taiwan/Asia that you couldn't find? Comment below and maybe we'll find it!

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.

snapshot/supermarket: SUSHI at SHIN KONG MITSUKOSHI SUPERMARKET

SHIN KONG MITSUKOSHI SUPERMARKET
A11, B2
Xinyi District

$

I just got to Taipei this past week from LA and have been hungry at strange times of the day like wanting to eat lunch at 10:30am or snack in the afternoon, since I've been getting up at 4 or 5 in the morning. But hopefully I can get back to writing up all the places that have been sitting in my drafts folder. I'm going to try to post more often, but it might be a snapshot or three from my iPhone of random things food or non-food related of life in Taipei.

This is the first one- as I was wandering around the mall looking for snacks. After devouring a bag of warm Mini One crossiants, I was thirsty and got sucked into the sushi section by the cheap prices- NT$10-$15 a piece!!



So the unagi (eel) was a bit rubbery and the seaweed on the rolls soggy, but it was only NT$50 (or about US$1.75!) to customize my own mini sushi bento snack. Shinkong Mitsukoshi Supermarket has covered trays of an assortment of nigiris and eel, shrimp, egg, futomaki rolls, inari, to let customers put together their own combos.



You pay by the piece- unagi NT$15, masago NT$10- but I was a bit afraid of having to pay of having the price for cheap sashimi (an upset stomach, worst case scenario) so I avoided anything raw, but the inari sushi (seasoned rice stuffed in sweet tofu skin) wasn't half bad. It's a cool option for those who always want to pick and choose their own and get it on the go, but definitely don't have high expectations!



Of course there are a ton of other goodies at the supermarkets here, but this was the first time I had noticed and tried the build-your-own sushi combo packs.

costco/dessert: i strongly recommend JULIE's ORGANIC ICE CREAM SANDWICHES

COSTCO
No. 268 Jiu Zong, Sec 1
Nei-Hu, Taipei
(02) 8791-0110

website: costco.com

hours: 10:00 am - 9:30 pm

Kid friendliness: they're organic! but still taste the same

Visit reviewed: 10/24/2008

Sadly, I haven't seen apple pie or cake donuts at Costco in awhile, but if you're like me and you like to eat ice cream when it's cold out, you should definitely pick up a box of Julie's Organic Ice Cream sandwiches.

I had passed by them for many months, but after hearing from a friend that they were good, I decided to pick up a box. It works out so it's about US$1 a sandwich- a lot more than a box would cost in LA, but about the price you would pay for any ol' ice cream from 7-11. Plus with Haagen Daaz ice cream bars running around NT$100 these days, this was a bargain.



And I'm glad I did! It tasted just like the classic ice cream sandwich, with the melt in your mouth chocolate wafer.

I had tried a local brand of ice cream sandwich awhile back and it was not good- the wafer was dry and crumbly and the ice cream was too sweet. It was so bad I couldn't get past 2 bites, believe it or not.


avoid this brand!


looks promising right?

snack/chinese: ALMOND TOFU

You've probably seen the jelly in a cup, even with fruit suspended inside. But I bet you haven't seen this! Pre cut almond tofu with fruit IN A BAG! :)

One reason that I enjoy living in Taiwan is that it is a SNACK city. There are always lots of different kinds of snacks everywhere- hot, cold, on the street, in 7-11, cute, practical, salty, sweet. I'll try and take more pictures of the various snacks or types of snacks that are more unusual, though you can find lots of them in Asian supermarkets, like Ranch 99 or Nijiya or Marukai or even Famima!, in the states now.

I was really really tempted to buy it, especially since I really like almond tofu. But I didn't know if I wanted to spend NT$109/US$3 on it... even though it probably could have filled a couple of bowls.

I was uploading pictures for new reviews and spotted this. So while I'm procrastinating and typing this at 1 in the morning, I kind of wish I had bought it so I could have it as a cold snack. But then again, maybe it's better that I didn't. *Sigh. Oprah says no eating after 9pm (or however many hours before you sleep).

Maybe I'll head over to Shin Kong Mitsukoshi's supermarket in A4 tomorrow to give it a try. Do you think it'll taste good?