Living in another country is always interesting, but sometimes it’s the little things that are more of a challenge than you’d think. That’s certainly true of shopping for food. Deb and I eat out once a day at most, so do a lot of our own cooking. And in a new country with different customs, finding grocery stores and shopping for food can be an interesting adventure. We are fortunate that we have a nice street market just up our alleyway, less than two hundred meters away. It’s been a great place to pick up our daily vegetables. There are dozens of vendors lining the street, selling anything from clothing and simple lunches to garden produce and seafood.

We have found the produce to usually be very good. What is sold varies from day to day, but we can always get a variety of leafy greens, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, onions, and many other basics for stir fry. The picture below shows wax apples, sort of a cone shaped apple. They are similar to our apples, but are more delicate in texture, but still crunchy. Below that is a custard apple. (or Buddhas head fruit) The custard apple does taste like custard, and has inedible medium sized black seeds mixed through the fruit.

You can also pick up seafood, including shrimp, a variety of fish, octopus and squid. We never got brave enough to take home a squid to cook it up!

But the variety of fresh vegetables, along with dumplings or fresh chicken from the grocery store (and a good flavor packet) gave us lots of good meals.

And if we do need to take a quick break from shopping, there is also a temple on the market street.

And a little further down the street is a vendor selling filled pastries. They are either custard or bean paste. (Bean paste as a dessert is a taste neither of us has acquired) The way these are made is quite impressive. And the video doesn’t show all the flipping, and final trimming of excess dough that is done. We can get two delicious pastries- crunchy sweet shell with custard filling- for about 65 cents.

 

But getting back to groceries- below is one of the sauce packets we like. And this helps explain some of our challenges. What is the flavor? Not sure, but fairly hot. (2 peppers) But just fix like it says on the instructions, and we are good for supper!?!

Our translate app works from camera images, and can be quite helpful. But translation is very hit and miss, so it gives us a general idea of the text at best. And sometimes it makes absolutely no sense. The front of the packet above, for example, translates as:

  • Small grinding mill (The company that makes it, I think)
  • Husband formula (Keep the whole family happy?)
  • Enjoy Bangkok hot and sour appetizers
  • Rich variety of spices
  • Cuisine

And the main title? translates as “Pool”

And grocery stores, even once we have found them, are slow going. Imagine if in your grocery store, the shape and colors of nearly every product were changed into a language you can’t read. And then they’re hidden in and around a huge variety of new products you’ve never seen before.  So you’ll come to an aisle- and what might this be?

Ok, that one was easy. Soup. How about this one?

Noodles of course. Even things like snack foods need to be approached with care- unless you like your salted almonds with small dried fish. Very popular over here.

And one last one:

Mostly soy sauce. But also vinegar, specialty sauces, and ?? We’ve tried half a dozen of the sauces, with mostly good luck. Most of them are only two or three dollars, so why not try? We are having fun, and trying many new things, but hopefully this helps explain why sometimes the routine things seem to take so long. And one last item of something interesting you can find in the local grocery:

Because we’re carrying all the groceries we need in backpacks, we tend to go daily. It’s also nice to get everything fresh. One of the grocery stores I visit often was doing a lot of construction next door. Then one day I was walking past and saw this:

My translate app helped me figure out that there had been a case of arson a while ago, and the storeowner and nearby locals were thanking the gods that the fire department arrived quickly, was able to put out the fire before too many stores were damaged, and that the arsonist was caught. This temporary shrine was set up, with flowers and gifts contributed from the neighbors.

We mostly ate out at mid sized restaurants, (small by US standards) but did eat at a small local cafe with a couple of Deb’s Songworks friends. They have room here for about 8 diners. Good food, and they seemed tickled to have us there.

We’ve been trying to pick up interesting foods in grocery stores and restaurants. We found a nice snack store about 1 km east of our apartment.

And here’s what we came back with.

A type of rolled crepe with a hint of seaweed, wasabi peanuts with a baked dough shell (yummy) and the spirals are a hard, barely sweet cookie with a slight licorice flavor. Chocolate of course, and a roll of pressed sugar treats. Didn’t like the last one, but the rest were good.

Well, that’s it for dining and groceries in Taipei. We’re planning on a couple more posts in a few days, so stay tuned.