Taipei Day 1 – Shopping at Carrefour

After lunch at Taimall Benjie brought us to Carrefour for more shopping.  Carrefour is a French based hypermarket chain. Think Walmart, Shopwise and Sm Hypermart.

The first thing that caught my eyes were these candied sweet potatoes. They looked incredibly sweet but when I tried it I loved it. It was naturally sweet and the sugar coating wasn’t cloyingly sweet. It just added a slightly sticky texture to the sweet potatoes. This started my sweet potato obsession in Taipei.

candied sweet potatoes

These are things you’ll never see in Walmart. I couldn’t identify half of these food stuff. We had a grand time trying several samples.

dried beef, pork, and fish, pork floss

dried fruits

I bought a small bag of coated cashews in this area. They didn’t have any sample for it so I just took a chance. When I tried it I regretted not buying more. The cashews were coated with a lightly sweet crunchy coating that had a strong black pepper taste. They were amazing! Sweet and peppery and very addicting.

preserved fruits

I bought a small bag of candied kumquats. I liked the sweet, tart and citrusy taste of the  kumquat’s rind. I just didn’t like the presence of seeds.

candied kumquats

giant dried cranberries

herbal teas – dried roses

sushi galore

I wonder what this tastes like? Frappucino?

milktea coffee ice cup

Just like any hypermarket there were plenty of choices for prepared food for busy people. Instead of a salad bar, pasta selections there were intestines, tongue and lots of things I couldn’t identify. Dinner sure won’t be boring.

The tofu looks good though. I can’t say the same for the rest. Whatever they are.

They have roast chicken too!

I love these dried Chinese sausages. The black one is made with pork liver and the red is just plain pork.

They also had an extensive bread selection with lots of free samples too. That’s one thing I noticed in Taipei. Everywhere we went whether in bakeries or supermarkets there were always free samples to let you taste the products.

We went to Costco after Carrefour but I didn’t take any pictures because I was too busy shopping. It was just like the Costco in the US except there were a lot of Chinese and Japanese products. I bought this big double bag of mixed Japanese nuts and crackers. They had free tasting at Costco and after trying it we all bought a bag each. These are so, so, so yummy! I’ve never eaten anything this good. My stash is down to the last few bags. I wonder where I can buy this now.

must buy Japanese snacks from Costco Taiwan