I’ve seen gluten-free masa harina in both the Zhongxiao Fuxing City Super, and the Tianmu Sogo one (near Zhishan MRT Station). I first saw it there a few months ago I guess, and it’s remained there, so it’s as regular as an imported product ever is here (i.e. it may disappear tomorrow).
I’m not sure what difference there is, if any, between gluten-free masa harina and the “regular” masa harina also sold by Bob’s Red Mill (not available in Taiwan, as far as I can tell). A brief Google search suggests the main difference is the gluten-free stuff is processed in a facility that doesn’t process other products with gluten, so I guess the gluten-free masa harina is just as good as the regular stuff - if, that is, you’re looking for masa harina, rather than the “wet masa” (?) that Icon is talking about.
Note that masa harina is also quite easy to get from iHerb (i.e. shipped from North America), as are basically all Bob’s Red Mill products. That usually seems to wind up cheaper than buying the stuff here, depending of course on what you’re ordering and how the shipping charges even out.
Canned tomatillos, on the other hand, seem to have disappeared. I haven’t seen any in a few years now.
What I call wet masa is fresh masa, the way God and the Mayans and grandmothers in Latin America use. Ocassionally, you used to be able to purchase it at Florida Bakery. Please note their tortillas though are nothing resembling our tortillas…
I think I saw tomatillos at City Super Fuxing recently, but do not quote me on that, unless I can give you a picture to prove it. Someone in these boards was actually growing tomatillos. You’d be luckier getting them that way.
I ate TexMex food some time ago regularly at the Roadies: https://www.facebook.com/Roadies.SammyD/.
However that restaurant has re-located so often recently I lost track of it and haven’t been there anymore since it left Longtan. Guess one has to be careful not to spill the soup when the restaurant once again takes off with screeching tires…
[quote=“lostinasia”][quote=“tango42”]There is a Taco Festival this weekend? …
Festival Notes
What: Festival del Taco en Taipei (台北墨西哥夾餅節
When: Saturday and Sunday from 12pm to 6pm
Where: Taipei Artist Village (台北國際藝術村), 7 Beiping E Rd, Taipei City (台北市北平東路7號)[/quote]
Thanks for posting about this. My goodness, I may actually go downtown on a weekend. I try very hard to avoid that.[/quote]
Things I’ve learned today:
There are far more young westerners in Taipei than I realized.
Tacos have more of a potential market here than I would have expected, although since that market seems mostly white, it’s probably still not a good business opportunity.
Festival del Taco en Taipei needs a far bigger area for their festival. One with a lot more tables. And space to stand. And places to at least arrange the long long lines. But good for them for putting this on, and I hope it becomes regular … in a more appropriate location for the crowd!
If part of me thinks “Oh, I should go to that” and another part thinks “Are you sure you should go somewhere on a Taipei weekend? Won’t it be too busy to be enjoyable?”, I should always listen to the latter part.
So the tacos looked good. The crowd gave me culture shock. The lines looked long. And I didn’t bother waiting to get tacos.
[quote=“lostinasia”][quote=“lostinasia”][quote=“tango42”]There is a Taco Festival this weekend? …
Festival Notes
What: Festival del Taco en Taipei (台北墨西哥夾餅節
When: Saturday and Sunday from 12pm to 6pm
Where: Taipei Artist Village (台北國際藝術村), 7 Beiping E Rd, Taipei City (台北市北平東路7號)[/quote]
Thanks for posting about this. My goodness, I may actually go downtown on a weekend. I try very hard to avoid that.[/quote]
Things I’ve learned today:
There are far more young westerners in Taipei than I realized.
Tacos have more of a potential market here than I would have expected, although since that market seems mostly white, it’s probably still not a good business opportunity.
Festival del Taco en Taipei needs a far bigger area for their festival. One with a lot more tables. And space to stand. And places to at least arrange the long long lines. But good for them for putting this on, and I hope it becomes regular … in a more appropriate location for the crowd!
If part of me thinks “Oh, I should go to that” and another part thinks “Are you sure you should go somewhere on a Taipei weekend? Won’t it be too busy to be enjoyable?”, I should always listen to the latter part.
So the tacos looked good. The crowd gave me culture shock. The lines looked long. And I didn’t bother waiting to get tacos.[/quote]
I went to this last year, by the time we arrived most of the food was gone, I was also astonished at the number of westerners there…there’s not a lot of events almost completely populated by a multicultural crowd in Taiwan. It was also too small last year…they need to move to another venue.
I walked in and saw the lines and left. I think the advertising must mostly target to the schools because it was all mostly people related to the education industry like students and teachers.
I’m not a student now but I remember when I was taking classes that I know of a lot more happenings in Taipei.
[quote=“tango42”]I walked in and saw the lines and left. I think the advertising must mostly target to the schools because it was all mostly people related to the education industry like students and teachers.
I’m not a student now but I remember when I was taking classes that I know of a lot more happenings in Taipei.[/quote]
Yeah, that kind of threw me. When you posted about this the other night, I initially thought “Woo hoo! I’m in the know for a cool event!” And even after I looked at the relatively quiet Facebook page, I didn’t think that many people would know about it.
But yeah, A LOT of people seemed to know about it. I kind of assumed that between reddit and forumosa and Taiwanease I was vaguely in the know, but apparently, no, not at all.
i’m not sure the extra people was due to my posting about the event on my Facebook page and twitter (apparently a lot of English teachers follow me!) I couldn’t make it but have been seeing photos from instagram… It’s too bad only one (Nala’s) of them seems to have a real shop.
Yeah I need to know.
Btw, it would be so interesting to listen to legislators talking about tacos.
“On this beautiful day we gather to appreciate tacos and to form strong bonds between the local and the Mexican community. I am glad to have the opportunity to taste delicious tacos made from fine Taiwanese agricultural products. I hereby declare Taipei as the new taco capital of Asia, and shall make taco promotion a priority for the rest of my term, and the next, and hopefully the one after that. Let’s work hard to create a future filled with dreams and tacos.”
