There’s an article in the Taipei Times today. Apparently all the stores but one abruptly closed yesterday. There’s an estimated NT$35m in unused gift certificates and discount cards out there, and the employees haven’t been paid in months. The one outlet store still open was a branch in Far Eastern Department store.
Not anymore. Newspaper stated that there were tons of people at the Far Easton Hotel for Twins branch using their certificates. As a result, most of the breads are gone, of course and they were closed as of today.
Anyone with a dollar or two to invest might consider taking on the leases of those ex-Twins bakeries, changing the name, and reopening them. It seems to me that bakeries here, especially the good ones, must be tremendously lucrative. Every time I go into We Care, there’s a long queue of people waiting to be served. They’re selling their bread and cakes as quickly as they can take the customers’ money. And as the prices are by no means cheap, especially for the cakes, their profit margin must be pretty high. Taiwanese people seem to be developing more and more of an appetite for bread, pastries, etc., so all in all, it seems like a pretty good business proposition.
Talking about We Care, I’ve become a regular customer there since Sandman put me onto it, and I really love their European breads-- the quality is consistently excellent. I wonder about the English version of their name, though. Why on earth do they put an acute accent on the e of the We? Can anyone suggest the possible significance?
For French Bread (and real French butter) no one beats the Landis Hotel (minchuan and jilin rds) 2597-1234. I know a lot of restaurants in town buy their bread there so that says it all. They also have some good sweet dessert type breads, real style French croissants, including almond and chocolate as well as plain. I also am very fond of the sesame bread at Florida bakery on Renai and Da An. The Schwartzwald bread is, well, solid so if you are into bread that feels like eating a hole in the side of a bag of grain more power to you. Must be a German thing… though I did get a stollen once now where did I get that… Oh yes, the Schwartzwald. Not bad at all. I ate most of it myself hence the new avatar.
fred
The Landis, eh? All well and good, but I’m not about to cross the entire city for a loaf of bread! We Care is good (in fact, its ciabatta is excellent) and its on my way home.
HOWEVER, [quote]They also have some good sweet dessert type breads[/quote] if this includes pain au chocolat no distance will be too great!
Sandman:
I do drive across town for my french bread and croissants. The Landis is worth doing so. Don’t you trust me for being a fat food-loving bastard yet? I think that you might want to check this place out, say when you are in the neighborhood. Then, well, if you are hooked, you’re hooked, it not, let me hear about it. hahahaha My money is on the Landis. Ain’t lost on that one yet… And as much as I like to give the French a hard time about their agricultural subsidies, what butter. This is also the smoothest, creamiest best in town. Trust me I am right on this or my name is not Frederick P. Smith!
Well there’s one way to fix that. I just moved into a house on the lane in back of The Landis in July, so it’s just a walk downstairs for me. 
They have a hazelnut bun that is very nice, but I haven’t seen pain au chocolat. They do have some chocolates available but I’ve yet to try them. I stock up on bars of Ghirardelli and various Swiss and Italian dark chocolate bars when I’m back in the US… Also be warned that their selection varies a lot during the day, as they run out of various items.
Agree on We Care being good. Had their frech bread at one of the forumosan’s house and I am not the only one that was hook to that, there was 3-4 other forumosans as well!! We finished 4 loaf of bread easily! 
Holy shuckin’ fit! Twins really is closed. I prefer to remain ignorant about the news ever since 9/11, but I really was looking forward to getting some wheat and raisin bread. Can someone find the owner and beat him with those display breads they have outside? As for the certificates, I thought they dealt those out too freely anyways and I never used the $1,000 one that I bought a while back. Is there any place that sells wheat and raisin bread nearby. I got some wheat bread (or so I think it is) from a 24-hour bakery near where I live and it was total crap. Fell apart as I put on the peanut butter. Even horrible old spongy Wonder bread didn’t fall apart the way this stuff did when I tried to make a PB&J to go with my instant noodles the other day.
You’ll fall apart too, Imani, if you go on eating stuff like that.
Ah, I grew up eating ramen noodles with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Especially if you dip them in the soup… Mmm, mmm good!
Here is more information about Florida Bakery (www.bread.com.tw)
They have been around for many years in Taiwan and well known in the earlier yrs for some of the best American bread and groceries. They have tons of cereals, jams, cookies (hand-made with little cute decoration) to choose from. In addition, they even have pita bread, salsa, tortilla bread and other varies of foreigner food. Take a visit there one day and you won’t regret it! 
They also have traditional Taiwanese pastries.
They have 3 locations in Taipei
-Chung Shan Store
Chung Shan N. Rd, Sect.3 #23-5 (
Yes, I bought a loaf of whole wheat bread from Florida Bakery (I was meaning to buy only a jar of honey) and one of my colleagues said it looked delicious when I was making a sandwich with it yesterday. I had completely forgotten there was a Florida Bakery only a short walk from my apartment.
“foreigner food” i like that
where can I find some REAL French bread?
Please don’t say Tien Mu.
Thanks
I’m in Taipei City, Nanking East Road Sect 3
In France, but in Taipei it should be possible to find something that’s called French bread.
Get on your scooter and head over then. I usually just go in and grab my usual and go, but this time the xiaojie was yacking on the phone so I had a chance to look around a bit more than usual. They have some christmas cookies and gingerbread houses and stuff right now, but while I was glancing around I noticed a sign for ‘chocolate danish’ and since I’m a chocoholic I took a closer look and…
SWEET JESUS IT’S A PAIN AU CHOCOLAT!
NT30 a piece, so a bit pricey, but it was damn good.
(For those who have never been blessed with one, a pain au chocolat is like a croissant except it isn’t crescent shaped and it has chocolate in the middle.)
As I mentioned previously, their stock varies a lot during the day, and they start running out of a lot of things by 5-6pm, so best to get there early.
I done told you and told you already but you just doesn’t lissens. The Landis is the place for bread. Now, you too, have found their pain du chocolat. It’s been there all the time, as have the almond croissants, the best baguette and the sweetest creamiest butter that money can buy.
Stew penned 'dis. I’ll head over there this evening with my fingers crossed that there’s some pain au chocolat left. Best. breakfast. ever.