Where can I get the above ingredients? I don’t recall ever seeing fresh parsley in Taiwan - maybe somewhere in Tianmu? What about bay leaves? And fresh rosemary?
Also, where can I get western (non-sticky) rice? My wife is getting good with her Spanish paellas, but the rice is too sticky. What are my options?
How about flower market under the Jianguo bridge? Saw them before there, but guess it’s not the season now, is it?
You can get most of those herbs fresh at various supermarkets, though supply is erratic, and I’ve never seen fresh bay. A cheaper and longer-lasting option would be to buy the whole plants from Da An flower market. The herb selection is very good these days. They have small plants (3 for NT100, I recall) or larger ones. I haven’t seen fresh bay, but I’ve never really looked for that one.
Real paella uses a particular rice variety, doesn’t it? Damned if I know where you’ll find saffron, though!
Bought living sage, parsley, basil, oregano, marjoram, comfry and rosemary at the market on Sunday - 7 small pots for NT$200.
They are all still alive on the balcony as I type! There is also a stall that sells litttle pots of seed and dirt as a sort of starter pack - just add water.
I think I’ve seen some american par-boiled (what does that mean, anyway??) pre-packaged rice at Wellman’s in Tianmu, but let me reconfirm that first before you head out there …
Scarborough Fair
The Welcome in Mucha carries Australian long grain rice. Also a Thai basmatti. Don’t all grocery stores now stock a variety of rices?
Fresh parsely? I thought a sprig of that’s what goes on top of every dish in taiwan? Or I am thinking of something else?
Thanks for the hint pjdrib. Not much of a cook myself, thought, but maybe I should still get some of these. Would make my pasta better…=)
[quote=“Mucha (Muzha) Man”]Fresh parsely? I thought a sprig of that’s what goes on top of every dish in Taiwan? Or I am thinking of something else?[/quote]That’s right. I don’t remember seeing it for sale though. I’ll keep my eyes open.
There’s a decent page on paella here;
taunton.com/finecooking/pages/c00113.asp
[quote=“Closet Queen”]Real paella uses a particular rice variety, doesn’t it? Damned if I know where you’ll find saffron, though![/quote]Yes, it’s a particular kind but it’s quite a short-grain one, so Taiwanese rice should make an acceptable substitute. From that page;
“The rice should be medium grain. Spanish rice is rounded and short; it absorbs liquid very well, and it stays relatively firm during cooking…Arborio is an acceptable substitute; long-grain rices, however, are not.”
Isn’t that coriander?
Doesn’t Jason’s have lots of different kinds of rice?
Brian
Isn’t that coriander?
Doesn’t Jason’s have lots of different kinds of rice?
Brian[/quote]
I think coriander is what they chop up and put on suan la tang and other soups, but the bigger sprigs of green are parsely I think. Parsely has a firmer stockier stem while coriander feels loose and floppy when you hold it.
Forget to mention that a shop in Tienmu on Zhongshan Bei Lu used to always have fresh herbs in small packages in the fridge. It was a bread shop that also sold a lot of western groceries in the back, including wine. On the right hand side before the American School I believe.
If you have a drug-dealer income you can pick up cut fresh herbs from Jasons (101 Bldg) for several million NT$ per gram.
Am I right that cilantro and coriander are the same thing? like courgette/zucchini, aubergine/eggplant etc.???
There’s a food importer that can get saffron; have to sell a kidney for a small capsule of the stuff, though. Haven’t been able to find the coloring for paella here; pick up a bunch whenever I’m back home.
Best,
CK
Fresh parsely? I thought a sprig of that’s what goes on top of every dish in Taiwan? Or I am thinking of something else?[/quote]
That sprig is cilantro. Cilantro is what is used in Asian cooking and in salsa, etc. Parsley (or parsley flakes) is used mostly in western cooking or sprinkled on pastas. Cilantro bunches are less “stiff” than parsley bunches. Coriander is the seed of the cilantro.
Some people chew cilantro when they have bad breath.
Moaman,
We’ve got rosemary growing quite nicely on our balcony here as well as other herbs. K bought these as small plants at a plant shop at the corner of Mingfeng St. and Kangning St. so you dont need to go downtown to buy it.
That store has changed themes a bit. i was in there the other day, didn’t check for the herbs but i’d guess they don’t have them any more.
If you don’t want to buy your herbs at the Jianguo flower market and grow them yourself (I know from experience that they may well die), where they have more or less everything, including four or five different kinds of mint, you can almost always get fresh parsley in the Dinghao Wellcome (Da’an and Zhongxiao). Most of the time, but not always, they also have thyme, rosemary and something else. The same goes for Breeze, they always have fresh herbs, although it may differ in kind: thyme, rosemary, and some other kinds. They also have a lot of stuff for Thai cooking, like lemon grass, kaffer lime leaves, Thai ginger, red onions and so on.
Don’t know about the rice, but we have bought saffron in the Sogo supermarket a couple of times over the past few years, although I don’t know if they always have it, or if we’ve only been lucky.
P
That store has changed themes a bit. I was in there the other day, didn’t check for the herbs but I’d guess they don’t have them any more.[/quote]
Damn, I’m going back to the Travel forum where I know my info is current. 
That sprig is cilantro. Cilantro is what is used in Asian cooking and in salsa, etc. Parsley (or parsley flakes) is used mostly in western cooking or sprinkled on pastas. Cilantro bunches are less “stiff” than parsley bunches. Coriander is the seed of the cilantro.
Some people chew cilantro when they have bad breath.[/quote]No, 914, the sprig is parsley and parsley is what people chew when they have bad breath. Taiwanese people do not generally eat parsley and they certainly do not eat that garnishing sprig. They think it’s strange when I do. It’s related to coriander/cilantro but the taste is quite different.
It’s even used to garnish desserts – reasonable I suppose if you believe that garnishing is parsley’s only purpose, but odd when you’re used to actually eating the stuff.
Mucha Man is correct. Coriander (also known as cilantro which is the Spanish name for that herb) used to garnish soups and some other things. Never desserts though.
Incidentally the Spanish for parsley is peregil.
Sorry, joesax, my bad for the chewing on cilantro mistype. I meant parsley, but who cares. 
But I’m sticking to everything else I wrote before that. 