i have been trying unsuccessfully to find hoisin sauce in the supermarkets around taipei. does it go by a different name in taiwan? anyone know the pinyin for it.
when i ask for hoisin nobody has a clue as to what i am talking about it.
In Taiwan itās called āoyster sauce.ā
č ę²¹
HAO2 YEO2.
As far as Iām aware, oyster sauce and hoisin sauce are actually different things. The former is salty, the latter much sweeter. I donāt know the pinyin, but hereās a picture with the characters - maybe someone can pinyinise them 
ta for the responses
oyster and hoisin sauces are different.
FROM LEE KUM HEE website
-------- Oyster Flavored Sauce is specially made from the finest premium oyster extract. With its rich oyster taste, this all-purpose seasoning sauce enhances the taste and appearance of any dish.---------
----------Hoisin sauce is a delicious irresistible sweet sauce made from selected spices, ground soybeans, and sweet potatoes.
daasgirl is this your own photo?
if so where did you buy it?
thanks
oli
āHoisinā is āhai xianā (tones?) in Mandarin.
No, Iām afraid - cribbed from the Net. But your post reminded me how long itās been since Iāve cooked anything with hoisin and you may have sparked a craving! Iām actually really surprised itās so hard to find, since Iāve seen plenty of Lee Kum Kee products. Iāll have a look around next time I go shopping.
you might try looking for something called ę¢ åé¬ (mei-zi jiang, plum sauce) think itās similar.
Iām sorry to give you wrong information. My bad 
All this time I thought they were one and the same.
Nah bro, plum sauce and hoisin are most certainly different. And 914 - I thought they were the same thing up till now tooā¦
Great for Vietnamese noodlesā¦ Pho. Score! Got a brand new bottle waiting for use.
Found some today. They sell it in Jasonās under 101, I think it was lane 6.
It is not conmon in local cooking. More of a Cantonese thing, but all supermarkets should stock it.
Someone already gave the pinyin.
It is called Seafood Sauce in Mandarin: hai3 xian1 jiang4
I found it at City Super in the Far East Department Store on Dunhua. Easy to find as the brand has the word written in English on the label. Look in the Chinese food section (yes, there is such a labelled section).
If someone still want to find the hoisin sauce and live really far from City Super , maybe can try the ēéŗµé¬ (Tien2-Mien4 jiang4?), it tastes similar (in my opinion) and itās very easy to find. When I tried the hoisin sauce the first time, i thought they are the same things.
Iām trying a new recipe that calls for hoisin sauce. My dictionary says itās ęµ·é®®é¬.
Although that translates as āseafood sauceā, the recipe is vegan so there wouldnāt be any seafood in it. (Wikipedia explains the origins of the name and that there actually isnāt any seafood in hoisin sauce)
However, after asking a Carrefour worker for help in finding this sauce, all she could come up with was thisā¦
Clearly the label says it contains seafood. So Iām just wondering if anyone knows another way to ask for this mysterious sauce.
EDIT: I found a workaround. Internet tells me I can combine Thai chili sauce with some garlic and Chinese 5 spice, all of which I have on hand.
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Would something like ēéŗµé¬ work?
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Iāve bought hoisin sauce, labeled as such, here, but that was a while ago. I think Iāve seen it pretty recently, maybe at Breeze Super? Lee Kum Kee brand.
EDIT: Never mind, threads got merged about twenty seconds later!
Thereās this discussion from almost twenty years ago ā¦
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I still see them used in pho shops, so if you go to where they sell food for southeast Asians they will likely have it. If carrefour try the tienmu store as they tend to have a larger international products.
Or shopee
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Good advice. There are shops like this not far from me by the train station.
