The Fairy Cafe is now selling chick peas, 400g NT$90 thefairycafe.com/Delimain.html
Not sure if they do mail order though
That weight makes it likely that it’s canned, which means it’s more than double the lowest available local price, just FYI.
Trinity (Indian grocery) should have chickpeas and will ship islandwide:
[quote]
Just send an Email of required for other grocery products,Will reply back with with freight as per your order qty anywhere in taiwan, after your confirmation,we will keep the goods ready,Once you wire the money to our account including the freight charges,we will sent the goods to you at your local address.
0926270233
TRINITY INDIAN STORE
137/2F Chungxiao E Road,Sec 5
Taipei, Taiwan.
Tel : +886 2 2756 7992 (Direct)
Fax : +886 2 2756 8042 (Direct)[/quote]
Google 雪蓮子. Turns out to be pretty common stuff. You can probably find it in local dry-goods stores that sell beans. It is also been touted as a health food.
Here are some on-line offers that I found:
NT$50/400g
bioherb.com.tw/shop/goods.php?id=74
NT$60/600g
store.pchome.com.tw/yachun2890/M03165872.htm
They have them (dried) with the other dried beans at that grocery store that doesn’t sell produce and has a red and blue sign. They’re really common. The only characters I can read say “zhong xin” (center, or middle heart, those ones).
Also most Santa Cruz stores have them organic and dried. I’ve made tons of hummus and I’m a happy girl!
I found chickpeas in Carrefour’s Neihu branch. Think I paid about NT75 for a 400g can.