Continuing the discussion from The Carrefour 2023 Thread:
Italy theme at Carrefour. All products from Italy in one place.
Italy theme at Carrefour. All products from Italy in one place.
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Excellent opportunity to pick up a few boxes of prosecco, as weâll still be in peak Aperol Spritz season until late October.
The pre-cooked quail eggs are to die for. Just add salt.
The Carrefour 2024 thread has been oddly quiet. There were 148 posts in the 2023 thread by this time last year. 
There is such a huge difference in some of these locations that I quit going to the second one because the first one just better quality store and more availability and variety of items.
I guess the store on Zhongxiao Dong Lu section 4 has a quite different clientele than the store in the middle of a night market.
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Only five posts in the 2024 thread, so I donât think Iâm going to start a new one.
A very specific question: the Zhishan Carrefour has a freezer (in red British phone booth style!) for Churchillâs products. A couple of weeks ago that freezer was behind some construction and unavailable. Has anyone been there in the past week and noticed if that freezer is now accessible, or have the Churchill products simply gone from that Carrefour?
I hope theyâre not gone. They disappeared from the Danshui Carrefour a while back, and I miss them! Yes, I could go up into Tianmu to visit their restaurant, and part of me would like to go, but I find Tianmu annoying to access. (Is there a good cycling route Iâve missed, for using YouBike?)
FWIW Churchill has got some products in City Supers as well, but not as broad a range as the dedicated freezer in Carrefour - and that doesnât have as much as their stall used to have.
I may as well post something useful for others: this Saturday and Sunday (Jan. 11 & 12); next weekend (Fri. Jan 17 to Sun. Jan. 19); and the weekend after that (Fri. Jan. 24 to Mon. Jan. 27), if you spend more than $2000, you get a coupon worth 10% of what you just spent. With fine print I havenât investigated: usually booze doesnât count, unfortunately.
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Iâve just been in Carrefour Zhishan. I havenât seen any Churchillâs stuff. But I was too shocked to notice anything else except that the Carrefour bread section has been replaced by Nakery, which is significantly more expensive.
Almost no cold cuts and cheese either.
One of my worst days in Taiwan. Time to go back to baking my own bread.
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Oh, I forgot to update that: as of last week anyway, that red freezer is once again available in the Zhishan Carrefour, sort of near the meat section, with most but not all of the Churchill products available inside. (I havenât seen the tuna puffs, annoyingly.)
And yeah, the Nakery is also aggravating: great, now I have to figure out the Chinese name, get peopleâs attention, tell them what I want, and lunge to stop them before they start slicing the bread.
The Carrefours seem to be currently at one of their low points for imports. Long ago I mostly gave up on cold cuts there, and use either the (expensive!) Costco ham or salami.
But in better sandwich news, I used a very basic NYT recipe for a kimchi-egg breakfast sandwich the other day, and that was surprisingly good. Um ⌠beat 1/2 tsp soy sauce with one egg; fry a couple tbsp of kimchi for a bit and then spread out in skillet; pour egg mixture over kimchi into 10â circle; sprinkle with cheese; cook until set; fold in half, and then half again; and put on toasted bread.
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I hate it when you arrive there or some other bakery only to find theyâve sliced all the remaining baguettes (or other products) to smithereens, in uniform sizes you donât necessarily want, thus ensuring that they will go stale much faster and wonât last beyond that day. Donât Taiwanese own bread knives?
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Told you. Good ham or sausages, never mind mortadella, all gone. Outrageous prices for the usual cheese. No more French goodies.
OTOH, they brought back the plĂĄtanos maduros and yuca.
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Oh right! I bought some of those churros and have got them in the freezer. I need to try those out!
Um ⌠what does one do with baked sweet plantains? Are these just like a dessert thing?
UnipresidentâŚ
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Worse: Goya.
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Nooooo 
They are a lifeline. Without them or tostones, a proper lunch is not complete. Rice, some king of legume like habichuelas or beans, meat, salad or veggies, cheese, and plantain.
If they were fresh, maybe you can mash them and fill them with red beans or cheese. If they were overripe, yes, you could make them into cake or bread or serve them in syrup.
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Ever seen fresh plantain in Taiwan? I donât think I have.
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I did but it was from a secret source. I mean, certain choice sellers offer them to their customers. How and where they come from, only they know.
Legend has it there is some plantain plantation down South. Urban legends talk of a mythical wet market in Neihu where them plantains can be bought.
The plants themselves are under serious threat due to a fungus plague in the Americas. Taiwan is doing research to help combat the plague and save this vital ingredient in local cuisine. I hope that like chayote and pitahaya they will also find their way into Taiwanese markets and kitchens.
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Sometimes you find the the oddball stuff at the market. I alway keep my eyes out.
Funny I just randomly came across a customer review from three months ago with the same complaint. Seems weâre not alone in this opinion.
Ċø Tá¸ášĹlĚĽ
Local Guide ⢠101 reviews ⢠32 photos
î ¸î ¸î ¸î ¸î ¸3 months ago
Please ask your staff to stop slicing the bread (French Boule). Or at least if sliced: not into 5 ridiculously thick slices. We all own knives- and we are perfectly capable of slicing bread as we wish.
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I suspect a lot of people donât own them, or at least not the right kind. I donât have that much experience in Taiwanese kitchens other than my own, but Taiwanese in-laws have expressed curiosity about my âoddâ bread knife, and I rarely see them in other kitchens. Various kinds of cleavers, sure, but not a bread knife.
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