Last time at Costco I bought a chub of Canadian bacon (closest thing to western style ham that I can find here) other than by the slice at Jason’s, and a chub of roast beef. Meat department sliced them very thin for me. They also have some pepper beef but I didn’t get it this time.
Don’t know where to find turkey ham but I get my annual turkey fix by buying a Thomason Meats smoked turkey and slicing it thin myself.
I believe I saw sliced turkey and turkey franks at Wellman’s. Why don’t you call or visit them?
Somewhat related: do deli meats freeze well? I’m only near a western-style supermarket a couple of times a month, so I usually wind up buying the pre-packaged plastic ones (I suppose that’s the local stuff the OP talks about). It’d be nice to buy freshly-sliced, but I always feel like I need to eat those within a couple of days. Does it work if I buy more and freeze it?
I worked briefly at a Hungry Hobo sandwich shop (kinda like Subway) in Illinois, and the deli meats came in giant sausage-like logs, frozen. 
Should be ok.
I freeze mine and never a problem.
I buy once a month the prepacked from City Super and freeze them. I thaw one package per week -usually, 4 or 5 slices of whatever is on sale- for my daily breakfast sandwich -one slice per sandwich, to expensive for more. Add two of cheese, beggoies, maybe an egg as fillers.
What I mean no problem with freezing and consuming, but I never let them thawed pieces in the fridge more than a week.
The locally made ham and pastrami in CitySuper is great, but make sure you get the munic picnic ham or honey mustard ham, not the other weird crap or the pepper beef, as it’s rank. The best part is that the ham is something like NT$60 per 100g and the pastrami is NT$75 per 100g and you can get it cut as thin or as thick as you like it. However, expect the staff to react strangely when you ask for it wafer thin…
They have some kind of cooked turkey as well, but never bought that. I don’t really care much for turkey so…
These items are of course from the delicatessen, not the pre-packaged crap.
Thanks all for the tips on freezing deli meats. Good thing: this will increase sandwich quality. Bad thing: this will cost more money. Dunno why freezing them has never occurred to me before, given how much else I throw in the freezer. (Ricotta cheese, formerly-canned tomatoes, taco shells, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, ginger, chilies…) (No bleeding room for the curries in tupperware anymore!)
How dare you speak ill of turkey! I’ll not stand for it! Turkey is one fine bird!
Why would there be an imported cold cuts shortage?
Carrefore in Shilin/Tienmu has loads of stuff.
Hi Icon. Actually I do have sliced smoked turkey breast, which is not exactly turkey ham, but IMO is even better. I should actually add it to my list of products. I’ll be adding some other items besides the smoked turkey breast, so take a peek at my site in th next day or two. I’ll be including things liked smoked halibut, smoked trout and smoked mussels.
My ham (Virginia Smoked) is NT$40 pr 100g and my pastrami is NT$46 per 100g. I have a deli machine to slice with, but it’s not one of those very expensive ones so it cannot manage exactly WAFER thin, but thin enough for most tastes.
Yeah Carrefour is great these days.
Yeah, I know, I did order some stuff from you and I also explained that I can’t eat smoked ham for whatever reason and the pastrami was sadly cut too thick for my taste.
However, with the exception of the salami, the other stuff I ordered was very good. I’ve just been insanely busy as of lately and kind of forgot about you, but I will be placing more orders in the future. Your bacon is really good, haven’t had any better here and the sausages were also great.
I just have a very particular way that I like my sandwich meat, that’s all.
I think it depends which one you go to, the one in Xindian is horrible imho, while the one I lived close to in Taoyuan was very good.
Cool. Totally understood. I have a who orders and actually cuts the meat he orders from me by hand very carefully and slowly and manages to get a wafer thin slice. He does however, have a superbly sharp German made knife so I guess that’s how he’s able to slice it so thinly by hand. Also, he maintains the meat remains fresher for longer if it is not pre-sliced.
Off topic but how are they smoked and do you do it yourself?
They’re cold smoked using real wood. Also have hot smoked mixed pepper salmon.
Anyone know of a place to get American style lunch meat here in Taiwan? preferably in Kaohsiung. Thanks!!
I.e. Even something like ham that don’t taste like raisons or 5 spice. 