Where can I buy brown lentils in Taipei at a reasonable price, please?
Red lentils are now quite easy to find and cost about 60 NT$ per 600g, but brown lentils I have so far only found for something like twice or three times this price which is ridiculous.
Any ideas please? Looking to pay about 60 NT$ per 600g / 100 NT$ per kg.
Have you tried the Indian stores?
Thanks, yes I have, but the ones I have checked only have ridiculous prices. But maybe somebody knows an Indian store with reasonable prices for brown lentils
I thought so, I don’t recall seeing brown ones there actually. Maybe organic stores?
They carry this brand a lot, but I see brown are out of stock
Yes, thank you. And the prices there would also be too high for eating lots of lentils for a poor guy like me at 370 NT$ per kg 
Then I would rather continue eating the red ones which cost about a quarter of this
Yeah, they aren’t a common food item here, and the brown seem to be the least common.
carrefour has canned lentils, but not dry ones.
The Indian stores (and restaurants) here are really overpriced due to the import duties on Indian ingredients. I remember reading a post where a popular Indian restaurant owner in Taipei explained why he is forced to price items this way~
I think that Trinity guy goes through a lot of hassle to get each container through.
Ya, it is almoat all logistic issues. But to he fair, paying 300/kg for dried beans, when thinking about nutrition and quantity is actually very cheap. I sympathize with the op in having a budget, but over time you will certainly begin to notice that investing in ones health is far more cost effective than.short term crap. Frankly, getting quality lentil, chick pea or other good protein sourced beans at 700/kg is quite a good deal. Unless of course the op is a restaurant where cheap is priority over quality. Which it always is everywhere except maybe some fine dining establishments.
Years ago i started switching my perspectives towards inveatin in my body, and the body will pay back dividends. Not only is the bod more productive, you rarely get sick, you make more mkney and long term you save untold amounts.on health costs. Worth the difference of a few hundred nt per week IMO. I know it can be tough. But still worth it.
If you know the production, packaging, logistics and political incentives to get your lentils sold retail in taiwan at 100/kg, i bet you a beer you wouldnt want to eat it…
I do not think it is import duties, but just ridiculous mark-ups and lack of competition. I regularly used to buy brown lentils for 100 NT$ per kg at a small store in Tianmu which was run by an Indian restaurant on the side and they certainly would not have sold me the brown lentils at a loss. But the guy went back to India.
And Trinity also happily sells red lentils for 170 NT$ per kg which at many other places in Taipei only cost 60 NT$ per kg. Not bad for a profit margin…
Not saying it is the issue, but quite possibly so. The FDA and other gov agencies now are getting quite strict on food safety. Reality is many dried produce is contaminated with fungus, bacteria, soil, foreign seeds and feces. Now the gov is starting to actually enforce the laws and countries such as India are much harder to import from based on such situations. Speaking for actual experience. Not picking on India, i love them.
Lentils speciifcally…if there was a bigger market here for them, importing from Aus, usa, canada etc would be far easier. An the QC is far better than India, but those countries still spray a lot so…
And if you are a big chickpea eater, Explant, happy to tell you where you can buy them for 100 NT$ per kg in Taipei…
Just struggling with the brown lentils.
Luckily chick peas are easier to find than brown lentils! Cheers for the hookup, just post it here everyone can enjoy. Im a 7 hour drive from taipei so might not work for me. luckily the government here with the r and d folk are on growing chick peas in taiwan. Between you me 
By popular request: Best place to buy chickpeas and red lentils in Taipei:
Nanmen Market¸ No. 55, Section 2, Hangzhou South Road, Da’an District, Taipei City, Taiwan 106 (MRT: Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall)
Both cost about 100 NT$ per kg.
But still looking for cheap red lentils…
There’s some really quite small Indian operations here in Taipei, worth searching fb. I remember one a while back seemed to be operating out of a residential address. Their prices were significantly better than Trinity.
Nanshijiao there’s a street known as Burma street I was taken there once and you can buy all Indian type spices and I bought some brown lentils at a good cost, was a year ago so can’t identify exactly where.
I went there today out of curiosity. I could find no brown lentils but good variety of other difficult to find stuff.
Not I’m a fan of Burmese food - they add a sour taste to everything, hot yes, hot-sour NO.
Zhonghe Myanmar Street
Huaxin St, Zhonghe District, New Taipei City, 235
0981 681 701
https://goo.gl/maps/hZ3EJJbXKf6E5FVa6
Thank you. Went there as well. Also did not find brown lentils, but enjoyed seeing Burmese letters and Burmese food. So well worth visiting for those longing for a little foreign adventure with the borders closed. Thank you for the recommendation.
