7 Sweet Spots in Taiwan to Get Food from Japan
AAJ Editorial Team
Grand Garden — An Upscale Fruit Market With Style & an Uncompromising Approach
Grand Garden Fruit Market opened in 2015 on Renai Road in Taipei, a street lined with upscale condominiums. Grand Garden deals exclusively in fresh, high-quality produce from Japan, Taiwan and New Zealand. This upscale fruit market has a style and uncompromising approach that set it apart from the average Taiwanese grocery.
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GOZENKAMICHA — Ice Cream & Drinks Starring Uji Matcha
Gozenkamicha, based in Kaohsiung, in the southern part of Taiwan, has been gaining popularity for its range of ice cream and drinks that are made using matcha green tea from Uji, Kyoto. Owner Stan Ao previously operated a clothing shop selling Japanese fashion brands and a café in Taiwan. During that time, he traveled back and forth to Japan many times a year and came to know the allure of matcha green tea. He began to adopt it on his café menu, eventually starting a store specializing in matcha green tea.
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MORICACA — Handmade Treats Using Techniques from Japan
Taichung is a place where long-standing Taiwanese confectionery stores rub shoulders with up-and-coming stores. And while there are many traditional stores, Moricaca is garnering popularity as a French confectionery store, handmaking delicacies that incorporate ingredients and techniques from Japan.
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Boulangerie Shan Wei — Home to Stone-Ground Japanese Wheat Flour
Boulangerie Shan Wei can be found in the Muzha area in the suburbs of Taipei. Baker Kao Chi Wei and his wife opened the first bakery in Taiwan to specialize in combining Japanese and European taste and atmosphere in 2012. Stone-ground wheat flour imported from Japan is used at the bakery. After trying many kinds of flour, Mr. Kao found the aroma and texture of stone-ground flour was exactly what he was looking for.
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PEKOE — A Pioneer Taiwanese Boutique
Pekoe opened in 2002 as one of Taiwan’s first boutiques specializing in food. The store was founded by Ms. Yilan Ye, a well-known Taiwanese food and lifestyle writer, in order to bring together “great things” from around the world that she has “actually eaten, used and loved” and present them to the people of Taiwan.
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Kyushu Pancake Café — Featuring Ingredients All from Kyushu
The flour used at Kyushu Pancake Café is all produced in Kyushu. The ingredients are sourced from different places: red glutinous rice from Fukuoka, pressed barley germ from Saga, glutinous millet from Nagasaki, purple rice from Kumamoto, non-glutinous rice from Kagoshima and germinated brown rice from Miyazaki. Cane sugar from Okinawa and Kagoshima are also used.
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TAWARAYA — Providing the Freshing Japanese Rice
Tawaraya’s owner, Mr. Tomohiro Deguchi from Hokkaido, began his overseas rice-polishing mills with the desire to contribute his services to local Japanese restaurants in the area by bringing in rice from Japan in its most flavorful condition. He has opened mills in Hong Kong and Singapore before the Taiwan location opened in 2013. He also opened a store in Hawaii in 2016.
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