10659 Finding Other Food Shops

Hi Geo
You can buy coconut milk in most large supermarkets, or you could try coconut yogurt.
The same with Basmati rice, our local small store stocks it.
Curry powder from the ethnic section of Oasis and your nearly there.
We get most of the other posted over or use britishfooddirect.com.

Thanks D&R.
We can get the Bismatti rice in 10kg bags + indian curry powders etc. from close to Piederipa. Tried the Cityper, but no luck for coconut milk. Would be great to get large bottles e.g. 1ltr of Oyster sauce etc.

if you're down in Pescara there is a Chinese supermarket, never been but hope to soon.
Probably to far, just a thought.

Stribs

It's funny, innit: there are plenty of Chinese owned and stocked clothes and 'jewellery' shops about, but very few Chinese food shops. How about collaring a local entrepreneurial Chinese and asking her where she buys her ingredients?

[quote=Geotherm;99048], but no luck for coconut milk. Would be great to get large bottles e.g. 1ltr of Oyster sauce etc.[/quote]

Ancona Carrefour sell tins of coconut milk - have not specifically checked for Oyster sauce but they do have an ethnic food section selling various other bits and pieces including Jasmine Rice so you may be in luck. Thinking about it, I have never seen a Thai restaurant here in Italy!

PS : this could be just what you are looking for!!!!
[url=http://www.asiaminimart.it/]Asiaminimart.it, Delizie dal mondo direttamente a casa tua![/url]
Fingers crossed they stock the oyster and black bean sauces.

[quote=Geotherm;99042]Does anyone know where to find ethnic food shops, for example Chinese, Thai. We have managed to find an Asian food shop for Basmati rice and Indian curry powders etc, but trying to find Oyster/Black Bean sauce and Thai food products, especialy curry paste and fish sauce seem to be almost impossible. Just tonight we are having to make coconut milk from dessicated coconut for a Thai curry.
Think we can probably grow the lemon grass here, but the Kaffir lime leaves may be a problem.[/quote]
yes,in civitanova there's a great al hal buthcher just the ss.16 side of the underpass where you can geat apart from the meat very good very cheap fresh spices.also in a new building below the marche regione in Ancona there is a shoprun by asians which sells a lot of stuff even fresh ockra african and asian stuff.

[quote=anne2;99074]PS : this could be just what you are looking for!!!!
[URL="http://www.asiaminimart.it/"]Asiaminimart.it, Delizie dal mondo direttamente a casa tua![/URL]
Fingers crossed they stock the oyster and black bean sauces.[/quote]

They do indeed Anne.
Really quite reasonable prices for most things and as jars and tins keep for a couple of years it might just be worth spending €100 to stock up and take advantage of the free delivery. :smile:

I have been trying to grow lemon grass all year. It is very easy to start, by putting some shoots in water till they root. But once I plant them, they slowly give up the ghost. I know that they need a high heat and lots of humidity, but nothing I do seems to work.
I have now buy fresh when I can and freeze it.

Mark

Many thanks to you all for the replies and places to look. The link Anne2 sent does seem to have virtually everything we are looking for in the right brands and mail order, so will see if that works.

These people are pretty good for Indian things too, and cost MUCH less than BCS for shipping...

[URL="http://www.orlandosidee.de/Spices/Order%20Form/Prices_and_order_forms.htm"][B]>'Orlando's Idea'<[/B][/URL]

It sounds like your questions have been answered anyway - I don't know if you have the GS supermarket chain in your area - they sell coconut milk, and also the Coop sell basmati rice in their fior fiore range. We are Thai food enthusiasts and I have found the best way is to bring back jars of thai curry paste from England! Good luck with growing though - much better!

The site that Anne2 has given, has the large size pots of original Thai curry paste that we have always used before and the prices are very competitive as well as compared to the UK. Have just placed an order hopefully that will work and at 13 Euros for up to 30kg for the carriage, then that sounds good to me.
As an update, just spoke to a guy there, who did speak very good English regarding the order I placed. Even going to send some Kaffir lime leaves free of charge ( condition will not be known until they arrive as frozen)!!! Must say a very helpful company.

Glad to hear all going well with the order - enjoy all the goodies when they arrive. The company certainly seems to stock the genuine articles, wish I knew what 1/2 of them actually are! Will definitely have to find my Thai cookbook, dust it down and put it to good use again!

There is an Indian guy who has a stall on Comunanza market on Saturdays (round the back - not in the main market) who sells all kinds of spices & asian herbs. He might be worth a try although he doesn;t seem to be there every Saturday.

What a result from that Asian Mini Market....... ordered yesterday early afternoon and delivered midday today. Will definately use them again. Large pack of Kaffir lime leaves which were gratis, although had become unfrozen, still looked ok, so went straight into the freezer.

Excellent. Amazing service!

I've just ordered some stuff too! That's a great website, thank you very much Anne2! And it does seem very good value - great, now I can make some of the recipes in cook books that have taken a back seat since not being able to find ingredients!

You only have to ask Anne as we know most of the products that they are selling. Having been fairly frequent visitors to Thailand, as we have Thai national friends there, we can probably help out if you get a little stuck on the products. Most on the site are ones that we used to bring back, or could be found in good Asian food shops in the UK.

[quote=Geotherm;99502]You only have to ask Anne as we know most of the products that they are selling. Having been fairly frequent visitors to Thailand, as we have Thai national friends there, we can probably help out if you get a little stuck on the products. Most on the site are ones that we used to bring back, or could be found in good Asian food shops in the UK.[/quote]

Many thanks.
We have only been to Thailand once and loved the food so did try our hand at a few recipes when we lived within reach of a Thai supermarket. That was many moons ago and subsequently have now forgotten all the 'funnies' amongst the ingredients. Good to know that the site sells genuine ingredients and not the westerned version. I wonder why they are in Italy as there is not much evidence of a Thai population? At least not in the areas where we have lived.

[quote=anne2;99517]Many thanks.
We have only been to Thailand once and loved the food so did try our hand at a few recipes when we lived within reach of a Thai supermarket. That was many moons ago and subsequently have now forgotten all the 'funnies' amongst the ingredients. Good to know that the site sells genuine ingredients and not the westerned version. I wonder why they are in Italy as there is not much evidence of a Thai population? At least not in the areas where we have lived.[/quote]
When I spoke to the guy he said that there is not a real knowledge of Thai food here and especially in areas not having large cities nearby. Rome, Milan etc there are places. I still have to ask him his nationality from his name, but I think it may be from a Spanish background, maybe Phillipines, Brazil. At least he has found a niche in the market and all good luck to him.

As you made such a good job on finding that site:

Your next mission ..... should you accept it... is to find a supplier of Tahini paste so that we can make Hummus again.

Talking of tahini - all the small biological shops in my area of Liguria stock it; perhaps there's one local to you with it?

[quote=Geotherm;99532]
Your next mission ..... should you accept it... is to find a supplier of Tahini paste so that we can make Hummus again.[/quote]

[url=http://www.demaralimentari.it/categoria2.asp?parola_chiave=tahina]tahina[/url]

Done!
(But you may have to brush up your negotiating skills to buy small quantities unless you wish to live on nothing but Hummus!)

You are a star Anne ....... many thanks

Thanks so much for the link Anne, but someone's gone and bought all the sesame oil! I think there must be some sort of national shortage...

Geotherm: you can get tahini from Castroni in Rome. Go to the branch on Via Ottaviano (metro Ottaviano) and when you see the shop on your right, take an immediate right up the side street. Walk past a couple of doorways and you see a much smaller Castroni which sells ethnic food: tahini paste, noodles, sesame oil, fish sauce, soy sauce, hoi sin sauce etc etc. There's also a frozen section.

Nearby is a Chinese supermarket on Via delle Milizie - let me know if you need the directions to get there. The people there also have fresh tofu. Wonder of wonders.

Closer still - in Jesi - there's an Indian shop where you can get quite a lot of Indian spices. There's also a Chinese supermarket on the road opposite Globo (on way to Citiper) which has an eclectic range of stuff.

World Foods in Ancona also has a good range, though not much fresh. (Via D Ricostruzione 3, tel 071 898190.) It's run by a Vietnamese guy who also told me that if I called in advance, he could get me fresh herbs.

Coriander grows ok here (500m), though the only lemon grass that did anything is called South East Asian grass (or something similar) and a friend bought me the seeds from Chiltern Seed Company in the UK. They sell a huge range of seeds, but I don't know if they deliver to Italy.

[quote=Geotherm;99532]
is to find a supplier of Tahini paste so that we can make Hummus again.[/quote]

In case you haven't managed to find any Tahini yet try the Camerano Carrefour - yesterday in their 'ethnic section' there were two types of Tahini paste!

Tahini is relatively easy to find in continental Europe. Thai food and spices is a different problem as even Asian groceries have very limited amounts of products. On the other hand, approximately once a year, Lidl has a Thai week and I have been able to buy several spices and food products when it is on. Check their Web Pages as at least once a month they have a foreign food week and you can then buy many things which are not normally available through other shops.

There is a great indian shop in Civitanova centre.

Which sells every single spice from the TRS "Asian'sfinest food" (Incidentally packed in UK!)

They often have buches of fresh coriander; always plenty of coconut milk, basmati rice etc etc, sometimes Okra sweet potatoes, and Ghee(clarified butter), Rosewater and lots of other obscure items

Direction as you stand in the main square in Civitanova looking straight ahead to the town hall building to the left are two roads, the first one takes you past a pizza place and on to the Bang and Oulon shop- dont take that.

Take the one below that. about 100 metres down there on the right is the shop, it is just past a donner kebab shop.

Donner kebabs in Italy! Whatever next? Bisto? :laughs:

don't start me off on that again !: