Beijing: buying imported groceries/ingredients?

[wfujkramer]

Where would you head in Beijing for foreign groceries? I'm a bit of a gourmet and I'm looking for a little more than the "foreign rack" at carrefour has to offer. Any ideas? I don't necessarily need fresh things, but a selection of foreign spices, canned goods, coffee, etc would be great.

Surely beijing must have a grocery store for exclusively foreign products... Kunming is a fraction of the size and had a small chain of them!

[gougou]

Did you check out Jenny Lou's? You can find a list of addresses here (scroll down to Supermarkets)

[prolyfik]

Besides Carrefour, there are several other places you can go. There are a number of small grocery stores in the alleys west of Sanlitun bar street. Also, there are many many Jenny Lou's around town (Sanlitun, Ritan Park, SOHO, Chaoyang Park East Gate, Lido Hotel). There are also a couple April Gourmet shops located in North Sanlitun near the SOS clinic and north of Worker's Stadium near the On/Off Bar. If you're still looking around, there are the Friendship stores in Jianguomen and Sanlitun. If you're still not satisfied, there are some shops out in Wudaokou in Haidian near Tsinghua University. Other than that, you'd have to name something particular you are looking for.... Happy hunting!

[nephridium]

Hi folks, I just wanted to post a similar question.

What would be the best place to find some decent cooked ham (preferrably WuDaoKou area)? All of the Chinese varieties of "ham" I see in the supermarkets look pretty as long as they're packaged, but they don't really taste well or have the texture of real ham.

I do love Chinese (and other) food as well, but I lack the skill to do it myself (and the knowledge to determine the quality of the ingredients to buy) so I usually enjoy it at a restaurant.

[venture160]

anyone know of a supermarket in haidian besides carrefoure that has western food products, something like jenny Lou's but not that far away. I know I have seen some in WudaoKou, but they are overrun with korean stuff. I am looking for decent wine and some twinnings tea primarily.

thanks

[roddy]

I don't think there is anywhere like that in Haidian - as you say, the nearest you get are the Korean stores. Your best bet might be the Jenny Lou's near the Lido - you should be able to do a quick taxi run along the ring road and thus avoid getting stuck in the middle of Chaoyang. Plus there's a Sculpting in Time round the corner, so you can pretend you are in Wudaokou if you get homesick

[grayson]

Avoid Jenny Lou's if at all possible. Why? Overpriced, poor quality food and service. Meat is frozen overnight so you must wait till about 10 to buy it - not good for the meat. Cheeses - many are old and not edible. Milk products - check the expiration date. Vegies - way over priced. Bread used to be good, but to save money they changed vendors and now the bread tastes like cardboard. Check cans well, many are damaged or old. This store is worse by the month - but their prices keep going up.

[gougou]

So, grayson, which place do you recommend instead?

[Beijingistops]

Grayson - Your opinion on Jenny Lou's carries little weight until you answer the challenge put to you by administrator GouGou. I for one have been shopping at Jenny Lou's for more than fourtenn years and can vouch for a very satisfactory shopping experience in that time. Yes there are some issues but we are talking about China and Beijing in particular, here. I would particularly like to hear where you would advise shoppers in need of that certain western shopping item to purchase their product, if not Jenny Lou's. April Gourmet are good for some things, as are Lionmart. IMHO however there is nothing that comes close to Jenny Lou's in Beijing. The expatriates of Shanghai desperately need Jenny down here. All the complaints you make about Jenny's in Beijing seem to apply to all non chinese supermarkets in Shanghai, and their prices are often at least twice what Jenny Lous charges in Beijing IF you can even get the product. Jenny Lou's leaves City Shopper for dead. Come to Shanghai Jenny! We need you desperately!

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!!!!!

[igaken1]

Hi, I am thinking of living in Beijing and looking for grocery stores.

New supermarket in Huamao Center basement looks good, do you agree?

It has organic vegetables, fresh food looks clean and acceptable.

They should sell more variety of cereal with USDA certificate and someone please sell Movempick ice cream!

[Qiuyue]

And what if you live outside Beijing, in a more remote place....

[nomad]

Venture 160, there's a small shop a few doors down from Lush and the Illy coffeeshop, it's also across from an outdoor clothes market (open lot next to the WuDaoKou St). I've seen Twinnings Tea, wine...

Sorry I can't give you better directions, I just stumbled acrossed it a few weeks ago.

[marcusat]

If you live in beijing you can try www.beijinghomedelivery.com - they deliver loads of foreign foods and you can request stuff too. I haven't tried Jenny Lou's but the service from this place is good and the quality was perfect.

[lioralourie]

Where are you? Organic Weekend delivers to Dalian and several other places.

Join Beijing Organic Consumers to receive comprehensive lists of Organic supermarkets all over China. Also with nearly 400 members there's a wealth of info there.

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/beijing_organic_consumers

good luck!

Liora