Foods that are overpriced in Thailand but you simply can't live without!

[Suradit69]

cheap cask wine and only 12% is Bodegas 800 baht for 3 liters

vitamins are expensive here and so get them imported from the USA

smegma is cheap enough though

"smegma is cheap enough though"

Never thought of that as a food or having a price. Are we talking about what I think we're talking about?

smeg·ma

/ˈsmɛgmə/ Show Spelled [smeg-muh] Show IPA

noun

a thick, cheeselike, sebaceous secretion that collects beneath the foreskin or around the clitoris

Edited July 14, 2013 by Suradit69

[leisureboy]

Things I still spend the money on: Avocados- Santa Barbara county road side stands 6 Haas for a buck. Cheese- Trader Joes many varieties for under $3 a pound (approx. 240tb a kilo). As an aside, Villa Pattaya has California cheese for 105tb for 8oz. (last week on sale at 89tb), which is about as cheap as any cheese I've found here. Mild and sharp cheddar, jack, pepper jack, couple of others. Skippy PB - about 5 times the cost here. Whipping cream- 3X the cost here, but I have to have it for my coffee. Things too expensive to justify or not available here: Turkey- Being able to buy just legs or a breast and roast them. Almost better the next day in a sandwich (with cheese and avy, of course). Butterballs are injected with some kind of saline solution, doesn't taste right to me. Corn/ grain fed aged beef. Variety of hot sauces- please no sugar added. Tapatio (approx. 50tb a liter!) and Chulula weren't good enough for me in CA. but now they're a major reason to go to Sam's or Tequila Reef. Both self import. Pastrami- the good fatty kind. Delizza did it right, but not cheap. Baker's (unsweetened) chocolate. Been awhile since I've baked brownies. Vanilla extract. Raw nuts other than almonds and cashews. And those summer fruits, peaches, plums, apricots. Pics: My last Thanksgiving Turkey French-Thai beef tri-tip. Pretty tasty, but not as tender as US beef, and has jumped in price since this pic. It's been awhile...

I typed this as a list???

Also missing pic, will try again.

Edited July 14, 2013 by leisureboy

[Suradit69]

mmm what i cant find here ,, drop menthos , dr pepper , peppermint , a decent shovel (bats)

can live without but sure would not mind having it again and yes BUTTERMILK

"mmm what i cant find here"

I don't think the O/P had to do with things you can't find. Anyway Dr. Pepper is available. More expensive than most soft drinks, but not too bad.

[leisureboy]

Turkey

[oneday]

Cottage Cheese - hard to find and painfully expensive

Kraft Mac and Cheese - 60+ baht a box if you can find it...

sweet pickle relish? I usually end up making my own.

Mountain Dew? only at Villa market for 60 baht per can.

Ham on the bone - I haven't yet found one. Anyone know where to find in Pattaya?

I've seen Kraft Mac and Cheese at Big "C" Extra many times. I bought it once to cook for my girl.

I get packages of Good Seasons dressing mix brought over from the US. Takes up little room and all you add is water, vinegar and oil. Makes a great Italian dressing. I also have Hidden Valley ranch dip mix brought over.

Recently I've been pretty happy with a 550B/kg steak at Friendship Market. That puts it in the $8/lb range so it's not too far off from the US, unless you count promotion pricing then it's about double the price. Of course it's not quite as tender, but close.

I readily agree with the OP. I love Parmesan Cheese and have a friend bring the big 24oz bottles over from the US at $7.45 a bottle. He gets them at Costco. That's way, way cheaper than here. The big bottles last a long time. He also brings me over some Kellogg's Raisin Bran. Doesn't last long, but it's a great cereal and so expensive here.

I think the Thai cantaloupe has very little flavor so when Big "C" Extra gets in cantaloupes from Australia or Japan I have no problem forking out extra money for this delicious fruit.

I've found a good brick cheese for my sandwiches at Friendship Market for 155B per brick, better priced than anywhere else. It's the Bega brand. Every time I've looked at Provolone though it's just priced too high.

I can't find some regular good old sweet, rich pastries like in the US so I've bought an oven and make my own cinnamon buns or carrot cake or cheesecake or chocolate chip cookies. All of these take cream cheese except the cookies. The Philadelphia cream cheese is 150B at Friendship Market, but I believe a perfectly good off brand is about 120B. All of these desserts use cream cheese.

I also love Del Monte sweet pickle relish. I was buying a large jar at Villa Market for about 200B, but of course they stopped stocking it. They still stock the smaller jar at a higher price per unit at 145B. I've tried to make my own, but can't do a very good job. They have a local brand at Friendship which isn't very close, not sweet enough.

I've found Friendship Market has just about the best prices for deli meats, meats in general, cheeses and many other items. Haus Salami is over 1000B/kg at Big "C" Extra, but it's 780B/kg at Friendship Market.

Edited July 14, 2013 by oneday

[smokie36]

cheap cask wine and only 12% is Bodegas 800 baht for 3 liters

 

vitamins are expensive here and so get them imported from the USA

 

smegma is cheap enough though

"smegma is cheap enough though"

 

Never thought of that as a food or having a price. Are we talking about what I think we're talking about?

 

  smeg·ma

/ˈsmɛgmə/  Show Spelled [smeg-muh]  Show IPA

noun

a thick, cheeselike, sebaceous secretion that collects beneath the foreskin or around the clitoris

Nah that is cheezwhiz...

[snooky]

Geez, after reading this thread through, it seems as though most of the TV folks are a bunch of Wino's!

Anyway, to topic Some good canned Corn Beef Hash not to be found here for the past 5-6 years altho available in Lucky Market in Phnom Phen. Blueberries, Blueberries, Blueberries - sold in the US now that season is in 12 pint boxes for around 12-16 dollars - 360-480 baht and here 4 oz boxes mostly for 179-199 baht - some huge profit no matter what the shipping costs are! How about some decent apples, the ones here are very boring - think most of the red delicious supposedly from the US have been sitting in cold storage for a year or more and were unable to be sold there so they wind up here. McIntosh, Cortland, Jonathon etc., etc - except for the Granny Smith sold here, none have any kind of really good delightful flavor that catches your taste buds! And good American Beef Frankfurters - they sell many packages of chicken, turkey and other crap but mostly have never heard of the REAL thing.

Happy Hunting - Hope we can all find what we are looking for - foodwise, that is!

Just a thought, would it be breaking the sensitive TV rules for someone to start a thread on where a lot of our favorites rarely found, could be found??

Edited July 14, 2013 by snooky

[Jingthing]

Geez, after reading this thread through, it seems as though most of the TV folks are a bunch of Wino's!

...

Wish I could afford it. I only buy a few bottles each month. I have found that alchohol-wise 1/4 or 1/5 of a bottle is about the same as a shot of spirits.

Edited July 14, 2013 by Jingthing

[Alwyn]

and ALL of you will be whining when you're back in your home country that you can't but fresh mangosteen or get a decent Thai food (blimey in Thailand I only pay pay 30 baht for kao gar moo or pad thai).

[Jingthing]

and ALL of you will be whining when you're back in your home country that you can't but fresh mangosteen or get a decent Thai food (blimey in Thailand I only pay pay 30 baht for kao gar moo or pad thai).

That's true but if I move back to USA I'll cook my OWN Thai food. The ingredients are readily available there are quite cheap ... but not cheap in restaurants. Your right about the mangosteen. People should definitely take advantage of the fresh tropical fruits in Thailand while they're here.

I am sorry if you think the concept of this thread is about WHINING though. Not really my intention.

Edited July 14, 2013 by Jingthing

[StreetCowboy]

I've got a fair pork butcher just across from my 3rd-closest supermarket, but I rarely indulge, due to the price, and I can live without sausages and bacon. A cooked breakfast is a welcome luxury whenever I have visitors, though. Sadly, no black pudding and no lorne sausage.

For me, beer is the over-priced commodity that I can't live without, but perhaps I should.

SC

[sirchai]

Camembert, Edamer, Gouda, Emmentaler and many products from TGM, such as cooked ham come to mind...-

[pomchop]

Avocados on your list?? I LOVE them and relish buying all that I need here at a mere fraction of their cost in Australia - even varieties identical to Australian grown ones eg. Hass or Williams.

Mae sai near the Burma border has some really nice avocados a few months a year. I have three nice avocado trees in my yard that are just starting to produce fruits....remember if you want to plant an avocado tree to make sure to buy a grafted one and NOT grow one from a seed....grafted trees will start to produce in maybe four years....from seed may take ten years to produce fruits...

[sausageandmash]

Over the past 20 years in Thailand and the UAE I have maybe 5 times bought a Butterball turkey around Thanksgiving/Christmas time and tracked down the requisite cranberry relish to accompany it. In the UAE I got the whole turkey and cooked it in an oven and then wondered whether all the time spent, heat generated and ensuing mess was worth it. In Thailand I bought the Butterball turkey breast roll and microwaved it, which was simpler to deal with, although the cranberry relish I ended up with once was some ghastly British stuff bought at the supermarket in Central Festival Pattaya that was a major disappointment.

Last year I picked up the Butterball turkey breast again, but didn't notice or appreciate the word WHOLE in the description. Whole meant it hadn't been de-boned and you really can't microwave a bone-in turkey breast so I spent more time than I care to think about and ended up with frostbitten fingers while deboning a semi-frozen turkey breast.

The worst experience was while living in southern Africa I once found some dubious looking thing in a shop freezer labeled "turkey." I decided to give it a try. Eventually got it into the oven where it gave off a decidedly gaming odor as it started cooking in my electric stove ... for about 30 minutes and then the power went off, a common occurrence there. After the oven and bird returned to room temperature. The power came back on ... for about an hour. And then it stayed off for the next 3 days. The gamey smell given off by the "turkey" was replaced by something far worse and I reluctantly heaved the thing into the bush behind my home and listened to a lot of crashing about and growling as something devoured my turkey. Never tried that again there.

Butterball is the worst turkey you can buy.

[captnhoy]

Great thread! Since moving here I have learned to make my own bread, pizza, corn tortillas, pita bread, and ham. I miss good IPA but still drink too much Chang. I refused to pay 2000 baht for a turkey at Tesco but did spend 1200 at Makro and was glad I did. I'm even more cut off than many because there is only Tesco where i live and not even that until 3 years ago. I miss salmon and good beef. When in BKK I've paid big money for imported salmon which I smoke. Don't bother with the Norwegian as it's farm raised and tasteless. For big money get NZ and it's good but not amazing. I eat good Thai food everyday but still miss my favs. I have some things sent to me from the US - walnuts, liquid smoke for bbq, masa corn flour for the tortillas.

[pomchop]

I have never understood why in a country that grows and uses peanuts on all kinds of dishes and even has big containers of chopped up peanuts in the food courts to sprinkle on your pad thai or whatever that apparently no local company makes peanut butter? One would think Thais would like peanut butter? I have yet to find any reasonably priced peanut butter in a thai supermarket as it seems it is all imported? Yes I know you can "make your own" but i'm too lazy to deal with it.

The other item, while not food, that is ridiculously expensive and IS used by a lot of Thais is mouthwash. A big bottle of Listerine in Thailand sells for about 150 baht. In usa I can buy three bottles of a Walmart generic for that price. Listerine must be making a fortune in Thailand. Never understood why some thai company doesn't produce a "generic" version at a fraction of the Listerine price...after all it is basically just alcohol and water. Also find good tooth paste to be double the usa price.

As for wine....lots of junk wine sold in Thailand at exhorbitant prices....I really don't much like to drink wine in Thailand because of the price/quality and also because I suspect most basic bars/stores don't have a clue about storing wine...I've seen cases of wine sitting out in the sun for hours which I doubt is very good for it......on the other hand thais don't generally refrigerate eggs which would totally freak out most Americans if a big display of eggs in a store wasn't refrigerated.

[prog]

The other item, while not food, that is ridiculously expensive and IS used by a lot of Thais is mouthwash. A big bottle of Listerine in Thailand sells for about 150 baht. In usa I can buy three bottles of a Walmart generic for that price. Listerine must be making a fortune in Thailand. Never understood why some thai company doesn't produce a "generic" version at a fraction of the Listerine price...after all it is basically just alcohol and water. Also find good tooth paste to be double the usa price.

Oddly enough, the restaurant I had lunch at today gave us 2 small bottles of listerine with our check today. Were they trying to tell us something?

After months of refusing to do it, I dropped 3200 on a bottle of The Macallan 12 today.

[Cheops]

Cheese?

Yes, cheese.!

Being a former inhabitant of the town of Gouda in the Netherlands I should know something about cheese.

More because I was living very near to a cheese maturing warehouse, the smell.......

Anyway, at Makro they offer a whole Gouda cheese, 4,5 kilo, youngish, for 1900 baht which translates to around 10,50 Euro a kilo.

Price in the Netherlands an average of 7 Euro a kilo.

Or, also at Makro, a whole Edam cheese, 1,9 kilo, 720 baht, around 10,25 Euro a kilo.

Average price in the Netherlands 6,50 Euro.

Both prices are not entirely over the top, seen the distance and mode of transport (cool)

Nowadays, since the sale of Carrefour to Big C, many Dutch cheeses are on offer for around 150 baht for 200-250 grammes.

Which means around 15 Euro a kilo.

Also Thai companies are now importing Dutch cheese and packing it.

They are even cheaper.

Which is dealing the Australian "Gouda" and "Edam" cheese quite a hefty blow, being much more expensive and many times processed cheese.

I understand from Frico in the Netehrlands, the biggest cheese making conglomarate in the world, they are planning a huge influx of cheese in the Thai market.

And that includes cheddar cheese from England, and other European cheeses.

Anyway, in Tops and Big C cheddar is also on offer for prices around 30% more expensive as in England.

I think that is not really a bad deal

As a Dutch guy, of course cheese is on my list. I'm surprised though that nobody mentioned (or I missed it ) that you can buy reasonable Gouda cheese at Foodland for 380 baht per kilo, which is not expensive given the fact that it's imported! Foodland has of course some other imported items, but some of them are quite expensive. However if you compare this with Tops, Foodland is mostly cheaper. Some time ago Tops sold Frico cheese for almost 2000 baht per kilo . Not sure if they lost their minds, but needless to say it dissappeared quickly from their stocklist!

A good tip:

At Tops I mostly check out the special prized goods which either is almost at their expiry date or they want to empty their stock. I do this, since many times I see imported goods their which Thai people simply don't buy and are sold at a fraction of the price. Last time I bought the complete left overs Tempo facial tissues (yes I know, it's not food, but anyway a fav item from abroad for me). Anybody who knows Tempo knows that these are good quality tissues, but they tried to sell them for about 250 baht per pack. Needless to say that nobody bought these and Tops sold them for 30 baht per pack (down from 250) to empty their stock. Good quality tissues are nowhere to be found in Thailand unfortunately. And many times I find all kinds of other imported food which is of course way to expensive to sell and nobody buys it, so they empty their stock and sell it for a fraction of the price.

Question:

Does anybody know some good Indonesian grocery shops in BKK? If possible around Don Muang/Laksi area, but I can travel to anywhere in BKK if necessary.

Yes, I know, I can Google a bit as well. Will do that, but I assume someone here has some good tips as well

[ableguy]

A good stilton cheese

Gorgonzola cheese

A truly local made pork pie

Real bacon from an English bacon pig dry cured ( lots of bacon here but it dont taste like bacon.

Real Gammon

Tiger brand brown sauce

USA Costco sirloin steak

18 year old tanned blonde to whisper in my ear that was great honey ( not a 1000 baht please )

[Suradit69]

And what about Tizer?

Ye can grizzle all ye waant, but it'll no' rain irn bru

I asked a friend in Scotland to translate this and got, among other things, this:

... and something about the weatherman who missed a hurricane.

Edited July 14, 2013 by Suradit69

[StreetCowboy]

And what about Tizer?

Ye can grizzle all ye waant, but it'll no' rain irn bru

I asked a friend in Scotland to translate this and got, among other things, this:

You've got a lucky friend, to live in Scotland.

95% of Scots think that their country is the best in the world, and 15% would be willing to live there, if they had to.

[Wombat6]

I can't find a decent meat pie (Kiwi style) in Pattaya. Tried many Farang owned outlets but none of them cut the mustard.

Phuket made Lady Pie....Australian...I suppose Kiwi style might be similar. Villa sells them

[khunbillmex]

Fresh squeezed [Mexican] Valencia Orange Juice

[Jingthing]

Fresh squeezed [Mexican] Valencia Orange Juice

What does that go for here? 100 baht an ounce?

[Suradit69]

And what about Tizer?

Ye can grizzle all ye waant, but it'll no' rain irn bru

I asked a friend in Scotland to translate this and got, among other things, this:

You've got a lucky friend, to live in Scotland.

95% of Scots think that their country is the best in the world, and 15% would be willing to live there, if they had to.

Actually for the summer holidays his wife is off in Tanzania, son in Amsterdam, one daughter in the US. I think he was told to stay home to take care of the dog (or maybe the dog was told to stay home to look after him ... not sure).

Edited July 14, 2013 by Suradit69

[jbrain]

Pork is no imported product, but sliced salami cost here about 2000 Baht a kilo and more, while in Europe less than a fifth of that price.

[whiteman]

you should come to new zealand. the only thing cheap here is your average workers' labour. often seen cabages, cauliflowers as high as $5 tiny heads of broccoli can be over $3. 600g box of cereal $5.50 upwards. Decent bread $4 or more. Petrol now $2.27 litre. My modest 3 small bedroom house $350k which is $20k less than the ave price in my city. Oh sorry I forgot, booze is always cheap or on special, so we can all get pissed and not think too much about how much everything else costs. And our milk, meat and cheese is usually cheaper in other countries than our own

That is why I left living there 10 years ago and when I go back I say Sh--t look at the pricers. Love Thailand and yes alot of kiwi food here is cheaper than in NZ

[StreetCowboy]

I'm really surprised at all you chaps knowing how much groceries cost - surely a sad indictment of foreign men in Thailand?

[OldChinaHam]

Sorry.

Very honestly, I must say that I would not trade Thai food for anything I left back home.

Stopped eating cheese about 10 years ago.

I think if you truly love Thai food,

Then you would not trade it for anything in the west.

Everything I most desire is on the table at most small beaneries here in Thailand.

I think I have lost my yen or yang.

"Yang" meaning foreign, or western in Chinese.

But this is to be expected.

It is very possible to change one's food preference just by abstaining from a certain group of foods.

In my case, I just abstained from all western foods for about 30 years.

Guess I won't be having any yen for some yang anytime soon.

But 33 years ago, I often had a yen for Italian food,

Especially big tasty soft and spicy Italian meatballs.

I could sure go for half a dozen right now, on Jasmine Rice with some sauce.

But if that is not available, I do not sit and fret.

I might chuck the Italian meatball idea and just enjoy some ShiZiTou at a local restaurant.

I tell you, get your teeth into a couple of shizitou (Chinese meatballs) and you forget about the Italian meatballs. The Chinese ones really do taste better.

It is only a matter of changing your food preferences.

Of course there is something I would like, and that is a steady, limitless supply of the most expensive Stilton Cheese that can be found in the UK.

And some Hungarian wine.

That is my idea of heaven and there is nothing here to compare or replace that.

I can not be bothered thinking about any other kind of cheese,

But STILTON?

Good Stilton is something that I will always long for!

I look for it wherever I go. I looked for the good stuff in Chiang Mai but I have not seen it.

What would they charge? Baht800 for 100 grams?

And it would not be good.

Why can't they make Stilton in Chiang Mai?

So my message to you is to try to replace what you can't have with what you can have.

After about 10 or 15 years,

You really won't pine for much,

And maybe you will be happier, healthier, and certainly wealthier.

Please pass the STILTON.

And some red wine.

About a liter and a half.

Edited July 14, 2013 by OldChinaHam

[Jingthing]

I'm really surprised at all you chaps knowing how much groceries cost - surely a sad indictment of foreign men in Thailand?

Why wouldn't we? Is Thailand la la land or something?