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Mar 26, 2023

What 'American' Food Section Looks Like in Thailand Grocery Store

I'm an American citizen who's been traveling around Asia for nearly four years.

I'm an American citizen who's been traveling around Asia for nearly four years.

Whenever I explore a new place, I'm eager to dive into the local cuisine and typically make a beeline for the street-food markets. But there are moments when I crave a familiar taste of home, like Tostitos chips dipped in a pint of Ben & Jerry's Phish Food.

Luckily, I found upscale grocery stores that carry classic American foods during my trip to Bangkok.

Many of the items were priced considerably higher in Thailand than they are in the US, but I was happy to shell out the extra Thai baht for them.

Here's what the American food selection looks like in Villa Market, an international grocery-store chain in Bangkok.

Instead of being designated to a separate section of the grocery store, American brands were interspersed between local products.

So, for example, if a shopper is looking for Frank's Red Hot, they would find it in the sauce and condiment aisle.

In Bangkok, travelers can find plenty of Lay's, a potato-chip brand that was founded in the US.

Villa Market sold some of the brand's staple flavors, like Classic and Sour Cream and Onion, but there were also some cool variations that seem worth trying.

Some of the flavors I saw included Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese, Nori Seaweed, Hot Chili Squid, Spicy Korean Ramen, and Mieng Kam Krob Ros — a popular Thai snack consisting of dried shrimp, cabbage, peanuts, and chili wrapped in a green leaf.

Each bag was priced cost about $1.50.

I have yet to find any Cool Ranch Doritos in Bangkok.

When I scoured the shelves at the international grocery store, I only came across three flavors, and they were all nacho-related: Nacho Cheese in a red bag, Nacho Cheese in a yellow bag, and Spicy Nacho Cheese.

Each one was priced at around $4.

I recognized the Pringles logo when I was walking up and down the Villa Market aisles.

The store sold canisters of the stackable chips, a product owned by the US-based Kellogg Company, in flavors that I'd never tried before, like Hot and Spicy Grilled Squid and Sweet Mayo Cheese.

It was interesting to see the local cuisine (mayonnaise is used in many Thai recipes, and grilled squid is a popular dish in the Asian country) incorporated into the snack.

As an American living outside of the US, two of the most coveted foods I can find are Hidden Valley ranch dressing and Kraft macaroni and cheese.

They're not easy to get my hands on, but I found both items in the Bangkok supermarket.

A bottle of Hidden Valley ranch — which, in my opinion, is the best of the best — costs around $9.30. As soon as I saw it, I knew it would be worth every penny.

As for the Kraft macaroni and cheese, one single box costs around $2.30. If you want to stock up, you can get a box of six microwaveable packs for about $6.

The canned sauce, which is produced by US-based companies ConAgra Foods and Hunt's, is an all-American product, so I was surprised to see that it had made its way to Bangkok.

Lo and behold, Villa Market carried the original tomato-based version.

Villa Market carried popular American breakfast cereals like Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Oreo O's — but shoppers should be prepared to pay a hefty price for them.

A single box of Cap'n Crunch cost about $11.50 at the supermarket, making it the most expensive cereal I saw on the shelf.

Because of the price tag attached to these cereals, I suggest swapping them for a local dragon fruit or ripe papaya instead.

I've never had trouble finding Oreos abroad. Whether I've wandered into local convenience stores or large grocery chains, the cookies always seem to be in stock.

So even though I was expecting to see the popular American dessert in Bangkok, I was still surprised by some of the flavors.

One of the most unexpected combinations was the Fizzy Orange Oreos, described as "chocolate sandwich cookies with orange-flavored cream and orange-flavored candy" on the package.

Oreos at Villa Market cost $0.89 per package. For some reason, Oreo Thins were significantly more expensive at almost $11 per packet.

With a filling that was half dark chocolate and half white chocolate, the black-and-white treat was one of the many Oreo flavors I'd never seen before.

Bangkok had such a wide sampling of Oreo flavors, but the box with vanilla cookies inside grabbed my attention. So, I decided to take a closer look.

The gold designs on the exterior showed a tiger and a koi fish, two animals that are found in Thailand.

Villa Market carried a bag of matcha-flavored Kit Kat bars, a wafer-and-chocolate treat produced by The Hershey Company, for about $5.30.

Matcha is a beverage made from grinding whole, partially shade-grown green tea leaves into powder.

The concoction originated in China during the Tang Dynasty. Eventually, Buddhist monks brought it to Japan, where it remains a large part of the country's culture. Now, the flavor is used in lattes, cocktails, and sweets across Asia and the wider world.

I noticed a lot of matcha-flavored candy in the Bangkok supermarket. After trying out the new flavor, I think I'll stick to the traditional milk-chocolate Kit Kats.

Not only did Villa Market carry Hershey's chocolate, but also the supermarket offered a fairly new product called Cocoa Creations, which is 49% cocoa.

For reference, the American brand's signature milk-chocolate bar is about 30% cocoa

Villa Market carried several products that I hadn't seen, or thought about, since I was a child.

The last time I ate an Eggo waffle was when my mom handed me a half-frozen one on my way to catch the school bus.

But in Bangkok, I found the waffles in flavors like Chocolatey Chip and Strawberry. Villa Market had Eggo bites and Eggo minis as well, and each product cost around $7 per box.

I wasn't expecting to stumble upon Lunchables, the Kraft Heinz miniature meal kit I remember having as a kid, but Villa Market was stocked with the Extra Cheesy Pizza flavor.

The supermarket priced it at around $3.50.

Villa Market carried a 16-slice package of the processed cheese, which came in its original flavor.

Villa Market sold TGI Fridays' Cheddar-and-Bacon potato skins and Buffalo-Style chicken wings in its frozen section.

In the Bangkok supermarket, Cheez-Its, also a Kellogg brand, were available to purchase in three flavors: Original, Bacon and Cheddar Duoz, and Extra Cheesy.

From my experience in the US, it's much rarer to find Ritz crackers with chocolate filling. Peanut butter or cheese fillings are far more common.

Easy Cheese — an American product made of milk, whey, canola oil, cheese culture, and other ingredients — found its way onto the Bangkok shelves.

With one spray from the metal can, the cheddar-flavored blend oozes out and serves as a topping for crackers or nachos.

The products' packaging was similar to what consumers see in the US, but some of the text had been translated into Thai.

When I was wandering around Villa Market, I spotted the company's signature lightning bolt and soon realized that I'd picked up a unique product.

The orange and citrus-flavored drink was sugar-free and, to my surprise, completely clear. In the US, orange-flavored Gatorade is bright orange.

Villa Market sold major US-based ice-cream brands, like Ben & Jerry's and Häagen-Dazs. Even though I was thrilled to see them in Bangkok, I quickly realized that the pints didn't come cheap.

In my mind, ice cream doesn't get any better than Ben & Jerry's.

For a pint of popular flavors like Phish Food or Americone Dream the grocery store charged around $11.

This price tag is pretty consistent with what I've seen in other international stores that carry Ben & Jerry's outside of the US. In Australia, a pint is even more expensive.

But after spending some time in Bangkok's heat, the $11 I paid was worth it.

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