Taiwanese food from Shuin
If you are a fan of Oriental food, to eat or to cook with, and Chinatown in Binondo is rather out of the way, there are a few shops where you can get your green tea, peanut oil, cooking wine and Oriental spices. One of them is Shuin Food Products along Araneta Avenue in Quezon City which specializes in Taiwanese food. And it isn’t just a food shop, it is a restaurant as well, small as it may be. My husband and his officemates often go there for lunch and he swears that the food is just great. He has brought home Shuin’s smoked whole chicken and frozen dumplings a couple of times and I have to agree. The smoked chicken, in particular, is simply fantastic. Smoked in tea leaves, most probably, just as my father used to do.
When you enter Shuin, it is the shop that you see first. On the left side are the dry food products — an array of noodles, soy sauces, cooking oils, spices and condiments. Then, there are vacuum-packed dried tea leaves. If you think that drinking tea from teabags is the ultimate tea experience, well, wait until you’ve tried authentic Oriental teas. My father used to buy them directly from Chinatown and the variety is just amazing. If the Chinese merchants are to be believed, there is a variety of tea for just about anything — from maintaining a clear skin to curing diabetes to losing weight.
From the dry food section, I bought a liter of peanut oil and a pack of vacuum-packed dried green tea leaves (above) plus a pair ceramic cups with their own ceramic tea strainers.
On the opposite side of the shop are the refrigerators and freezers. There are Chinese vegetables, frozen dumplings, different kinds of tofu and whole lot of other goodies. The one that caught my eye was the mochi.
Traditionally a Japanese delicacy, mochi has found its way into many Asian cuisines. There is a winery in Central Taiwan that sells ice cream stuffed mochi. According to Wikipedia, the Filipino version is palitaw.
I bought a tray of mochi from Shuin, my kids weren’t impressed and said it was just tikoy but managed to stuff themselves at the backseat of the car, scattering powdered sugar on the seats much to their father’s dismay. My 15-year-old daughter, Sam, the more vocal of the two with her best unimpressed reaction, ate two pieces within a span of a few minutes. Just tikoy, eh?
Next time we go to Shuin, I hope they’ll be ready to sell those soup-filled dumplings that Din Tai Fung in Taipei is famous for. They had a tray of the stuff in the freezer but it wasn’t for sale. According to the sales girl, the dumplings were still in experimental stage. I hope the experiments succeed soon. Taipei is too far and too expensive to satisfy the craving for soup-filled dumplings. 
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15 Responses to “Taiwanese food from Shuin”
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If you have a craving for xiao long bao (the soup filled dumplings), try the ones of Suzhou dumpling in San Juan (they also have a branch at Promenade in Greenhills Shopping Center). I still prefer having them in China, but even with the Cebupac discounts, it’s still cheaper to go to Greenhills for them
hi-
yes, the soup filled dumplings (siao long pao) from din tai fung is delicious.
why not try to eat in Suzhou restaurant, there is one store in Retiro (in front of Red Ribbon bakeshop). Try their siao long pao. They also sell frozen ones.
Suzhou — okay, that was the name of the restaurant I could not remember. Someone mentioned it when we were in Taiwan. Will find it soon.
Yes Shuin often joins food exhibits in World Trade. They have another branch at N.S. Amoranto , Q.C. (formerly Retiro). Shuin specializes in Smoked Chicken/Duck. Me and my mom-on law usually buy the smoked chicken in whole during our “alay” (offering) on ghost months
Hi Ms. Connie… Love your site… Been on my “Favorites” for the last couple of years… I missed your Taiwan sojourn though because of our big move to HK. I found the link in this post. I will definitely check it out. Ahh…Taiwan. Such a memorable place for me and my family having stayed there for ~3 good years. Love the food. Friendly people, too. We miss going to their night markets where we gorge on stinky tofu! Its an acquired taste that we crave and cannot find here. My son loves their sausages and their famous beef noodles. The best mochi in Taiwan are made in Hualien, a lovely place.
there is also a branch in binondo in gandara street there is also another one in front of metropolitan hospital. i always eat their siao long pao also the fried noodles are great plus affordable prices
talaga, mochi=palitaw? baka palitaw filled with sweet red beans or whatever sweet beans? eh.. ah, i love mochi too… hmmmmmm…
hi & thanks for the info re this Taiwanese store/resto : ) have u ever featured DEC in Greenhills? is it still open? do you think they’re still good? one of our chinese friends used to bring us many food items from there like their chicken pot pies, they were so good…hope you may find it worthy of a feature sometime…thanks for sharing your tasty food finds!
Lea, oh I agree about the friendliness of the Taiwanese. Very friendly. You feel it despite the language barrier.
Michelle, you make me miss Binondo… haven’t been there in a year. Too long, too long.
flowerpotcat, well, that’s what the Wikipedia article says.
Lourdes, no, haven’t done an article on DEC’s. Haven’t been there in ages. But since DEC’s sells Eng Bee Tin products mostly, I think I’d rather write about Eng Bee Tin.
Hi,
I go to Shuin a lot… They also specialize with Smoked Chicken. Try it! It’s really good…
I have, Shiela. And I said so in the entry.
I’d like to visit the actual store since I only patronize their stalls in food expos. Their Taiwanese sausage is my favorite!!!
For soup-filled dumplings, why don’t you try Suzhou.
Belated Happy Birthday Connie:)
Thanks, Ajay.
Suzhou is on the list.
Oh, so it’s shao long pao pala, the broth-filled dimsum!
I have not eaten at Suzhou. I shall put it on my list too.
hey Lourdes,
yes DEC used to be in virra mall then moved to wilson street almost near cor. P. Guevarra along Alex III. They have varieties of food-to-go too. I usually drop by the place right after fetching my kids from school to buy their merienda. Their fresh seafood lumpia is my hubby’s favorite