Yun Hai Taiwanese Pantry, 170 Montrose Avenue, Brooklyn, NY (2026)

06/26/2024

Coming all the way from Taipei, hot sauce makers will be at this Friday, June 28th from 12-4pm to host a tasting at the shop.

Stop by to try five flavors of their naturally fermented, vegan hot sauces—very conveniently timed, given the upcoming national holiday of grilling. They’re great for barbecue, or to add a kick to your side salads and sandwiches.

- Pineapple Miso: tart pineapple with savory white miso and herbaceous cilantro
- Irwin Mango: sweet mango as a base, with goji berries, ginger, and Taiwanese chili peppers for a balanced kick
- Passionfruit Hot Mustard: tropical notes of bright passionfruit and subtle coconut sweetness
- Ghost Pepper Maqaw: fermented ghost pepper paired with the lemony flavors of maqaw and grapefruit
- Smokey Hibiscus: vinegar-forward, floral, with subtle longan smokiness

Hope to see you there!

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06/18/2024

Hot new shop drop: this Taiwan Pride flag, designed by (he/him) to represent the Taiwanese LGBTQ+ community worldwide, is now available at the Yun Hai Shop. This is the second Taiwan pride flag we’ve launched this month, and is available exclusively in store. The rainbow flag from .tw is still available online.

Designer is a proudly gay man born and raised in Taiwan. This flag originated from his desire to represent Taiwan’s LGBTQ+ community upon moving to New York and participating in his first NYC Pride March. Because he couldn’t find a flag with the English word “Taiwan” on it, he decided to create his own.

The design was finalized by Shawn along with graphic and package designer .inevitably (she/her). The two worked together to incorporate elements with smooth rainbow tones, the shape and landscape of Taiwan, and symbols representing equality, love, same-sex marriage, and peace. The final touch? Taiwanese phonetic zhu yin 注音 characters that say “Taiwan Pride.”

Shawn hopes this design will reach every corner of the world and be instantly recognizable as a symbol of Taiwan’s Pride. You can get yours at the Yun Hai store in Brooklyn at 170 Montrose Ave.

Please also consider volunteering with .nyc during 2024 NYC Pride March; sign up via the link in bio. Alternatively, you can support the initiative by donating towards the operations of the float; link in bio.

1: .cheng.smith /
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06/13/2024

Last month, Alison Chi and Yun Hai hosted our first-ever Mandarin Immersion Night with a vibrant community of Mandarin speakers across levels. By popular request, we’ve decided to turn it into a regular occurrence.

We heard from a number of you there that you were grateful for having a safe, supportive, and fun space to practice Mandarin—especially because many of us live in an environment where we may not have the opportunity to practice listening and speaking regularly, and it may be frustrating or intimidating to do so in public.

The purpose of this event is to provide an opportunity to immerse yourself in conversation in the non-judgmental context of other learners. All of us got to practice basic conversation while learning from and about each other.

To be the first notified of future Mandarin Immersion Nights at Yun Hai (including RSVP info about our next one on Thursday, June 27th), sign up for our general interest email list via the link in bio.

我們一起來練習中文吧～

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06/12/2024

It’s not every day that someone gifts you a radish almost as old as you are. I received such a gift on my trip to Taiwan this past March, shared graciously from the pantry of a country grandmother, who has tended it (and the minds and hearts of her community) for all this time.

I’d already been obsessing over the fine funk of the humble 7-year aged radishes in the Yun Hai larder, and to encounter one that was put to curing when I was just learning to talk was a sublime experience, like encountering a very old and splendid tree.

This 38-year old aged daikon 老蘿蔔was given to me by a new friend upon first meeting, and I was overwhelmed by the generosity—a gift of time, more than a third of a lifetime. It’s a metaphor, maybe, for our lives and the personal investments we make. Simple and sweet at first, but complex, wizened, and rich over the passing years. Just radish and salt, and attention, and time.

The radish came with a letter, also a gift, that told of the country grandmother who made it, and my friend’s encounter with her. I’ve excerpted it here in the slides after the image. It’s a lovely memory of a connection made through food, conversation, and a bowl of noodles. Names and places have been kept private.

A quote from the friend who shared it:

“I hope this retelling, in lieu of a picture of her hands, conveys the heart which was cured over a lifetime...that even as the radishes got smaller and smaller, darker and darker, steadier and steadier, just as salted her life with tears and sweat as she became potent, calming medicine and returned to her 赤子之心 first/newborn heart-mind, the flavor of her journey is more fully imparted as a blessing to you, a boon for all of us.”

Thank you, friend.

06/11/2024

Happy Dragon Boat Festival! We were excited to celebrate with Zongzi rice dumplings in the store this weekend (sold out, thanks everyone!). We also spent a lovely Saturday afternoon with nature school and discussing mugwort, sharing our experience of traditional calamus and mugwort bundles in Taiwan during this time of year, and making some of our own, composed of sister plants at the .

We had just enough time for a nature walk, a simple craft, and to share a few bites of Zongzi. The bundles, often made from mugwort and calamus (sweet flag) are seen hung in doorways and other places to ward off disease and bad luck.
Thou go these are often decorated with tassels and additional elements, all you really need to know to make one is how to tie the proper knot, with a little loop for hanging on the back. This is all I taught.

I also shared that I felt these plant bundles really do provide a positive seasonal outlook; in my experience, hanging these in visible places is a daily reminder of the protective nature of plants, consideration of the well being of ourselves and others, and our relationship to the cycle of the seasons, all which contribute to our physical and mental health.

While we weren’t able to use the typical plants, we made do with foraged mulberry, St. John’s Wort (which blooms around the solstice), cool season grasses, sulfur cinquefoil, dock, and mugwort. I find that when plants are respectfully handled, our relationships with them grow. To feel the lilting mugwort under our fingers or the springy buds of the cinquefoil is to know them both a little bit better. Thanks to all who came out to celebrate the season in our own little particular way.

Much gratitude to for organziing, and gardeners for hosting and foraging, for volunteering, for connecting, and for a crucial supply of additional wort. ♥️

06/07/2024

SALE ALERT! We’re offering 15% through Monday, Juen 10th, to celebrate Taiwan Pride.

Celebrating Pride Month is very important to us at Yun Hai. Not just because of who we are and who we want to be as citizens of the world, but because we’re proud of the way Taiwan has continued to incorporate LGBTQ+ rights as a pillar of Taiwanese values. So often, Taiwan’s record on LGBTQ+ rights is boiled down to the (very cool but simple) statistic that it was the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. But there’s much more going on than that.

Since becoming the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage almost five years ago, Taiwan continues to make strides in marriage equality. Initially the same-sex marriage legalization didn’t allow for transnational marriages in Taiwan, meaning that if one’s home country didn’t recognize same-sex marriages, Taiwan wouldn’t allow a citizen of that country to marry in Taiwan. Same-sex couples were also barred from being able to co-adopt non-biological children, allowing only one parent to be on the adoption certificate. Both of those limitations have recently been amended, in January and May of last year respectively.

The fight for and progression of LGBTQ+ rights in Taiwan are often closely connected to the expression and exercising of its sovereignty via a concept called tongzhi diplomacy, or tongzhi sovereignty.

The term tongzhi 同志 originally means “comrade” or “same will” in political and communist discourse, but in Taiwan mainly refers to members of the LGBTQ+ community. The concept of tongzhi sovereignty or tongzhi diplomacy refers to the geopolitical implications of Taiwan’s LGBTQ+ rights movement. Learn more about it in our latest newsletter at yunhai.substack.com. Link in bio.

Photo: Taiwan Equality Campaign .tw

06/04/2024

We are celebrating Dragon Boat Festival 端午節 with zong zi 粽子, or sticky rice dumplings in our Brooklyn store. Stop by this weekend and next weekend to sample warm zong zi from 12-4pm, and stock up on frozen ones.

We‘re featuring two styles: the original pork and egg yolk style (slide 2) and the harder-to-find Kueh or Hakka style (slide 3).

The original style 古早味燒肉粽 is a traditional northern Taiwanese zong zi packed with a trove of ingredients: sticky rice, chunks of savory pork belly, shiitake mushrooms, salted egg yolk, small dried shrimp, and fragrant chestnut and peanuts.

The Hakka style 粿仔粽 features minced pork, umami shiitake mushrooms, and salty, piquant preserved radish (aka cai bo 菜譜) stuffed in a sticky, mochi-like glutinous rice wrapper.

Sat, June 8th & Sun, June 9th
Sat, June 15th & Sun, June 16th
170 Montrose Ave, Brooklyn, NY

Sampling of warm zong zi will take place from 12-4pm. Frozen zong zi will be available for purchase throughout our opening hours (10am-6pm).

06/03/2024

The Dragon Boat Festival 端午節, which takes place on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar (June 10th this year), is typically celebrated with dragon boat races, zong zi 粽子, and mugwort decor. The pungent smell of mugwort, and its Artemisia genus cousins, is used in decorative talismans to ward off evil and bad luck.

Although the origins of the festival are unclear, themes of filial piety, devotion, and a relationship with the waters tie traditions together. In honor of this festival, join .cheng.smith of and LinYee of for a mugwort harvest and plant walk at the Naval Cemetery Landscape , a public space built and maintained by Brooklyn Greenway Initiative .

Learn more about mugwort and its ecological considerations from an NCL gardener, receive training to harvest the plant, and then make Taiwanese mugwort decorations ahead of the festival.

RSVP via the link in bio—space is limited. The event is free!

Saturday, June 8th from 4-6pm
Naval Cemetery Landscape
63 Williamsburg St W
Brooklyn, NY 11249

The Naval Cemetery Landscape (NCL) is fully operated and made open as a public space by Brooklyn Greenway Initiative (BGI) through the generosity of their supporters. Stop by and enjoy the NCL’s native pollinator habitat and contemplative memorial urban meadow and learn about the NCL and the Greenway and what goes into maintaining their beauty and accessibility for everyone!

05/31/2024

The most exciting launch of 2024: The Tatung AC-9 Power Cable is finally here!

Joking (sort of). It doesn’t look like much, but we are truly excited to stock this replacement power cable. This is a hard to find, oft-requested part that can bring a vintage Tatung back from the dead (see last slide). The appliances are built so well that they often outlast the original power cable, decades on. We know that for every power cable sold, one Tatung rice cooker is getting a new lease on life.

Please note this doesn’t work with the newer models of Tatung rice cookers we carry, which don’t have removable cables.

Two of the things we love most about the Tatung Electric Steamers are their longevity and repairability. Many things in this world are designed for obsolescence, but the Tatung is not one of them. For this reason, we carry several replacement parts, in addition to this cable, empowering owners of older models to repair or refurbish them.

Pick one up in store or online at the link in bio.

1: .cheng.smith
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05/23/2024

In March, Teng-Hui of brought me along on a farm visit to see Lai Qing Song 賴青松, a well-known rice farmer and environmentalist, in Yilan. Lai founded one of the first community-supported agriculture projects in the country (see him with his rice seedlings in slide 1) and established a community center to provide resources to the new and existing farmers. It was such an inspiration to be embedded in this community for a day. For more on their work, check the link in bio for a video by Taiwan Radio International.

Lai and his wife Zhu Meihong 朱美虹 also run a restaurant, where Zhu serves as the chef. The restaurant focuses on food featuring local ingredients, including innovative ways to use the area’s produce. See slide 4 for Zhu’s black glutinous rice flour cake, topped with strawberries and jewel-like pink flowers. At the time, Zhu had just released a cookbook, 田野裡的古早味, which translates to “The Traditional Flavor of the Rice Fields” (slide 3). It features the rich culinary wisdom of rural Yilan, from koji-brewing soy sauce to making tofu and rice wine. I was lucky enough to get her to sign it, and have been slowly translating it since returning from my trip.

This visit was part of a larger project that 雙口呂 Siang kháu Lū is undertaking to raise awareness of rice farming and rice-based cuisine in Taiwan. Their mission is to build up rice culture in Taiwan through storytelling and culinary education, bringing visibility to the craft of cooking with rice and rice flour. As a result of their work within the rice-growing community, Siang kháu Lū has come to know many farmers. I cherish them as friends and respect their knowledge and dedication so much.

I highly recommend taking one of their classes if you’re in the Taoyuan area (worth the bus ride from Taipei).

Photos: .cheng.smith

05/21/2024

If you’re in the Boston area on Friday, May 24th between 12-2pm, swing by our stockist in Cambridge to get a taste of our Taiwanese jams!

Co-owner and COO will be popping up there to conduct a sampling featuring all four of our fresh-tasting flavors: Irwin Mango, Red Guava, Mulberry, and Passionfruit Pumpkin. Come say hi, have a chat, and eat some jam. Details below:

Date: Friday, May 24th from 12-2pm
Address: Formaggio Kitchen, 358 Huron Ave, Cambridge, MA

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05/17/2024

Join us at Passport to Taiwan .nyc, one of the largest celebrations of Taiwanese and Taiwanese American heritage in NYC. Mark your calendars for Sunday, May 26th from 12-5pm in Union Square Park North.

This year is a special one because it marks the 20th iteration of the festival. Look forward to exhibitions celebrating 400 years of Tainan City, as well as Beigang Chao Tian Temple’s 330 years of Taiwan Matsu. There’ll also be a performance stage featuring the 10-Drums percussion group and a lineup of talented Taiwanese-American performers.

And, of course, there will be plenty of delicious food, from Loh Bah Beng (minced braised pork over rice) to Chua Bing (shaved ice).

Last year, we brought with us fan favorite condiments, dried fruit, Ga Ji Dai totes. We even got to meet Taiwan’s Minister of Overseas Community Affairs, Chia Ching-Hsu (slide 2). This year, we’ll be there with dried fruit, Taiwanese jams, and Ai Yu seeds.

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

If you would like to volunteer your time and help out at the festival, please register via the link in our bio.

Flyer: .nyc

Yun Hai Taiwanese Pantry

06/26/2024

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06/11/2024

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