GU-SHINE RESTAURANT: SERVING UP TAIWANESE FOOD AND HOSPITALITY FOR OVER TWENTY-FIVE YEARS

SPONSOR'S LINK: GU-SHINE RESTAURANT

I prefer to visit restaurants when the boss isn’t around. But Nancy Chen, owner of Gu-Shine Restaurant, wouldn’t have any of this nonsense.

True to typical Taiwanese form, Ms. Chen’s brand of hospitality is as insistent as it is warm: “Why didn’t you let me know you were visiting?” After I mumbled an excuse about not wanting to trouble restaurant managers, she shook her head. Mrs. Chen repeated with a gentle smile not unlike my waipo (maternal grandmother), “Why didn’t you let me know?”

Though “retired” after twenty-five years of managing Gu-Shine Restaurant, Mrs. Chen has no plans to take time off from her beloved mom-and-pop establishment.

Her care ensures that Taiwanese dishes are “what [Ms. Chen] left behind in Taiwan” over two decades ago.** The forte of Gu-Shine is its refreshing Taiwanese-style qingdan (清淡) approach, which uses a very light hand for oil and spices:

May Flushing Food suggest: asking Nancy Chen about the story behind the tree just outside the restaurant, pictured above.***

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*, ** Interview, Monday December 29, 2014.
** https://order.flushingfood.com/kushiang

Picture credits: Helen Y.