Pork and Fish-Paste Shumai 烧卖
Pork and Fish-Paste Shumai is featured among the local specialties of Taiwan.
Pork and Fish-Paste Shumai (烧卖) is the Keelung (基隆) version of the open-topped steamed dumpling. Chinese Wikipedia describes it as a shaomai found only in Keelung, the northernmost city in Taiwan, where the name is usually written with different characters (烧迈).
Ingredients
Its main ingredients are pork, fish paste and fried shallots (油葱). A Mirror Daily (鏡報) food column on Keelung snacks names the same three flavours, fish paste, minced pork and shallot, and describes their aroma as dense and solid.
Flavour and texture
Size is what sets Pork and Fish-Paste Shumai apart from Hong Kong-style shaomai: Wikipedia puts it at about twice the size of the Hong Kong kind, and Mirror Daily calls each piece large and filling, contrasting the Keelung style directly with the Hong Kong one.
How it is eaten
It is usually eaten with malu sauce (马露酱), a condiment described as particular to Keelung. The host of the Mirror Daily column buys most often from Lixiang's Abenbo Shaomai (麗香的店-阿本伯燒賣), which has moved to Zhong'er Road (忠二路).
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-25. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.
Image credits & notes (1)
- Steamed shumai (shao mai) dumplings topped with shrimp roe, served in a bamboo steamer · 竹蒸笼烧卖，表面点缀虾籽Photo: Kent Wang from Chinese restaurant Kirin in Seattle, Vancouver · CC BY-SA 2.0 · taken 2006-07-23Resized for the web; the photo itself has not been edited. Thumbnails may show a cropped view.
