The Tatung had such a cult following that, in the early days, many people joining the Taiwanese diaspora would take one with them to wherever they ended up settling down.
The big problem for Smith was procuring a new Tatung steamer in the US. “Every time I went to a Chinese grocery, I’d go to the appliance section and pray that I would see one – and I never did,” she says.
Today, Smith’s New York-based boutique grocery company, Yun Hai Taiwanese Pantry, is the sole distributor of the Tatung steamer in the US.
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For now, it is selling the steamers in just two hues: a pea green (which is the original, classic colour) and vermilion. To go with it, Smith has recently written and self-published a book, Yun Hai Tatung Family Cookbook, which includes 10 tried and tested recipes that use the steamer. “There’s just so much knowledge and recipes around the Tatung and I wanted to document it,” she says.
The book has instructions on how to whip up sweet potato congee and how to braise pork belly until soft and tender. There is even a recipe for a black sugar cake, flavoured with a home-made molasses syrup and steamed until porous and fluffy; it is a classic treat from Penghu, an archipelago in the Taiwan Strait.The recipes provide detailed steps, including how much water should be added to the steamer, how long to steam ingredients for and how the final dish should look and taste. The cookbook shows off the versatility of the appliance with its range of comforting and classic Taiwanese recipes.
“We felt it was imperative that the cooker came with a cookbook,” says Lillian Lin, Smith’s business partner and the chief operating officer of Yun Hai. “The goal is for people to incorporate it into their daily lives.”
While Yun Hai isn’t the first company to contextualise the Tatung steamer for the home cook, it is the only one that has rebranded it for the Western market.
Similar to the Instant Pot today, the Tatung has long inspired a parade of recipe books in Taiwan – some sponsored and some born out of genuine enthusiasm – and it remains a classic there; myriad Chinese Tatung steamer recipes can be found on the internet.
But for the English-speaking diaspora, the Tatung has largely remained an enigma – an appliance inherited from mum or grandma that is occasionally used to reheat dishes or make rice; rarely does it come with any concrete guidance on how to make more complicated dishes.
Most recipes – even in the Chinese-speaking world – are approximations. “Lillian and I were swapping all of the tips and tricks that we’ve had told to us by word of mouth, and we realised there’s just so much knowledge and so many recipes,” says Smith.
The Yun Hai Tatung Family Cookbook took about six months to put together and both the steamer and cookbook sold out within days of their launch, perhaps an indication of how desperately the Tatung needed a rebrand in the English-speaking world.
Before Yun Hai decided to sell the steamer, it was only sporadically available in North America – sometimes online through third-party dealers or found in a dusty corner of an Asian grocery store. “It was always just a thing that I had in my kitchen and I didn’t realise how hard it was to buy in the US,” says Lin.
Smith and Lin hope to recontextualise the Tatung steamer so that more people – including those outside the diaspora – will learn to use it to its potential.
While they are not reinventing the wheel, they are finally giving the steamer the platform and the context it deserves in the American market.
“It’s kind of like a steam oven on your counter that can make fish and rice. You can do all this cooking and baking,” says Smith. “It opens up a whole new world.”
Lu rou fan (braised pork rice)
Use this recipe to make a batch of lu rou fan ahead of time. The next day, make a pot of rice and warm this on the stove quicker than you can say “instant noodle”. Oh yeah, and we use peanut butter, because, you know, secret ingredient.Serves: 4
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 40-60 minutes
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Ingredients
500 grams (18 oz) skin-on pork belly
1 tbsp (15ml) oil
30 grams (1 oz) rock sugar, or to taste
1 medium shallot, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
8 dried shiitake mushrooms
¼ cup Shaoxing wine
4 tbsp (¼ cup) soy sauce
2 tbsp soy paste
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 braising pack (store bought or see below)
4 hard-boiled eggs (optional)
Coriander (optional)
Braising pack:
Tie together in a cheesecloth
Method
1 Soak the mushrooms in hot water for 30 minutes, then slice into strips. Retain the mushroom soaking liquid to add into the braise.
2 Rinse and cut the pork belly into half-inch (1.25cm) thick strips, as if making very thick cut bacon. Chop each strip into quarter-inch pieces against the grain. Blanch in boiling water for two minutes. Drain and set aside.
3 Add the oil to a hot wok and heat until shimmering. Add the shallot, garlic, ginger and rock sugar. Fry on medium heat for two minutes, until fragrant and the sugar starts to melt. Add in the blanched pork and mushrooms. Fry for five to 10 minutes stirring occasionally, until they start to brown. Deglaze the pan with the Shaoxing wine. Simmer for a couple of minutes. Add the soy sauce, soy paste, peanut butter and half a cup of the mushroom soaking liquid. Stir until the pork is evenly coated (a minute or two).
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4 Pour the mixture into the inner pot of the Tatung steamer. If needed, add more mushroom soaking liquid or water, stopping just below the level of the pork. Submerge the braising pack in the mixture. Top with hard-boiled eggs, if using.
5 Add two rice cups of water to the outer pot. Cover, and let it steam for 40 to 60 minutes, adding more water to the outer pot if needed.
6 Check to see if it is done. The pork should be tender. Cook for longer and adjust the salt level if needed. The sauce should be just thick enough to coat rice, not too soupy. If needed, reduce the sauce further on the hob (this can be necessary if too much liquid was added in step four).
7 Serve over rice, with an egg if used. Garnish with coriander, if desired.
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