一起大同: Everybody Tatung
The miniature Tatung steamers have arrived, and the big ones are here, too. Plus, we started a Facebook group for swapping Tatung recipes (and appliances).
This is Yun Hai Taiwan Stories, a newsletter about Taiwanese food culture by Lisa Cheng Smith 鄭衍莉, founder of Yun Hai Taiwanese Pantry. If you aren’t yet a subscriber, sign up here.
This month, we take the momentous step of tripling the size of our Tatung 大同 family. Today, we launch the 11-cup steamer and the limited edition miniatures, which we hope will be all the rage as far as Taiwanese collectibles are concerned. We’ve also added to our collection of replacement parts, because no Tatung should be deprived of its refresh.
Equally exciting, we’re establishing the Yun Hai Tatung Cooking Club, a community space (Facebook group) to buy/sell/trade, swap recipes, and share stories. It’s brand new, just us Yun Hai ppl as members right now. Please join us (and do let Luke know how to steam a sweet potato, if you don’t mind).
It’s been almost a year since we launched the Tatung Electric Rice Cooker and Steamer, and boy what a splish-splash it’s been.
We've met so many wonderful people through this appliance, from sharing online advice to chatting with folks in the store who gravitate towards it (總統好). The Tatung was included in a few different rounds-ups of best rice cookers, and featured in publications like Food Network and the South China Morning Post. Our Tatung cookbook is stocked at the Heath Ceramics newsstand; this feels extra-special given the cult nature of the topic. We also heard through the grapevine that an influential editor at Food & Wine acquired one (are you a subscriber to this newsletter, is this true, what have you made with it).
The best part of all is seeing the Tatung make inroads in a non-Taiwanese, English-language market. We love knowing that more people are equipped with this essential Taiwanese appliance, and that easy steaming is now a part of their life. It sounds trivial, but, for me, it defines the weeknights. And the weeknights define the year. And the years define the… decade? Tatung takeover initiated.
But, I’ll be the first to admit, the Tatung Way of Being is not a seamless transition, especially here in America where steaming is not common daily practice. In concept, it's straightforward—heat water, cook thing—but the terminology around the Tatung isn’t exactly catchy. Outer pot, inner pot, upper pot. Say that five times fast.
The Tatung manual, though exacting, doesn’t provide much culinary guidance outside of how to work the device. The appliance is so enmeshed in Taiwanese daily life, those details aren’t really needed by its intended audience. It would be like sending recipes with a stove. Well, they did send recipes with the stove, take a look. They are for someone who already knows what they’re doing, what the end product should be.
And, don’t forget, the provided rice cup is different from a US cup measure; it’s equivalent to 3/4 cup or 180 ml. This is common to many rice cookers on the market, but it does mean you can never lose that clear little wisp of a thing. All Tatung owners know that feeling when the uninitiated guest and/or partner puts the rice cup away in Weird Place, breaking the fundamental rule of Tatung ownership: always know where your rice cup is. To guest and/or partner: don't worry, we do stock replacement rice cups, after all.
*proceeds to write DO NOT TOUCH on rice cup with permanent marker*
But all this aside, the Tatung really is convenient. It makes the best rice, and you just can't beat the ease. The other day, I fed my family with a whole chicken, a knob of ginger, green onion, a glug of rice wine, a healthy palmful of salt, water, and the Tatung. No stove required. I used the leftover chicken to garnish congee and make sesame chicken salad. Just one scenario of hundreds.
This is all to say that the Tatung has its own idiosyncrasies, with a specific habitual language that’s come up around it. It's a kitchen-craft of its own that’s been passed down over decades, creating a shared experience across generations of cooks.
However, as mentioned in our first newsletter on the topic, most online resources are in Mandarin. So, when we first started, we wrote a cookbook to break down the language barrier to electric steaming. We introduced terminology, tips, and recipes passed down from our families, in English, with the goal of increasing the accessibility stateside.
But there's so much more to share, and the knowledge runs deep. Just the other day, someone asked if we had any recipes that didn’t require the stove at all. And, yeah, there are tons. I even have a cookbook full of vegan herbal soups all made with the Tatung that I’ve been meaning to translate.
The resources in English are still scant, but the community is growing. Let's create the canon.
The Yun Hai Tatung Community Cooking Club
On the occasion of the launch of the 11-cup steamer and the Tatung miniature, we're establishing a new community group, the Yun Hai Tatung Family Cooking Club, where we invite you all to share your Tatung questions, know-how, and experiences. We'll act as moderators and contributors; this is a space for Tatung users to connect.
This is also the buy/sell/trade group we promised a few months ago. We are proud of the ultra-reliability of the Tatung steamers (mom's is 45 years strong) and don't want to devalue that by selling new ones. If you're sizing up or want a different color, post your old one as a listing to the group. Or if you don't want to buy new, ask there. I have at least one I can sell ya.
If you love this newsletter or just love a Tatung, I hope you’ll participate and help us bring it all to life. Join, post, comment, and tell your friends and relatives. Good photos not required. Camera eats last. Pave the path for the Tatung users to follow.
I, for one, plan to share some “secret tatung resources,” like this amazing video Tatung made in the 80’s that shares instructions for rice, congee, braised beef, goji berry chicken soup, and steamed buns. Only 963 views... what in the world.
And a very self-published pdf I came across with no attributions whatsoever, but many interesting recipes I hadn’t seen before. See stewed coconut soup below. You’ll have to join the group for the rest.
And, finally, one day soon, you may catch a behind-the-scenes video of a visit to the actual Tatung factory in Taiwan, of these very steamers were being assembled.
Looking forward to seeing you there with all your vintage Web 1.0 hauls. Now, on to the new stuff.
(Note: this group is a private Facebook group. We evaluated all options and felt this was the most user friendly while reaching the largest amount of people. Members will be automatically approved except where profiles are brand new. We will be actively moderating and will ban any users that abuse the forum.)
The Limited Edition Miniature Tatung Steamer
Behold the Tatung in miniature, the cutest member of the Tatung family, the 1-cup. It's a small storage box that looks like a little rice cooker. Finally, a place to store all those NTD coins until your next trip to Taiwan.
While they are not electric, you can cook with them. The inner lining is a removable, food-safe stainless steel cup that can be used as a ramekin for small dishes in a full-size Tatung or stovetop steamer. Try making steamed eggs or using it for panna cotta.
We’ve had one in our store since opening day, and it's one of our most requested items. We eventually convinced Tatung Company in Taipei to do a limited run for us, and voila.
The Tatung 11-Cup Electric Steamer and Rice Cooker
By popular request, we've also brought in the 11-cup electric steamer and rice cooker, the stainless steel analogue to the 10-cup aluminum steamer we grew up with.
This is the largest size that we sell. It does everything the 6-cup can do, but with more elbow room for heavy duty kitchen tasks like steaming a whole fish, braising a family sized batch of tofu, making soups (hello sesame oil lion's mane), or preparing that party sized batch of Taiwanese oil rice 油飯 you always wanted. It fits full size plates, so you can steam more baos and dumplings. I even use mine for sterilizing jars, a few at a time, before pickling.
Bonafide Tatung Replacement Parts
And, because the Tatung appliance itself sometimes outlives its components, we've brought in more replacement parts to bring new life back to your old machines. Now offering handles, knobs, and lids, in addition to the components we stocked before.
The 11-cup parts will also work with the 10-cup aluminum steamers; we don't sell these, but you may have one at home. Please reach out to us at support@yunhai.shop with any questions about these parts or how to revive the old Tatung that might be sitting unused in the cupboard.
Thanks again for being part of it all. Tatung has our hearts. And our sweet potatoes.
Taiwan: A World of Orchids
Because I'm (very) bad at writing this newsletter in advance, I'm wrapping this up just as we get ready to table at the Taiwan Orchid Festival, an annual event staged by the Queens Botanical Garden and the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office in New York. It’s the 10th anniversary of the event and 900+ pots of Taiwanese orchids will be on display (with some for sale), and Taiwanese food and craft vendors like us will be in attendance.
If you're in the New York area, please consider joining us this weekend. We’ll be there sampling fruit, but there will be many other things going on, including Té Company tea ceremonies and “beer garden with jazz.” The tickets are very affordable and go towards supporting the garden. Buy in advance or at the entrance.
Everybody Tatung,
Lisa Cheng Smith 鄭衍莉
Written with support by Amalissa Uytingco, Lillian Lin and Luke Miller. If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with friends and subscribe if you haven’t already. I email once a month, sometimes more, sometimes less. For more Taiwanese food, head to yunhai.shop, follow us on instagram and twitter, or view the newsletter archives.
My mom and I picked out my very own Tatung when I first moved to New York. Looking to expand my recipe archive so I joined the group - excited to try out new recipes :)