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Restaurant: Tien Xiang Huei Wei 天香回味

By Jules Quartly
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Mar 12, 2004, Page 19

Dishing out the Mongolian hot pot in style. PHOTO: JULES QUARTLY, TAIPEI TIMES

When the Mongol warlord Genghis Khan set out to conquer the world around the turn of the 13th century he realized his soldiers would need extraordinary sustenance and gave his herbal medicine experts and cooks the task of coming up with a food equal to the task.

This is said to the be the origin of the "unforgettable pot," which may now be sampled at 11 Tien Xiang Huei Wei restaurants dotted around Taiwan and Japan. The original recipe was a secret closely guarded by Khan's immediate family, but is said to have eventually fallen into the hands of some restaurant owners in China and has now been modified for local tastes.

It is a uniquely aromatic and satisfying hot pot, quite different from the norm and does not require extra sauces. A soup is only as good as its stock and the primordial unforgettable pot is created by boiling up big pig bones and old hens for a considerable time. During this process a combination of 68 plants and spices are added in the correct proportions, strained and refined, to form the amber nectar which is delivered in a big pot to the table.

Identifiable elements in the soup include Chinese medicinal herbs such as goqi (枸杞) and hong zao (紅棗), ginger, fruits such as dragon eyes (龍眼), water chestnuts, lots of garlic, leeks, mushrooms, a root called dangsen (黨蔘) and small beans or doushi (豆豉). You can then order various meats and vegetables and other ingredients of your choice. These are added to the potion, stewed and then, when ready, ladled into your bowl for consumption.

The result is a unique and powerful taste, deep and musky, slightly sweet and spicy, without being hot. It is not hard to imagine the high plateaus, sweeping grasslands and deserts of Mongolia at this point, though I have never visited them. Large panels featuring the endless blue skies and great plains of the country are a feature of the restaurant.

The large, open-plan space is not remarkable, with its odd green color-scheme, industrial-grade carpet and incongruous Chinese pink silk chairs, but after you taste the food, the ambience becomes secondary. A gong is sounded when you walk in and leave, brightly dressed waitstaff in bright poster color silks, with bandannas and tassles, glide around taking orders, pour tea and dispense soup. This is a great theme restaurant, even for those who are not keen on hot pot.

Do check out the jinsi lienbing (金絲戀餅), which are small fried cakes that unravel like silk and melt in the mouth. They are a hand-made speciality of the house and were originally created by a Qing-dynasty concubine to please her emperor. Finally, even though there are around 50 tables, do make reservations in advance. If you don't, be prepared to wait up to an hour to be seated.
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