The character for Tarn in the restaurant's name is not one you are likely to find in your pocket Chinese dictionary. It uses the radical for jar (缶) next to the character for sun (日) on top of clouds (雲). According to Joanne Li (李西), the restaurant manager, this ancient character represents the preservation of produce, which keeps the character of the weather and the season at the time when it is sealed in a jar. "Food prepared at different seasons, at different times, will be different," she said, and the range of seasonal dishes and homemade vinegars, wines and preserved fruit bears out the restaurant's name.
For cooking, Tien Tarn employs an arsenal of wood-fired, pot-bellied clay ovens that contribute to the food's distinctive flavor and also to the general atmosphere of the place. "This style of cooking goes back thousands of years," Li said, "and the clay oven has many unique properties."
PHOTO: IAN BARTHOLOMEW, TAIPEI TIMES
Out of one oven came a complete mini-pumpkin, the hollow inside filled with rice, chestnuts and cured meat
Tien Tarn, while drawing many of its ideas from ancient Chinese texts such as the Classic of Food
Dishes such as the pork knuckle and pumpkin rice are only prepared in limited quantities each day and are best preordered. For something simpler, the restaurant offers set lunch menus Monday to Friday with a variety of baked meats or seafood, served with multigrain rice that changes weekly. The preserved plum tea is an outstanding beverage, but stronger plum wine and plum spirit, also homemade, are also available.
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