To say that Taiwan Tan Yutou is popular would be an understatement. Since it opened in the middle of September, tables have been full and lines have run out of the door every evening at dinner time. Reservations must be made at least one week in advance.
Tan Yutou is one of the more successful chain restaurants in China, with 91 branches on the mainland and sales last year of 450 million yuan. Taiwan Tan Yutou is branch No. 92. Combine the restaurant's reputation with Taiwan's addiction to Sichuan hot pot, and you get a recipe for big business.
Upon entering Tan Yutou's three-storey building, guests are immediately greeted with the aroma of chili peppers and Chinese herbs. This is the smell of the spicy red hot pot's secret sauce. Tan Yutou's central kitchen in Chengdu, Sichuan makes the sauce and then sends it vacuum-sealed to its different branches. "We wouldn't be able to make the soup without it," said Yvonne Wang (
PHOTO: YU SEN-LUN, TAIPEI TIMES
What really makes Tan Yutou stand out is its chili peppers. These come from Sichuan and farmers have a seven-day window to pick them. If harvested too early or too late, they won't taste quite so good. The chili peppers are picked according to this schedule and promptly vacuum-sealed. This way "it only feels hot in your mouth, not in your throat or stomach," Wang said. According to Wang, this is another reason why the restaurant is so popular.
For the less adventurous, the tomato pot is a good choice, eaten with slices of meat and fish balls. Its thick red broth is rich and smooth on account of the vacuum packed tomato sauce that's shipped in from Xinjiang.
And then there is Tan Yutou's house specialty -- fish head hot pot. A fish's head is rich in nutrients and it makes the hot pot's soup more flavorful. It comes in three flavors -- spicy fish head, tomato fish head and white (light) fish head.
The dipping sauce for the meat is also unique in Tan Yutou. You mix fried soy beans, pickles, the house chili bean sauce and chicken stock into a saucer, into which the waiter adds spicy oil. If you want your sauce to be extra spicy, just ask for more oil.
At Tan Yutou, as in Sichuan, they finish off a luxurious meal with a bowl of dan-dan noodles (dry noodles with chili oil and peanut powder), a few green onion pancakes, yam cakes or pumpkin pancakes.
For those who don't know what to choose from the numerous items from the menu, there is a set menu (four persons for NT$3,000), which gives you 13 dishes including two different kinds of hot pot with fish head, beef ribs, lamb, dan-dan noodles and green onion pancakes.
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