Upon entering the Du Hsiao Yueh restaurant, one immediately notices the deft movements of the chef. As billows of steam rise above him, he concentrates on the task at hand—preparing another bowl of tan tsai noodles, one of Taiwan’s most notable treats.
In front of him are a bowl of minced meat and another one of shrimp soup. To his right is a pot of boiling water, while to his left stands a container holding different kinds of noodles. He skillfully puts a handful of noodles into a bamboo ladle with holes and lowers everything into the boiling water.
After a few seconds, he tips the noodles into a bowl, adding bean sprouts, minced meat, garlic sauce, coriander and shrimp soup. He tops it all off with a shrimp, and—voila!—the noodles are ready to be served.
The delicious dish just prepared by the chef has an interesting history all its own. Its origins can be traced back to a fisherman named Hung Yu-tou, who emigrated with his family from Fujian Province in mainland China to Tainan in southern Taiwan in 1895, when he was still in his early 20s.
However, typhoons over the summer, particularly between August and September, made it difficult for fishing out in the sea. In order to make a living during the slack season, Hung thought of selling noodles. From this comes the name of the restaurant, Du Hsiao Yueh, which means, “making ends meet during the slack month.”
“Hung had the skills of making minced meat, which he learnt from a chef back in Fujian,” said Hung Hsiu-hung, the great-grandson of Hung and creative director of Ethan Enterprises Co. Ltd., the company in charge of managing the Du Hsiao Yueh chain of restaurants. “With this skill and the abundant sources of seafood in southern Taiwan, my great grandfather created tan tsai noodles.”
According to Hung, the name of the dish refers to his grandfather’s habit of carrying his wares on a bamboo pole, which in Chinese is called tan tsai. “It is hard to imagine how he fitted all his equipment, including even a stove, on the two ends of a bamboo pole,” Hung said, marveling.
It was not until the 1940s that the business finally had a regular store of its own. Hung’s descendants starting from the third generation were required to remember the tastes of their customers, such as the ones who did not want their noodles with garlic, coriander or minced meat.
“If we take note of their preferences, customers can feel our sincerity and are more likely to come back again,” Hung said.
He explained that the recipe and preparation methods of tan tsai noodles must be observed very strictly, down to such details as the quantity of noodles per serving and the temperature for braising the minced meat.
It was this insistence that made it possible for tan tsai noodles to be passed down from generation to generation. One great feature of the noodles lies in the braised minced meat, which uses pork hindquarters and Taiwan shallots as ingredients, and is cooked for four hours.
“Our minced meat smells really tasty because of the shallots,” Hung said. “We’ve tried using shallots from abroad but they don’t bring out the smell and taste as well, so even though Taiwan shallots cost more than twice the price of imported ones, we have insisted on using local shallots.”
In the last 15 years or so, Du Hsiao Yueh has expanded and now it has two stores in Tainan and three in Taipei. Hung recalled the difficulties of opening a branch in the capital in 1999. “It just so happened that a relative of my brother-in-law had a store for rent in one of the busiest areas in Taipei, so we decided to lease the place and give our fortune a try. But business in the beginning was not nearly as smooth as we’d imagined.”
Hung noted that tastes are different in northern and southern Taiwan. Taipei residents are not used to the strong taste of tan tsai noodles, for instance. The recipe had to be adjusted accordingly, and as a result the Taipei variety uses more soup than the Tainan original to dilute the flavor.
In addition, the eating habits of Taipei residents, especially those of young female office workers, prompted the Hung family to think of providing side dishes for their customers.
“As we believe in ‘great taste over great quantity,’ the portions of noodles we offer are rather small. Many of our female patrons said they were afraid to order a second serving because their colleagues might make fun of them for eating too much food!
“We never came across these kinds of problems in Tainan. It wasn’t until we opened a branch in Taipei that I understood that our business practices must vary from area to area,” Hung said, adding that business began to prosper in Taipei after adjustments were made in accordance with local preferences.
In addition to having a keen taste for food, Hung is deeply interested in interior design, which is reflected in the decor of the restaurants. All five restaurants are slightly different in appearance, and all are a blend of modern and traditional styles. But they have one thing in common.
“The corner where the chef prepares the noodles is the same in every store,” Hung said. “This is to remind us of the intelligence and spirit of our ancestors when they were trying to make ends meet in difficult times.” (HZW)
Write to Grace Kuo at morningk@mail.gio.gov.tw