Forget the Instant Pot, Taiwanese steamer Tatung makes everything from fish to rice to cake – and at last it’s easier to buy in the US
- The electric steamer was launched in Taiwan in the 1960s and can make rice, cook a whole fish and even steam cake. It remains a staple in kitchens today
- A Taiwanese New Yorker saw the potential to sell her generation on the Tatung, acquiring sole US distribution rights and producing a book of recipes that use it
In 2019, after a trip back home to Taiwan from the United States, Lisa Cheng Smith was inspired to use the electric steamer she had grown up watching her family cook with.
Known as the Tatung, the steamer had made its debut across Taiwan decades earlier, in the 1960s, as a simple appliance with monochromatic flair. With just a single on-and-off switch, it can make rice, cook a whole fish and even steam cake.
The Tatung had such a cult following that, in the early days, many people joining the Taiwanese diaspora would take one with them to wherever they ended up settling down.
The big problem for Smith was procuring a new Tatung steamer in the US. “Every time I went to a Chinese grocery, I’d go to the appliance section and pray that I would see one – and I never did,” she says.
Today, Smith’s New York-based boutique grocery company, Yun Hai Taiwanese Pantry, is the sole distributor of the Tatung steamer in the US.