總統好: When the President Comes to Yun Hai Shop...
...we hustle really hard and make large and miniature Tatung Electric Steamers available to preorder ASAP
This is Yun Hai Taiwan Stories, a newsletter about Taiwanese food and culture by Lisa Cheng Smith 鄭衍莉, founder of Yun Hai. If you aren’t yet a subscriber, sign up here.
Happy Qing Ming Jie 清明節, or Tomb Sweeping Festival, a time to honor our ancestors, celebrate the coming of spring, and eat mugwort kueh. The holiday was yesterday and marks the second anniversary of this newsletter: read all about Qing Ming Jie and find an accompanying recipe for Run Bing (Spring Roll) in the very first newsletter installment I ever published.
And I guess I should mention that Taiwan President Tsai Ing-Wen came to the store last week (best IG response: ‘wtf?’). All in all, a momentous event. We especially enjoyed seeing the products that caught her eye: the Tatung Electric Steamer, TTL Rice Wine, Bitter Tea Seed Oil, Seaweed Almond Crisps, Debbie Carlos’ Gourd Cruets, and Gajidai.
Today, I’m excited to open up preorders for two additions to the Tatung Steamer family: a large 11-cup version and a miniature replica. Use the promo code EARLYTATUNG10 for 10% off preorders on the 11-cup rice cooker and steamer. Preorders close April 15th and will ship in July.
I know, it’s been a minute. But I’ve got big news that will make up for all that quiet time: Tsai Ing-wen, the President of Taiwan, came to see us at our store in Brooklyn last week. We spent about forty-five minutes together, touring the store and having breakfast at Win Son Bakery. We were joined by other members of the Taiwanese-American community—Niel and Daisy of Yoseka Stationery, Elena of Té Company, Josh and Trigg of Win Son Bakery, Professor Ming-Ying Li, and actor Leo Yu-Ning Chang)—who shared their stories of being Taiwanese in America.
It was amazing, surreal, and unexpected. The proximity of the visit to April Fool’s Day still has me second-guessing that it actually happened. Even the WSJ asked us why the focus of the first leg of Tsai Ing-wen’s trip was culinary. But Phelim Kine at Politico predicted the visit in his weekly newsletter, calling us Taiwan’s “unofficial culinary diplomatic outpost.”
From Kine:
Don’t be surprised if visiting Taiwan President Tsai’s motorcade makes a detour to Brooklyn during her layover in New York today. The likely destination: The Yun Hai (雲海 — “sea of clouds”) Taiwanese General Store. Since the online specialty store opened its brick and mortar location in 2022 it has become an East coast outpost of Taiwanese culinary, cultural and political identity. It led an initiative to support Taiwanese farmers during a 2021 Chinese import ban on Taiwanese pineapples and has become the Lunar New Year snacks supplier of choice for Taiwan’s unofficial diplomatic outpost in the Big Apple.
Kine also wrote about Formosa Moon, a book that shares the “out of bounds creativity” of Taiwan (I ordered instantly). In Kine’s newsletter, the authors shared a thought that sums up my feelings, too, and probably has a lot to do with why Tsai Ing-wen came to our store in the first place: to fortify Taiwanese identity in America as being more than its geopolitics and GDP.
What is the most important takeaway from your book?
That cross-strait tension doesn’t define Taiwan. Despite the precariousness of its geopolitical situation, Taiwan’s zeitgeist isn’t one of anxiety and endless preparation for a conflict that’s been called various stages of “imminent” since 1949. Taiwan’s story is infinitely more complex and nuanced than the boilerplate — and historically dubious at best — ‘breakaway island’ narrative that’s been dutifully copy-pasted into nearly every article published about Taiwan over the last 30 years.
My perspective on the whole thing: Taiwanese identity in the US, is, in large part, defined by the Taiwanese diaspora here. In contrast to the lack of formal recognition in government, our community is concrete. The more we flourish and are recognized, so too Taiwan—as a sovereign nation and a hotbed of cultural production.
Notably, President Tsai visited two businesses (Yun Hai and Win Son) that champion Taiwanese culture to a largely non-Mandarin and non-Taiwanese speaking audience. The stories we tell are deeply Taiwanese, but we tell them to anyone we can, and in English for wider accessibility here. For me, the visit was affirmation that what all of us do to promote a deeper understanding of Taiwanese culture in the US is hugely important for Taiwan itself—it’s not just navel gazing. This applies whether you are a Taiwanese immigrant, American-born with Taiwanese roots, or simply a Taiwan-interested person in the world. Much gratitude and recognition to all who have championed Taiwanese stories in the past, present and future.
Read more about the visit in our instagram posts above. It was all over the news in Taiwan, too; this video (in Taiwanese) has some good footage.
Tatung 11-Cup Steamers and Miniatures: Preorders Open Now
Speaking of sharing Taiwanese culture, we’re excited to announce an expansion to our family of Tatung Electric Steamers 大同電鍋, all the more relevant because they were the first thing the Prez noticed upon arriving.
As of today, we’re accepting preorders for the larger 11-cup rice cooker and steamer and the super cute limited edition Tatung Miniatures. Our steamer runs tend to sell out, so we’re opening a limited quantity to newsletter subscribers ahead of the official launch. These early bird orders get an additional discount, too. To take advantage, head to the site and put your order in before April 15th. Preorder with code EARLYTATUNG10 for the 10% off the 11-cup steamers. Both the 11-cup steamers and the miniatures will ship in July.
The 11-cup Steamer
The original 6-cup size we launched last year is excellent for individuals, small families, and small kitchens. But if you have the space, the 11-cup will allow you to make a much bigger meal, whether that’s a party-size serving of congee—when you’re hosting for the holidays—or a steaming a whole chicken in broth. The selling point for me is not how much more rice you can make, but how much bigger of a fish you can steam.
The 11-cup is available in red and green, and in all the same bundles as the 6-cup: as a standalone appliance; with a printed cookbook; or with the cookbook and our favorite steamer accessories. The cookbook will include an addendum that adapts the original recipes to the new, larger steamer.
We know that some of you may want to upgrade to the 11-cup and actually would have waited if goshdarnit you had only known. When we started this project, we also didn’t anticipate that we’d be able to offer an 11 cup. Because we truly are invested in the long term life of these steamers, we’re putting together a listserv or group where Tatung owners can buy/sell/trade directly with each other. Expect that to be announced in July, when we officially launch the new size.
The Limited Edition Miniatures
We’ve had a super cute Tatung miniature in store since opening day, and it’s one of the most requested items there. Even President Tsai pointed it out when she came in. In a feat of perfect timing that had nothing to do with the president’s office, we’ve finally convinced Tatung Company in Taiwan to do a special run of miniature Tatung collectibles in red and green, just for us.
The miniatures aren’t actual steamers. But, they can be used as cute serving bowls (they are food safe) or as storage containers for household or kitchen knick knacks (coins, garlic, random collection of plastic parts you might need one day). The inner cups are stainless steel; place them inside the actual electric steamers to cook or reheat a small portion of food. Put it back into the Tatung-shaped shell for a cute serving accessory.
Ok, back to the Prez…
I want to linger in the presidential moment a little longer and share more behind-the-scenes details on what it was like to have a head of state visit our little corner of the world, our gamadiam 柑仔店.
Lillian Lin is co-owner and Chief Operating Officer of Yun Hai. She grew up in Taiwan, speaks Mandarin natively, and is a huge part of why we were selected for this visit in the first place. In her words:
I’m so glad I picked up a call from a “random” number one March morning while I was still half awake in bed. “Hi! This is TECO NY (Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, the de facto consulate). We are planning to bring some high-level officials to visit Yun Hai, can I bring some people to check out your store tomorrow? By the way, there’ll be about 70 people.” HUH I was so shocked. Who is coming! Our store is so small! I immediately called Lisa so we could panic together. The next day, a whole bus load of people had traveled from Taiwan to plan out the President’s visit in advance. Various TECO teams visited the store at least 5 more times before the actual visit took place. It was an exciting few weeks!
During the visit, we got to witness how cheeky and humorous the President was. Here are some fun tidbits from the roundtable at Win Son:
When asked if she ever gets to decompress, eat out, and go shopping, the President answered jokingly, “My security prefers that I just stay in my room!” It suddenly made us realize that these visits are maybe one of the few times the President gets a chance to relive her old life and enjoy “shopping” in a store and “ordering” at a restaurant. Happy to be of service!
Before she was President, Professor Tsai used to (for fun) emboss her stationery with her name. But after becoming President, she realized everything now had her name on it! And, despite all the fancy ceremonial pens that she is given, her favorite signing pen is the humble Uni-Ball Signo UM-153 Broad Point 1.00mm!
And here’s one more tidbit from me, for my Mandarin-impaired brothers and sisters:
Thirty-six hours before the visit, we were informed that the entire event (including our five minute introductions) should be in Mandarin, so the legislators and national press in attendance would be able to follow along.
Fact: I require five days minimum of Mandarin immersion to get back to even a baseline level of comfort, so I was feeling less than confident. Though speaking to the President in Mandarin was next level intimidating, the first thought in my head was that my uncle was going to see it. Such is the power of uncle.
When I was young and offering to take SAT prep classes years early to get out of having to go to Chinese school, my mom told me there would come a day that I would regret not learning the language well enough. This was that day.
But I did it; it was good for me to struggle with Mandarin to try and express myself genuinely to Tsai Ing-wen and the Taiwanese people. This is something that my mother (and many other immigrants) did daily as a young graduate student in the United States. I appreciate better now the courage and self-acceptance that required.
I also learned that President Tsai didn’t know Taiwanese when she first started campaigning, and had to teach herself. Impressive and immensely relatable.
For all of you who feel you could be (should be?) better at Mandarin by now, here are a few resources that I really enjoy and should be making more use of:
The Taiwanese Way Podcast: Just a guy shooting the breeze in Taiwanese Mandarin, with transcripts. Read them/translate them first, then listen to the episode to help improve audio comprehension and familiarity with the Taiwanese way of speaking.
The Mando Press: Danyo Pang moved to Taiwan and learned Chinese there by studying everyday texts. He has several paid tools that I haven’t tried, but I love the free series dissecting street signs and other everyday notices.
Pleco: the best Chinese dictionary out there, only available as an app. You can import different Chinese and Taiwanese dictionaries. The only annoying thing is that it’s mobile only, would love to have it on desktop.
Taiwan Ministry of Education Dictionary, the official dictionary of Taiwan. You can also import it as a module into Pleco.
Luke, our Ops Coordinator who learned excellent Mandarin as an adult, recommends podcasts 瘋女人聊天室 and 敏迪選讀 for comprehension and exposure to everyday topics.
He also recommends the Grace Mandarin Chinese YouTube channel for language instruction with a focus on Taiwanese Mandarin.
For a Taiwanese language resource, check out Bite Size Taiwanese.
Other cool things that happened this month:
Lillian was interviewed by Emily Wu of Ghost Island Media. Watch it here.
An Apple Maps I Just Love Guide: Lisa Cheng Smith’s Taipei Food Spots.
Clarissa Wu and Ivy Chen’s new cookbook, Made in Taiwan, is now available for preorder! P.S. Check out Clarissa’s 36 hour Taipei travel guide in the NYTimes.
Until the next presidential visit,
Lisa Cheng Smith
鄭衍莉
Editing and content support by Lillian Lin and Luke Miller. Got a question, a topic you want covered, or have something to share? Reply to this email and let me know.
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with friends and subscribe if you haven’t already. I email once a month, sometimes more, sometimes less. For more Taiwanese food, head to yunhai.shop, follow us on instagram and twitter, or view the newsletter archives.
I made a typo in my initial post and wrote 請明節 instead of 清明節. I’ve since updated.
Omg tatung miniatures in the iconic red and green!!