(Taiwan) How do you prepare Ti Pan Sao (pronounced: Tie2 Pan3 Sao1)? What cooking instruments, ingredients,...

Question

Ti Pan Sao is a Chinese cooking method. Restaurants use a square metal plate (3m x 0.5 m or longer). It's usually not rectangular, instead it's bended into a semi circle so that customers can sit on the other side to eat while facing the cook.

The metal plate is used for cooking. Once cooking is done, it is served on a plate. You get a bowl of rice, a bowl of soup, and some vegetables served with the type of food (you can choose from: beef,pork,lamb,fish) that you order. Tea is free.

You can get all that at the same price of one meal at the Mc Donalds. And it's delicious.

What's it secret?

Answer 1

There's really no secret and it's not unique. It's just hotplate cooking. The most recognisable form is Japanese-style teppanyaki and considering Taiwan was previously colonised by Japan it's not surprising to see elements of Japanese influence on the cuisine.

There's also Chinese & Korean dishes that are served on cast-iron hotplates to have a visually appealing sizzling effect that also enhances the aroma. Rather similar to Western steaks served likewise. Although it's not cooked in the same way as teppanyaki, there is a similar objective in infusing the food with the characteristic hotplate flavour (maybe it's the taste of extra iron?). The seasonings in teppanyaki cooking are usually kept simple, just soy sauce or teriyaki sauce, garlic, ginger, rice wine etc.