Tanjia cuisine is best known for its preparation of bird's nest and shark's fin. It retains the Hanlin residence's home cooking method, where the shark's fins are soaked in warm water, never using hot alkali, so as not to destroy the nutrients.

All traditional Chinese dishes, especially shark's fins, need to be cooked in a soup that is carefully prepared by the chef. Tan family dishes hanging soup is a whole chicken (farm-raised wood hen), duck, dried scallops, ham in proportion to the pot, with the fireman for two days, the chicken, duck, completely boiled, dissolved in the soup, over the fine wicker, out of the soup, the shark's fins into the soup, leaning on the fire for a day, the entire shark's fin cooking process requires three days of fireman. This stewed out of the shark's fin, thick juice, thick flavor, eat soft moisten slippery, extremely delicious.

In Tanjia cuisine, there are more than a dozen ways to cook shark's fins, such as "three silk shark's fins", "shark's fins with crab roe", "shark's fins in casserole", "stewed shark's fins", "shark's fins in thick soup", "shark's fins in sea braised soup", etc. The shark's fins are prepared by cold or hot water soaking. Shark's fin is made from cold and hot water, soaked through and through, with no fishy odor, and after it is made, the shark's fin meat is soft and mellow, with a very mellow taste. And in all the shark's fin dishes, but also to "stewed shark's fin" is the most superior.

This dish is made with precious yellow shark's fins (Luzon yellow), and the whole shark's fin is eaten, and a shark's fin is simmered on the fire for several hours. Tanfu Shark's Fin dish is golden and shiny, thick and fresh and moist, with a thick and unctuous flavor, a mellow taste and a long aftertaste.

Bird's Nest in Clear Soup

Bird's Nest in Clear Soup

The "Bird's Nest in Clear Soup" in the Tan family's cuisine is even more unique. It does not use alkali to make bird's nest, although the color of the bird's nest is white and the amount of bird's nest appears to be more, but the nutrition is greatly lost.

This dish is made by soaking the bird's nest in warm water for three hours, then rinsing it again and again with clean water, and very carefully selecting all the hairs and impurities. When the bird's nest is soaked, put it in a large soup bowl, fill it with half a catty of chicken broth, steam it in a cage for about twenty to thirty minutes, and take it out and divide it into smaller soup bowls.

Then the chicken, duck, elbow, dried scallops, ham and other ingredients into the broth boil, add the appropriate amount of wine, sugar, salt, to taste, into the small soup bowl, each bowl sprinkled with a few heel cut very thin shredded ham, can be on the table.

This dish soup is clear as water, slightly beige, delicious flavor, bird's nest is soft and smooth, not broken, high nutritional value, is a masterpiece of Tan family dishes.

Legend has it that there is another condition to eat Tan family dishes, that is, the invitation must be even the master of the Tan family, it is said that the Tan family every time to host three tables of the table, regardless of whether the diner of each meal and the Tan family is acquainted with the master of the Tan family to set up an additional seat, the master of the Tan family is always to come to taste on a few bites.

To eat Tanjia food, there is also an unwritten rule, that is, no matter how much power and position of the eaters, need to walk into the door of the Tan family to eat Tanjia food. There have been many celebrities in the capital to invite guests, hoping that the Tan family chef will be able to go out "outside the meeting", have been rejected.