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Many years ago I saw a Japanese TV program that explored the food of southern Taiwan and one of the stops was a restaurant that had a 106-year old vat of broth. It was tall and narrow and had a giant hump of crust on one side.

If it's still open, it would be going for 130+ years at this point.

ETA: Found it. Established 1895, the year Taiwan was annexed by Japan. It's not soup, it's a meat sauce (滷肉) used on a noodle dish. Scroll down to the middle of the page, which shows the chef with the pot in front of him.

https://ksdelicacy.pixnet.net/blog/posts/5067270713

1 comments

Cool. The pot is surprisingly small. Is the sauce in it highly concentrated or something?

Yes, 滷肉 ("braised meat") is highly concentrated. You can't eat the sauce by itself like a stew, it would be too rich. So it's usually served on white rice or in this case noodles.

The ingredients are typically finely minced fatty pork with soy sauce and strong flavorings like dried mushroom, garlic, star anise, and a fermented bean sauce that's super salty. Plus other ingredients that make the taste unique to the chef or shop.

By the way, if you haven't tried 滷肉飯 (lǔròu fàn, or braised pork with rice), you should. You can't walk more than a block in Taipei without finding it, but I've seen it only once in the US.

You will find restaurants with it in LA, SF, and NY for sure. In SF there is an award winning restaurant named Lu Rou Fan, which should give you an idea of the food they serve.

I imagine any region with a large Taiwanese or Chinese population will have a restaurant that serves it (or the chinese version gai fan).

You need to come to NYC. They are quite common.

So it's something along the lines of demiglace or the stocks it is made from.

... and now I'm hungry. I'd love to try this.