Why is Chinese steamboat call ‘ta pi lor’?

I have been watching a lot of Hong Kong Cantonese TVB series. Most of them shows families and friends getting together to have steamboat. They will say something that sounds like, “ta pi lor’. I know ta means to do beat or to do something and lor is pot. But what is pi?

steamboat

The other day, I also ‘ta pi lor’ at home because I was in the Chinese New Year mood after I bought some tangerines. It was an impromptu steamboat dinner. I just boiled some soup with chicken and Chinese white cabbage.

chinese steamboat

Grab a few things from the market and we have all we need to have an enjoyable meal.

chinese steamboat

If you need Chinese steamboat recipe, you can find it on my other food blog. I also posted a Chinese New Year steamboat recipe in an older post on this blog.

Enjoy ta pi lor, ok?

Post Author: lilian

Used to be PenangFaces, now known as Food Haven, for all oink-oink foods

5 thoughts on “Why is Chinese steamboat call ‘ta pi lor’?

    Sorina

    (November 24, 2008 - 2:08 am)

    Hi I am new to your blog and I just wanted to say how much I’m loving it

    Lilian Chin

    (November 26, 2008 - 12:17 pm)

    i think steamboat is a very convenient and easy meal. I always have steamboat when there is a family or friends gathering.

    kyh

    (November 26, 2008 - 1:39 pm)

    I thought it’s “ta pin lor”? Maybe I’m wrong.

    SuperChomp

    (December 25, 2008 - 9:53 am)

    打邊爐. The middle character is “bian1” (Mandarin) or “bin1” (Canto), which means “side”. [da bin lou] As to why it is called hitting the side of the cooker, I’ve never understood that ^^;

    Alan Ewe

    (July 19, 2010 - 1:23 am)

    Hi, I just came across your posting recently and I would like to add on the question.
    Actually “打边炉“or “Da3 Bian1 Lu2” is just simply means the steamboat pot itself. Didn’t you realize that the shape of the pot is such that the charcoal is burning in the centre and the soup is cooked on the side? Thus, “Da Pin Lou” in cantonese.

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