CNN has again raised hackles in Taiwan over its food reporting, with some people complaining that the network’s list of the “world’s 50 most delicious foods” did not include any Taiwanese dishes.
“What we have seen on the list are ice cream, donuts and potato chips — junk food probably favored by CNN reporters,” the Taipei-based Broadcasting Corporation of China said.
The No. 41 entry on the CNNGo Web site was stinky tofu, which was described as “one of Southeast Asia’s most iconic foods,” but in the comments at the end of the list, one person argued that “stinky tofu is Taiwan’s food not Southeast Asia’s.”
Other netizens said the list reflected the writers’ limited knowledge of good food.
“Good food is just good food to enjoy, not to rate,” someone called Eric commented. The listing of stinky tofu as a Southeast Asian food is “a glaring mistake,” he said.
On the CNNGo list, Massaman curry from Thailand was ranked as the tastiest food in the world.
Neapolitan pizza from Italy, chocolate from Mexico, sushi from Japan and Peking duck from China were ranked second, third, fourth and fifth on the list.
CNNGo has been the source of some controversy in Taiwan in recent months.
In April, it listed Taipei as the most gluttonous city in Asia, prompting Government Information Office (GIO) Minister Philip Yang (楊永明) to ask the GIO’s Department of International Information to lodge a complaint with CNN. At the time, Yang said the bright side to the incident was that the government would use it to boost international recognition of Taiwanese gourmet and culinary culture.
Late last month, a report on century eggs by an American on the local Taiwanese delicacy, known as pi dan (皮蛋) in Taiwan, was included in a list of “the world’s most revolting food.”
The report also drew ire from a number of Taiwanese food critics and gastronomists, saying the report undervalued the nature of the dish.
In response, CNN posted a statement on its Web site on July 8 about the issue.
“This article was not meant to offend in any way anyone who likes century eggs, anyone who dislikes century eggs, any century egg manufacturers, anyone who works in the manufacturing or serving of century eggs and especially Chinese culture,” said Andrew Demaria, CNNGo’s editor-in-chief. “We apologize unreservedly for any offense the article has inadvertently caused.”
The article’s author Danny Holwerda also later penned a letter to the Taipei Times, saying that CNN added his article to a special section about the world’s most disgusting foods on its own initiative. He added he meant no disrespect to Taiwanese or their culture.
COSTLY TECH FAILURE: More than 25,000 files for nearly 8,000 students from 81 schools were lost when system administrators updated a server, the Ministry of Education said The academic records of 7,854 high-school students have been lost due to a hard-drive failure, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The records were being stored at National Chi Nan University, which was commissioned by the ministry’s K-12 Education Administration to host a computer server of student portfolios that universities could access to evaluate their applications. Under a program introduced in 2019 for high-school students starting that year, students are to create portfolios to be used for university applications, which include their grades, extracurricular activities and other information related to their character and achievements. System administrators discovered that files were missing when rebooting
921 EARTHQUAKE: The magnitude 7.3 quake left 2,456 people dead and 10,718 injured, while 53,661 houses were fully destroyed and 53,024 houses damaged The Central Weather Bureau yesterday received about 50,000 views on Facebook after it posted the data that it collected on Sept. 21, 1999, when the nation was devastated by a magnitude 7.3 earthquake. The data showed that the 921 Earthquake hit the nation at 1:47am, with the epicenter being 7km southwest of the bureau’s quake detection center in Nantou County’s Yuchi Township (魚池) at a depth of 8km. The quake left 2,456 people dead and 10,718 injured, while 53,661 houses were fully destroyed and 53,024 houses damaged, with the cost of the damage estimated at NT$300 billion (US$10.8 billion at the current
CONFUSING RESULTS: A New Taipei City worker tested positive for COVID-19 in a rapid test and a PCR test, but negative in a traditional nucleic acid test, the CECC said Travelers from Bangladesh, Brazil and Peru are no longer required to quarantine at a government center, and from Saturday can choose to quarantine at hotels, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. The three nations are no longer considered “key high-risk countries,” as their COVID-19 case numbers have continued to fall, the CECC said, adding that no travelers from these countries have been confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 in the past two months. The revised classification would allow travelers from the three countries to choose where they stay during their mandatory 14-day quarantine, although they would be required to pay
‘TECHNICALITY’: The full moon was at 7:55am, but the Taipei Astronomical Museum said it technically remained a ‘real’ full moon when it rose again at night The Mid-Autumn Festival had a “real” full moon, the first time the astronomical categorization has fallen on the day of the festival since 2013, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said yesterday. The festival, which falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar — which this year was yesterday — does not always coincide with an exact full moon, the museum said. A full moon occurs when the Earth is between the sun and the moon — or, more precisely, when the ecliptic longitudes of the sun and the moon differ by 180° — which has a cycle of
RSS