Brothers Lee Chin-shan (李金山) and Lee Wan-chu (李萬居), coproprietors of a late-night diner in Yilan City, said the tepid post-recession economy has affected the hostess industry and their business.
The brothers said their establishment near Yilan Train Station used to be frequented by hostesses who worked in the many bars and karaoke venues nearby and wanted to have a meal after work.
“Back in those days, working girls knew how to spend,” said Lee Chin-shan, who is also the head chef.
Photo: Chiang Chih-hsiung, Taipei Times
Hostesses who patronized their diner were predominantly Taiwanese and enjoyed fresh seafood. They were also generous, paying in cash and tipping the restaurant owners and servers with the change, the Lees said.
Their diner used to stay open until 3am and the majority of their patrons were off-duty hostesses, the brothers said, adding that hostesses used to attach fake eyelashes to the eyes of goldfish painted on its walls.
Each goldfish was “adopted” by a hostess familiar with the owners and patrons.
However, as the economy declined in the 2000s, businessmen who frequented hostess bars tightened their belts, and karaoke bars and hostess bars began to close.
Operators are saving costs by hiring immigrants and hosting private bookings rather than operating from a fixed location, Lee Chin-shan said.
Hostesses these days are mostly Chinese or Vietnamese, and they prefer ordering heavily spiced foods to be delivered to their workplace or residence, he said.
Lee Chin-shan that it makes him sad to see the painted goldfish — formerly the signature decor of the diner — lose their hostess “owners” and fake eyelashes.
In keeping with the times, the late-night diner redesigned its menu to highlight Yilan’s traditional cuisine with an emphasis on quality, the brothers said.
“It is adapt or die. Besides, foreign-born girls becoming the mainstay of ‘recreational venues’ shows that we are really becoming a multi-ethnic society,” Lee Chin-shan said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,