At 6pm, the famous line of customers was not beginning to back up through the kitchen as it normally does. Due to SARS, the food and beverage business is slower all over town, even at Taipei's most famous restaurant, the dumpling shop Din Tai Fung.
But in many ways, the slowdown also has something to do with the fame. Din Tai Fung has in recent years generated much of its business from tourists, with Japanese tourists alone making up one-third of the clientele, according to employee of 13 years Wu Chia-feng (
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"There are fewer tourists," said Wu, adding, "Taiwanese customers don't like to line up. But more people are taking out."
The restaurant started out more than 40 years ago as a street stall selling steamed dumplings and 30 years ago it moved to its present location. The kitchen was put at the entrance, forcing customers to file past white aproned cooks on the way to upper floor dining rooms, a feature that has since become a hallmark.
In 1993 the New York Times named Din Tai Fung one of the world's ten best restaurants, and the decade since has seen expansion, with six franchises added in Japan and one each in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Arcadia, California. Ordering and seating systems are computerized and there is now a Web site.
For many locals, growth has changed the restaurant. "Ding Tai Fung isn't what it used to be," said a woman who works in the area identifying herself as Ms. Huang. "It's really expensive. The price is fine for Japanese, but I think the food is better and cheaper at Kao Chi or Chinchiyuan."
Kao Chi, or Kao's Snack Collection (高記), and Chinchiyuan (金雞園), which are both within two or three minutes walk of Din Tai Fung, have similar menus of very good food, and are definitely cheaper (hsiaolungbao start at NT$100 at Kao's and NT$70 at Chinchiuan, compared to NT$170 at Din Tai Fung).
If you don't want to eat out, like many people recently, the entire menu is also available for take away. There is no delivery, but you can call ahead and your order will be ready in about fifteen minutes.
April 14 to April 20 In March 1947, Sising Katadrepan urged the government to drop the “high mountain people” (高山族) designation for Indigenous Taiwanese and refer to them as “Taiwan people” (台灣族). He considered the term derogatory, arguing that it made them sound like animals. The Taiwan Provincial Government agreed to stop using the term, stating that Indigenous Taiwanese suffered all sorts of discrimination and oppression under the Japanese and were forced to live in the mountains as outsiders to society. Now, under the new regime, they would be seen as equals, thus they should be henceforth
Last week, the the National Immigration Agency (NIA) told the legislature that more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) risked having their citizenship revoked if they failed to provide proof that they had renounced their Chinese household registration within the next three months. Renunciation is required under the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), as amended in 2004, though it was only a legal requirement after 2000. Prior to that, it had been only an administrative requirement since the Nationality Act (國籍法) was established in
Three big changes have transformed the landscape of Taiwan’s local patronage factions: Increasing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) involvement, rising new factions and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) significantly weakened control. GREEN FACTIONS It is said that “south of the Zhuoshui River (濁水溪), there is no blue-green divide,” meaning that from Yunlin County south there is no difference between KMT and DPP politicians. This is not always true, but there is more than a grain of truth to it. Traditionally, DPP factions are viewed as national entities, with their primary function to secure plum positions in the party and government. This is not unusual
US President Donald Trump’s bid to take back control of the Panama Canal has put his counterpart Jose Raul Mulino in a difficult position and revived fears in the Central American country that US military bases will return. After Trump vowed to reclaim the interoceanic waterway from Chinese influence, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed an agreement with the Mulino administration last week for the US to deploy troops in areas adjacent to the canal. For more than two decades, after handing over control of the strategically vital waterway to Panama in 1999 and dismantling the bases that protected it, Washington has
RSS