Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/03
By: Wang Shu-fen and S.C. Chang
Taipei, April 3 (CNA) Service areas along Taiwan’s national freeways used to be criticized
bell-shaped cake with custard filling offered by the Qingshui Service Area in Taichung
for offering poor quality yet expensive food, but no longer.
They now provide delicious and popular food that does not cost too much, such as the Guanxi lunch box, which has been rated as the most popular meal by road travelers.
The lunch boxes served at the Guanxi Service Area on National Freeway No. 3 in Hsinchu County offers five Hakka-style main dishes — salty pork, steamed pork with pickled vegetable, deep-dried pork chop with orange sauce, double main dishes, and chicken leg with plum juice, with prices ranging from NT$55 (US$1.70) to NT$85.
Last year, the service area sold an average 17,000 Guanxi lunch boxes per month for a total of NT$1.1 million, making it the best-selling meal among all those offered by all service areas along Taiwan’s freeways, according to the Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau.
Some specialty foods have also become popular, such as bell-shaped cake with custard filling offered by the Qingshui Service Area in Taichung. The cake was the No. 1 gift item in 2015, selling 27,000 boxes per month for a total of NT$3 million. A cheesecake from the same service area followed, selling 9,000 per month for revenue of NT$2 million. [FULL STORY]
