Something rotten afoot: Popular beef noodle shop in western Taiwan caught making employees stomp with their shoes on pickled cabbage
Taiwan News
Date: 2018/10/11
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
(Google Maps image.)
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taichung’s Office of Food and Safety is fining a beef noodle shop in the western Taiwanese city for having its employees stomp with their shoes on its suan cai (酸菜, pickled cabbage), among other infractions.
The management of Hsiao Waisheng Noodles (小外省麵食館), which boasts three generations of tradition and specializes in cuisine that hearkens to Taiwan’s old military dependents’ villages, has been exposed by a whistleblower as placing suan cai in plastic baskets, covering them with plastic wrap and then having their employees stomp on them with their shoes on to drain out excess liquid, reported Apple Daily. In addition, health inspectors found dougan (豆乾, dried tofu) covered in mold and black dougan covered in slime.
After being used for washing, the manager was said to have asked staff to use the waste water to make brine for the suan cai. Inspectors also found the kitchen to be filthy and containing many expired ingredients.
The whistleblower also said that the owner of the shop had the employees delay the time when they clocked in to avoid having to pay them overtime. When the owner did pay overtime, it was only NT$95 (US$3) per hour, a clear violation of the Labor Standards Act (勞基法). [FULL STORY]
