The oyster omelet was selected as the snack that best represents Taiwan, followed by pearl milk tea, according to the results of a recent survey released by Global Views Monthly magazine.
Pearl milk tea was followed by oyster vermicelli, stinky tofu and braised pork rice, according to the survey, which was conducted via telephone from May 4 to May 9 on 500 men and 500 women around the nation.
Other items to get a mention included rice meat balls, rice dumplings, dan-tsai noodles, beef noodles, small steamed buns, rice noodles and bowl cakes, the survey said.
The survey also suggested that almost 70 percent of Taiwanese adults eat out frequently, with a higher ratio of men doing so than women.
The magazine estimated that 3.3 million Taiwanese adults eat out everyday.
The trend is most common among those within the 20 to 29 age group, with more than 35 percent of people in this group not having meals at home everyday, the survey said.
Quoting figures from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, the magazine said that each family on average spent NT$50,000 (US$1,515) eating out last year, meaning that the total expenditure by Taiwan's more than 7 million households on eating out amounted to NT$36 billion for the year.
The survey found that lunch was the meal that the largest percentage of respondents regularly enjoy outside the home, with 78.7 percent doing so, followed by breakfast, with 66.8 percent of respondents usually eating their morning meal outside.
As for the kind of places where people eat lunch, 59.6 percent of respondents mentioned lunch boxes, noodle eateries and snack bars.
Other popular choices for the hungry included cafeterias, restaurants and luncheonettes, as well as roadside food stands and food wagons.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial