Nazi-named dish sparks controversy in Taiwan

A sausage and pasta dish originating from Germany was named “Long Live the Nazis."

By JACOB RYAN
Pasta dish [illustrative] (photo credit: INGIMAGE)
Pasta dish [illustrative]
(photo credit: INGIMAGE)
An Italian restaurant in New Taipei City, Taiwan, came under fire for its offensive and insensitive naming of a popular dish.
A sausage and pasta dish originating from Germany was named “Long Live the Nazis,” stirring up criticism worldwide following its media coverage on a local TV station, The Independent newspaper reported on Tuesday.
This sparked an immediate response from Israeli and German officials, who told the European Pressphoto agency that the naming of the dish demonstrated the “lack of understanding about history and the Nazis’ slaughter of Jews.”
Chao Ya-hsin, the 24-year-old manager of the Rockmill restaurant, showed a great deal of remorse and apologized, saying “It never occurred to us that the word Nazi would stir up such controversy.”
The name was chosen to help customers understand the German origins of the dish, according to Chao, and the restaurant changed the name shortly after to “Long Live Purity” due to the widespread complaints from the public and the international backlash.
This was not the first such incident in the region. In 2000, a restaurant based out of Taipei hung photographs of Nazi concentration camps on its walls.
The images were eventually taken down.
Also, in 2011, the National Defense Ministry posted a photo of three students in Nazi uniforms at a ministry summer camp. The defense minister later apologized for this incident.