Pno E.
Yelp
士東市場二樓 No. 145 - "鮭魚之家" - a sneaky and dishonest stall. This is one of my biggest (only) disappointment during my trip to my homeland Taiwan.
After many friends recommendations, I finally went to this indoor market for the first time late yesterday afternoon 8/17/18. Strolled for a while and decided to try out this look delicious steamed-egg and bitter melon trays but rather expensive stall - "Home of Salmon". Thought of the uniqueness, I ordered the salmon and pork (main) dishes which also came with 4 different vegetables dishes in paper box each. The lady employee cautiously and stingily picked surprisingly small portions to my boxes according to my instructions. I could not see how they prepared my two main dishes as the lady boss prepared them with her back facing the front of the stall. I later found out with shocking disappointment when I returned to my place opened the boxes! A few pieces of deep fried salmon and pork. However, this wasn't the reason that I wanted to reveal this stall.
The total bill for the two meal boxes was $240 for $120 each. So I gave the lady employee $1040 and waited for the change. She went behind the counter where I could not see and took rather a long time. I felt a bit strange what would took her such a long to give me the change. I guessed that she was trying figured out how much was the exact change. (This is very rare in Taiwan. (One of the amazing things for any food stalls, restaurants or stores, employee's mental calculation and efficiency are always speedy and superiorly accurate. They would never need to use calculators! Period.)
Anyway, I was expecting one $500 and three $100 denominations normally. Instead, she gave me bunch of wrinkled $100 paper bills. So I grew curiously and decided to count them. Unexpectedly, there were only seven pieces of $100 bills. So I told the lady who already went to the other corner to deal with another customer. Without any hesitation, instead of handing me with two hands and an apology (like a accidental mistake that any one would react), she angrily threw a $100 bill on the table. It certainly looked like she knew that she got caught of scheming and cheating customer.
For years since my first return, this is the first time I've ever encountered such dishonesty. Taiwanese has established a reputation of being a friendly and sincerely people despite of politically being pushed around internationally. Nonetheless, the majority of Taiwanese people maintained high enthusiasm and spirit in their life which is very admirable and respectable. This is quite an disappointment although must be a simply isolated incident. But I felt compelled to let potential customers to be aware if people are going to visit this otherwise a traditional but innovated ShiDong Market. There is still dishonest merchants who still try to scheme for petty money and hope to get away with it. It seemed to be a very tiny event. But it reflected the ugly part of human's darkness. That is really sad !