Taiwan Restaurant Apologizes For Naming A Dish “Long Live The Nazis”

Image courtesy of (Artnchicken)

 

(Artnchicken)

(Artnchicken)

While I suppose there could be a worse name for a pasta dish, “Long Live the Nazis” is pretty much as horrifying as it gets. Yet the manager of an Italian restaurant in Taiwan says they had no idea the moniker for menu items featuring a German sausage would be a bad idea. Or just completely offensive.

“When we were deciding on a name for this pasta dish, it never occurred to us that the word Nazi would stir up such controversy,” the 24-year-old manager of the restaurant tells the Wall Street Journal’s China Real Time blog, along with an apology.

She explains that the motive behind the name was to make the connection in customers’ minds between the German ingredients in the dish to the country.

There’s also a pizza under the same name, or there was until a local TV station featured the restaurant’s dish last week.

But before that segment brought on an onslaught of complaints, the manager says no one had anything bad to say about it.

“In fact, it is considered one of our most popular dishes,” she said.

Unsurprisingly, both Israeli and German officials in Taiwan are not pleased with the name and its connection to the murder of 11 million people, saying they’re shocked at the lack of understanding about history and mass killings at the hands of the Nazis, according to the European Pressphoto Agency.

The WSJ reports that the new name of the pasta and pizza dish is “Long Live Purity,” because, “We hope from now on, customers who eat this dish will enjoy it in sheer joy,” the manager said.

Maybe it’s better to just call it “German sausage and pasta.”

Taiwan Restaurant Apologizes for Pasta Dish Called ‘Long Live the Nazis’ [Wall Street Journal]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.